Globally observed trends in mean and extreme river flow attributed to climate changeGlobally observed trends in mean and extreme river flow attributed to climate change Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2023-03-222021enM.G.G. received support from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) (grant no. MIS5033021).Anthropogenic climate change is expected to affect global river flow. Here, we analyze time series of low, mean, and high river flows from 7250 observatories around the world covering the years 1971 to 2010. We identify spatially complex trend patterns, where some regions are drying and others are wetting consistently across low, mean, and high flows. Trends computed from state-of-the-art model simulations are consistent with the observations only if radiative forcing that accounts for anthropogenic climate change is considered. Simulated effects of water and land management do not suffice to reproduce the observed trend pattern. Thus, the analysis provides clear evidence for the role of externally forced climate change as a causal driver of recent trends in mean and extreme river flow at the global scale.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Science37165341159- 1162 Gudmundsson Lukas Boulange Julien Gosling Simon N. Gryllakis Emmanouil Γρυλλακης Εμμανουηλ Koutroulis Aristeidis Κουτρουλης Αριστειδης Leonard Michael Liu Junguo Müller Schmied Hannes Papadimitriou Lamprini Pokhrel, Yadu Seneviratne, Sonia 1974- Satoh Yusuke Thiery Wim Westra Seth Zhang Xuebin Zhao Fang Do Hong American Association for the Advancement of Science Anthropogenic climate change River flow model simulations