Read about community trust, stable isotopes, 3D temperature maps, and pesticides in this Bulletin.
by USGS-PSU Partnership
February 13, 2024
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News Articles
Tillamook is located at the convergence of five rivers where flooding is a norm. However, as climate change continues to worsen, Tillamook residents and other coastal communities should expect to face far more frequent and severe flooding events. Melissa Haeffner (PSU), an associate professor of environmental science and management, and her research team from Portland State University conducted surveys, focus groups, and a behavioral economics game experiment to understand how community buy-in and trust can influence people’s decision-making to support flood mitigation efforts. Check out the article here!
Partner Publications
In their paper, “Interannual variations in stable isotopes of atmospheric water in arid Central Asia due to changes in atmospheric circulation,” John Bershaw (PSU) and other researchers investigate stable isotopes in atmospheric water in arid Central Asia over different time scales. The researchers used a climate model to analyze the isotopic variations in atmospheric water from 1979 to 2020. Unlike shorter time scales, there is no significant link between temperature and isotopic values annually. Instead, a strong correlation is found between westerly water vapor movement and isotopic values on an interannual scale. These findings stress the importance of considering westerly moisture transport when interpreting isotopes in Central Asian paleoclimate records.
In their paper “Updated three-dimensional temperature maps for the Great Basin, USA,” Erick Burns (USGS) and other researchers draw attention to a new temperature map that has been created as part of an update on geothermal energy assessments. The map addresses previous uncertainties by incorporating new estimates of conductive heat flow. Their study compares predicted temperatures at depth with actual measurements, showing good agreement under simple conditions, and considers factors like radiogenic heat production and thermal conductivity in sedimentary sequences. The detailed temperature model is available in a USGS data release linked to the manuscript.
The paper “Multiple lines of evidence point to pesticides as stressors affecting invertebrate communities in small streams in five United States regions” focuses on understanding the impact of pesticides on invertebrate communities in streams across the United States. Ian Waite (USGS) and other researchers examined 435 sites in five regions, measuring pesticides and other stressors in water and sediment. Using various analyses, including toxicity predictions and statistical models, they found that pesticides were present in concentrations harmful to invertebrates at a regional scale, including bifenthrin, chlordane, fipronil, and imidacloprid. Although causality is challenging to prove in the field with multiple stressors, the evidence strongly suggests that insecticides play a role in negatively affecting invertebrate communities in streams across the studied regions.