{"id":150352,"date":"2019-05-23T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T13:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&#038;p=150352"},"modified":"2019-05-23T09:59:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T13:59:49","slug":"scientist-studies-effects-land-use-climate-change-watersheds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/scientist-studies-effects-land-use-climate-change-watersheds\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist studies effects of land use and climate change on watersheds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rivers and streams cover only about half a percent of the Earth\u2019s land surface, but they play a substantial role in sustaining life on the planet. In addition to supporting complex food webs, strengthening biodiversity and maintaining water quality, river networks are a key participant in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noaa.gov\/education\/resource-collections\/climate-education-resources\/carbon-cycle\">global cycling of carbon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.climate.gov\/news-features\/understanding-climate\/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide\">atmospheric carbon dioxide increases<\/a>, global temperatures rise and lands adjacent to watersheds change or are repurposed, scientists are uncertain of the impacts on stream and river ecosystems. To start understanding the effects, scientists like <a href=\"https:\/\/laurenkoenig.weebly.com\/\">Lauren Koenig<\/a>, a postdoctoral research associate in the <a href=\"http:\/\/nre.uconn.edu\/\">Department of Natural Resources and the Environment<\/a> (NRE) says we need to first learn more about how rivers and streams transport, transform and store carbon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are specifically focused on primary production and respiration,\u201d says Koenig. \u201cJust like you and I are breathing, rivers do that, too. Rivers and streams create and respire organic carbon. It\u2019s part of a collection of processes we call metabolism. We want to know how they maintain that function to understand the ways climate change and land use changes affect those processes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of Koenig\u2019s research relies on statistical analysis and computer modeling to create computer-generated river networks. By compiling information about carbon and oxygen content, water temperature and barometric pressure from sites throughout a watershed, she merges these data into a detailed map. From there, she can apply specific modifications, such as raising the temperature of the water, and determine the probable effects to entire fluvial network.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/naturally.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/21\/scientist-studies-effects-of-land-use-and-climate-change-on-watersheds\/#more-14291\">Continue reading at Naturally@UConn.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rivers and streams cover only about half a percent of the Earth\u2019s land surface, but they play a substantial role in sustaining life on the planet. In addition to supporting complex food webs, strengthening biodiversity and maintaining water quality, river networks are a key participant in the global cycling of carbon. As atmospheric carbon dioxide [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1871],"class_list":["post-150352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cahnr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 11:12:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150352"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=150352"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=150352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}