Skip to main content
Advanced Search

Filters: Tags: {"scheme":"https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/NCCWSC/WaterCoastsandIce","name":"other water"} (X) > Extensions: Budget (X)

11 results (39ms)   

View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV
thumbnail
Water is a key ecosystem service that provides life to vegetation, animals, and human communities. The distribution and flow of water on a landscape influences many ecological functions, such as the distribution and health of vegetation and soil development and function. However, the future of many important water resources remains uncertain. Reduced snowfall and snowpack, earlier spring runoff, increased winter streamflow and flooding, and decreased summer streamflow have all been identified as potential impacts to water resources due to climate change. These factors all influence the water balance in the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest (PCTR). Ensuring healthy flow and availability of water resources is...
thumbnail
In the dry southwestern United States, snowmelt plays a crucial role as a water source for people, vegetation, and wildlife. However, snow droughts significantly lower snow accumulations, disrupting these critical water supplies for local communities and ecosystems. Despite its large influence on land- and water-resource management, snow drought has only recently been properly defined and its historical distribution and effects on key natural resources are essentially unknown. To remedy this serious knowledge gap, project researchers are examining the causes, effects, and forecastability of snow drought to provide needed scientific information and guidance to planners and decision makers. The central goals of...
thumbnail
Resource managers must balance the impacts of competing management decisions on multiple, interacting natural systems. Hydrologic and ecological processes, such as groundwater fluctuations and riparian evapotranspiration, can be tightly coupled. Ideally, managers would have tools and models that include all processes to better understand how each management action would propagate through the environment. Because resources are limited, management tools that include only the most important processes may be more realistic. However, in some cases, omitting some interactions can lead to significant errors in predictions of hydrologic outcomes and ecological function, severely limiting a manager’s ability to identify...
thumbnail
The goal of this project was to: (a) archive the relevant AR5 model output data for the southwest region; (b) downscale daily temperature and precipitation to 12 X 12 km cell spatial resolution over the Southwest; (c) assess the precision (degree of agreement) of the simulated models; (d) assess the direction and magnitude of change in projections between AR4 and AR5, as well as assess projections of key extreme climatic events (i.e., extreme drought, extreme seasonal precipitation, extreme high and low temperature events); and (e) assess critical ecosystem impacts (i.e., climate water deficit and fire; hydrological condition of major river systems; impacts on highly valued species).
thumbnail
On its southbound course from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande provides water resources for more than 13 million people. The quantity of water flowing into the northern section of the river depends on how much snowpack from the Rocky Mountains melts into runoff and on seasonal precipitation rates. Models describing the relationship between winter snowpack quantity and springtime snowmelt runoff quantities for the basin are combined with models describing long-term natural variation in precipitation to create water supply outlooks. The outlooks developed by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service are currently used by stakeholders to make critical water allocation decisions in the basin. Improvements...
thumbnail
The Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers provide drinking water to millions of people in the Southwest and South Central U.S. Snowmelt accounts for 70% of streamflow in these rivers, meaning that water use downstream is directly impacted by snow accumulation and snowmelt patterns in the mountains. Mountain forests are a critical part of the hydrologic cycle that feeds these rivers, providing water supply and storage. However wildfire, which is becoming more common as temperatures rise, can disrupt the role of mountain forests in the hydrologic cycle. Uncertainty about the interactions between wildfire and snow-water, and how these interactions may change as climate conditions shift, impedes effective water resource planning...
thumbnail
Winter snowpack provides critical water resources for human populations and ecosystems throughout western North America. Increasing temperature and changing precipitation patterns are expected to alter the extent, amount, and persistence of snow in this region. Observations of snowpack and related hydroclimate variables are limited and sparse. This project will capitalize on recent advances in water balance and snow modeling as well as the development of comprehensive North American tree-ring datasets to produce spatially specific, annually resolved, and management relevant reconstructions of snow, streamflow, and warm season temperature. The project researchers will focus specifically on spatiotemporal reconstructions...
thumbnail
Clouds often come in contact with vegetation (often named fogs) within a certain elevation range on Hawaiʻi’s mountains. Propelled by strong winds, cloud droplets are driven onto the stems and leaves of plants where they are deposited. Some of the water that accumulates on the plants in this way drips to the ground, adding additional water over and above the water supplied by rainfall. Prior observations show that the amount of cloud water intercepted by vegetation is substantial, but also quite variable from place to place. It is, therefore, important to create a map for the complex spatial patterns of cloud water interception (CWI) in Hawaiʻi. In this project, we proposed to create the CWI map at 0.8-km resolution...
thumbnail
On Hawai‘i’s mountains, cloud droplets, propelled by strong winds, are deposited on plants, where they accumulate and drip to the ground, adding water over and above that supplied by rainfall. Prior studies show that the amount of intercepted cloud water is substantial, and variable from place to place. Estimates of the spatial patterns of cloud water interception (CWI), the fog-related effects on plants, and the contributions of fog to groundwater recharge and surface water flows are needed to better understand the water cycle and predict effects of climate change on water supply and ecosystems. We will make measurements of fog, wind, fog interception, soil moisture, and fog effects on plant water use and plant...
thumbnail
As the predicted impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent, natural resource managers are faced with the task of developing climate adaptation plans. These managers need state-of-the-art, scientifically based information upon which to base these management plans and decisions consistently across California and the Great Basin. This project applies historical, current, and projected climate data to a regional water model to examine water availability, biodiversity, and conservation. Analysis of this climate and hydrology data is expected to help managers understand areas in the region and landscape where the effects of climate change are expected to be the most profound. The study also addresses how the...
thumbnail
The City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska has the highest urban avalanche danger in the U.S., with regular impacts to people, property, critical infrastructure, and natural resources. Avalanche hazard zones occur over a large area extending from downtown Juneau to the Snettisham power plant 50 km to the south, the Kensington Mine 60 km to the north, and the Eaglecrest Ski area 6 km to the west. Developing a better understanding of avalanches and the processes leading to avalanche formation in the Juneau area is critical. This information would greatly aid local and regional efforts to forecast avalanches and update avalanche hazard maps, including the risk to transportation, utility, and mining corridors. An important...
    map background search result map search result map Using Climate and Water Models to Examine Future Water Availability and Biodiversity in California and the Great Basin Assessment of Available Climate Models and Projections for the Southwest Region Projecting the Future Distribution and Flow of Water in Alaskan Coastal Forest Watersheds Assessing the Impacts of Restoration Efforts on Water and Natural Systems in a Changing World Cloud Water Interception in Hawai‘i - Part 1: Understanding the Impact of Fog on Groundwater and Ecosystems and Future Changes to these Processes Cloud Water Interception in Hawaiʻi - Part 2: Mapping Current and Future Exchange of Water Between Clouds and Vegetation in Hawaiʻi's Mountains Improving Predictions of Water Supply in the Rio Grande under Changing Climate Conditions Learning From Recent Snow Droughts to Improve Forecasting of Water Availability for People and Forests The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources under Multiple Climate Conditions From Public Hazard to Key Drivers of Landscape Change: Understanding the Role of Avalanches in Southeast Alaska Water Resource Relevant Hydroclimatic Reconstructions for Western North America The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources under Multiple Climate Conditions Assessing the Impacts of Restoration Efforts on Water and Natural Systems in a Changing World From Public Hazard to Key Drivers of Landscape Change: Understanding the Role of Avalanches in Southeast Alaska Improving Predictions of Water Supply in the Rio Grande under Changing Climate Conditions Cloud Water Interception in Hawai‘i - Part 1: Understanding the Impact of Fog on Groundwater and Ecosystems and Future Changes to these Processes Cloud Water Interception in Hawaiʻi - Part 2: Mapping Current and Future Exchange of Water Between Clouds and Vegetation in Hawaiʻi's Mountains Projecting the Future Distribution and Flow of Water in Alaskan Coastal Forest Watersheds Using Climate and Water Models to Examine Future Water Availability and Biodiversity in California and the Great Basin Assessment of Available Climate Models and Projections for the Southwest Region Learning From Recent Snow Droughts to Improve Forecasting of Water Availability for People and Forests Water Resource Relevant Hydroclimatic Reconstructions for Western North America