Posts for tag "water quality"
Using Buoys to Measure the AMOC: An Ocean Current with Global Climate Consequences
Nicholas Foukal stands on the bridge of a long, pale white boat overlooking the choppy Denmark Strait, the water a greenish-blue hue and dotted with towering icebergs. The deck and boat interior are loaded with research equipment–several...
- Posted January 26, 2026
Tracking Three Rivers: Real-Time Buoy Boosts Monitoring and Accountability
When glaciers last retreated across the continental US, over 10,000 years ago, meltwater filled river channels and eroded the landscape. This was how the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers–among many others–were formed; natural corridors for trade and...
- Posted January 12, 2026
From Source to Sea: Monitoring and Protecting Santa Barbara’s Hidden Creeks
The city of Santa Barbara, California, is known as the “American Riviera,” sporting a sandy coastline, warm and sunny climate, and classic Spanish Architecture. Tucked in between the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Santa Ynez...
- Posted January 5, 2026
How the Ohio EPA Uses Water Quality Data to Monitor Change in State Waterways
Millions of Ohioans are reliant on freshwater resources for drinking water and recreation. Therefore, protecting the health of these water bodies is a leading concern for regulatory groups like the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A key...
- Posted December 29, 2025
Chesapeake Bay Sees Largest Oyster Reef Restoration in the World Completed
The largest oyster reef restoration in the world was recently completed in the United States’ largest estuary: the Chesapeake Bay. The project is the result of a 10-year, over $100 million commitment from local, state, and federal...
- Posted December 24, 2025
From Mountains to Meadows: Building a Watershed-Scale Monitoring Network in Nevada
A snowflake swirls high in the atmosphere, whisked across the winter sky before landing on Crystal Peak in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It sits on this peak until the spring, when temperatures warm and the snowmelt...
- Posted November 17, 2025
Source Water Monitoring: How Fayette County Finds the Highest Drinking Water Quality
Safe drinking water is vital for public health infrastructure, and providing cost-effective water treatment is a top goal of drinking water utilities. To reduce these costs, counties like Fayette, Georgia, rely on source water monitoring to evaluate...
- Posted November 3, 2025
Monitoring Nutrients and Water Quality in Ohio Wetlands
The ecological importance of wetlands cannot be overstated, serving as unique habitats for a variety of species and playing a critical role in nutrient cycling. Yet, many of these environments have deteriorated over the years due to...
- Posted October 27, 2025
Monitoring Northern Idaho Watersheds Helps Keep Them Wild and Pristine
Northern Idaho is a land sparse with people, but bountiful with lakes, forests, and mountains. Up in the Northern Rocky Mountains, countless streams and rivers slice through the landscape, cascading from peaks to the tranquil valleys below....
- Posted October 22, 2025
Smaller Buoys Fill In The Gaps of Coastal Hurricane Monitoring Networks
As hurricane frequency and severity continue to increase, real-time monitoring along the coast has become more and more important to disaster mitigation and developing forecasting models. In response to this, coastal observation networks across the United States...
- Posted October 20, 2025
Research and Conservation: Understanding the “Outsized Influence” of Intermittent Streams
It’s a chilly winter’s day in northwest Arkansas, and several University of Arkansas students trudge to an intermittent stream frozen over with a layer of ice. They bring normal water quality sampling equipment with them, and something...
- Posted October 15, 2025
Researching Lake Erie’s Water Quality and Fisheries at the Fairport Harbor Research Unit
Lake Erie is well known for its sport fish populations and recreation on the water. However, the lake is also notorious for occasionally suffering from poor water quality conditions, such as harmful algal blooms and nutrient runoff....
- Posted October 8, 2025
Thirty Years of Data: Monitoring Water Quality in the Meduxnekeag River Watershed
The Meduxnekeag River flows right through the heart of Houlton, Maine and serves as a lifeline for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, who have lived off the river for centuries. However, runoff from urban development and...
- Posted September 24, 2025
Water Quality Monitoring in the Wisconsin Northwoods
In the Northwoods of Wisconsin, the summer mornings creep serenely over a forested landscape checkered with freshwater lakes and streams. In the early light, limnologist Carol Warden wakes and gets ready for the day. Her office is...
- Posted September 22, 2025
Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust: Community Focused Watershed Monitoring and Management in Maine
The Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust is one of many land trusts across the US dedicated to monitoring and maintaining natural resources for future generations by expanding and improving current protections based on data and community needs. Such...
- Posted September 10, 2025
Protecting Natural Ecosystem Processes in Florida’s Urban Stormwater Ponds
Florida is a state rife with nature, with three national parks, 1,350 miles of coastline, and thousands of lakes and rivers. Yet, among the natural beauty in mainland America’s southernmost state is rapid urban development and sprawl....
- Posted September 8, 2025
Texas’s Gulf Coast Demands More Research: USGS Scientists are Answering the Call
Along the thousands of miles of ocean coastline cradling the American South lies the popular beach town of Galveston, Texas. While tourists flock to the sandy shorelines and historic piers, another world exists right alongside them–one full...
- Posted August 25, 2025
Developing New Data-Informed Management of the Mississippi Embayment in Memphis
The Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER) at the University of Memphis oversees dozens of projects regarding the environment each year, helping to improve resource management in the region. Rodrigo Villalpando-Vizcaino, a Research Assistant...
- Posted August 18, 2025
Real-Time Monitoring in Rhode Island: Narragansett Bay Fixed Station Monitoring Network
Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island has a long history of water quality issues resulting from land pollution, leading to the influx of nutrients into the bay, which can cause algal blooms and declines in dissolved oxygen. The...
- Posted August 13, 2025
New Buoy Boosts White Lake’s Water Quality Monitoring and Conservation
White Lake in Western Michigan is a vestige of North America’s glacial past, and gets its name from an interpretation of the Indian, “Wabish-Sippe,” meaning the river with white clay. The twin towns of Whitehall and Montague,...
- Posted July 28, 2025
