(Press-News.org) New research shows that California’s Central Valley, known as America’s breadbasket, gets as much as half of its groundwater from the Sierra Nevadas. This is significant for a farming region that, in some parts, relies almost entirely on groundwater for irrigation.
While it is easy to see above-ground reservoirs rise and fall with the rain and snow, aquifers are a natural water source hidden out of sight, in some cases hundreds of feet underground. “They are like giant bathtubs full of water and sediment,” said UC Riverside associate professor of groundwater hydrology Hoori Ajami.
Scientists have long recognized that the Sierras are a key water source for the Central Valley aquifer, but this new UC Riverside-led study is the first to quantify the groundwater contribution from the mountains. Published in the journal Water Resources Research, the study shows that contribution is as much as 53% in the southern Central Valley.
It isn’t just snow melt and rain-fed streams reaching into the low-lying aquifer. There are aquifers in the Sierras that appear to be discharging into the Central Valley aquifer as well.
“This study shows the degree of connectivity between the mountains and the valley is considerable” said Sandra Armengol, first author of the paper and former UCR postdoctoral researcher.
Because groundwater is difficult to see, it is also difficult to measure. The researchers used a multi-pronged approach to quantify where the Central Valley aquifer water was coming from.
In part, the study relied on U.S. Geological Survey samples of well water taken from the southern Central Valley as well as in the mountains. The UCR researchers then examined the chemistry of those samples levels of calcium, sulfates, sodium, radioactive, and stable isotopes to learn about the source of the water, as well as its age.
Carbon 14 and tritium are chemicals in the water that give researchers an idea how old something is. In particular, carbon 14 is also used in archaeology to give a sense of things that are tens of thousands of years old, while tritium will tell if something is younger than 50 years.
What the UCR team found is that the Sierra groundwater flowing into the Central Valley is very mixed in age. Some of the water was as young as 4 years old, some was roughly 102, and in some places the water was more than 40,000 years old. As such, it cannot be easily replaced once it is used.
“It takes a long time for precipitation to go through layers of sediment into aquifers and recharge the groundwater. If we keep pumping at current rates, we will significantly deplete our aquifers in the Central Valley,” Ajami said.
Because of the 2012 – 2016 droughts, people started pumping too much groundwater and this has accelerated sinking of the ground and impacted infrastructure such as dams and canals carrying surface water to the valley.
Former Governor Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management act into law in 2014, which enforces development of groundwater sustainability plans for over-drafted basins and reduces undesirable results such as groundwater depletion and land subsidence. However, much more can and should be done to manage the groundwater supply effectively.
“If I want to know a sustainable pumping rate for an aquifer, I need to know how much water is coming in and how much groundwater is going out. As with your bank account, how much you spend depends on your income,” Ajami said.
This study was part of an effort to quantify that income, (aka recharge), and was funded by a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Ajami received the $630,000 award in 2020 for hydrology research, education, and outreach. She is planning additional studies to quantify the Sierra Nevada recharge more precisely.
“For overdrafted aquifers, including the Central Valley one, more detailed studies quantifying recharge rates are still needed,” Armengol said. “But we hope this work will aid in better management of this irreplaceable resource. So much of the food we eat depends on it.”
END
Parched Central Valley farms depend on Sierras for groundwater
Mountain recharge powers growers’ hidden reservoirs
2024-07-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NYUAD researcher receives National Science Foundation grant to study the role of tiny diatoms in protecting endangered marine animals
2024-07-25
Abu Dhabi, UAE, July 25, 2024: NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Associate Professor of Biology Shady Amin has received a grant of more than USD 500,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). He will lead a project that is aimed at elevating the understanding and awareness of the essential role played by diatoms, the tiny microalgae that can live in oceans or in symbiosis with endangered marine animal hosts like whales, dolphins, dugongs, and manatees and play a fundamental role in maintaining Earth’s delicate ecosystem.
Diatoms are microalgae ...
Three junior faculty members join Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s K12 Faculty Scholars at Annual Symposium
2024-07-25
MIAMI, FLORIDA (July 25, 2024) – Three junior faculty members at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, have been named K12 2024 Faculty Scholars. They bring to 16 the number of junior faculty who have joined Sylvester’s prestigious K12 Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program since its inception in 2018. The program awards recipients with resources to pursue independent research careers in clinical and translational cancer research.
The K12 2024 Faculty Scholars ...
Climate change will bring more turbulence to flights in the Northern Hemisphere
2024-07-25
American Geophysical Union
25 July 2024
AGU Release No. 24-28
For Immediate Release
This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/climate-change-will-bring-more-turbulence-to-flights-in-the-northern-hemisphere/
Climate change will bring more turbulence to flights in the Northern Hemisphere
Disruptive clear air turbulence is predicted to increase over most northern mid-latitude regions
AGU press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-5 hours)
Contact information for the researchers:
Mohamed ...
Dr. Amy Acton, LeVar Burton, Macalester College President Suzanne Rivera named panelists for Inamori Ethics Prize symposium on moral imperatives in public health
2024-07-25
CLEVELAND—In our increasingly interconnected world, the ongoing risk of communicable health conditions to human life demands organized and equitable public health efforts to combat known and emerging local and global health threats.
But how best to tackle such critical needs and balance individual autonomy with preventing public harm? How should we care for those who take care of us? How can we advance research and regain the trust of historically marginalized groups? What role should the United States play in the world’s healthcare plans?
These and other issues will be discussed this fall at Case Western Reserve University’s ...
SNIS 2024: Medicare continues to undervalue lifesaving stroke surgery
2024-07-25
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 25, 12:10 P.M. MDT
CONTACT: Camille Jewell
cjewell@vancomm.com or 202-248-5460
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Despite thrombectomy’s high success rate in saving the lives of stroke patients, Medicare is paying lower rates over time for the procedure, according to research presented today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 21st Annual Meeting.
Three studies, “The Price of Progress — Evaluating Medicare’s Valuation of Stroke Treatment,” “Fiscal Clots in the Stream of Stroke Care: The Mechanical Thrombectomy Reimbursement Dilemma,” ...
Exploring the dynamics of combatting market-driven epidemics
2024-07-25
A case definition of market-driven epidemics (MDEs) could help address critical barriers to timely, effective prevention and mitigation, according to a study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Jonathan Quick from Duke University School of Medicine, U.S., and colleagues.
The misuse and overconsumption of certain consumer products have become major global risk factors for premature deaths at all ages, with their total costs in trillions of dollars. Progress in reducing such deaths has been difficult, slow, and too often unsuccessful. To address this challenge, ...
How iBuyers are changing real estate racial disparities and individual homeownership rates in one major city
2024-07-25
Instant buyers, also known as iBuyers, rapidly buy and sell homes using automated models to set prices. These companies, such as Opendoor and Offerpad, can turn around cash offers in a matter of hours, and they’ve captured more than 5% of the real estate market in some U.S. cities.
Since new tech often replicates or exacerbates existing societal biases, University of Washington researchers wanted to investigate how iBuyers have affected the well-documented racial bias in home appraisals — particularly bias against Black homeowners.
The ...
Array pinpoints imprinted genes with potential links to disease
2024-07-25
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed an array that assesses methylation levels of genes located in imprint control regions (ICRs) within the human genome. The array represents a cost-effective, efficient method for exploring potential links between environmental exposures and epigenetic dysregulation during the early developmental origins of diseases and behavioral disorders.
ICRs regulate the expression of imprinted genes – genes where only one parental copy of the gene is active, while the other copy is silenced early in development. Imprinted genes are of special interest to epidemiologists, geneticists, and toxicologists who study the connections ...
Posterior surgery is noninferior to anterior surgery for cervical radiculopathy
2024-07-25
July 25, 2024 — For patients with cervical radiculopathy, posterior foraminotomy provides outcomes comparable to those of the more commonly performed anterior cervical discectomy, reports a randomized clinical trial in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
"[O]ur findings provide Level-I evidence that posterior surgery is noninferior to anterior surgery with regard to the clinical outcome, with follow-up of two years," according to the new research by Nádia F. Simões de Souza, MD, and Anne E. H. Broekema, MD, ...
How epigenetics influence memory formation
2024-07-25
When we form a new memory, the brain undergoes physical and functional changes known collectively as a “memory trace”. A memory trace represents the specific patterns of activity and structural modifications of neurons that occur when a memory is formed and later recalled.
But how does the brain “decide” which neurons will be involved in a memory trace? Studies have suggested that the inherent excitability of neurons plays a role, but the currently accepted view of learning has neglected to look inside the command ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Insulin resistance is linked to over 30 diseases – and to early death in women, study of people in the UK finds
Innovative semaglutide hydrogel could reduce diabetes shots to once a month
Weight loss could reduce the risk of severe infections in people with diabetes, UK research suggests
Long-term exposure to air pollution and a lack of green space increases the risk of hospitalization for respiratory conditions
Better cardiovascular health in early pregnancy may offset high genetic risk
Artificial intelligence method transforms gene mutation prediction in lung cancer: DeepGEM data releases at IASLC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer
Antibody–drug conjugate I-DXd shows clinically meaningful response in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer
IASLC Global Survey on biomarker testing reveals progress and persistent barriers in lung cancer biomarker testing
Research shows pathway to developing predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors
Just how dangerous is Great Salt Lake dust? New research looks for clues
Maroulas appointed Associate Vice Chancellor, Director of AI Tennessee
New chickadee research finds cognitive skills impact lifespan
Cognitive behavioral therapy enhances brain circuits to relieve depression
Terasaki Institute awarded $2.3 Million grant from NIH for organ transplantation research using organs-on-a-chip technology
Atoms on the edge
Postdoc takes multipronged approach to muon detection
Mathematical proof: Five satellites needed for precise navigation
Scalable, multi-functional device lays groundwork for advanced quantum applications
Falling for financial scams? It may signal early Alzheimer’s disease
Integrating MRI and OCT for new insights into brain microstructure
Designing a normative neuroimaging library to support diagnosis of traumatic brain injury
Department of Energy announces $68 million in funding for artificial intelligence for scientific research
DOE, ORNL announce opportunity to define future of high-performance computing
Molecular simulations, supercomputing lead to energy-saving biomaterials breakthrough
Low-impact yoga and exercise found to help older women manage urinary incontinence
Genetic studies reveal new insights into cognitive impairment in schizophrenia
Researcher develops technology to provide cleaner energy and cleaner water
Expect the unexpected: nanoscale silver unveils intrinsic self-healing abilities
nTIDE September 2024 Jobs Report: Gains in employment for people with disabilities appear to level off after reducing gaps with non-disabled workers
Wiley enhances NMR Spectral Library Collection with extensive new databases
[Press-News.org] Parched Central Valley farms depend on Sierras for groundwaterMountain recharge powers growers’ hidden reservoirs