Name
Simulating climate and land management effects on Canadian Prairies sediment yield
Date & Time
Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Description
On the Canadian Prairies, sediment is eroded and transported by rainsplash and overland flow from snowmelt and rainfall across fields and channels. Frozen soils can restrict erosion. The region has undergone changes to climate, tillage practices, and wetland extent. To calculate sediment yield, physically based sediment erosion and transport algorithms were coupled to model of blowing snow redistribution, energy balance snowmelt, infiltration and runoff over frozen and unfrozen soils, interception, evapotranspiration, soil moisture storage and movement in the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform. To evaluate the impact of climate and land cover change on sediment yield, the model was forced with ERA5-Land reanalysis data and applied to small basins representing the dominant physiography and soils of the Canadian Prairies. Results show strong regional variability in the effects of climate change. Sediment erosion has declined in western Alberta due to reduced snowfall, but increased in Manitoba from greater rainstorms. The decline in summerfallow tillage has reduced sediment erosion, but wetland drainage in the eastern and northern prairies has increased basin yield. Except for the eastern Prairies, reductions in sediment yield due to changes to tillage have compensated for increases due to climate change and wetland drainage. However, continuous cropping is now widespread, whereas the effects of climate change and wetland drainage continue to accrue. The results demonstrate that cold-regions hydrological-sediment models can be an effective tool for disentangling the relative influences of changing management practices and climate on sediment yield from Canadian agricultural basins.
Location Name
DSU 303
Full Address
Dalhousie University
Halifax NS
Canada
Session Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract ID
366
Speaker Organization
University of Saskatchewan
Session Name
H7 (4 of 4)
Co-authors
John Pomeroy, Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan
Presenting Author
Peter Lawford