2009 Water Edition

8/12/2019 2009 Water Edition

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Western wateroutlook:

GRIMFLOATING A

FLOODTHEORY

WATER LAW

BATTLESBREWING

STUDYINGWATER FROM

SPACE

sph res

2009

EDITION

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water

COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARC H IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES


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This IssueDraining AsiaHeavy irrigation lowers crucial water tables

Trees, Bugs and WaterWater Blitz assesses streams in Rocky MountainNational Park

StudentFocus: Leigh CooperCIRES interdisciplinary environment provides uniqueenvironment for students

Custom Tools for better forecastingNOAA/CIRES Hydrometeorology Testbed targetsstorms below the radar

Rainy Day ScienceDoes pollution in California push rains into Nevada?

Western water forecast: 2057Usable water from reservoirs could be a 50-50 proposition

Calm before the stormChanging climate might compromise decades-old wateragreements

Floating flood theorySmall watersheds may unlock secrets of a regions flood risk

Fingerprints in waterHawaiian mountaintop is homebase for studying most

prevalent greenhouse gas: water

H2OrbitTandem satellites measure central Asias melting glaciers

Errant OutcomeResearchers discover and fix a major climate model glitch

MySphereWestern Water Assessments Brad Udall opens the door

to his reorganized office

On the cover:Boaters slice through low water in a canyon at Lake Powell.BUREAU OF RECLAMATION

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3/16

Irrigationlowering Asian

water tablesIn heavily irrigated Northern India, Paki-

stan, and Bangladesh, groundwater is disap-pearing at a rate of about 54 km3per year,according to new satellite measurements.

This is probably the largest rate ofgroundwater loss in any comparably sizedregion on Earth, CIRES Fellow John Wahrand colleagues wrote in a paper published

in Geophysical Research Letters this year.

The research teamWahr, Virendra Ti-wari at the National Geophysical ResearchInstitute in India, and Sean Swenson at theNational Center for Atmospheric Sciencein Boulder, Colo.used NASAs GRACEsatellite (see p. 12), to calculate the rate ofgroundwater loss in the region, where wateravailability is known to be declining. Fromsatellite gravity measurements, the scien-tists found an extremely high rate of water

loss54 km3per year, +/- 9 km3enoughto make the regional water table drop about10 cm a year.

This trend, if sustained, will lead to a ma-jor water crisis in this region, the research-ers concluded.

The gures are comparable with ground-truth, according to the International WaterManagement Institute. More and morefarmers are growing irrigated crops in theregion, and the use of small, electrical

pumps to pull up water is growing quickly.In some aquifers, groundwater is increas-ingly tainted with salts and other chemicals,including the toxin arsenic, Wahr and hiscolleagues noted.

Regional water use is very difcult toestimate from the ground-up for lack ofconsistent monitoring. The new study sug-gests that the Indian Central Ground WaterBoards latest estimate, from the 1990s,is no longer accurate, that groundwater

extraction rates are about 70 percent highertoday. But the ndings also mean thatsatellite data could be used to get regionalwater managers up-to-date information ongroundwater storage in the regionan im-portant step toward creating a sustainablewater-management plan for the 600 millionpeople who live there.

Potential height of a flashfloods wall of water.

Chance of a homesuffering flooddamageduring a30-year mortgage.

9perce

nt

Chance of a home suffering fire damageduring a 30-year mortgage.

Water particlesgrow, collide, breakapart and reformwithin a cloud be-fore falling as rain.

The smallest mea-sure that could becalled a dropableto fall from thesky is 0.5 mm.The larg-est? About5.5 mmbeforethe drop

is likely tosplit apart.

0.5mm

5.5mm

Actualsize

Pacific Ocean

feet

perc

ent

Since the reservoir Lake Powell started filling in the mid-1960s, theColorado River has rarely reached the sea. A flow gage at the begin-ning of the rivers delta, still miles from the sea, recorded no water

at all in 23 of the 35 yearsbetween 1965 and 2000.

In the years leading up to the1922 Colorado River Compact(the law that still regulatesthe rivers water allocations),the rivers flow was unusu-ally high, and negotiatorsexpected theyd always haveabout 16.4 million acre feet todivvy up. During 2000-2004,the most severe drought onrecord, the average flow was9.6 million acre feet.

16.4 > 9.6

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4/16

Pine beetles are turning large swaths of forest in the

western United States and Canada red. While many

people worry about how the beetle kill will affect forest

fires, CIRES graduate student Leigh Cooper wants to

know what effect beetle kill is having on water quality.

When forest disturbances like logging or fire oc-

cur, you usually see a large influx of nitrate into local

streams, since the trees in the area no longer actively

take up the nutrient, Cooper said. I wanted to explore

whether you would see a similar influx of nutrients into

streams in Colorado watersheds affected by beetle kill.

Cooper is working towards a Ph.D. in Ecology and

Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado at

Boulder. Her research was partly supported by a 2008

CIRES Graduate Research Fellowship.

So far, Coopers stream chemistry tests have not

revealed a straightforward link between beetles and

nitrate, but the results suggest interesting hypotheses

she can test further. Within CIRES interdisciplinary

research environment, Im able to study freshwater

ecology, Cooper said, and soil and watershed chem-

istry, too.

WaterBlitz 2009Scientists study water-quality variation and

disturbance impacts in Colorados biggest park

On an August day in 2009, roughly 100hikers fanned out across Rocky MountainNational Park (RMNP) carrying waterbottlesnot to quench their thirst, but tocollect water samples for scientists.By analyzing water collected simultane-

ously from 250 loca-tions on both sides ofthe Continental Divide,CIRES and National ParkService researchers hopeto better understand howclimate, pollution, andecological disturbancesaffect water quality.We want to under-

stand how water qualityvaries spatially in RockyMountain National Parkand rene our under-

standing of whats caus-ing these differences,said project leader JamesMcCutchan, Associate Director of CIRESCenter for Limnology.Basic environmental factors, such as

hill slope, vegetation type, and bedrockmineral composition affect stream chem-istry, said McCutchan, but he also expectsto see signicant differences betweenwatersheds that have been disturbed by

wildre or mountain pine beetle, andundisturbed watersheds.

The removal of a watersheds naturalvegetation by re reduces the ability ofplants to take up nitrogen and other soilnutrients, McCutchan said. As a result,rain and snowmelt tend to ush nitrogendirectly into the stream channel.

Nitrogen is a veryimportant nutrient instreams and can alterthe growth of photosyn-thetic organisms, saidMcCutchan. Ultimatelythis may affect the wholefood chain, includingtop-level sh like Colo-rados threatened green-back cutthroat trout.Nutrient changes in

the parks high-altitudestreams also can affect

water quality far down-stream. The headwatersof the Colorado, St. Vrain

and Big Thompson rivers, which supplydrinking and irrigation water to Coloradocommunities, are all located in RMNP.CIRES conducted Water Blitz in both2008 and 2009.Its a great study because it combines

questions about current stream chemis-trywith questions about how to best

monitor streams into the future, saidRMNP Research Administrator Judy Visty.

TheScience

How does stream

chemistry vary across

Rocky Mountain

National Park?

Can connections

be made to climate,

pollution, or ecological

disturbances?

StudentFocus:Leigh Cooper

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CIRES oers two graduate fellowships,

ranging in support from a summer or

single semester to four years. The new

ESRL-CIRES fellowship allows students

to work with world-class researchers at

NOAAs Earth System Research Labora-

tory while earning

a degree at the

University of Colo-

rado at Boulder.

Learnmore

about CIRES fellowships atcires.colorado.edu/education

PHOTOS COURTESY JAMES MCCUTCHANIn just two years, nearly 200 volunteers have collected water samples throughout Rocky Mountain National Park for the WaterBlitz.

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Ecologystudent LeighCooper studiesthe effectsof beetle killon RockyMountainwater quality.

CIRES


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Custom tools forbetter forecastingWeather forecasters know that conven-

tional instrument suites arent always

enough to accurately predict severe weath-

er. Deadly storms can sneak in literallybelow radar, and runo models sometimes

dont capture an imminent ood.

NOAAs Hydrometeorology Testbed

(HMT) program, which involves CIRES

scientists and research products, is infusing

new science and technology into the daily

operations of the National Weather Ser-

vice and its River Forecast Centers. CIRES

researchers have helped design and place

custom instrument packages (from disdrom-

eters and radars to weather instruments

launched on balloons) and run experimen-

tal models in regions of California that are

prone to winter oods.

Following the California demonstration,

HMT will be deployed in other regions of

the country with other severe weather

forecasting challenges. In each deployment,

instruments and models that improve fore-

casts will remain in place.

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Rainy-day scienceCIRES Christopher Williams aims to improve

understanding, prediction of precipitation

TheScience

Is pollution in

California changing

precipitation

patterns?

Development of a

more economical

radar system

for weather and

climate research.

California with less.Williams suspects the story is

more complicated. He and col-leagues in NOAAs Earth SystemResearch Laboratory, the ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography, andthe University of California in SanDiego, hope to have a clearerpicture of the relationship betweenair quality and water resourceswithin ve years. Theyre setting

up sophisticated instruments acrossCalifornia to determine how andwhen precipitation is affected byaerosols and other factors, such asatmospheric rivers and barrier jets.Williams is also building a

prototype dual-frequency, verti-cal proling radar for less than$20,000 (one-tenth the cost of off-the-shelf commercial units), to feeddemand in the weather and climate

research community for affordable,sophisticated instruments to studyprecipitating clouds. Improvedground measurements of precipitat-ing systems would help addressregional questions such as thoseof concern in California, Williamssaid, and could also help calibraterainfall measured by satellite.

Rain affects every aspect ofhuman life, from agriculture torecreation, but its difcult to getit right in weather forecast andclimate models. Several funda-mentally different processes canpour rain or snow to the ground,and its not always clear whichprocess is at work. Storms still slip

through weather radars, causingunexpected havoc, and air pol-lution can complicate the picturefurther, by affecting cloud andrainfall physics.It is this complexity that draws CI-

RES Christopher Williams to studythe dynamics of rainfall. Thinkabout rain falling on a lake, Wil-liams said. Its not at all uniform.You see these cat paw patterns...

Scientists may not hope to repro-duce such small-scale patterns incomputer models, but it is possibleto improve the way the modelsrepresent rainfall. Williams ana-lyzes small-scale observations andthen uses upscaling techniquesto more accurately depict regionaland global processes.Today, Williams is working on

two key projects to improve scien-tic understanding and prediction

of precipitating cloud systemsastudy in California to determine theeffect of air pollution, such as aero-sols, on water resources there, andthe development of an inexpensiveradar system, which could be de-ployed widely to improve forecast-ing, especially around airports.Aerosols can increase the number

of small drops of moisture inclouds, Williams said, and in some

cases, tinier drops mean precipita-tion may take longer to form andfall. In California, that has led someresearchers to conclude that airpollution has changed the pat-tern of rainfall in the state, lettingwater-rich clouds travel over theSierra Nevada into Nevada beforedropping their rain, and leaving

CIRES

CIRES Christopher Williams works on the prototype of his inexpensivevertical-profiling radar. The system uses a Sony PlayStation to processinformation captured by a set of three, $200 radar dishes.

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Future of Western supplies grim, but not unmanageable

Streamflows and reservoirsReservoirs could have too little water todraw from in any given year as stream-flows decrease:

Flow Chance of depletionreduction per year after 2057

0% 1-in-13

10% 1-in-420% 1-in-2

Water forecast 2057:A 50-50 proposition?

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As the West warms, a drierColorado River system could seeas much as a 1-in-2 chance of fullydepleting all of its reservoir storageby mid-century, assuming currentmanagement practices continueon course. Thats grim news forthe roughly 30 million people who

depend on the Colorado River fordrinking and irrigation water.A research team, led by CIRES

Fellow Balaji Rajagopalan, exam-ined how vulnerable the ColoradoRiver system is to water supplyvariability and to projected changesin water demand. The team foundthat through 2026, the risk of fullydepleting reservoir storage in anygiven year remains less than 10 per-

cent under any scenario of climateuctuation or management alterna-tive. During this period, reservoirstorage could even recover from itscurrent low level, about 65 percentof capacity in the summer of 2009.But if climate change results

in a 10 percent reduction in theColorado Rivers average stream

ow, the chances of fully deplet-ing reservoir storage will exceed 25percent by 2057. If climate changeresults in a 20 percent reduction, thechances of fully depleting reservoirstorage will exceed 50 percent by2057, Rajagopalan said.On average, drying caused by

climate change would increase therisk of fully depleting reservoir stor-age nearly ten times more than therisk we expect from population pres-sures alone, said Rajagopalan. A50 percent chance in any given yearis an enormous risk and huge watermanagement challenge, he said.But even under the most extensive

drying scenario, threats to watersupplies wont be felt immediately,he said.Total storage capacity of reser-

voirs on the Colorado exceeds 60million acre feet, almost 4 times theaverage annual ow on the river,and the two largest reservoirsLake

Mead and Lake Powellcan storeup to 50 million acre feet of water.As a result, the risk of full reservoirdepletion will remain low through2026, even with a 20 percent streamow reduction induced by climatechange.Between 2026 and 2057, if

current management practicescontinue, the risks of fully depletingreservoir storage would be about 7

times the risk expected otherwise.Implementing more aggressive

management practicesreducingdownstream releases during short-ages, for examplewould lessenthe additional depletion risk in thefuture, to just twice what would beexpected from pouplation increases.The magnitude of the risk will


9/16

Calm before the stormWater law battles loom as changing

snowmelt patterns strain decades-old

gentlemens agreementsWhile climate change has signicantly altered the timing of water

ow in the West, it has not triggered on-the-ground water disputes.But according to a new Western Water Assessment study, thisperiod of calm may not last much longer.

In many areas of the U.S. West, mountain snow is melting earlier,shifting peak spring streamows forward by as many as two weeksin the last 50 years. Globalclimate models predict theearlier ows are a conse-

quence of climate change.Yet many Western water

lawswhich designatewho can use water andwhendo not deal explic-itly with calendar dates.When laws do considertiming, dening storageand irrigation seasons bydate, for example, thereis a growing mismatch

between those dates andactual water-ow patterns,the new study found.

For their reconnaissance-level review of water law and lawsuitsin 11 Western states, Doug Kenney, a Senior Research Associate atthe University of Colorados Natural Resources Law Center, CIRESRoberta Klein (Center for Science and Technology Policy Research),and Christopher Goemans from Colorado State University poredthrough statutes and administrative rules governing water, courtcases involving water rights, and journal articles. They also inter-viewed water users, lawyers, and administrators.

These [water] agreements were negotiated, literally, in a dif-ferent climate, well before global warming was a concern in thewater management community, Kenney et al. wrote. Overall, theresearch team found:

nEarlier spring melt has increased the length of the irrigationseason in many areas, with water users exercising rights earlier andlonger. In states with calendar dates written into law, there is littleenforcement of those dates.

nAdministrative flexibility is being exhausted.Some water admin-istrators reported the erosion of water users gentlemens agree-ments on diversion schedules.

n

Legal disputes are not yet occurring, but appear likely in thefuture,as winners and losers become more apparent.In general, junior water holders are vulnerable, but enforcement ofcalendar dates in water rights could protect juniors from expandingsenior rights.

The authors also called for better training ofwater managers, and for improvements in thedesign and operation of water models.

ultimately depend on the extent ofclimate drying and on the types ofwater management and conserva-tion strategies established, accord-

ing to the research.Water conservation and relatively

small pre-planned delivery shortag-es tied to declining reservoir levelscan play a big part in reducing ourrisk, said Ken Nowak, a graduatestudent with CU-Boulders Centerfor Advanced Decision Support forWater and Environmental Systems,or CADSWES.But the more severe the drying

with climate change, the morelikely we will see shortages and per-haps empty reservoirs despite ourbest efforts. Nowak said. The im-portant thing is not to get lulled intoa sense of safety or security with thenear-term resiliency of the ColoradoRiver basin water supply. If we do,were in for a rude awakening.

BUREAU OF RECLAMATION

If streamflow from the Colorado Rivercontinues to diminish, reservoir deple-tion will likely become more common.Lake Powells drinking water supplyand recreational opportunties willboth be strained.

Learnmore

Visit wwa.colorado.edu

TheScience:

Research shows long-term viability of the

Wests water storage

network could be

severely jeopardized

by continued

climate change.

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Floating a flood theoryTheScience

Can studying a watersheds

topography and streamow

help predict a larger

regions ood risk?

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When water topped the UpperMississippis banks in June 2008,more than 30,000 people wereevacuated from Iowa City andCedar Rapids, Iowa. The soakedcities and surrounding communi-ties suffered more than $2 billionin damages. Today, recovery effortsare ongoing.The catastrophic event offered a

rare opportunity to test a nonlineargeophysical theory of oods, 20years in the making. Spearheadedby CIRES Fellow Vijay Gupta, alsoa professor of civil and environ-mental engineering, the theorylinks spatial-temporal statistics ofrainfall, streamow, and ood-ing with physical watershed andchannel network characteristicsover spatial scales ranging from

small tributary watersheds to largebasins. According to Gupta, thetheory seeks to resolve ques-tions such as those involving therelationship between a watershedstopography, the geometry of itsriver network, and spatial statisticalstreamow variation.Guptas motivation is to improve

real-time ood prediction, which ismore art than science. Todays fore-cast models typically rely on sparseprecipitation data, and predictionsare often compromised by a poorunderstanding of the hydrologicprocesses that govern rainfall andstreamow generation. We stilldont understand the spatial vari-ability in these hydrologic processeswell enough because it changeswith spatial scales, said Gupta.

Thats shifting. Using ood datafrom the Iowa River and Cedarbasins, and an experimental basinin Mississippi, Gupta and his col-leagues have discovered a remark-able property: stream networks andoods are mutually related throughself-similarity. As a result, scientistscan extrapolate ndings from a

small study area to a much largerone; relationships between streamnetwork and ooding remainsimilar and can be quantied andpredicted.This gives us a foundation for ex-

tending our theories of ooding toungauged catchments, where littledata are available, said Gupta.Gupta is now applying his theory

to the Whitewater Basin in west-ern Kansas. Using the watershedas a natural laboratory, he and hiscollaborative research team are test-ing relationships between rainfallintensities, estimated from radarand rain gauge data, and physicalcharacteristics of the basin. Theyveselected 12 stream gauging sites,representing watersheds rangingfrom a few square kilometers to

several hundred.Eventually, the researchers hopeto generalize the geophysical theoryfrom describing individual oodingevents to predicting annual oodstatistics. They also hope to learnhow the hydrology, landscape, andecology of Whitewater respond tochanges in climate, agriculture, and


11/16

Fingerprintsin waterWater might get little public attention for its role in climate

change, but water vapor is just as important a greenhouse gas as

carbon dioxide. In 2008, CIRES David Noone and colleaguesset up the rst real-time experiments to measure water vapor onHawaiis Mauna Loa Mountain.

There, at the high-altitude Mauna Loa Observatory, researcherscan make measurements of a part of the atmosphere where therelative humidity is very low. Understanding the water cycle inthis low-humidity environment is important for evaluating water-vapors role in amplifying Earths greenhouse effect.

Noone spent October on the mountain, using a trio of newoptical sensors to measure isotopic differences of hydrogen andoxygen atoms in the water molecules of Hawaiis air.

What are isotopes?

Isotopes are different versions of the same atom, withslightly different weights and slightly different behaviors.Water molecules with heavy isotopes preferentially con-dense, for example.

How do isotopes help science?

Because condensation and evaporation occur in differentlocations, and those processes favor different isotopes ofwater, scientists can use isotopes to ngerprint air masses,revealing where moisture is added and removed from theatmosphere. Isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen can help put

constraints on the water budget, Noone said, and can alsoreveal cloud processes and the histories of air masses asthey travel the globe.

Whats next?

Ultimately, Noone plans to develop a long-term monitor-ing network and use isotopes to learn about how changinghumidity conditionsand the processes that drive themwillaffect Earths climate.

CIRES

Atmospheric sciences professor David Noone chills by the cryo-genic trap, which collects water vapor molecules by freezing them.

DON BECKER/U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

2008s record flood waters in CedarRapids, Iowa, and across the mid-west caused billions in damageand raised health concerns.

Awards

The American Geophysical

Union awarded Vijay Gupta

the prestigious 2008

Robert E. Horton Medal

for his inuential research

in hydrology.

residential development.The fundamental issue is whether

we can generalize what we see atWhitewater to other watersheds,said Gupta. Success on this frontwould break new ground in oodprediction.

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Imagine a climate model as ablack box. You put something in,you get something out. But whathappens when the output is com-pletely unexpected?If you dont get the results you

expect, thats when you start to askwhy, said Peter Lawrence. Work-ing with CIRES Fellow Tom Chase,Lawrence was comparing climatesimulations from the CommunityLand Model part of a select groupof global models used in the In-tergovernmental Panel on ClimateChanges 2007 climate change

report against observations.The model simulations werent

checking out.Despite adding more leafy vegeta-

tion to the modeled planets landsurface, Lawrence and Chase foundthe simulated climate consistentlyproduced less rainfall. Imagineadding more tropical rainforest to

TheScience

CIRES

researchers

discover a

glitch in an

important

climate

system

model.

H2OrbitTandem satellites monitor

effects of glacial meltingIn South and Central Asia, more than half a

billion people rely on glacier-fed streams fordrinking water, irrigation, and power genera-tion. A changing climate could put much of theregions water supply at risk.Thats why researchers, including CIRES

graduate student Sam Dorsi, are now keepingan eye on Asias glaciers from space. Dorsi isworking towards a doctoral degree in Atmo-spheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University

of Colorado at Boulder.Satellites offer researchers a way to capture

information from remote areas around theglobe, said Dorsi. They are a particularly im-portant tool for studying regions where groundmeasurements are sparse and complex terrain

and limited infrastruc-ture complicate eldwork efforts, he said.Dorsi works with

GRACE, or the Gravity

Recovery and ClimateExperiment, a satellitesystem capable ofsensing changes inwater storage bothabove and belowground. Using GRACEdata, he found thatAsias high mountainglaciers are sheddingmore than 30 billion

tons of water every year, enough to raise globalsea levels 0.85 millimeters in a decade.But quantifying the exact contribution of Asian

glacial melt to sea level rise is tricky, he said.Landlocked basins in South and Central Asiamay store large amounts of runoff currentlydraining from the high mountains, and thiscould prevent runoff from contributing to sealevel change, said Dorsi.How can GRACE detect changes in water

storage? Orbiting the planet in tandem, the twinsatellites sense tiny variations in Earths gravity

eld. Aquifers and ice elds add mass to theplanet, creating pockets of stronger gravitationalpull. Regions with stronger gravity elds tug onthe satellite pair, increasing the speed of therst, and then the other, altering the normaldistance between them. Researchers use thesechanges in the distance between the satellites todetermine how much water has been lost fromone region and added to another.

TheScience

A satellite that

senses gravityvariations gives

CIRES researchers

and others

insight into

Earths changing

water cycle.

Output:less rainfall?

12

Input:

more leafyvegetation


13/16

the planet and getting a drier, moredesert-like climate, said Chase. It

just didnt make sense.Their hunch? There was a snag in

the models water cycle.Water on land eventually makes

its way into the atmospherethrough two processes. In one, thesuns heat directly evaporates mois-ture from leaf surfaces, soils, andopen-water sources. In the other,water is lost from plants by transpi-ration, a gas exchange associated

with photosynthesis. Together, thetwo processes are called evapo-transpiration.Transpiration is an important

global humidier, contributingnearly 50 percent of all evapotrans-piration worldwide, Chase said.But in the Community Land Model,transpiration was contributing just15 percent. Evaporation from baresoils was putting three times as

much water into the atmosphere.Water is a very strong climatemodier, said Chase. It impactssurface temperature, precipitation,and cloud formation. If we cantcapture fundamental hydrologicalprocesses in our climate models,we have no way to determine howhuman activities are affecting the

climate system.Lawrence and Chase discovered

that the models hydrology wasbased on drainage patterns typicalof watersheds just a few squaremiles in area. Yet, a single point ina global climate model can repre-sent several hundred square milesof Earths surface.The hydrology simply wasnt scal-

ing to size in the model. Too muchwater was draining laterally, leav-ing little moisture for plants to take

up through their root systems. Theatmosphere, in turn, was spong-ing up most of its moisture frombare ground instead of from lushvegetation.To tackle the problem, Lawrence

and Chase borrowed a simplerhydrology scheme from a less com-plex biosphere model. Program-ming this simpler hydrology intothe Community Land Model, they

were able to simulate global tem-perature and precipitation patternsthat matched observations.Complexity doesnt always get

you a better large-scale simulation.If you arent correctly representingcomplex interactions, you can bemuch better off keeping it simple,said Lawrence.

Peter Lawrence, a

CIRES Visiting Fellow in

2004 and CIRES scientist

until 2008, is now with

the National Center for

Atmospheric Research,

working on the

integration of landcover

and climate.

Learnmore

about CIRES opportunities atcires.colorado.edu/jobs

13


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15/16

MySphereBrad Udall,Western Water Assessment

Coffee Filters: Coffee and dark

chocolate are two things that

can make a huge mental dif-

ference in almost any environ-

ment, says Udall.

Tupperware: Standard lunchincludes bring-your-own pasta

and fruit.

Side Desk: Collection space for

works in progress

The Ties That Bind: Udall

takes pride in binding reports

himself using his comb-binding

machine.

Mapping Water: Theres not

enough wall space for the post-

ers Id like to hang, Udall says.

The Futon: The place of power

naps, good ideas, and papers.

Limes: Udall adds zest to plain

water with a little citrus.

Behavioral Theory of the Firm:A key reference guide for Udalls

work on the nearly 40-person

regional science consortium for

the Colorado River Basin.

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Upper and Lower Basins. Lees Ferry is named for mygreat great grandfather, John D. Lee, the founder ofthe ferry.

What are you working on right now?Im working on establishing a regional science con-

sortium with the key decision makers in the region toaddress large-scale Colorado River Basin water issues.Nearly 40 major players showed up to a meeting tobegin talking about how we can establish this entity tohelp advance the science in the region of the UnitedStates most threatened by climate change, includingassistant Secretaries, the head of the U.S. Geological

Survey, the Commissioner of Reclamation, and keywater managers from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Arizona,and Colorado.

Whats a key take home message fromyour research?Water will be the delivery mechanism for many of

the most important impacts of climate change. Wellsee all kinds of changes in the amounts, timing, anddistribution of water as the globe heats during the 21stcentury. Many of these changes will challenge hu-mans, animals, and plants as we try to adapt to a verydifferent world brought on by climate change.

5

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How people work,

research, and relax at CIRES

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C I R E S

P i d 100% l d

The Cooperative Institute for Researchin Environmental Sciences is aresearch institute dedicated to better

understanding the Earth system.Our research is essential for understandingthe processes and feedbacks in manyEarth science disciplines, and to fostercross-disciplinary understanding of thecryosphere, biosphere, atmosphere,geosphere, and hydrosphere. CIRESscientists are identifying and quantifyingchanges in a warming climate, providing

baseline data against which to measurechange, and informing the public and thepolicy makers about these changes.

CIRES is a joint institute of the Universityof Colorado at Boulder and the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

http://cires.colorado.edu

twitter.com/theCIRESwire

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