Other (Approved for Public)

Approved DataSets

Alternative Management Paradigms for the Future of the Colorado and Green Rivers

Our ability to sustainably manage the Colorado River is clearly in doubt. The Bureau of Reclamation’s 2012 Water Supply and Demand Study demonstrated the precarious balance that currently exists between water supply and the amount consumptively used by society. A future with either declining water supplies or additional consumptive uses will undoubtedly upset this balance. This balance is threatened, because: • Climate change science predicts that watershed runoff will decline due to increased evapotranspiration from rising temperatures; and • Water users, especially in the Upper Basin, aspire to increase consumptive uses by developing new projects. This white paper describes how declining runoff and increased consumptive...

Colorado State University

Colorado State University (CSU) is a land grant institution and leader in research, service, education, and extension. CSU SW CASC co-PIs have connections with the Warner College of Natural Resources (WCNR) and the Colorado Water Institute. They have strong relationships with Southwest federal, state, and municipal water managers, and a long history of collaboration with agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation. CSU’s Colorado Climate Center is a strong center for citizen-science programs (e.g., CoCoRaHS monitoring network) and CSU houses the nationally top-ranked Department of Atmospheric Science and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. CSU co-PI Erica Fleishman is leading the Recent...

Approved Products

Fingerprinting historical tributary contributions to floodplain sediment using bulk geochemistry

Highlights Multiple fingerprints built using four-part conservativeness tests and random forest. Floodplain sediment on which extensive cottonwood groves established dates to 1912. The source for ∼85% of this sediment are tributaries that were eroding at that time. Random forest can improve tracer selection in fingerprinting approaches. Findings underscore the major role of tributaries in the dynamics of large rivers. Abstract Sediment deposition on floodplains is essential for the development and maintenance of riparian ecosystems. Upstream erosion is known to influence downstream floodplain construction, but linking these disparate processes is challenging, especially over large spatial and temporal scales....

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