Water, Coasts and Ice
Water, Coasts and Ice
Warming temperatures and shifting weather patterns are causing major changes in water and ice availability, sea levels, and aquatic nutrient cycles across the country. CASC-supported scientists are examining how water, ice, and coastal ecosystems and communities across the United States are being affected by climate change. Browse our projects below or use our Project Explorer database to explore our science on this topic.
Filter Total Items: 163
Improving Predictions of Water Supply in the Rio Grande under Changing Climate Conditions
On its southbound course from Colorado to the Gulf of America, 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...
Permafrost Change and Impacts on Infrastructure and Resources in Alaska: A Synthesis of Past Work
Permanently frozen ground, known as permafrost, is a critical feature of the Arctic landscape. As temperatures warm, permafrost is thawing, with potentially adverse impacts to infrastructure, communities, and the structure and function of Arctic ecosystems. However, the processes leading to changes in permafrost are not well understood, and there is a need to better understand the...
Slowing the Flow for Climate Resilience: Reducing Vulnerability to Extreme Flood and Drought Events
In the Northeastern U.S., climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme precipitation events. However, less rain is predicted to fall in between these extreme events and air temperatures are also expected to rise. This combination of conditions will likely expose the Northeast to both floods and droughts that will have significant ecological, social, and economic...
Snow Drought: Recognizing and Understanding its Impacts in Alaska
In Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, snow plays a crucial role in atmospheric and hydrologic systems and has a major influence on the health and function of regional ecosystems. Warming temperatures may have a significant impact on snow and may therefore affect the entire water cycle of the region. A decrease in precipitation in the form of snow, or “snow drought”, can manifest in several...
Understanding the Relationship Between Urban Trees, Stormwater Runoff, and Cold-Water Streams in a Changing Climate
In the Pacific Northwest, cold-water species like salmon are important for recreational sport fishing as well as for commercial fish production. However, climate change is causing lower and warmer summer stream flows that could decimate these fish populations. Aquatic cold-water habitats are further threatened by stormwater runoff, which moves from streets to storm drains and then is...
Water Resource Relevant Hydroclimatic Reconstructions for Western North America
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...
An Assessment of Midwestern Lake and Stream Temperatures under Climate Change
Water temperatures are warming in lakes and streams, resulting in the loss of many native fish. Given clear passage, coldwater stream fishes can take refuge upstream when larger streams become too warm. Likewise, many Midwestern lakes “thermally stratify” resulting in warmer waters on top of deeper, cooler waters. Many of these lakes are connected to threatened streams. To date...
An Interagency Collaboration to Develop and Evaluate New Science-Based Strategies for Great Basin Watershed Restoration in the Future
This project was designed to use the combined strengths of the cooperators to address their concerns stemming from the degradation of arid environments in the Great Basin. The project aimed to identify the regional ecological and social costs and benefits of both immediate hydrologic modifications (low-profile constructed dams) and longer-term restoration of beavers (Castor canadensis)...
Assessing the Impacts of Drought on Migratory Waterbirds in Key Conservation Regions of the Western U.S.
Migratory birds may be hit especially hard by climate change – particularly waterbirds that depend on wetlands as resting and feeding sites during their journey between breeding and non-breeding grounds. California’s Central Valley and the interior basins of southeastern Oregon and northeastern California provide some of the most critical wetlands resources to migratory waterbirds in the...
Assessing the Impacts of Restoration Efforts on Water and Natural Systems in a Changing World
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...
Assessing the State of Water Resource Knowledge and Tools for Future Planning in the Upper Rio Grande-Rio Bravo Basin
The Rio Grande-Rio Bravo River is the second longest river in the US and is a critical drinking water source for more than 13 million people. It flows south from the snow-capped mountains of Colorado through the New Mexico desert, forms the border between Texas and Mexico, and empties into the Gulf of America at Brownsville, Texas. The multi-national, multi-state, ecologically diverse...
Can We Conserve Wetlands Under a Changing Climate? Mapping Wetland Hydrology in the Columbia Plateau
As the impacts of climate change amplify, understanding the consequences for wetlands will be critical for their sustainable management and conservation, particularly in arid regions such as the Columbia Plateau. The depressional wetlands in this region (wetlands located in topographic depressions where water can accumulate) are an important source of surface water during the summer...