Congratulations, Joanna!
Joanna Thamke has been named the new Director of the USGS Oregon Water Science Center!
Look for more information about Joanna and this amazing accomplishment in next month's UPP Newsletter.
UPP Publications
Andrew Fountain (PSU) and his colleague, Martin Siegert, discuss the dynamic geophysical transformations of Antarctica in a chapter of The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions. Titled “Evolution of the Arctic Continent and its Ice Sheet,” this chapter offers a brief history of Antarctic geoscience and highlights future research goals about the processes that shape this continent of ice.
Daniel Wise (USGS) and colleagues developed a proxy method for predicting salinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and total solute (TS) concentrations, described in “Salinity and total dissolved solids measurements for natural waters: An overview and a new salinity method based on specific conductance and water type.” After summing speciated ion concentrations (S∑spec ) and comparing different methods to measure salinity, TDS, and TS, they discovered that salinity is the most comprehensive way to show the total concentration of dissolved constituents. TDS measurements are more appropriate for studies involving anhydrous residues, and TS determinations are effective when dissolved CO2 and gases are in the mix. The researchers note this method, termed SSC_WT, as a cost-effective and fast approach to providing real-time salinity conclusions.
Water Science Articles from USGS Oregon Water Science Center (ORWSC)
ORWSC scientists Mackenzie Keith, J. Rose Wallick, and Heather Bervid assessed the geomorphic changes of channels along the Middle Fork of the Willamette River and Fall Creek caused by the Dexter and Fall Creek Dams in “Historical changes to channel planform and bed elevations downstream from dams along Fall Creek and Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon, 1926–2016.” Researchers collected and evaluated planform, bed elevation, vegetation cover, and landform datasets to understand the historical context of these transformations and identify the river corridors’ response patterns to these large, multipurpose dams.
In the article “Multiscale comparison of hyperspectral reflectance from periphyton in three Oregon rivers used for municipal supply,” Kurt Carpenter, Brandon T. Overstreet, Wesley Noone, Paul Diaz, Jr., and Will Long, scientists from ORWSC, used hyperspectral imaging techniques to monitor the amount of attached benthic algae, called periphyton, in Cascade Range rivers used for municipal water supply. Periphytons harbor cyanobacteria and excess growth can lead to the production of cyanotoxins, causing adverse health effects in humans and animals and threatening the quality of drinking water. By using hyperspectral monitoring drones, scientists can study the reflectance signatures of periphyton to track the growth of benthic algae, understand their health and environmental effects, and mitigate the risks it poses.