WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Eight: 22-26 October 2007

Opportunity for Teachers: The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program is now accepting applications until December 31, 2007. Gain your "sea legs" and first-hand experience in one week to one month voyages. For more information, or to apply, see http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov.

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) Low lake levels for Lake Powell -- Images of the Lake Powell upstream of the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona generated from data collected approximately six years apart by Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the shrinkage of the lake due to the extended Western drought. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Thurs.) A lifesaver from above turns 25 -- A highly successful international program that relies on satellites, the Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program (COSPAS-SARSAT), celebrated its 25th anniversary recently. This program has been credited with more than 22,000 rescues worldwide, including nearly 6,000 in the United States and its surrounding waters. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) An amber death trap for ancient aquatic creatures -- Scientists at the University of Florida and the Museum of Natural History in Berlin have discovered the remains of aquatic animals, such as beetles and crustaceans, that were trapped and preserved after they were encased in amber, a resin from trees, that flowed into Florida swamps. These animals provide an account of the region's water ecosystems between 130 to 15 million years ago. [University of Florida News]
(Thurs.) Thai capital at risk from rising sea -- Officials are claiming that monsoon rain, storm surges from tropical weather systems and a sinking land are threatening to submerge some sections of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand where more than 10 million people reside. Bangkok is one of 13 of the world's largest cities that could be inundated by projected sea level within this century. [USA Today]
(Thurs.) Gulf "dead zone" project gets funding -- The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute recently received the first year of funding from NOAA as part of a three-year project intended to study how nutrient pollution from the Mississippi River affects the "dead zone" in the northern Gulf of Mexico, a large area of low oxygen water that has depleted marine life. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Improvement efforts needed for the Mississippi River -- A study released last week by the National Research Council calls for the US Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate efforts between ten states and the federal government that monitor and protect the water of the Mississippi River, as well as the northern Gulf of Mexico. [CNN] [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Polar-Palooza hits the road -- NASA and the National Science Foundation are sponsoring the Polar-Palooza "Stories from a Changing Planet" tour that commenced last Friday in San Diego, CA and is meant to show human exploration of the polar caps. This tour will travel to science centers across the US through 2008 and is meant to help provide education and outreach activities in conjunction with the International Polar Year. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Watching the birth of an iceberg -- An animation consisting of a sequence of images obtained over a nearly one-year period from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument on the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite shows a 21 mile long by 12 mile wide iceberg breaking off the Pine Island Glacier in the West Antarctica Ice Sheet. [ESA]
(Tues.) Antarctic polynya -- A MODIS image obtained last week from NASA's Aqua satellite shows a polynya, or large oblong area of open water in Antarctica's Terra Nova Bay, surrounded by sea ice off the Scott Coast of Victoria Land. This open water area remains relatively constant and usually has an oblong form [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) A major environmental challenge to Antarctica foreseen - A faculty member at Australia's Queensland University of Technology recently warned that the fresh water and petroleum resources on the Antarctic continent could be exploited once the water and oil reserves were depleted elsewhere around the world. [Queensland University of Technology]
(Tues.) A weather report issued on September 2007 -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported last week that the recently-concluded month of September 2007 was the eight warmest in the 113-year record for the coterminous US. They also report that the drought worsened across the Southeastern States, especially in the Tennessee Valley. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Flooding in Central America -- An image obtained from the NASA Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis program based on measurements taken by Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites shows the distribution of ten-day precipitation totals across Central America where torrential rain in early October, resulted in flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) US Winter Outlook remains on track -- Less than two weeks after the release of their initial outlook for the upcoming winter (December 2007-February 2008), forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center last week claim that more recent data and additional runs of their computer models confirm their earlier predictions for above-average temperatures across much of the country along with below average precipitation across the Southeast and Southwest. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Desert water pumped to Jordanian capital -- A Turkish company was recently won a bid to extract water from the al-Disi aquifer under a desert in southeast Jordan and pump it to satisfy the needs of Amman, the Jordanian capital. [US Water News Online]
Eye on the tropics:
- No organized tropical cyclone activity occurred during this past week in the North Atlantic basin.
- In the eastern North Pacific basin off the southwest Mexican, Tropical Storm Kiko formed as the 11th named tropical cyclone of the 2007 hurricane season in that basin early last week. Over this past weekend, the system traveled to the northwest offshore and intensified to a strong storm system. As of Sunday afternoon, Kiko had not reached hurricane status, but it could produce strong winds, a storm surge and torrential rain along the west coast of Mexico and Baja California. [USA Today] An image from NOAA's GOES-12 satellite shows the clouds surrounding Kiko at the midpoint of last week. [NOAA OSEI]
- In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Kajiki, the 12th typhoon of 2007, formed on Friday near the Mariannas and intensified into a category 3 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson scale over the weekend as it moved northward. As of late Monday (local time), Kajiki had curved toward the north-northeast, in a direction away from Japan.
Southeastern drought becomes extremely serious -- The current protracted drought across the Southeastern States has caused crops to shrivel and water levels to drop to near record levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across at least six states. Because of the low water levels, municipalities have ordered water conservation efforts or outdoor watering bans. [USA Today] On Saturday, Governor Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia declared a state of emergency for the northern third of the Peach State and requested President Bush to declare the region a major disaster area. [USA Today]
"Undular bore waves" over Iowa -- A webcam in Des Moines, IA captured a picture of giant wave clouds called undular bore waves early this month that were created by a cluster of thunderstorms approaching Iowa's capital city. These clouds were a part of a gravity wave that was produced in the lower atmosphere. [Science@NASA]
The mouth of the Mighty Miss -- Images made by the Landsat 1 satellite in 1976 and Landsat 7 in 2001 show how the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana as evolved over 25 years because of the deposition of sediments from the Mississippi River, human intervention and the effects of storm systems. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Restoration of New Jersey salt marsh brings new life -- A 64-acre damaged salt marsh and several small streams in Woodbridge, NJ were recently restored with through a project that included NOAA Fisheries Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with various state and local agencies. [NOAA News]
Payment requested for irrigation water in western Nebraska -- The Central Water Users, a group of irrigators who use the water from Nebraska's Lake McConaughy, have asked the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District board to impose new fees on groundwater users from nearby counties who extract water that helps replenish the Ogallala Aquifer under western Nebraska. [US Water News Online]
UV radiation makes water supply safe -- Researchers from the University Denis Diderot in Paris, and the French VEOLIA Research Center in Maisons-Laffitte have found that irradiating water with UV radiation from industrial UV reactors apparently makes cryptosporidium, an extremely chlorine-resistant parasite, inactive. This treatment could be used as an effective treatment means for water destined for human consumption. [EurekAlert!]
An Arctic "Report Card" issued that shows role of changing climate -- An international team of scientists recently issued a "Report Card" organized by NOAA on the environmental state of the Arctic that showed some changes in the region occurring more rapidly that those predicted by climate models. [NOAA News]
Water conservation efforts urged in the DC-metropolitan area -- The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, an organization of county and city governments in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, have recently asked area businesses and residents to conserve water in light of the unusually dry weather currently experienced across the Middle Atlantic States. [US Water News Online]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem

Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuarine ecosystem; it is more than 300 km (185 mi) long, 65 km (40 mi) at its broadest, and averages about 20 m (66 ft) deep. The estuary was formed by the post-glacial rise in sea level that flooded the valley of the ancient Susquehanna River. The Bay receives about half its water input from the Atlantic Ocean and the other half from the more than 150 rivers and streams draining a 166,000 square kilometer land area encompassing parts of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Major rivers emptying into Chesapeake Bay include the Potomac, Susquehanna, York, and James.

An estuary is a complex and highly productive ecosystem formed where seawater and fresh runoff meet. In Chesapeake Bay, more-dense seawater creeps northward along the bottom of the estuary, moving under the less-dense fresh water flowing in the opposite direction. This circulation combined with wind-driven water motions causes salinity to decrease upstream in the Bay, from values typical of seawater at its mouth to freshwater values at its northern margin.

As in all ecosystems, organisms living in estuaries depend on one another and their physical environment for food energy and habitat. This interdependency is evident in food chains, pathways along which energy flows and materials cycle. Phytoplankton and submerged aquatic vegetation (e.g., marsh grass) are the primary producers in estuarine food webs. (Producers acquire energy from solar radiation through photosynthesis and are at the bottom of food chains.) Consumers in food webs are organisms that derive their energy by eating producers or other consumers. Chesapeake Bay consumers include zooplankton, finfish, shellfish, birds, and humans. Through cellular respiration, producers and consumers convert energy to a form that the organism can use for growth and reproduction.

Human activity has greatly modified Chesapeake Bay with consequences for the functioning of its ecosystem. Much of the original forests that covered its drainage basin were converted to farmland, roads, cities, and suburban developments. These modifications accelerated the influx of nutrients (i.e., compounds of phosphorous and nitrogen), sediment, pesticides, and other pollutants. More nutrients spur growth of algal populations and when these organisms die (in mid-summer), their remains sink to the bottom. Decomposition of their remains reduces dissolved oxygen levels in the Chesapeake's bottom water. More sediment makes the water cloudy, reducing sunlight penetration for photosynthesis.

One casualty of human modification of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem was marsh grass--reduced by 90% from historical levels. Marsh grass anchors sediment and dampens wave action thereby controlling erosion and turbidity. Marsh grass is a food source for many organisms including waterfowl and small mammals and serves as primary nursery ground for crabs and many species of fish. Reduction of this habitat along with over-fishing has been implicated in the decline of populations of blue crabs, a mainstay of the Bay fishery for more than a century. Over the past decade, the number of adult female crabs has plunged by about 80%. Without adequate protection by marsh grass, the blue crab is more vulnerable to predation by striped bass (i.e., rockfish). Striped bass turned to blue crabs as a food source when fishing reduced the numbers of menhaden, their preferred food. Menhaden is a marine fish in the herring family and the Bay's top fishery by weight.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Within the waters of Chesapeake Bay, salinity [(is relatively uniform)(varies greatly)].
Marsh grass is a [(producer)(consumer)] in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

Historical Events:

22 October 1987...Yakutat, AK surpassed their previous all-time yearly precipitation total of 190 inches. Monthly records were set in June with 17 inches, in September with 70 inches, and in October with more than 40 inches. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
22 October 1988...A "nor'easter" swept across the coast of New England. Winds gusted to 75 mph, and large waves and high tides caused extensive shoreline flooding. Heavy wet snow blanketed much of eastern New York State, with a foot of snow reported in Lewis County. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
23-24 October 1918...The Canadian steamship Princess Sophia carrying miners from the Yukon and Alaska became stranded on Vanderbilt Reef along coastal British Columbia:. A strong northerly gale hampered rescue attempts, and the next day, the ship sank with the loss of the 268 passengers and 75 crewmen onboard. (The Weather Doctor)
24 October 1785...A four-day rain swelled the Merrimack River in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to the greatest height of record causing extensive damage to bridges and mills. (David Ludlum)
24 October 1933...A "high fog" settled over London, England causing "midnight at mid-day" as a temperature inversion forms over the city, trapping fog and smoke beneath it. The sun turned yellow, red and sometimes disappeared. (The Weather Doctor)
25 October 1859...The Royal Charter Storm, named after the loss of the fully rigged ship Royal Charter off the coast of Anglesey, England, drowned about 500 people, along with the loss of gold bullion. The ship was one of over 200 vessels wrecked between 21 October and 2 November, with the loss of around 800 lives, and led to the introduction of gale warnings in June 1860. (The Weather Doctor)
25-26 October 1980...The combination of unusually high tides and southeasterly winds gusting to 75 mph generated waves with heights to 25 ft, resulting in serious flooding, beach erosion and sea wall damage along the Maine coast. Wind damage was considerable and as many as 100,000 homes were without power for up to 40 hrs. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
26 October 1998...Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) for 33 hours, finally dissipated after becoming the strongest October hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin. Estimated rainfall totals of up to 75 inches caused devastating flooding and mudslides in Honduras and Nicaragua for days. Estimated death toll from this hurricane was more than 11,000, the greatest loss of life from a tropical cyclone since 1780. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
28 October 1982...A severe thunderstorm produced softball-sized hail and nearly 4 hrs of flooding rains at Al-Khafqi, Saudi Arabia. Eleven people were killed, along with the destruction of vehicles and buildings. (The Weather Doctor)
28 October 1991...Typhoon Thelma devastated the Philippines. Reports indicated that 6000 people died by catastrophic events related to the storm including dam failure, landslides, and extensive flash flooding. The greatest number of casualties occurred on Leyte Island where an 8-ft storm surge struck Ormoc, accounting for over 3000 fatalities. (The Weather Doctor)

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