Tag: Water quality

Forests and Water in a Changing Environment

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists played leading roles in the 4th International Conference on Forests and Water in a Changing Environment held in Kelowna, British Columbia, July 6 to 9. SRS project leader Jim Vose (Center for Integrated Forest Science) and research hydrologist Ge Sun (Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center) helped establish…  More 

New Report and Interactive Map Detail Best Management Practices for States

by Adapted from NASF news release  • 
In recognition of Earth Day, the National Association for State Foresters (NASF) has released a report on forestry best management practices (BMPs) for water quality, along with an interactive map detailing practices in each state. State forestry agencies have been developing BMPs since the 1970s, building a reliable set of standards that help protect local water…  More 

Sunlight to the Seagrasses

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Just off Florida’s 8,000 miles of coastline and tidal areas, in shallow sunlit waters, over 2 million acres of seagrass meadows waft in the ocean currents. Besides providing food and habitat for manatees, sea turtles, shellfish, and other animals, seagrasses protect coasts from erosion and store vast quantities of carbon dioxide. “Seagrasses grow off the…  More 

UNC and SRS Scientists Awarded NSF-USDA Grant to Address Water Scarcity in the Southeast

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
University of North Carolina (UNC) and U.S. Forest Service researchers with the Center for Integrated Forest Science (CIFS) recently received a $2.2 million grant from the National Science Foundationand the USDA to design strategies for communities in southeastern U.S. shifting from water abundance to water scarcity due to climate change effects on weather patterns. Accustomed…  More 

Bold Moves Needed to Save North America’s Freshwater Mussels

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
North America’s freshwater mussels are in grave danger of disappearing. Though there’s been progress in learning about freshwater mussel biology and effective techniques developed to propagate mussel species, conservation efforts should focus more directly on bold and aggressive habitat restoration, according to a recently published review paper by U.S. Forest Service researcher Wendell Haag. In…  More 

Driving OHVs through Streams

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Millions of people enjoy nature while riding all-terrain vehicles, utility or recreational off-highway vehicles, or off-highway motorcycles. Collectively, these vehicles are called off-highway vehicles or OHVs, and in the southeastern U.S. – especially in Arkansas – much of this vehicle use occurs on U.S. Forest Service lands or other public lands. In Arkansas, increased off-highway…  More 

New Study Finds Lower Elevation Forests More Affected by Drought

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Recently published research by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), the  U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), and two other universities shows how the effects of drought on lower elevation forest watersheds in the Southeast could affect drinking water supplies as the region’s climate continue to change.  Taehee Hwang,…  More 

When It Rains, It Pours…and Increases Soil Erosion Potential in a Changing Climate

by Stephanie Worley Firley, EFETAC  • 
Anyone who has seen a gully carved by water flowing over land or a muddied creek following a rainstorm has witnessed soil erosion. Beyond its messiness, water-caused soil erosion can have far reaching impacts. When nutrients and organic matter in soils are washed away, decreased soil fertility affects food production, sediment entering streams and rivers…  More 

International Evapotranspiration Symposium: April 7 – 10, 2014, Raleigh, NC

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
  Register now for Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from the Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond. An important part of the hydrologic water cycle is plant water use (transpiration) and evaporation from earth and ocean surfaces. Together, these two processes are called evapotranspiration. Scientists and engineers studying climate, ecosystem productivity, water use,…  More 

Finding the Nitrogen: Modeling Forest Fertilizer Runoff

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Pine forests in the southeastern United States are more productive than ever, and fertilizers can take some of the credit. But not all fertilizer goes toward plant growth. Some of it runs off into rivers and streams, where it can degrade water quality. A number of water quality models are available  to predict fertilizer runoff. A…  More