Land and Water Resource Change
WAWSC activities related to l and water resource change provide unbiased science and tools to evaluate, predict, and plan for the effects of climate and land use changes on all components of the hydrologic system including aquatic ecosystems. A particular focus is on long-term monitoring of the annual accumulation, ablation, and net glacier mass balance at South Cascade Glacier, and comparing these results to other glaciers in different climate regimes. The implications for changes in snowpack and glacier melt are vast and include the availability of water for agricultural irrigation, increased wildfire susceptibility from reduced soil moisture, and diminished cold water contributions from snow and glacier melt that may affect stream temperatures.