UMass students study local climate

SOUTH DEERFIELD- Geoscience students at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst took their class outside last Wednesday to conduct a hydrology experiment.

Led by Professor David Boutt, the class prepared their experiment in the Crop Research and Education Center in South Deerfield, next to the Connecticut River.

“Today we have been doing a ‘stress test’ where we remove water out of the ground and measure how the system responds,” Boutt explains.

“Whenever you pop a well next to a river, you will be drawing the river flow into the well. It is a nice site because the wells are shallow enough for us to do the experiment well.”

Mark O’Malley, an UMass student majoring in earth systems explained the importance of such experiments.

“If we are taking water out of here to use for drinking or to water the crops, this experiment will let us know how much water we can take out without damaging the surrounding areas.”

In addition, hydrology can also be used to measure climate change.

Timothy Randhir, an associate Professor of Natural Resources Conservation at UMass, has been researching climate change on the Connecticut River.

“Hydrological processes could be used as a mechanism to understand the before and after changes,” Randhir explained. It can allow scientist to document the shifting temperatures from climate change.

Randhir’s research was sparked off by the desire to localise climate change and create better understanding.

“My research attempted to downscale the global predictions. We get a lot of abstract talk about global climate change but it always comes back to ‘how is my water supply going to be affected’ and that is an important question.”

Randhir’s research took global data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and combined it with his research in order to focus on the Connecticut River fluctuations.

The 2007 IPCC synthesis report says, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.”

Global Green house gas emissions (as a result of human activities) have increased by 70% between 1970 and 2004, according to this report.

Using this system, Randhir predicts the Connecticut River is going to see both quantity and quality changes to the water flow.

“The seasonal patterns will change. There will be more winter runoffs and more evaporation and transpiration in summer,” Randhir explained. Runoff is very important because we are dependent on it for water supply and river flow. Rivers and reservoirs rely on it.”

As well as water supply, lack of runoff in summer can lead to pollution concentration and consequently affect aquatic life.

Randhir wants his research to relate better with the general public and in turn, prompt lifestyle change.

“We need to maintain open space and have serious water conservation in the summer months, Randhir suggests. Towns could put pricing restrictions on water as an incentive measure to encourage people to conserve.”

Hydrology is one way to capture the rising and fluctuating temperatures through water measurements.

Randhir research puts climate change into chilling perspective. An increase in temperature by half a degree can now trigger huge shifts in wildlife and water levels.

Photo of: Mark O’Malley (Picture Credit Chris Cuffe)
Video Credit: Chris Cuffe
Audio Credit: Ryan Damon
Article Credit: Pamela Lawn