Climate Change

Background Streams and rivers are an important environmental resource and provide water for many human needs. Streamflow is a measure of the volume of water carried by rivers and streams. Changes in streamflow can directly influence the supply of water available for human consumption, irrigation, generating electricity, and other needs. In addition, many plants and animals depend on streamflow

Background Climate change during the past century has resulted in changes to precipitation amounts, form (rain vs. snow), as well as frequency and intensity in the northeastern US (Huntington et al., 2009). Additional changes in precipitation are forecast for the 21st Century as the global and regional climate is expected to warm substantially (Hayhoe et al., 2007). These ongoing and projecte

Summary Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) occupies 42 km of the barrier island for which it is named that lies off the southern shore of western and central Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y. Fire Island is underlain by a complex aquifer system consisting of unconsolidated glacial, lacustrine, deltaic, and marine deposits of clay, silt, sand, and gravel that range in age from Late Cretaceous

The current information available for the Genesee River and watershed is insufficient to assess if the Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) delisting criteria for the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern (AOC) can or have been met. With on-going and future projects that are implementing best practices to control soil erosion and the reduction of nutrients that reach the Rochester Embayment, the river an

Monitoring of lake chemistry in the western Adirondack region has indicated reductions in the acidity of these lakes during the past two decades. However, lakes are not always reliable indicators of streams and soils. Uncertainty remains regarding the recovery potential of surface waters and the effects of acidic deposition on soils. Furthermore, nitrogen, long considered a growth-limiting nutrien

Problem - Urbanization of the 150-square-mile Irondequoit Creek basin in Monroe and Ontario Counties, N.Y., continues to spread southward and eastward from the City of Rochester. Conversion of forested land to other uses over the past 40 years has increased to the extent that more than 50 percent of the basin is now developed. This expansion has increased flooding and impaired stream-water qual