California is in the fourth year of a severe, hot droughtthe kind that is increasingly likely as the climate warms. Although no sector has been untouched, impacts so far have varied greatly, reflecting different levels of drought preparedness. Urban areas are in the best shape, thanks to sustained investments in diversified water portfolios and con...
Published in BioScience
Building on previous environmental flow discussions and a growing recognition that hydrogeomorphic processes are inherent in the ecological functionality and biodiversity of riverscapes, we propose a functional-flows approach to managing heavily modified rivers. The approach focuses on retaining specific process-based components of the hydrograph, ...
The drought is tightening its grip on California agriculture, squeezing about 30 percent more workers and cropland out of production than in 2014, according to the latest drought impact report by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. In 2015, the states agricultural economy directly will lose about 1.84 billion and 10,100 jobs because of the ...
Published in PLoS ONE
The ranges and abundances of species that depend on freshwater habitats are declining worldwide. Efforts to counteract those trends are often hampered by a lack of information about species distribution and conservation status and are often strongly biased toward a few well-studied groups. We identified the 3,906 vascular plants, macroinvertebrates...
Published in Hydrogeology Journal
As in many places, groundwater in California (USA) is the major alternative water source for agriculture during drought, so groundwater’s availability will drive some inevitable changes in the state’s water management. Currently, agricultural, environmental, and urban uses compete for groundwater, resulting in substantial overdraft in dry years wit...
The extreme drought that has gripped California over the past several years is causing onerous adjustments in the natural and human environments. Agriculture, which uses much of the states water, is at the center of many of these arduous responses. The 2015 impacts of the continuing drought are still underway, but in this special ARE Update issue, ...
Stream flow drives many physical and ecological processes in rivers that support freshwater ecosystems. Human activities like dam operations, water diversions, and flood control infrastructure together have fundamentally altered many streams. Water scarcity from increasing water demands and prolonged droughts has further stressed freshwater ecosyst...
Published in Limnology & Oceanography Fluids & Environments
