Water and Climate Final

Describe one online source of data you have used in this class or other classes.

EJScreen is an online mapping and data tool that combines environmental and demographic data. It allows users to look at issues such as extreme heat, air pollution, flooding risk, and population characteristics in different communities. In this class, I used EJScreen during our research project to compare whether the colleges we studied faced similar levels of extreme heat exposure or different environmental conditions. I also used EJScreen in my politics and policy class when I was researching the different environmental justice issues nearby disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged communities face and why this might be the case.

Define/describe Urban Heat Island Effect: causes, effects, solutions

Urban Heat Island Effect is a phenomenon in which urban areas have higher average temperatures than nearby, less-developed regions.

Causes: Many factors contribute to the Urban Heat Island Effect including dark, impervious surfaces, amount of vegetation, and amount of human activity

Solutions: Plant more trees- trees provide shade and help cool the air through transpiration. Use light-colored or green roofs- these reflect more sunlight and help keep buildings cooler. Increase green spaces/parks to reduce heat absorption

Define/describe Red-Lining: connections with climate justice

Redlining is when banks and governments denied loans, insurance, and investments to neighborhoods based on where people lived. These areas were marked in red on maps, leading to long-term poverty and underinvestment.

Redlined communities are often more vulnerable to climate change because have fewer green spaces, more pollution, less infrastructure, and greater risks from extreme heat and flooding.

Water Treatment plant: Describe key steps in treatment: Primary and Secondary

Primary: Screen water to remove large debris, let heavy particles sink to the bottom, run it through a sand filter

Secondary: Use active bacteria to break down organic waste, add chemicals, remove those chemicals and do a UV treatment

Specific challenges to Poughkeepsie/Hudson treatment

- Lead pipes in Poughkeepsie: Older pipes can contain lead that can leach into drinking water

-  PCBs are present in the Hudson River at low levels and are heavily monitored

- HABs: Last summer’s harmful algal bloom was a major challenge because toxins from the algae can contaminate the water supply. Officials issued warnings advising residents to avoid contact with the water, and the treatment plant had to adjust its processes to help reduce potential toxins

Climate Mitigation

Taking actions to reduce climate change by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. An example of this is reducing our collective carbon footprint by changing the way we travel

Climate Adaptation/Resiliency

Helping communities adjust, prepare, respond, and recover from the effects of climate change such as extreme heat, rising sea-levels, drought, and flooding

Climate Hazards

Climate related events that cause harm (Examples: Rising sea levels, heat waves, wildfires)

Climate Risks

The potential negative impacts related to climate hazards on people, poverty, or ecosystems that are vulnerable to it (Flooded areas)

What are Nature Based Solutions

Use natural systems to help communities adapt to climate change

Examples of Nature Based Solutions

-Floodplain management, where conserving land around floodplains helps absorb stormwater and reduce flooding

-Prevent erosion with vegetation and restored stream banks

Improve water quality by filtering pollutants

-Increase drought resilience by storing water during wet periods

What are the elements of NYS Climate Smart Community?

-       Build a climate-smart community

-       Inventory emissions, set goals, and plan for climate action

-       Increase energy use

-       Shift to clean, renewable energy

-       Use climate-smart materials management

-       Implement climate-smart land use

-       Enhance community resilience to climate change

-       Support a green innovation economy

-       Inform and inspire the public

-       Engage in an evolving process of climate action

-       Innovation

-       Performance

Diadromous fish

Fish that migrate between freshwater and saltwater at different stages of their life cycle. At the end of their life cycle, they usually go back to their birthplace

Migratory Patterns

Regular movement routes and timing that fish follow between habitats for feeding, spawning, or growth

Threats to eels (and other fish)

• Dams being built

• Shifting ocean currents

• Bycatch

• Overfishing

• Increased ocean temperatures

Ecological aspects of fish and fisheries

Fisheries management can help protect fish populations by limiting catches, not fishing during spawning seasons, regulating fish size, and creating MPAs

Economic Aspects of fish and fisheries

Fisheries provide jobs, food, and income, so regulations help keep fish populations stable for long-term fishing industries

Cultural Aspects of fish and fisheries

Fishing is an important tradition and way of life for many communities, so protecting fisheries helps preserve cultural practices and local livelihoods

Fyke Netting: Purpose, advantages and limitations

Purpose: To catch young eels moving through waterways

Advantages: Low disturbance to habitat, very effective and easy for capturing small/young fish over time

Limitations: Very selective-only catches smaller fish that swim into it, can miss fast-moving fish or larger fish

Electrofishing: Purpose, advantages and limitations

Purpose: Uses a controlled electric current to temporarily stun fish to sample them in order to determine fish biodiversity in shallow streams

Advantages: Slows down faster moving fish so it’s easier to catch them, effective for sampling a wide variety of fish species and sizes

Limitations: Can stress or injure fish if not done properly, not effective in deep water.

Latitude versus Longitude

Latitude: Imaginary lines that run east–west around Earth

Longitude: Imaginary lines that run north-south from pole to pole

Effects of Gulf Stream on Eels

After spawning in the Sargasso Sea, eel larvae drift with the Gulf Stream. The current acts like a “conveyor belt,” carrying young eels closer to freshwater rivers where they grow. Without the Gulf Stream, eel larvae would not be efficiently transported to coastal habitats, reducing survival. However changes in ocean circulation and shifting current can affect their ability to reach their destination.

Surface Elevation tables: Purpose and Methodology

Purpose: To directly measure changes in wetland or marsh surface elevation over time to determine whether marshes are keeping up with rising sea levels

Methodology: A fixed benchmark is installed deep into the ground, and a measuring table is placed on top. 9 pins are lowered through the arm to the marsh surface. The height of the pins above the arm is recorded. Researchers repeatedly measure the marsh surface at this fixed point over time to track whether the marsh is rising, sinking, or staying the same.

Seining Methodology

Use a seine net to catch and survey fish in shallow water to study fish abundance and biodiversity on the cove and river side

River vs Cove: water quality, and habitat comparisons

River: Deeper, higher energy environment with stronger waves and currents. Larger fish are better adapted to these conditions, while smaller fish may struggle. The river was cooler and had fewer fish overall. Higher turbidity= clear water could be because river had more movement so more suspended particles

Cove: Shallow and calmer water. More small fish possibly using the cove as shelter from larger predators in the river. Warmer water. Both had healthy dissolved oxygen and pH levels. Lower turbidity=cloudier water could be because cove had calmer water so particles settled on the bottom because they aren’t being moved around

Marine Debris

Any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and disposed into marine environments

Microplastics

Plastic particles smaller than 5mm, never break down

Sources of Marine Debris

• Humans: The products we buy and our waste disposal methods are the source of plastics in the Hudson river and throughout the state

• Watershed: More than 80% of marine debris in New York comes from the watershed. Trash is transported by wind and rain over the land and eventually makes it way to streams and rivers

• Combined Sewage Overflow: Some water is transported from stormwater, it combines with municipal wastewater and ends up in streams and rivers

• Recreation: Improper waste disposal while fishing, boating, beaching

Effects of North Atlantic Gyre, tides, currents, thermohaline circulation

-       Currents: In an estuary like the Hudson River, currents flow in both directions because of tides. This movement can push marine debris and microplastics back and forth through the river.

-       Tides: Tidal forces push water onto beaches, wetlands, and shorelines. During high tide, microplastics often accumulate along the shore.

-       Thermohaline circulation: Large-scale ocean circulation driven by differences in temperature and salinity moves water and materials around the ocean over long distances. This can help transport marine debris through the Atlantic Ocean.-

-       North Atlantic Gyre: After leaving the Hudson River, marine debris can enter the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean currents in the North Atlantic Gyre trap floating plastics, causing very high concentrations of debris to build up in the center of the gyre.

Categories of microplastics

-       Fragments: 5 mm or smaller, uneven pieces broken from bottles, bags, straws, many colors, shapes and sizes, enters as marine debris and break down over time

-       Microbeads: Personal care products (soap, toothpaste), manufactured to be >5mm in size, uniform spherical shape

-       Microfibers: 1/5” the diameter of human hair, mostly from our clothing, coming from the watershed or wastewater plants

-       Foam: various sizes, floats at surface of water, from Styrofoam plates, cups, packaging material

-       Film: 5mm or less, from contacts, nail polish

Methodology for sampling Microplastics: advantages and limitations, takeaway

-       Method: Dragged a plankton tow back and forth in the Hudson River to sample microplastics from the water. Brought our samples to the looked and looked through a microscope to identify the types of microfibers we caught

-       Advantages: It was very easy and efficient to use the plankton tow. It worked well with the fast-moving water so this likely could be used in streams, lakes and other waterways

-       Limitations: You can only use plankton tow to sample microplastics from the surface of the water; you cannot use it to go deeper near the bottom.

-       Takeaway: Microplastics are present in waterways but not as much as we would think. In our samples, we found a lot more plants and animals than microplastics.

Solutions for microplastics

-       Reduce plastic use (Use reusable bags, bottles, and containers)

-       Prevent microfibers from clothing (Choose to wear natural fibers like cotton or wool, use laundry filters to catch more microfibers from clothing)

-       Improve wastewater and stormwater systems (Upgrade wastewater treatment plants so they can better filter out microplastics)

-       Water cleanups: Organize River and beach cleanups to remove larger marine debris before it breaks down into microplastics

Relationship between dissolved oxygen and temperature

As temperature increases, dissolved oxygen decreases. As temperature decreases, dissolved oxygen increases.

Point source pollution

Pollution that comes from one clear, specific place. Usually comes out of a pipe, factory, or sewage treatment. Easier to trace and regulate

Non-point source pollution

Pollution that comes from many scattered places. Comes from runoff when rain or snow moves over land. Harder to control. (Examples: fertilizer washing off farms, oil from roads)

Primary water treatment

First step in wastewater treatment. Removes large solids. No chemicals or bacteria added

Secondary water treatment

Second step. Adds bacteria to break down organic waste. Removes smaller dissolved particles.

Bioaccumulation

When toxins build up inside one organism over time. Happens because the chemical doesn’t break down easily.

Biomagnification

When toxin levels increase as you go up the food chain. Predators have the highest concentrations.

Thermohaline circulation

global cycle dependent on salinity and temperature; it both regulates climate and is affected by climate change