A bi-monthly bulletin featuring publications from UPP affiliates and water-related news in Oregon.
by USGS-PSU Partnership
July 7, 2025
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Photo: USGS hydrologic technician uses a ruler called a gravelometer to classify streambed particles into size classes. These data can be used to calibrate models of streambed sediment. (Credit: USGS ORWSC)
Announcements
Tribal Water Webinar Series
Direlle Calica from PSU’s Institute for Tribal Government is facilitating a four part webinar series designed to educate participants on Tribal and Indigenous water issues. The series will center Tribal and Indigenous perspectives on water and provide information and context to understand the history of and contemporary issues facing Tribal water access. Register here.
Andres Holz discusses the effects of wildfires on trees and “green islands” with KGW8
Andres Holz, a PSU geography associate professor, and other researchers found that many trees have continued dying years after the 2020 Labor Day fires ended. Some trees that seemed unaffected at first, especially in higher elevations or “green islands” eventually died over time. Read the full story.
Missed the previous bulletin?Check out the UPP blog to catch up on recent publications from our affiliates and water news in Oregon. Read the April Bulletin.
UPP Partner Publications
Jen Morse (PSU), an environmental sciences and management (ESM) associate professor, and other researchers recently published “Increasing Soil respiration in a northern hardwood forest indicates symptoms of a changing carbon cycle”. Their paper discusses findings at a forest in New Hampshire that show how CO2 coming from the soil has increased since 2025. By 2020, this number was almost double the summer average from 2002 to 2015. They think this might be happening because plants are sending more carbon into their roots and the soil in response to changes in climate and soil conditions. To better understand what’s going on, scientists need to look at how global changes (e.g., warming, more CO2 in the air, and changes in soil nutrients) are working together to affect carbon in the soil.
Alida Cantor (PSU), a geography associate professor, contributed to the study paper “Sunrise at the Salton Sea: environmental justice, land use change, and hydrosocial dynamics of solar energy transitions in the Imperial Valley, California” which highlights the tensions surrounding solar energy development in the southern Salton Sea region. The researchers analyzed media and news articles, public comments to official proceedings, hearings to environmental review processes, interviews, and an in-depth case study from 2008. The collected information showed how community resistance to solar projects can lead to better land use decisions. It also reveals how these projects can change the way water is managed and environmental justice concerns in rural regions.
In the paper, “Convergence Research for Microplastic Pollution at the Watershed Scale”, Heejun Chang (PSU) and Elise Granek (PSU) used a collaborative research framework to understand how people view microplastic pollution in the Columbia River Basin. The team worked with teachers, government workers, nonprofits, and others to share knowledge, design research, and collect data. Through various engagement methods, such as workshops with community partners and a stakeholder survey, they identified local concerns and explored possible policy solutions to microplastic pollution.
Kurt Carpenter (USGS), a research hydrologist, contributed to a project that tested a new method for tracking toxins from cyanobacterial blooms in three New York lakes. This paper, “Evaluation of Passive Samplers for Cyanotoxin Detection by Immunoassay and Chromatographic-Mass Spectrometry” discusses how the research team deployed solid phase adsorption toxin tracking (SPATT) samplers which are special tools capable of detecting tiny amounts of toxins that traditional water testing methods might miss.
Water News in Oregon