In science news this week: Wildfire intensity impacts water quality and its treatment in forested watersheds; Understanding the effects of climate change on California watersheds; Identification of potentially suitable habitat for strategic land retirement and restoration in the San Joaquin Desert; Twice as many birds at Putah Creek after water restored; Scientists study spawning salmon through a riverbed lens; Outside the bubble: Communicating at the CalNeva AFS meeting; Fragmented patterns of flood change across the United States; Long-term monitoring is essential to effective environmental policy; Designing marine protected areas in a changing climate
Wildfire intensity impacts water quality and its treatment in forested watersheds: “The recent Thomas Fire in California was the largest wildfire in the state’s modern history. It scorched nearly 282,000 acres between December 2017 and January 2018, and serves as a reminder of how devastating such events can be. Now, researchers report that wildfires in forested watersheds can have a variable but predictable impact on the substances that are released from soils and flow into drinking water sources. The new research provides important insights for water utilities evaluating treatment options after severe wildfires. The researchers will present their work today at the 255th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Wildfire intensity impacts water quality and its treatment in forested watersheds
Understanding the effects of climate change on California watersheds: “California relies on the Sierra Nevada snowpack for a significant portion of its water needs, yet scientists understand very little about how future changes in snowpack volume and timing will influence surface water and groundwater. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are developing an advanced hydrologic model to study how climate change might affect California watersheds. The new collaborative study, with $3.7 million in funding from the UC Laboratory Fees Research Program, will improve the projection of water resources under a range of future scenarios. The goal of the project is to provide information that can be used to optimize water storage, water quality, and groundwater sustainability as precipitation varies, temperatures warm, and population grows. … ” Read more from EurekAlert here: Understanding the effects of climate change on California watersheds
Identification of potentially suitable habitat for strategic land retirement and restoration in the San Joaquin Desert: “California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) established a framework for sustainable, local groundwater management. SGMA requires groundwater-dependent regions to halt overdraft and bring basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge. As a result, agricultural land retirement is on the rise in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s largest agricultural region and home to the state’s highest concentration of threatened and endangered species. In this assessment, The Nature Conservancy introduces the concept of strategic land retirement and restoration, an approach which seeks to help recover San Joaquin Valley threatened and endangered species by restoring agricultural land that is suitable as habitat and under threat of retirement. The authors identify 2.5 million acres of current agricultural lands that have high potential for restoration, 14% of which was fallowed at least once during the most recent drought.” Read the report from the Nature Conservancy here: Identification of potentially suitable habitat for strategic land retirement and restoration in the San Joaquin Desert
Twice as many birds at Putah Creek after water restored: “A small restored area is having a big impact on regional birds, fish and animals, according to a study published in the journal Ecological Restoration by the University of California, Davis. Just 4 miles west of UC Davis’ main campus sits a sliver of wildness called Putah Creek Riparian Reserve. On a recent spring day, below a canopy of valley oaks and eucalyptus trees came a twittering of chirps, trills and quacks. Two kingfishers crisscrossed the creek, calling to each other. Woodpeckers drilled into tree bark. A house wren assertively defended his nest box from any real estate competitors. In the distance, a train whistle blew, and an airplane took off—reminders of the urban world just up the road. … ” Read more from PhysOrg here: Twice as many birds at Putah Creek after water restored
Scientists study spawning salmon through a riverbed lens: “Each year on the United Nations-designated World Water Day, March 22, people around the world consider the importance of fresh water to ecosystems and to us. On World Water Day 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) looks at Earth’s critical zone—the realm on our planet’s surface between the forest canopy and bedrock—and the role North America’s West Coast rivers play in sustaining spawning salmon. To find out more about the health of these salmon rivers, NSF spoke with scientists at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), one of nine NSF CZOs across the country, and in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences, which supports the CZOs. Southern Sierra CZO researcher Cliff Riebe of the University of Wyoming and NSF CZO program director Richard Yuretich shared their insights. … ” Continue reading from PhysOrg here: Scientists study spawning salmon through a riverbed lens
Outside the bubble: Communicating at the CalNeva AFS meeting: “Scientists are often portrayed as working “inside a bubble,” out of touch with the rest of society. In an effort to burst this stereotype, the recent Cal-Neva American Fisheries Society Meeting in San Luis Obispo explored the theme “Outside the Bubble: Communicating with Our Communities.” Plenary speakers described the roles of both memorable messages and trusted messengers in communication. They also discussed the importance of building relationships with stakeholders, whether drinking coffee or fixing fences with landowners, or collaborating with fishermen to monitor California’s Marine Protected Area network. In a time of heightened mistrust of science, it is crucial for scientists to convey the importance and relevance of their work, as well as their own humanness. … ” Read more from FishBio here: Outside the bubble: Communicating at the CalNeva AFS meeting
Fragmented patterns of flood change across the United States: “Trends in the peak magnitude, frequency, duration, and volume of frequent floods (floods occurring at an average of two events per year relative to a base period) across the United States show large changes; however, few trends are found to be statistically significant. The multidimensional behavior of flood change across the United States can be described by four distinct groups, with streamgages experiencing (1) minimal change, (2) increasing frequency, (3) decreasing frequency, or (4) increases in all flood properties. Yet group membership shows only weak geographic cohesion. Lack of geographic cohesion is further demonstrated by weak correlations between the temporal patterns of flood change and large‐scale climate indices. These findings reveal a complex, fragmented pattern of flood change that, therefore, clouds the ability to make meaningful generalizations about flood change across the United States.” Read full paper from Geophysical Research Letters here: Fragmented patterns of flood change across the United States
Long-term monitoring is essential to effective environmental policy: “Environmental policy guided by science saves lives, money, and ecosystems. So reports a team of eleven senior researchers in Environmental Science & Policy. Using air pollution in the United States as a case study, they highlight the success of cleanup strategies backed by long-term environmental monitoring. Co-author Gary Lovett, a Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, comments, “In an era where science faces skepticism, we came together to highlight measurable improvements to air and water quality made possible by legislation backed and tracked by environmental monitoring.” … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Long-term monitoring is essential to effective environmental policy
Designing marine protected areas in a changing climate: “Climate change is throwing a wrench into conservation. In the ocean, water is warming and becoming more acidic. At the poles, sea ice is melting. And across the globe, currents are changing pace or direction. Combined, the effects of climate change are “putting ocean life through a blender,” says Malin Pinsky, an ecologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “It’s rearranging where the species are, rearranging which species are found together, changing food webs, changing ecosystems.” Climate change is making the standard method of protecting vulnerable species—closing their critical habitat to destructive human activities such as fishing or oil drilling—much more complicated. ... ” Read more from Hakai Magazine here: Designing marine protected areas in a changing climate
Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week …
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About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included. Do you have an item to be included here? Submissions of relevant research and other materials is welcome. Email Maven
