Abstract: Water temperature of a reservoir has a great impact on riverine ecology and environment and even local climate. In the context of future climate change, the response of reservoir water temperature has attracted broad attention. In this paper, a newly developed lake model in the Weather Research and Forecasting system (WRF-rLake afterwards) is applied to simulations of the Nuozhadu reservoir, focusing on the trends in its water temperature under different future climates (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). We found out that the water temperature shows an increasing trend under different future climate conditions, and that the responses of surface water temperature to climate change are more significant than those of deep water. By the end of the 21st century, the surface water of the reservoir will rise by 4 °C at most and the deep water by about 0.8 °C.

Key words: water temperature, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), reservoir model, Nuozhadu reservoir, climate change