Recent paper in Journal of Environmental Quality

Recent paper in the Journal of Environmental Quality (co-published by the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America) co-authored by Cedric Laize (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology/University of Birmingham).

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/17394/


Piniewski, Mikolaj; Laize, Cedric L.R.; Acreman, Michael C.; Okruszko, Tomasz; Schneider, Christof. 2012 Effect of climate change on environmental flow indicators in the Narew Basin, Poland. Journal of Environmental Quality. 10.2134/jeq2011.0386

Environmental flows, the quantity of water required to maintain a river ecosystem in its desired state, are of particular importance in areas of high natural value. Water-dependent ecosystems are exposed to the risk of climate change through altered precipitation and evaporation. Rivers in the Narew basin in northeastern Poland are known for their valuable river and wetland ecosystems, many of them in pristine or near-pristine condition. The objective of this study was to assess changes in the environmental flow regime of the Narew river system, caused by climate change, as simulated by hydrological models with different degrees of physical characterization and spatial aggregation. Two models were assessed: the river basin scale model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the continental model of water availability and use WaterGAP. Future climate change scenarios were provided by two general circulation models coupled with the A2 emission scenario: IPSL-CM4 and MIROC3.2. To assess the impact of climate change on environmental flows, a method based conceptually on the “range of variability” approach was used. The results indicate that the environmental flow regime in the Narew basin is subject to climate change risk, whose magnitude and spatial variability varies with climate model and hydrological modeling scale. Most of the analyzed sites experienced moderate impacts for the Generic Environmental Flow Indicator (GEFI), the Floodplain Inundation Indicator, and the River Habitat Availability Indicator. The consistency between SWAT and WaterGAP for GEFI was medium: in 55 to 66% of analyzed sites, the models suggested the same level of impact. Hence, we suggest that state-of-the- art, high-resolution, global- or continental-scale models, such as WaterGAP, could be useful tools for water management decisionmakers and wetland conservation practitioners, whereas models such as SWAT should serve as a complementary tool for more specific, smaller-scale, local assessments.

New postdoc position in hydrology

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/portal/gfz/Neuestes/Stellenanzeigen/10+Wissenschaftliche+Mitarbeiter/76_5_11

Stephanie Handley-Sidhu (GEES), with Lynne Macaskie (Biosciences) and Joe Hriljac (Chemistry) visited Japan for knowledge exchange as part of the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency funded REIMEI grant (Joanna Renshaw; co-investigator).
Steph and Lynne presented at the International Seminar Series on Environmental Radioactivity (Hakkaido, Sapporo). The aim of the meeting was to open up international scientific discussions about remediation of problematic radionuclides at Fukushima. This meeting was attended by students, academics and representatives from the nuclear industry (including TEPCO and IAEA).
Steph, Lynne and Joe gave invited seminars at the 4th Advanced Science Research Center international Workshop at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (Tokai, Ibaraki). This subject of the workshop was the interaction of radionuclides by micro-organisms, clays and plants. Attendees were also given the opportunity to visit the recently decontaminated Fukushima University and a contaminated Namie high school situated just meters away from the no-go zone. Geiger counting showed that at this high school radiation of surfaces was up to 50x natural background radiation, whereas, permanent air monitoring gave reading close to natural levels. Members of this workshop also experienced a category 6 earthquake on the 14th of March while having dinner, which was close to the anniversary of lasts years devastating quake. A sleepless night followed due to aftershocks.
Finally, Steph and Lynne ended their epic tour with invited seminars at Kyushu University on using microbes and biominerals to remediate problematic radionuclides. They also found time to stop briefly at the Hiroshima memorial park, placing 1000 cranes in memory of the atomic bomb victims. The trip home was preceded by a formal presentation to the JAEA REIMEI Evaluation board both to present on the activities carried out during the 2011/2012 award and to present plans for an extension for a second year, in which real trials of bionanomaterials developed at Birmingham University ‘on site’ at Fukushima are envisaged

AGU 2011

The Water Sciences research group was well represented at AGU 2011.

David Hannah gave an invited talk in a session on understanding hydrologic change entitled “European river flow regimes: space time-dynamics and links to large-scale climate”. Stefan Krause delivered an invited talk in a session on ground water surface-water interactions that sought to answers the question: “Hot moments and hot spots in hyporheic nutrient transformation – To what degree does small-scale variability control stream-reach attenuation potential?”. Stefan was co-author on another invited talk about “Development and application of a heat pulse sensor for in-situ measurement of hyporheic flow”.

Several poster presentations were made across a range of water-related topics (with Birmingham authors) including:

• Assessing future changes in pan-European environmental flows (Cedric Laizé and David Hannah)
• Nested heat tracer experiments for identifying heterogeneity of aquifer-river exchange at multiple scales (Stefan Krause and David Hannah)
• Ocean-atmosphere forcing of summer streamflow drought in Great Britain (David Hannah)
• Space-time variability in river flow regimes of northeast Turkey (Faize Şaris, David Hannah and Warren Eastwood)
• The climatic sensitivity of river temperature regimes in England and Wales (Grace Garner, David Hannah and Jon Sadler)
• Water Temperature Dynamics in High Arctic River Basins (Phil Blaen, David Hannah and Sandy Milner)

Polar Biology Conference

Phillip Blaen attended the workshop ‘High latitude biology, ecosystems and the future; a multidisciplinary approach’ at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge from 17^th to 18^th November 2011. This workshop presented a platform for networking with colleagues in these fields which include group discussions on the future of science in this field, current issues and a mentoring panel for ‘Succeeding in polar biological sciences’.

Phillip received second prize in the workshop’s poster competition. An online version of the poster can be viewed here:

Water Sciences Seminar Programme

Water Sciences seminars will be held in the Geography & Environmental Sciences building in G311 unless advised otherwise. Contact Grace Garner (gxg627@bham.ac.uk) for more information or to volunteer a session.

Monday 14th Nov, 4-5 pm
Water Sciences DR Welcome, GES Coffee Room

Monday 28th Nov 4-5 pm
Ian Thornhill GEES, University of Birmingham
The influence of land use on water quality in urban ponds

Monday 12th Dec 4-5 pm
Sue Cumberland GEES, University of Birmingham
Water quality issues in South Africa; Can portable fluorescence spectrometry provide a tool in decision making?

Mon 16th Jan 4-5 pm
Gemma Harvey School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London
Linking geomorphology and ecology: some recent experiences in river science

Mon 30th Jan 4-5 pm
Tory Milner Institute of Science & the Environment, University of Worcester
Assessing physical habitat in streams; do geomorphologists and invertebrates see eye to eye?

Mon 13th Feb 4-5pm
Alexander Poynter GEES, University of Birmingham
Title tbc

Mon 20th Feb 4-5 pm
Tristram Irvinne-Fynn Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences, University of Aberystwyth
Eppur si muove...? : on the mobility of supraglacial cryoconite and greening glaciers

Mon 27th Feb 4-5 pm
Simon Gosling School of Geography, University of Nottingham
Title tbc

Mon 5th March
Steve Birkinshaw Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Newcastle University
Determining water flow pathways using temperature as a tracer

Mon 12th Mar 4-5 pm
Harriet Orr Evidence Directorate, Environment Agency
Adapting water management to climate change

Mon 30th Apr 4-5 pm
John Gunn GEES, University of Birmingham
Environmental impacts of lead mine drainage in Derbyshire

Monday 7th May 4-5 pm
Debra Finn GEES, University of Birmingham
Title tbc

Mon 14th May 4-5 pm
Edward Malone GEES, University of Birmingham
Title tbc

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