PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Global warming to cut snow water storage 56 percent in Oregon watershed

2013-07-26
(Press-News.org) CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new report projects that by the middle of this century there will be an average 56 percent drop in the amount of water stored in peak snowpack in the McKenzie River watershed of the Oregon Cascade Range - and that similar impacts may be found on low-elevation maritime snow packs around the world.

The findings by scientists at Oregon State University, which are based on a projected 3.6 degree Fahrenheit temperature increase, highlight the special risks facing many low-elevation, mountainous regions where snow often falls near the freezing point. In such areas, changing from snow to rain only requires a very modest rise in temperature.

As in Oregon, which depends on Cascade Range winter snowpack for much of the water in the populous Willamette Valley, there may be significant impacts on ecosystems, agriculture, hydropower, industry, municipalities and recreation, especially in summer when water demands peak.

The latest study was one of the most precise of its type done on an entire watershed, and was just published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, with support from the National Science Foundation. It makes it clear that new choices are coming for western Oregon and other regions like it.

"In Oregon we have a water-rich environment, but even here we will have to manage our water resources differently in the future," said Eric Sproles, who led this study as a doctoral student at OSU.

"In the Willamette River, for instance, between 60-80 percent of summer stream flow comes from seasonal snow above 4,000 feet," he said. "As more precipitation falls as rain, there will more chance of winter flooding as well as summer drought in the same season. More than 70 percent of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley, with the economy and ecosystems depending heavily on this river."

Annual precipitation in the future may be either higher or lower, the OSU researchers said. They did calculations for precipitation changes that could range 10 percent in either direction, although change of that magnitude is not anticipated by most climate models.

The study made clear, so far as snowpack goes, that temperature is the driving force, far more than precipitation. Even the highest levels of anticipated precipitation had almost no impact on snow-water storage, they said.

"This is not an issue that will just affect Oregon," said Anne Nolin, a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, and co-author of the study. "You may see similar impacts almost anywhere around the world that has low-elevation snow in mountains, such as in Japan, New Zealand, Northern California, the Andes Mountains, a lot of Eastern Europe and the lower-elevation Alps."

The focus of this study was the McKenzie River, a beautiful, clear mountain river that rises in the high Cascade Range near the Three Sisters volcanoes, and supplies about 25 percent of the late summer discharge of the Willamette River. Researchers said this is one of the most detailed studies of its type done on a large watershed.

Among the findings of the study:



The average date of peak snowpack in the spring on this watershed will be about 12 days earlier by the middle of this century. The elevation zone from 1,000 to 1,500 meters will lose the greatest volume of stored water, and some locations at that elevation could lose more than 80 days of snow cover in an average year. Changes in dam operations in the McKenzie River watershed will be needed, but will not be able to make up for the vast capability of water storage in snow. Summer water flows will be going down even as Oregon's population surges by about 400,000 people from 2010 to 2020. Globally, maritime snow comprises about 10 percent of the Earth's seasonal snow cover. Snowmelt is a source of water for more than one billion people. Precipitation is highly sensitive to temperature and can fall as rain, snow, or a rain-snow mix.

The model developed for this research, scientists said, could be readily adapted to help other regions in similar situations determine their future loss of snow water in the future.



INFORMATION:

Editor's Note: Digital images are available to illustrate this story:

1. McKenzie River: http://bit.ly/15J7Dw5

2. Graphic of watershed: http://bit.ly/1dVeKEl

The study this story is based on is available online: http://bit.ly/13ZLzl1



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Traditional forest management reduces fungal diversity

2013-07-26
There is a shortage of dead wood in forests because fallen branches and trees tend to be cleared away. This wood, if available, ought to be decomposing, as it is the habitat of many living beings like lignicolous fungi. These fungi are capable of decomposing dead wood and turning it into organic and inorganic matter. So clearing away the dead wood from the forests is ecologically harmful for the fungi. Nerea Abrego-Antia and Isabel Salcedo-Larralde, biologists in the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, have recently quantified ...

Quantum of sonics: Bonded, not stirred

2013-07-26
Researchers at McGill University have discovered a new way to join materials together using ultrasound. Ultrasound – sound so high it cannot be heard – is normally used to smash particles apart in water. In a recent study, the team of researchers, led by McGill professor Jake Barralet, from the faculties of Dentistry and Medicine, found that if particles were coated with phosphate, they could instead bond together into strong agglomerates, about the size of grains of sand. Their results are published in the journal Advanced Materials. Nanoparticles are extremely useful ...

Inherited virus can cause cognitive dysfunction and fatigue

2013-07-26
Tampa, FL (July 25, 2013) -- Many experts believe that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has several root causes including some viruses. Now, lead scientists Shara Pantry, Maria Medveczky and Peter Medveczky of the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine, along with the help of several collaborating scientists and clinicians, have published an article in the Journal of Medical Virology suggesting that a common virus, Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), is the possible cause of some CFS cases. Over 95 percent of the population is infected with HHV-6 by age 3, ...

Database simplifies finding Canadian plant names and distribution

2013-07-26
Environmental consultants, research ecologists, nature conservation agencies, city managers, translators, and many others, all need to put names to plants at one time or another. The sources used often are not scientifically up-to-date, making it difficult to figure out the accepted name or proper vernacular to use in a vast country like Canada. The VASCAN database simplifies this task for all users. The database content was developed by a team of botanists led by Dr. Luc Brouillet, a specialist of the Canadian flora, curator of the Marie-Victorin Herbarium, and a researcher ...

Researchers find new way to create 'gradients' for understanding molecular interactions

2013-07-26
Scientists use tools called gradients to understand how molecules interact in biological systems. Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating biomolecular gradients that is both simpler than existing techniques and that creates additional surface characteristics that allow scientists to monitor other aspects of molecular behavior. A gradient is a material that has a specific molecule on its surface, with the concentration of the molecule sloping from a high concentration on one end to a low concentration at the other end. ...

A new coral reef species from the Gambier Islands, French Polynesia

2013-07-26
The new species Echinophyllia tarae is described from the remote and poorly studied Gambier Islands, French Polynesia. Although the new species is common in the lagoon of Gambier Islands, its occurrence elsewhere is unknown. Echinophyllia tarae lives in protected reef habitats and was observed between 5 and 20 m depth. It is a zooxanthellate species which commonly grows on dead coral fragments, which are also covered by crustose coralline algae and fleshy macroalgae. This species can grow on well illuminated surfaces but also encrusts shaded underhangs and contributes ...

Overactive immune response blocks itself

2013-07-26
This news release is available in German. As part of the innate immune system natural killer cells (NK cells) play an important role in immune responses. For a long time they have been known as the first line of defense in the fight against infectious diseases. Therefore, researchers assumed that the body needs as many active NK cells as possible. However, scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have now shown that the principle "the more the better" does not apply to this type of immune cells. "During certain phases of the immune response ...

Gold nanoparticles improve photodetector performance

2013-07-26
WASHINGTON D.C. -- The mineral molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which, when solid, behaves in many ways like grease, has semiconducting properties that make it a promising alternative to silicon or graphene in electronic devices. It also strongly absorbs visible light, and so it has been widely employed in light-sensing photodetectors, which are used in a wide range of technologies, such as environmental sensing, process control in factories, and optical communication devices. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have now found a way to boost the performance ...

1-year results of ADAPT-DES trial published in The Lancet

2013-07-26
NEW YORK, NY -- Patients who receive a drug-eluting stent (DES) and demonstrate high platelet reactivity on clopidogrel are more likely to have blood clots form on the stent and to suffer a heart attack; however, these patients are less likely to develop bleeding complications. One-year results of the ADAPT-DES trial will be published online July 26, 2013, in The Lancet. The findings were first presented at last year's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual scientific symposium. ADAPT-DES is the largest study ever to explore the overall treatment implications ...

Molecular monkey arranges X-chromosome activation

2013-07-26
This news release is available in German. X chromosomes are very special genetic material. They differ in number between men and women. To achieve equality between sexes, one out of two X chromosomes in women is silenced. In flies, the opposite happens: in male flies, the only available X chromosome is highly activated, to compensate for the absence of the second X-chromosome. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) in Freiburg have now shown how the RNA molecules and proteins involved in the activation find and stick to ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Common autoimmune drug may help reverse immunotherapy-induced diabetes, UCLA study finds

Quantum battery device lasts much longer than previous demonstrations

Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases from ovarian cancer

Meet the “plastivore” caterpillars that grow fat from eating plastic

Study identifies postoperative delirium as preventable “acute brain failure” with major health and financial implications

Climate change linked to decline in nutritional quality of food

Abdominal fat linked to reduced strength and mobility in adults

Mount Sinai implements Own the Bone® program for fragility fracture patients

Is Earth inside a huge void? 'Sound of the Big Bang' hints at possible solution to Hubble tension

When stem cells feel the squeeze, they start building bone

Revealing Myanmar earthquake as a unique event comprising multiple sub-events, including boomerang-like reverse rupture propagation and supershear rupture

AI helps radiologists spot more lesions in mammograms

Efficient elastic tissues may hold the secrets to Olympic success

Does exercise really improve mental health?

Behind the ballistics of the “explosive” squirting cucumber

Researchers find compound that inhibits cutaneous HPVs

City of Hope Research Spotlight, April/May 2025

The gut microbiota in elderly patients with acute hepatitis E infection

The Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River hits record high temperatures in 2024

Experts urge evidence-based regulations of 7-OH, not restriction, as new science emerges showing safe use

Genes for surviving plague in prairie dogs

New research shows AI chatbots should not replace your therapist

Pusan National University researchers reveal middle-class families hit hardest by South Korea's cost-of-living crisis

Understanding how heat stress reshapes fat metabolism in chickens

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Innovative Genomics Institute announce new Center for Pediatric CRISPR Cures

Innovative liquid biopsy test uses RNA to detect early-stage cancer

New quantum record: Transmon qubit coherence reaches millisecond threshold

How Germany’s 2021 floods could have been even worse

Study traces evolutionary origins of important enzyme complex

Tiny antibody has big impact on deadly viruses

[Press-News.org] Global warming to cut snow water storage 56 percent in Oregon watershed