Matters of Concern

This area contains issues that I find concerning and are related to my profession as a geomorphologist and ecohydrologist. It is a place for me to share and rant or rave about earth & water issues.  Mainly, these are research science based problems that I find interesting as they affect all of us but don't make headline news.

Restoration of an Ecological Impairment

Two decades after restoration began, life returns to a stream sterilized by mining.http://www.hcn.org/issues/41/1233

 20 years later the hard work is seeing the reward.
http://www.hcn.org/articles/idahos-panther-creek-comes-back-from-the-dead?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email

Here is the research behind the restoration of an ecological impairment.
http://www.elementascience.org/article/info:doi/10.12952/journal.elementa.000042

Lowest Snowpack in a Century

Apr 16, 2015

The April 1 snowpack in the Sierra Nevada on the California/Nevada border is the lowest in over 100 years of snow water measurements.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/drought/dmrpt-20150416.pdf

Hormones and pharmaceuticals in your stream

Apr 16, 2015

Talk about herbicides, pesticides and various articles regarding the water quality from agricultural runoff is a hot topic these days. We are also seeing the effect of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC's) on the aquatic ecosystem.

With the increased use of EDC's in human food and human use looking to acheive the "fountain of youth" as 17β-trenbolone. Trenbolone acetate, a hormonal growth promotant used extensively in livestock production around the world (Kolodziej et al., 2013) is altering fish production in streams.

See, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.03.002 "Sex in troubled waters: Widespread agricultural contaminant disrupts reproductive behaviour in fish", Bertram etal.

Another alarming case of pharmaceuticals in the ecosystem surrounds Diclofenac and its connection with the Indian Vulture crisis.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/07/european-vultures-threat-diclofenac-vets-spain-italy