Tag: Water

Future water supply depends on forested lands

by Stephanie Siegel, USDA Forest Service Contract Science Writer  • 
Forests provide cleaner water than any other land cover type. Around 60 million people in the U.S. get more than half of their surface drinking water from forested lands. In Environmental Research Letters, USDA Forest Service ORISE hydrology fellow Ning Liu and colleagues break down the contributions of U.S. forests to surface drinking water supplies.…  More 

Modeling Study on Cattle Feed Crops & River Flow Depletion

by Casey Conrad, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
A new study uses a USDA Forest Service modeling tool – the Water Supply Stress Index, or WaSSI, ecosystem services model – to explore the relationship between water use, river flows, and fish populations across the conterminous U.S. Brian Richter from the University of Virginia led the study. SRS researcher Peter Caldwell’s expertise with WaSSI…  More 

Wetland Silviculture & Water Tables

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
Water tables are everywhere, but their levels fluctuate – especially in the poorly drained clay soils of coastal South Carolina. Topography also affects water tables, and forested wetlands in the Coastal Plain tend to be flat. “They respond rapidly to rainfall and evapotranspiration,” says Devendra Amatya, a USDA Forest Service research hydrologist. Amatya is on…  More 

Study Wins Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award

by Jim Vose, SRS senior research ecologist  • 
Over the last three decades, forest vegetation has begun using significantly more water, as long-term climate and streamflow data reveal. USDA Forest Service scientists Jim Vose and Dave Wear contributed to the study, which was led by Taehee Hwang, an assistant professor at the University of Indiana. The findings were published in the journal Water…  More 

Using CAT in Local Watersheds

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
General circulation models use math to predict the future – future rainfall and temperature data, for example. But GCMs are meant for global or regional scales. “CAT is better for fine scales,” says USDA Forest Service research hydrologist Ying Ouyang. CAT, the Climate Assessment Tool, is a model developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.…  More 

Highlights from the Joint Leadership Team Meeting

by Stephanie Laseter, R8-SRS Liaison  • 
On August 30, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Regional Leadership Team met with the Southern Research Station Leadership Team in Asheville, NC. Ken Arney, deputy regional forester, kicked off the day with a recap of the last joint meeting held in 2015. Several priority topics from that forum are still of great importance: longleaf pine…  More 

Estimating Ecosystem Water Use

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
For more than a decade, U.S. Forest Service and Chinese scientists have collaborated to understand how human activities affect carbon and water cycles in managed ecosystems. Working through the U.S.-China Carbon Consortium, scientists share data from a network of eddy covariance flux towers across the two countries. The towers measure the flow of water vapor,…  More 

Air Pollution Could Worsen Water Shortages in a Changing Climate

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Threat Center  • 
Over the past 40 years since the passage of the Clean Air Act, air pollution from automobiles, factories, and power plants has substantially decreased, leading to better human and environmental health. But air pollution and its impacts on people and ecosystems remain a concern amid growing demands for transportation, energy, and manufactured goods. University and…  More 

An Assignment in Africa Connects Forests, Water, and People

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Forest Threat Center  • 
Steve McNulty, Ge Sun, and Erika (Cohen) Mack hiked for three hours on a winding trail over steep hills through land thick with trees and vines. They arrived at a pool and looked up at a towering waterfall. If they had stood at the top of the waterfall, they would have seen forested land stretching…  More 

Water Yields from Southern Appalachian Watersheds in Decline since the 1970s

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Where would we be without the water we get from cool mountain streams? In the densely populated southeastern U.S., forested watersheds are particularly important to drinking water supplies. Recent estimates show that southern forests deliver surface drinking water to some 48.7 million people, with streams from the mountainous Southern Appalachian region alone providing water supplies…  More