Comment on “Climate and agricultural land use change impacts on streamflow in the upper midwestern United States,” by Satish C. Gupta et al.

Abstract

Abstract The paper “Climate and agricultural land use change impacts on streamflow in the upper midwestern United States” by Satish C. Gupta, Andrew C. Kessler, Melinda K. Brown, and Francis Zvomuya (hereafter referred to as Gupta et al.) purports to evaluate “the relative importance of changes in precipitation and LULC (land use, land cover) on streamflow in 29 Hydrologic Unit Code 008 watersheds in the Upper Midwestern United States.” However, as we report here, the approach used by Gupta et al. is wholly inadequate for making such an evaluation. Gupta et al. use strong language to criticize other studies and imply a level of certainty that goes well beyond, and in some cases is entirely unsupported by, the results they have presented. We take this opportunity to point out several critical flaws in their study.