Project Description: Surface water presence is essential to aquatic organisms, riparian vegetation, and providing water for human water use and recreation, but long-term spatial trends in surface water presence remain poorly understood due to data limitations. In this project, we are leveraging a unique dataset of surface water presence in the San Pedro River with daily data at 8 locations for more than 2 decades and spatially continuous data annually for nearly 3 decades. Initial results suggest that rising summer temperatures and falling monsoonal precipitation may be driving decreases in surface water presence. One possible explanation for our findings is that plants are using water that would otherwise be in streams. To find out whether this is the case, we are collecting hourly data to try to observe diurnal patterns in surface water presence. The intern will manually process the new dataset and conduct statistical analyses and modeling.
NASA Relevance: This work leverages datasets available from satellite remote sensing, such as ET products, precipitation products, and imagery. The findings from this work will address drivers of surface water presence in intermittent streams, which account for more than 50% of streams globally, making them essential to the global water cycle. Water use and availability in dry environments are very challenging to capture with remotely sensed methods, and the findings of this work contribute to better understanding how drylands water availability and plant water use function under changing conditions.
Work Description: The intern will evaluate surface water presence in camera images, measure stream width in images, and standardize datasets. The intern will then develop and execute statistical analyses to associate diurnal patterns in flow and flow width with plant water use patterns and weather data. The intern will perform similar analyses using precipitation gage data at nearby gages to determine if findings are different.
Open or Reserved Project: Open, 1 position.