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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Water Banking Can Help Great Salt Lake, Sarah E. Null
Water Banking Can Help Great Salt Lake, Sarah E. Null
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a treasured resource, yet dedicated flows have not been established to preserve the economic, ecological, and cultural values that the lake provides. Utah’s prior appropriation law allocates water rights based on time of first use, meaning agricultural water uses typically have senior rights. Utah’s Water Banking Act, which was adopted in 2020, presents an opportunity to reallocate some water to the environment within existing appropriative rights water law.
Under the act, water users can create local water banks to temporarily lease water. Leased water can be used for various purposes, including environmental or agricultural uses. …
Evaluation Of Hydrograph Separation Techniques With Uncertain End-Member Composition, Eileen Page Lukens, Bethany T. Neilson, Kenneth H. Williams, Janice Brahney
Evaluation Of Hydrograph Separation Techniques With Uncertain End-Member Composition, Eileen Page Lukens, Bethany T. Neilson, Kenneth H. Williams, Janice Brahney
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Hydrograph separation is one of many approaches used to analyse shifts in source water contributions to stream flow resulting from climate change in remote watersheds. Understanding these shifts is vital, as shifts in source water contributions to a stream can shape water management decisions. Because remote watersheds are often inaccessible and have poorly characterized contributing water sources, or end-members, it is critical to understand the implications of using different hydrograph separation techniques in these data-limited environments. To explore the uncertainty associated with different techniques, results from two hydrograph separation techniques, mass balance and principle component analysis, were compared using 3 …
Storing Water For The Environment: Technical Appendix B: An Experimental Reservoir Model For Storage And Allocation Of An Ecosystem Water Budget, Sarah Null, Harrison Zeff, Anna Sturrock
Storing Water For The Environment: Technical Appendix B: An Experimental Reservoir Model For Storage And Allocation Of An Ecosystem Water Budget, Sarah Null, Harrison Zeff, Anna Sturrock
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Dams alter flow regimes, fragment rivers, and harm freshwater ecosystems (Munsch et al. 2022; Barbarossa et al. 2020). Yet, freshwater ecosystems are increasingly dependent on surface reservoirs for environmental flows and suitable water temperatures as rivers have become irrevocably altered by water development, consumptive water uses, land use change, and climate change (Grantham et al. 2020; Yarnell et al. 2020). This creates a paradox where dams have contributed to freshwater ecosystem decline, but are now instrumental for managing environmental water and enhancing downstream ecosystems.
Storing Water For The Environment: Operating Reservoirs To Improve California’S Freshwater Ecosystems, Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Kristen Dybala, Gokce Sencan, Anna Sturrock, Barton Thompson, Harrison Zeff
Storing Water For The Environment: Operating Reservoirs To Improve California’S Freshwater Ecosystems, Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Kristen Dybala, Gokce Sencan, Anna Sturrock, Barton Thompson, Harrison Zeff
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
California’s freshwater ecosystems—its lakes, rivers, floodplains, meadows, natural and managed wetlands, and estuaries—are a vital part of the state’s natural infrastructure. These ecosystems provide numerous benefits, including water supply, hydropower, flood control, fisheries, recreation, and cultural and aesthetic value. They are also home to the nation’s most diverse array of plant and animal communities, with numerous freshwater species found only in California (Jensen et al. 1993; Grantham et al. 2017).
Evidence For Multiple Potential Drivers Of Increased Phosphorus In High-Elevation Lakes, J. Scholz, Janice Brahney
Evidence For Multiple Potential Drivers Of Increased Phosphorus In High-Elevation Lakes, J. Scholz, Janice Brahney
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Total phosphorus (TP) concentrations have increased in many remote mountain waterbodies across the western United States, and reports of algal blooms in these systems have increased in frequency. Explanations for observed TP increases are uncertain, and typical landscape drivers, such as agricultural/urban runoff, are implausible. We investigated multiple atmospheric and terrestrial-P loading mechanisms to explain the observed decadal increase in TP, including a novel hypothesis that warming soils may lead to elevated P fluxes to receiving water bodies. Using northern Utah mountains ranges as a case study, we measured prospective inputs of total and bioavailable P via dust deposition. Terrestrial …
Effective Conservation Of Desert Riverscapes Requires Protection And Rehabilitation Of In-Stream Flows With Rehabilitation Approaches Tailored To Water Availability, Casey A. Pennock, Phaedra Budy, William W. Macfarlane
Effective Conservation Of Desert Riverscapes Requires Protection And Rehabilitation Of In-Stream Flows With Rehabilitation Approaches Tailored To Water Availability, Casey A. Pennock, Phaedra Budy, William W. Macfarlane
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Desert riverscape rehabilitation practitioners must contend with compounding effects of increasing human water demand, persistent drought, non-native species establishment, and climate change, which further stress desert riverine ecosystems such as rivers in the Colorado River basin, United States. Herein, we provide our perspective on the importance of natural flows, large floods in particular, for successful conservation and rehabilitation of riverscapes. We present ideas developed from our experience with rehabilitation projects across multiple desert tributary rivers with varying levels of habitat degradation and water abstraction. We propose spatially extensive measures such as protection of in-stream flows, tailoring rehabilitation efforts to available …
Examining Alternative Water Management Strategies To Support Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Conservation Within And Across Years, Timothy E. Walsworth, Phaedra Budy
Examining Alternative Water Management Strategies To Support Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Conservation Within And Across Years, Timothy E. Walsworth, Phaedra Budy
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications
Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (RGSM) are currently constrained to only 5% of their historic range, and their persistence is threatened by highly altered and impaired habitat conditions (Bestgen and Platania 1991). These habitat conditions have resulted from reduced spring and summer flows due to natural variability and anthropogenic water development and extraction, which have resulted in substantial geomorphic changes (Swanson et al. 2011). Successful conservation of this endangered species will require determination of how available flows can be managed to provide conditions supporting growth, reproduction, and survival of RGSM within and across a variety of water years. Previous research has …