In science news this week: NASA image shows how California’s wildfires are affecting the atmosphere; Drought, groundwater loss sinks California land at alarming rate; Small amounts of water enable juvenile salmon to survive; Changing genes: Studying steelhead in San Francisco streams; Managing fisheries in the face of climate change; Engineered sand zaps storm water pollutants; Connectivity explains ecosystem responses to rainfall, drought; NOAA organizes first agency-wide event to advance its modeling enterprise; Future impacts of El Niño, La Niña likely to intensify, increasing wildfire, drought risk
NASA image shows how California’s wildfires are affecting the atmosphere: “As wildfires continue to burn in California, NASA has released a visualization that illustrates one of the ways in which the fires are affecting the atmosphere. NASA’s Earth Observatory, the arm of the space agency that shares with the public images of the Earth and its climate, created the map [header image] which shows aerosols in the atmosphere. Aerosols are the solid particles and liquid droplets in the air. … ” Read more from CNBC here: NASA image shows how California’s wildfires are affecting the atmosphere
Drought, groundwater loss sinks California land at alarming rate: “The San Joaquin Valley in central California, like many other regions in the western United States, faces drought and ongoing groundwater extraction, happening faster than it can be replenished. And the land is sinking as a result—by up to a half-meter annually according to a new Cornell University study in Science Advances. Despite much higher-than-normal amounts of rain in early 2017, the large agricultural and metropolitan communities that rely on groundwater in central California experienced only a short respite from an ongoing drought. When the rain stopped, drought conditions returned and the ground has continued to sink, according to researchers. ... ” Read more from Phys Org here: Drought, groundwater loss sinks California land at alarming rate
Small amounts of water enable juvenile salmon to survive: “Recent research led by California Sea Grant Extension Specialist Mariska Obedzinski reveals that even small amounts of running water in coastal California streams can mean survival instead of death for juvenile coho salmon. In fact, less than a gallon per second allows the young salmon to persevere through the heat and aridity of summer by keeping pools interconnected. A gallon per second may sound like a lot of water, but in the context of a stream or river, it’s negligible: “It is approximately 2.5 average garden hoses (all the way on) running through the stream channel,” clarifies Dr. Obedzinski. Since 1996, when Russian River coho salmon were listed as threatened, various conservation plans for the species have been tried—mostly without much success. … ” Read more from the Environmental Monitor here: Small amounts of water enable juvenile salmon to survive
Changing genes: Studying steelhead in San Francisco streams: “A fish transported from the San Francisco Bay of 1850 to 2018 would find itself in a whole new world. Between the construction of dams, diversion of streams, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species, the area has changed more drastically than perhaps any other estuary on Earth. Like all organisms, fish have to adapt to changes in their environment to survive. By figuring out how fish populations today are different from each other, and from those of the past, scientists can learn about how they are adapting, and what environmental changes may pose the greatest threats. Fish don’t have the benefit of Ancestry.com, but fortunately scientists have a helpful tool that can open a window into the past: DNA. In a study published last year in the journal Evolutionary Applications, scientists examined the evolutionary relationships between populations of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) around San Francisco Bay. This species includes ocean-run steelhead, which spend their adult lives in the Pacific Ocean, and resident rainbow trout, which spend their whole lives in freshwater streams. … ” Read more from the FishBio blog here: Changing genes: Studying steelhead in San Francisco streams
Managing fisheries in the face of climate change: “Jack Likins, a recreational abalone diver, has never seen anything like it in his nearly 50 years of diving the chilly waters of northern California. “Warm water and purple urchins are devastating kelp forests and changing the ecosystem,” says Likins. Recent warming events have wreaked havoc on northern California’s underwater forests. The domino effects of this phenomena are many — a wasting disease associated with warm water has led to a severe decline in sea star populations, a main predator of sea urchins. In response, the purple sea urchin population has boomed. These urchins eat the kelp, which is also home to dozens of marine species and an important buffer of storm and wave activity on coastal shorelines. As a result, kelp forest habitat along the northern California coast has been decimated. … ” Read more from the Cool Green Science blog here: Managing fisheries in the face of climate change
Engineered sand zaps storm water pollutants: “University of California, Berkeley, engineers have created a new way to remove contaminants from storm water, potentially addressing the needs of water-stressed communities that are searching for ways to tap the abundant and yet underused source of fresh drinking water. Using a mineral-coated sand that reacts with and destroys organic pollutants, the researchers have discovered that the engineered sand could help purify storm water percolating into underground aquifers, creating a safe and local reservoir of drinking water for parched communities. … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Engineered sand zaps storm water pollutants
Connectivity explains ecosystem responses to rainfall, drought: “In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers reveal techniques — inspired by the study of information theory — to track how changes in precipitation alter interactions between the atmosphere, vegetation and soil at two National Science Foundation Critical Zone Observatory sites in the western United States. “Information arising from fluctuations in rainfall moves through ecosystems, similar to the way that information flows through communication networks,” said Praveen Kumar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and study co-author. “This type of analysis, which is new to ecological and hydrological studies, lets us determine how well different aspects of an ecosystem are connected and whether responses to changes in climate are site-specific or common across different ecosystems.” … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Connectivity explains ecosystem responses to rainfall, drought
NOAA organizes first agency-wide event to advance its modeling enterprise: “NOAA constantly strives to improve its models of our changing environment in order to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers, and other decision makers with reliable information they can act on. But improving models takes time, money, and labor—tight budget constraints make this a challenging feat. NOAA is leading the charge in the U.S. government to actively address this challenge by implementing a new strategy called unified modeling — a transparent and coordinated approach geared toward optimizing resources and enhancing outcomes. NOAA has begun acting on this strategy, and an upcoming agency-wide General Modeling Meeting and Fair serves as an important milestone in bringing together the modeling community to build on recent efforts. … ” Read more from NOAA here: NOAA organizes first agency-wide event to advance its modeling enterprise
Future impacts of El Niño, La Niña likely to intensify, increasing wildfire, drought risk: “When an El Niño or its opposite, La Niña, forms in the future, it’s likely to cause more intense impacts over many land regions — amplifying changes to temperature, precipitation and wildfire risk. These are the findings of a new study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy and published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The researchers found, for example, that the increased wildfire danger in the Southwest United States associated with La Niña events would become more acute. … ” Read more from the National Science Foundation here: Future impacts of El Niño, La Niña likely to intensify, increasing wildfire, drought risk
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
