1) Lessons from Hurricane Sandy for Bay Area Business Leaders
Dr. Jeff Mount urges Bay Area folks to take a cue from Superstorm Sandy. He even has a trifecta on his mind:
The San Francisco Bay Area business community should be taking notes. This trifecta of high tides, storm surge and intense rain is also a Bay Area scenario. Scientists and a host of government agencies have been warning about such an event for years.
I suspect many places are looking at Sandy to see what they should be doing with global warming 'out there'
2) Water-quality Impacts from Climate-Induced Forest Die-off
John Fleck sent this Nature article my way.
Abstract
Increased ecosystem susceptibility to pests and other stressors has been attributed to climate change, resulting in unprecedented tree mortality from insect infestations. In turn, large-scale tree die-off alters physical and biogeochemical processes, such as organic matter decay and hydrologic flow paths, that could enhance leaching of natural organic matter to soil and surface waters and increase potential formation of harmful drinking water disinfection by-products (DBPs). Whereas previous studies have investigated water-quantity alterations due to climate-induced, forest die-off, impacts on water quality are unclear. Here, water-quality data sets from water-treatment facilities in Colorado were analysed to determine whether the municipal water supply has been perturbed by tree mortality. Results demonstrate higher total organic carbon concentrations along with significantly more DBPs at water-treatment facilities using mountain-pine-beetle-infested source waters when contrasted with those using water from control watersheds. In addition to this differentiation between watersheds, DBP concentrations demonstrated an increase within mountain pine beetle watersheds related to the degree of infestation. Disproportionate DBP increases and seasonal decoupling of peak DBP and total organic carbon concentrations further suggest that the total organic carbon composition is being altered in these systems.
Here is a related article about Southwestern forests by Fleck.
Enjoy!
3) MGhydro's Awesome List: Some More Reports on Water and Related Issues
What can I say? Check out Matthew Garcia's list. Reports from the USGS, UN, NRC, GAO, CRS, etc.
Enjoy!
"Make a mental note of that. Oh, I see you're out of paper." - Woody Paige
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