Our Earth consists of around 71% water. However, only 2.5% of this substance is fresh, which reduces to as little as 0.5% that is available for use. Yet a mass of people still believe water is readily accessible, and not soon to be consumed. There are places on Earth where water seems to be limitless, streaming from refrigerators and reappearing in toilets. In reality, this crucial resource is being depleted. As more people are affected from drought and dehydration, it is becoming increasingly clear that we must preserve and manage what little water is drinkable. Water is a precious resource, one that is unique to our planet and ensures our survival. Scientists today are finding creative ways to improve our decreasing water composites.
Data from tree rings have long aided scientists to study trees’ tolerance to fire, pests, and drought throughout history, among other things. They tell us the amount of wood grown periodically throughout a trees existence. Denroecology also provides reports of water level changes, though the reports have not been particularly helpful to the preservation and management of water because the tree rings only provide annual records.
The University of Utah developed a new computer model that incorporates reconstructions of annual streamflow and global circulation with variations in tree rings based on the type and location of the trees. This combination uses climate change and growth rings to create a monthly report of our water levels. Since water management decisions are made much more frequently than the annual growth ring records, a monthly report realistically benefits the management of water on a regular basis. Dr. James Stagge, a hydrologist and assistant professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering at USU, explained that “it’s the seasonality that determines drought, how reservoirs fill, and when there are shortages,” and that his monthly method allows scientists to “start looking at what major droughts over the past 600 years would mean for today’s water supply.”
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Meanwhile, Dr. Patrick Belmont, Robins Awardee for Researcher of 2018 for QCNR and USU, educates us on how fire will negatively affect the western United States main water sources, especially if wildfire data continues to be misrepresented in the media. While there is no doubt that wildfires have been increasing drastically since 1984, that does not imply that this is out of the ordinary. It is no coincidence that these media outlets produce information from the time that satellites began consistently collecting information, specifically wildfire data. Dr. Belmont explains that extreme wildfire was not uncommon in the distant past, but the recent surge of human population created issues not applicable during those previous times.
Newly recognized in the scientific community, wildfire “has the potential to cause rapid losses of water supply capacity in reservoirs” by producing notable amounts of sediment into streams from erosion.
Belmont proposes that instead of trying to completely exterminate wildfires, we must learn to coexist with them. The best course of action is to control low severity fire to reduce intensity and to abstain from expanding residence into wildfire areas. Before that, we must align the public view with the reality of the western situation, and then we can move forward “implement[ing] aggressive erosion mitigation after fires, carefully monitor[ing] the sedimentation of reservoirs, and…consider[ing] preemptive reservoir dredging.”
On the other side of the world, multitudes of people suffer from lack of water. There simply is not enough water to support their communities, so engineers have tackled the challenge to transform ocean water into fresh water. This truly is a complicated task, and has been done in the past with incredibly costly equipment and little reward.
I understand our Earth to be connected. The wind is linked with the wildflower, the ant is joined with the soil. Every tree creates a community; every rock is part of something bigger than itself. Nature is a work of art, with remedies hidden within the dandelions and airplane designs sketched in the wings of birds. I have a special interest for biotic resources, though I do not view them as objects for humans to use. I hope to become an advocate for living things that cannot speak our languages. To help them thrive in a world where large corporate businesses, detrimental practices, and global shifts threaten their extinction. I want to work with organisms that are endangered. If these plants and animals continue to suffer, we will find ourselves in situations that cannot be undone. Every organism contributes to our ecosystems. To kill off one organism means to wreak havoc on the others, including humans.
I want to be a part of the team that studies how to mend issues faced by increasing human populations. I hope to understand how to make good decisions for the future of our environment and everything on it by applying methods learned on the field. As a conservation scientist and wildlife biologist, I’d focus on monitoring and managing specific habitats, animal behavior, and their interaction with other species.
