Groundwater

Project Overview Terminal lake systems, water sources that are confined to streams, wetlands, and seasonal lakes that do not flow into the ocean, are greatly impacted by climate effects such as drought, reduced snowpack and increased wildfire activity. As a result, managers are faced with a lack of resources to study these aquatic habitats and the residing native fish. Researchers...

Project Overview First foods are integral components of the culture, spirituality, medicine, well-being, and health of the Klamath people. Throughout the Klamath Basin, climate change has substantially impacted the seasonality, abundance, and quality of first foods and other culturally important resources. These impacts compound with long-term challenges to food security and food...

The US Virgin Islands are vulnerable to sea level rise, intense storms, and unpredictable rainfall brought by climate change. These changes influence the health of freshwater streams (known as “ghuts”), sedimentation, erosion and water quality (“grit”), as well as aquatic communities and ecosystems (“gills”) that are unique to the islands and important for indigenous peoples’ heritage...

Project Overview Forests in the Pacific Northwest support an extensive network of headwater streams and critical habitats for over 50 amphibian species, but face challenges from historical resource extraction, forest management, and climate change. Researchers supported by this Northwest CASC project will identify and map climate refugia to guide conservation strategies for at-risk...

Managing water resources in arid regions is increasingly important in the face of more frequent droughts and desertification that is occurring with climate change. These challenges of climate change intersect with potential environmental contamination from naturally occurring sources and legacy human activity (such as mining) and create a need for sustainable land and water management...

Stretching almost 1,900 miles from Colorado to the Gulf of America, the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin (RGB) supplies drinking water for more than 6 million people and irrigation for about 2 million acres of land. The river also supports habitat for many at-risk and endangered species. Because of its size and diverse ecosystem services, the RGB faces complex shared-management challenges that...

Cold-water fish species such as trout and salmon are highly valued components of many stream ecosystems in Michigan and the Great Lakes region and are sensitive to rising stream temperatures. For example, the timing of spawning and development rates of these species are affected by stream temperature from late fall through spring. Historically, stream temperature modeling has focused on...

Salmon are an important resource to the ecosystems, economy, and culture of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. However, salmon are under increasing stress due to warming water temperatures and decreasing stream flow. Groundwater is a major contributor to many streams that can help maintain fish habitat during low flows and contributes cooler water that regulates stream temperatures in the warm...

Climate change is making coldwater stream fish and their habitats more vulnerable than ever. In the Midwest, warming stream temperatures threaten recreational fishing for brook trout in their native range around the Great Lakes. To ensure that brook trout populations will persist into the future, it is crucial to focus management on areas where brook trout populations are most resilient...

Pacific salmon need cold water and quality habitat to survive. As climate change continues to increase river temperatures, effective methods to restore cool-water refuges and logjam habitats need to be determined. Many salmon habitat restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest have built engineered logjams (ELJs) to create deep, cool pools and reconnect rivers to floodplains to...

The Edwards Aquifer in south-central Texas provides water resources to more than 2 million people and is home to eight federally listed threatened and endangered species that are dependent on spring flow from the aquifer for survival. Recent results from global climate models indicate that over the next several decades increases in annual average temperatures and evapotranspiration are...

The goal of this project is to identify statistical trends in observed and simulated maximum, minimum and base (mostly groundwater contribution during low flow months) flows in the Northeast Climate Science Center domain during the 20th and 21st century, assess the temporal (annual and seasonal) and spatial distribution of the trends, and evaluate the impact of warmer climates on the...