Target: Water—quantity and quality indicators.- Importance to Food & Agr: Water is the lifeblood of ecosystem functioning—whether for our food producing ecosystems or the surrounding ones.
- Issues: Irrigation diversions and pumping from the ground for agriculture are major human interventions in the hydrologic cycle that can have serious impacts on surrounding and often very distant ecosystems.
In terms of quantity, high, low, and rapidly changing river flows are critical. Especially in the arid West, snowmelt from mountains puts a focus on winter snowpack and snowmelt timing and speed. Climate change is creating major disruptions in these cycles.
Agriculture is not only affected by water quality issues, but also can cause such issues. The quality of water: suspended solids, dissolved chemicals, dissolved oxygen, acidity, as well as living organisms—from microscopic to vertebrates—are important to water health and often useful indicators of that health.
- Observing Options:
- Water Supply: Many aspects of water supply are monitored extensively by government and other agencies, so paying attention to reports on river flow, snowpack, dust on snow, drought severity, and reservoir levels—and associated forecasts—can keep you well-informed. These reports can back up your own observations of water supply indicators.
- Water Quality: Without resorting to rigorous testing, your visual observations of sediment (turbidity) and changes in color (such as the mine waste that turned our Animas River yellow) suggest potentially harmful water quality issues.
- Animal Indicators: Those who fish may see changes in fish species abundance as well as aquatic insects, and birders may see similar changes in bird abundance. Ouzels, or American Dippers, are dependent on aquatic insects that in turn are affected by water quality.
- American Dippers: One of our favorite birds, the American Dipper or ouzel, is a wonderful bird to watch for year-round as it forages on invertebrates underwater in rivers. As such, it can indicate river water quality after floods, fires, or pollution events.
- Beavers have been managing water flow for eons, until we removed many of them—ushering in more flooding and associated sediment in rivers and creeks, less groundwater infiltration, and more late season drought. Fortunately, as climate changes create more droughts and floods, many people are protecting, introducing, and learning to co-exist with beavers. Monitoring beaver activity and abundance over time is a key observation of watershed and foodshed health.
- Citizen Science:
- CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network): volunteer reporting of rain, snow, hail, and associated data.
- Colorado River Watch is an example of a program that allows volunteers to assist in river water quality monitoring.
- Use e-Bird to report sightings of American Dippers, or ouzels, as noted above.
- Getting Started Tip: One of the most useful and insightful things you can start with is to install your own rain gauge, keep daily records, and compare to reports from surrounding areas. See the Weather & Climate section for more on this.
