Treesearch

Over the last several years, a partnership of over thirty organizations called the Conewago Creek Initiative has been working cooperatively in a small watershed to increase community engagement and work with farmers and landowners to adopt land management practices to improve water quality.

Youth in Pennsylvania’s Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lancaster Counties were invited to be part of a unique opportunity: a chance to learn, hands-on, about the water in their own community and how their daily lives impact that water. This is the mission of the 4-H Stream Teams program, which was piloted within the Conewago Creek Watershed and surrounding communities in 2010-2013.

Attaining high quality water has always been a big concern for humankind. Forested watersheds are known to provide the cleanest form of water. However, conversion of forested lands to agricultural and/or urban use, as well as disturbances created in forested watersheds lead to degradation and deterioration of our water resources.

Despite a general consensus that the Earth’s hydrologic cycle is intensifying as a result of anthropogenic climate forcing (e.g. Huntington 2006), there remains substantial uncertainty over the consequences of this intensification for terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET; e.g., Hobbins and others 2004, Walter and others 2004, van Heerwaarden and others 2010). Most models indicate that climate change will cause an increase in ET, but evidence from field observations has been inconsistent. Unidirectional changes in ET could profoundly alter local water balances and streamflow dynamics, having...

Forest productivity will only become more important in the future, not just for carbon sequestration and renewable energy but for wood products and economic security for an increasing population. However, the threat of increasing drought and resource scarcity means a need for more explicit characterization of the water use of planted forests and the understanding of productivity trade-offs necessary to reduce water use.

There is a significant lack of continuously measured ET data for multiple land surfaces in the same area to be able to make comparisons of water use rates of different agroecosystems. This research presentation will provide continuous evapotranspiration and other surface energy balance variables measured above multiple land use and management practices.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an essential component of the water balance and a major consumptive use of irrigation water and precipitation on cropland. Any attempt to improve water use efficiency must be based on reliable estimates of ET for irrigation scheduling purposes.

The New York – New Jersey Harbor Estuary is the biggest public space in the nation's largest metropolitan area. Access to its waters – whether for swimming, boating, fishing, or just enjoying the spectacular views – is an amenity that impacts quality of life and drives spending and investments by residents, visitors, and businesses. Park access and use have been positively correlated with physical activity levels and public health. Further, access is critical for fostering a connection with and stewardship of the estuary, especially for young people. For all these reasons, ensuring and...

Over the last several decades, many lakes globally have increased in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), calling into question how lake functions may respond to increasing DOC. Unfortunately, our basis for making predictions is limited to spatial surveys, modeling, and laboratory experiments, which may not accurately capture important whole-ecosystem processes. In this article, we present data on metabolic and physiochemical responses of a multiyear experimental whole-lake increase in DOC concentration. Unexpectedly, we observed an increase in pelagic gross primary production, likely due to a...