Multimedia

In this episode we explore how vital groundwater is as a natural resource and discuss what impact a changing climate and human consumption has on groundwater supplies. Join us, as we sit down with USGS Groundwater Specialist Marshall Gannett to get a primer on the role groundwater plays in our daily lives, today on the Oregon Science Podcast.

In this episode we sit down with USGS wildlife biologist Joan Hagar and discuss her recent study on songbirds in the Pacific Northwest. New research indicates a possible relationship between reductions in the abundance of some species of songbird and reductions in the amount of deciduous trees in evergreen forests.

For this month’s episode we discuss the water-quality parameter turbidity. More than just a way to measure dirty water, turbidity can serve as a useful indicator of the ecological health of a watershed.

In this month’s episode we discuss how 3-D modeling is used to examine groundwater in the Columbia Plateau. USGS hydrologist Erick Burns describes how his team modeled the 53,000 mi² plateau, how this information is currently used, and what implications it has for the future.

This month's episode focuses on one of the most useful geographic tools scientists have for studying our natural world: Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR. LiDAR is a powerful data collection technique that can be used to map surface features, even those hidden beneath the dense canopy of Pacific Northwest forests.

There is a black box hidden beneath the forests of the Pacific Northwest, guarding the secrets to why the trees grow so large! The black box is soil, which harbors immense biological diversity and controls the release of water and nutrients that support the life above ground.