May 18, 2009

For more newsletters, visit the H₂OSU index: http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.

Tardiness: It’s DC’s Fault. This newsletter is about one week overdue, through no fault of H₂OSU editor Maria Wright. I told her I was running behind and would provide it to her by 18 May. As it stands, I am writing the bulk of this on a nonstop flight to PDX from Washington-Dulles. Had something else besides Paul Blart: Mall Cop been the featured in-flight motion picture, this newsletter might have been even further delayed.

I was in DC for the inaugural meeting of the NRC committee to assess the Cycle 3 (third decade) plan for the USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. It is hard to believe the NAWQA program will soon enter its third decade. This will be my third such NRC NAWQA evaluation committee. My OSU colleague Jennifer Field also serves.

Downtown Washington looked good to me in the sense that signs of the economic slowdown did not seem all that evident. But the indicators were quite different near Dulles Airport. My sister and brother-in-law live south of Dulles a few miles from sprawling office complexes. I’ve bicycled through the area for over fifteen years, watching it grow inexorably westward into Loudon County. I’ve never seen so many large buildings for sale, lease, or just plain empty/unfinished.

‘Unquenchable’. Robert Glennon of the University of Arizona’s College of Law is well-known to many of H₂OSU’s readers. In 2002 he wrote the excellent Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters and since then has amused and educated audiences all over the USA with his oral presentation based on that book. Don’t ever miss a chance to hear him. He spoke at OSU in October 2006 and also at one of the Skamania Lodge conferences a few years ago. His new book, recently released, takes up where Water Follies left off. It’s titled, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It. I am about a quarter of the way through it and as I suspected, Robert has not let me down. I should have it finished in time for the June newsletter, and I am curious to see what kind of solutions he offers. I have a good idea.  

NGWA Ground Water Summit and the UA Third Ephemeral H&WR Reunion. The recent Ground Water Summit in Tucson lived up to its expectations. One of the highlights was an informal evening session hosted by Mike Barcelona of Western Michigan University that featured a gaggle of the world’s greatest groundwater scientists opining on where groundwater hydrology has been, where it might be going, and any other comments they wished to make. The group consisted of Mary Anderson (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Shlomo Neuman (University of Arizona), Emil Frind (University of Waterloo), Robert Gillham (University of Waterloo), Frank Schwartz (The Ohio State University), Lenny Konikow (USGS), Mary Hill (USGS), M. Ramón Llamas (M. Botín Foundation), and Stavros Papadopulous (S.S. Papadopulous and Associates). One maven's advice: "Get up and get moving - find some interesting problems! Cherry-pick good problems, let someone else cherry-pick bad problems." You can read more of what they said.

One session moderated by Kathy Jacobs of the Arizona Water Institute featured three prominent Southwestern water managers from the Central Arizona Project, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District of SoCal. All three gentlemen gave good talks about what the future will likely hold and how they plan to meet the needs of the still-growing Southwest and SoCal. The SNWA speaker announced that Lake Mead’s level would drop below 1100 feet above mean sea level by early May for the first time since Lake Powell started to fill in the mid 1960s. It is now below that level. What was noticeably lacking was much mention of the SNWA;s controversial scheme to pump rural Nevada groundwater, although the speaker was the head of the groundwater division. He did mention that the Las Vegas metropolitan area is projected to have about 3.6M residents by 2035, almost double the current population. I do applaud the speakers for tackling a difficult subject but I must admit I did not entirely buy what they said in terms of water availability.

In conjunction with the Summit we held the Third Ephemeral Reunion of the U of AZ’s Department of Hydrology and Water Resources. I think I came in second place for the ‘oldest alumnus present’ award. There were only four of us from ‘my generation’: myself, Dan Stephens, Dave Kreamer, and Don Young. Only a few people noticed my ‘Jay Lehr’ name badge and realized that I was not the nation’s first PhD in hydrology. But we all had a great time, and were grateful to Tom Meixner. Tom Maddock, and the graduate students for their efforts.

AWRA’s  Managing Water Resources and Development in a Changing Climate Conference.Close to 300 people traveled to Anchorage in early May to attend the aforementioned conference organized by Michael Lilly and Horacio Toniolo. AWRA hosted a similar meeting in 1999, so this one was a good barometer of what has happened in the past ten years. Suffice it so say that the news is not good, as the very high latitude regions are some of the hardest hit by climate change and its impacts. I found discussion of the efforts by indigenous peoples to cope with and address climate change impacts to be very enlightening. They have formed networks involving many groups, not just those in the high northern latitudes.

You might want to watch the AWRA WWW site and blog for access to podcasts and presentations, which should be up by the end of June.

‘Elle’ and ‘Seed’ . Elizabeth Royte, author of Bottlemania and Garbage Land, interviewed me several months ago for a story she was writing on world water for Elle. I’m not sure I had ever looked inside that magazine but I did for the May 2009 issue. Elizabeth’s article ‘Tapped Out’ appeared there, and I am indirectly quoted. I made some remarks about the nature of Elle’s readers at the Summit and found out that more people in the hydrogeological community read it than I had previously imagined. You can read the article, if you dare.

Elizabeth also recommended me to Seed magazine as a prospective essayist on the likelihood of future water wars (it pays to hang around Aaron Wolf). Seven of us were selected, and I am in very good company: Peter Gleick, Sandra Postel, Mark Zeitoun, David Hatton, Tobias Siegfried, and Fred Pearce. You can read Maywa Montenegro’s story.

I began my essay with this wonderful quote: “I think water hits us at a profoundly different level than other resources. People are willing to do horrible things to each other. What they seem not willing to do is turn off each other’s water.” —Aaron Wolf

Tri-County Water Meetings. The three counties occupying the Upper Willamette River watershed – Benton, Lane, and Linn – are exploring the region’s water future and how they can best address what lies ahead. The outcome of these meetings is unclear at this point but it’s a good sign that a regional dialogue is occurring. OWRD has also been sitting in on these meetings offering their support.

Oregon Water Resources Department: Will These Cuts Heal? Speaking of OWRD, I heard several weeks ago that the state’s budget woes could dictate a worst-case scenario of a 30% reduction in OWRD’s FTEs (full-time equivalents). That would be something like 45 FTEs. I must admit that I have not kept abreast of the Salem deliberations so I do not know whether this much of a reduction is still on the table. Suffice it to say that the loss of so many positions would be disastrous for OWRD and the state’s citizens. Let’s hope for better news in June.

Till next month,

Michael

"Theses are for professors, briefings are for policy people, bumper stickers are for politicians."
- Margaret Catley-Carlson, former Chair, Global Water Partnership

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To Jeff McDonnell, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management. This spring Jeff received the 2009 John Dalton Medal from the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and also received the title of OSU Distinguished Professor of Hydrology. The Dalton Medal was established by the EGU Division on Hydrological Sciences in recognition of the scientific achievements of John Dalton, one of the fathers of hydrology. The title of distinguished professor is "the highest designation and academic honor that OSU bestows on its faculty and recognizes individuals who have achieved national and/or international stature in their fields of specialization".

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The Truth About Water Wars (SeedMagazine.com, 5/14/09) - Seven experts debate the past and present existence of water wars, consider the difficulty of owning a fluid resource, and examine the hot spots for future conflict. The article includes an opinion written by Michael Campana.

Grant to help locate abandoned wells (Corvallis Gazette-Times, 5/12/09) - Benton County and Linn-Benton Community College will assess local abandoned wells in Linn and Benton counties using a $22,000 grant from the Institute for Water and Watersheds, U.S. Geological Survey Small Grants Program.

OSU to Offer Nation’s First Online Fisheries Management Certificate (OSU News and Communications Services, 4/27/09) – This fall, Oregon State University will launch what educators say may be the first comprehensive online graduate certificate program in fisheries management in the world. Some universities offer full-time graduate programs or one-term study programs, but there is a “serious curriculum gap” in the field – with little opportunity for professional fisheries managers to get graduate level training while still working, says Michael Harte, an OSU professor who coordinates the program.

Oregon water demand opens door to special interests (Oregonian, 4/27/09) - The state's water cutbacks weren't creating a modern Dust Bowl. "It hasn't turned off a farm," said Don Horneck, an agronomist with the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Oregon's water issues run deep (Oregonian, 4/26/09) - In a state that boasts about webbed feet, access to water is increasingly contested. The state estimates that in the coming years, demand will grow by 1.2 million acre-feet; we use about 9 million acre-feet now. Whoever controls the limited supply will control new housing and industry and how farming expands. In summer, every gallon of water in every stream is already claimed. Aquifers, vast underground reservoirs, are proving a less reliable source for wells, and no one's sure how much water is there. "Every time we turn on a pump, we mine a certain amount of water," said Todd Jarvis, associate director of Oregon State University's Institute for Water and Watersheds.

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Cody Hale in the field.

As a PhD student in the Water Resources Science program, Cody Hale's research strives to understand and predict hydrologic response to land-use change.  His dissertation investigates the links between forest harvesting, subsurface storage, and streamflow at the Alsea Watershed Study Revisited in the Oregon Coast Range. Cody is using water isotopes and geochemistry, along with hydrometric measurements, to trace the sources and flowpaths of water moving through his research watersheds.  He is particularly interested in understanding the role bedrock groundwater plays in streamflow generation for upland, headwater catchments.  With an improved characterization of the local hydrology, he hopes to learn how forest vegetation influences streamflow based on landscape position and geomorphology.  His findings could lead to better management by identifying areas that might be most sensitive to forest harvesting.

The Alsea Watershed Study Revisited, along with the Hinkle Creek Paired Watershed Study (Cascades) and the Trask River Watershed Study (North Coast), comprise the Watershed Research Cooperative (WRC) - a collaboration between OSU researchers, forest landowners and managers, and federal, state, and local government agencies.  The WRC studies investigate physical, chemical, and biological responses to contemporary forest harvesting practices.  Cody’s work compliments these objectives by exposing the underlying processes responsible for the hydrologic changes driven by forest harvesting.

Prior to his arrival at OSU, Cody worked on a variety of water-related projects as a hydrologist for an environmental consulting firm.  During that time, he observed firsthand how improving hydrologic predictions could benefit land management decisions.  He hopes that his research will contribute to a better understanding of the hydrology of headwater catchments and, ultimately, improve the capability of predicting how these systems respond to forest harvesting.

Cody's dissertation advisor is Jeff McDonnell. For more information about Cody’s research, please contact him.

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IWW notes. Todd Jarvis, IWW Associate Director, did a lot of traveling this month! He was invited to speak on the Geopolitics of Groundwater at "The Currents of Power: Water and the New World Order" sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Studies at the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen, and the Nile Basin Research Programme located in Bergen, Norway. The workshop is part of the Understanding the Role of Water in History and Development. The hosts also provided a one day tour of the famous Norwegian fjords.  Watch Todd's four minute video of the experience. Todd was also invited to speak at a one-day course on Utah's Professional Geologist Licensing Act sponsored by the AEG Intermountain Section and the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, Board of Professional Geologists. His talk entitled "Fuzzy Lines and Phantasmagorias in Geoethics" focused on the ever changing landscape of professional ethics for geoscientists practicing in a global economy.

OSU will host Latin American and Carribean Students. This summer, OSU will host 23 undergraduates from Central American and Caribbean countries for an environmental studies institute. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and involves faculty from the Institute for Water and Watersheds, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering and Public Health. The institute will focus on water resources and will involve classroom studies and field trips and will end with a visit to Washington, D.C.

H₂OSU micro-hydro feature follow up. Last month's H₂OSU's featured researcher Jennifer Holderman, a water resources science student, had a chance to travel to Vancouver, BC at the end of April to participate in Small Hydro 2009, a 2-day conference exploring micro scale and small scale hydropower.  This event featured a group of international speakers discussing all aspects of small hydropower development, including environmental policy, project management, legal questions, turbine technology, and civil engineering.  This wide range of topics attracted an equally wide range of participants.  Representatives from industry, academia, the private sector, and government were in attendance providing varied perspectives and fascinating conversation.  Overall speakers and participants were interested in promoting the common goal of developing small and micro scale projects that allow fish passage, provide power to remote locations and reducing carbon foot prints. Jennifer was able to participate in this unique event thanks to the generous support of Mrs. Esther M. Rada and Todd Jarvis. Jennifer is the first joint J.D./M.S. student in water resources and is focusing on the legal and scientific aspects of micro-hydro.

Transboundary waters partnership launches a newsletter. Oregon State University belongs to a group called The Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters (UPTW), a consortium of 17 universities on six continents who have substantial expertise in transboundary waters. The group issued its first newsletter this month. Each edition will highlight activities of the UPTW and provide an overview of related programs at one of the partner universities. In related matters, Todd Jarvis was recently appointed as the chair of the Transboundary Ground Water Interest Group (TBGW IG) of the National Ground Water Association.  He also serves as the editor of TBGW IG newsletter "Stygoscape" which is dedicated strictly to transboundary groundwater issues.

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Wednesday, May 20, 4:30 p.m., Owen Hall. Where Water is Gold (Hydrophiles Spring Water Resources Seminar Series: Impending Water Crises and Solutions). Speaker: Steve Parrett, Senior Project Manager, Oregon Water Trust. FMI: julie.bain@oregonstate.edu.

Thursday, May 21, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Seattle, Wa. EPA Hearing. One of only two public hearings in the nation on EPA’s proposed finding that global warming pollution is a threat to public health and welfare.

Thursday, May 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. La Sells Stewart Center. Seminar #4: Protection Strategies (part of series of seminar on Managing Ecosystems for Change). This seminar explores how habitat and species can be protected given the dynamic nature of change in “protected” areas. Topics include wolf reintroduction, eastern Oregon fire mosaics, the future of old growth reserve management, Willamette Valley prairie species and more. Sponsored by INR, ODF and ODEQ. To RSVP or FMI contact james.johnston@oregonstate.edu.

Tuesday, May 26, 4 p.m., Wilkinson Hall. From Stream to Tap: How a Geography Graduate Thrives at a Local Utility (Geography Spring Seminar Series: Resource Use and Conservation in Practice). Speaker: Kristel Fesler, Water Resource Technician, City of Hillsboro. FMI: schultes@geo.oregonstate.edu.

Wednesday, May 27, 4:30 p.m., Owen Hall. Water in a Warming West: How Will Western Water Policy Respond to Climate Change? (Hydrophiles Spring Water Resources Seminar Series: Impending Water Crises and Solutions) Speaker: Sarah Bates, Senior Fellow, Public Policy Research Institute, University of Montana. FMI: julie.bain@oregonstate.edu.

Thursday, May 28, 12:00-1:30 p.m., Student Lounge, Gilmore Hall. Water Resources Graduate Program Awards. FMI: Mary Santelmann.

Thursday, May 28, 6:00 p.m., Maple Grove Shelter, Avery Park, Corvallis. Hydrophiles Spring BBQ. Please bring ideas and announcements to share, officer nominations, and the suggested annual dues ($10/student, $20/faculty & alumni). FMI: zarnetsj@geo.oregonstate.edu.

Sunday, June 7 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Stops along Oak Creek ending at Reser Stadium, Corvallis. Oak Creek: Forests, Farms and Football - Tour and Festival. This is the 2nd annual Urban Creek Tour. Last year, over 70 people attended the tour featuring Dixon Creek. This year, participants will visit selected sites along Oak Creek from near headwaters in the McDonald Forest to mouth at Marys River. New this year - a "Water Festival" will provide interactive activities to raise awareness about the impact of humans on urban creeks. Please RSVP to Teresa and let her know whether you will join the bike group or carpool. FMI: Taylor Bortz, Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, 541-753-7208, tbortz@bentonswcd.org.

Monday, June 8 - Tuesday, June 9, LaSells Stewart Center, OSU. 2009 Isotope Hydrology and Bio-Geochemistry Workshop. This short course will focus on the teaching the fundamentals of isotope hydrology and biogeochemistry, providing case studies from local researchers, instrument demonstrations, and an optional hands-on computer modeling opportunity. The workshop is jointly sponsored by the USGS, Oregon State University Water Resources Graduate Program, and the CUAHSI-Hydrologic Measurement Facility.

Monday, June 15 - Friday, June 18. 205 Women's Building. Special Course: Water Governance and Conflict Management. course offers an opportunity for water resources professionals and graduate students to learn about current and leading-edge ways to work effectively in contentious water situations. It explores conflict tolerance, prevention, management, and transformation through collaborative structures as well as through models of negotiation and dialogue. Participants can choose to receive three (3) Oregon State University graduate credits or Continuing Education Credits. FMI: Lynette de Silva, desilval@geo.oregonstate.edu.

Read about more upcoming events on the IWW's calendar.

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Scholarships to attend the Gordon Research Conference: Thresholds, Tipping Points, And Non-Linearity: Integrated Catchment Science For The 21st Century. Limited funding to help defray conference fees and/or some travel costs is available for students, post-docs and other young professionals through a grant from NSF.  All applicants must be accepted and registered for the conference and must also submit a brief proposal to the Chair including:  (1) a poster abstract and (2) a brief statement describing why he/she is eligible for an award.  Funding decisions will be made in early June. Contact Keith N. Eshleman, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, eshleman@al.umces.edu, for more information. Deadline to apply is May 30, 2009.

Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Grants. For projects that further the Lindberghs' vision of a balance between the advance of technology and the preservation of the natural/ human environment. Lindbergh Grants are made in the following categories: (1) agriculture; (2) aviation/aerospace; (3) conservation of natural resources, including animals, plants, water, and general conservation (land, air, energy, etc.); (4) education, including humanities/education, the arts, and intercultural communication; (5) exploration; (6) health, including biomedical research, health and population sciences, and adaptive technology; and (7) waste minimization and management. Grants are awarded for up to $10,580 each (the cost of building the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927). Applications due June 11, 2009.

Stapp Scholarship to attend the North American Association for Environmental Education Meeting - The conference will be held October 7-10, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To be eligible for a scholarship you must be a full time junior, senior or graduate student at the time of the conference. Applications due: June 12, 2009.

NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (EAR-PF).The Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) awards Postdoctoral Fellowships to highly qualified investigators within 3 years of obtaining their PhD to carry out an integrated program of independent research and education. The research and education plans of each fellowship must address scientific questions within the scope of EAR disciplines. The program supports researchers for a period of up to 2 years with fellowships that can be taken to the institution or national facility of their choice. The program is intended to recognize beginning investigators of significant potential, and provide them with experience in research and education that will establish them in leadership positions in the Earth Sciences community. Because the fellowships are offered only to postdoctoral scientists early in their career, doctoral advisors are encouraged to discuss the availability of EAR fellowships with their graduate students early in their doctoral programs. Fellowships are awards to individuals, not institutions, and are administered by the Fellows. Proposals due July 1, 2009.

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(listed by due date)

29 June 2009. NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences - Research Coordination Networks in Biological Sciences (RCN).

Description: The goal of this program is to encourage and foster interactions among scientists to create new research directions or advance a field. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies are especially encouraged. Groups of investigators will be supported to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographical boundaries. The proposed networking activities should have a theme as a focus of its collaboration. The focus could be on a broad research question, a specific group of organisms, or particular technologies or approaches.

Preproposal due: 30 June 2009. NASA NSPIRES ROSES New Investigator Program in Earth Science (Full Proposal due: 31 August 2009).

Description: All NIP proposals must contain both a research element that addresses one of the topical areas identified below, as well as a significant program of education and public outreach (E/PO) activities and/or interdisciplinary endeavors from which the community of practitioners in Earth, space, and environmental sciences can benefit. The research Focus Areas appropriate for the NIP are: Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Climate Variability and Change, Water and Energy Cycle, Atmospheric Composition, Weather, and Earth Surface and Interior.
Funding Details: $80-$120K per year for a period of up to three years.

1 July 2009. USDA CSREES Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program: Conservation Effects Assessment Project.

Description: FY 2009 Program Priorities include: " Developing case studies at intensively monitored watersheds suitable for investigating the effectiveness of multiple conservation practices in solving watershed health problems related to grazing land use at the watershed scale. " Applying an appropriate range of quantitative interpretive techniques and geographically-based methods, including physical, statistical, and landscape modeling methods to the analysis of the effects of grazing land conservation practices. " Expanding knowledge on the watershed health of grazing land watersheds to better inform decision-making for and management of grazing land watersheds.
Funding Details: Up to $660k, 28% of proposals funded last year.

8 July 2009. NSF Earth Sciences: Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF).

Description: Supports meritorious requests within and across Earth science disciplines. EAR/IF will consider proposals for: 1) Acquisition or Upgrade of Research Equipment; 2) Development of New Instrumentation, Analytical Techniques or Software ; 3) Support of National or Regional Multi-User Facilities; 4) Support of Research Technicians; (5) Development of Cyberinfrastructure for the Earth Sciences (Geoinformatics). Planned research uses of requested instruments must include basic research on solid-Earth and surface-Earth processes.
Funding Details: Contact NSF if more than $500K.

9 July 2009. NSF Biological Sciences - Ecosystem Science Cluster - Ecosystem Studies Program.

Description: Supports investigations of whole-system ecological processes and relationships in ecosystems across a diversity of spatial and temporal (including paleo) scales. Proposals may focus on areas such as: biogeochemistry; decomposition of organic matter; belowground nutrient cycling and energy flow; primary productivity; radiatively active gas flux; element budgets on watershed, regional, continental, or global scales; relationships between diversity and ecosystem function; ecosystem services; and landscape dynamics. Inter- and multi-disciplinary proposals that fall across traditional programmatic boundaries are welcomed and encouraged.

9 July 2009. NSF Ecological Biology.

Description: The Ecology Program supports studies of interspecific interactions and species diversity at diverse spatial and temporal scales. These include, but are not limited to, (1) food-web structure and trophic dynamics, (2) biotic interactions, including mutualism, competition, predation and parasitism, (3) mechanisms of coexistence, community assembly and the maintenance of species diversity, (4) co-evolution and (5) landscape ecology, habitat fragmentation and macroecology. Ecology particularly encourages studies that can be applied to a wide range of habitats and taxa across multiple scales.

9 July 2009. NSF Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis (OPUS).

Description: hree clusters within the Division of Environmental Biology (the Ecological Biology, Ecosystem Science, and the Population and Evolutionary Processes clusters) encourage the submission of proposals aimed at synthesizing a body of related research projects conducted by a single individual or group of investigators over an extended period. OPUS proposals will often be appropriately submitted in mid-to-late career, but will also be appropriate early enough in a career to produce unique, integrated insight useful both to the scientific community and to the development of the investigator's future work. In cases where multiple scientists have worked collaboratively, an OPUS award will provide support for collaboration on a synthesis. OPUS awards will facilitate critical synthesis, and do so in a way that will acknowledge the prestige of this important component of scientific scholarship.

Preproposal due: 10 July 2009. NASA NSPIRES ROSES Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science, Solicitation: NNH09ZDA001N-IDS (Full Proposal due: 10 September 2009).

Description: The purpose of this solicitation is to (1) exploit the vast wealth of new data from NASA satellite sensors (as well as related non-NASA sensors) relevant to interdisciplinary research on interactions among components of the Earth system; (2) promote interdisciplinary research in topic areas of continued interest, particularly those identified as emerging science areas in the Strategic Plan of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the CCSP Revised Research Plan for the U. S. Climate Change Science Program, and the U.S. Ocean Action Plan; and (3) pursue innovative interdisciplinary research in new topical areas. NASA is very interested in studies that cross the traditional boundaries between analysis of the physical science basis for Earth system change (e.g., as is the focus of IPCC Working Group I) and analysis of impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change (e.g., as is the focus of IPCC Working Group II). The specific scientific topics and questions identified by the subelements below are the priorities for this solicitation. Subelement 1: Integrated Earth System Responses to Extreme Disturbances; Subelement 2: Impacts of Varying or Changing Climate, Local Weather, and Land Use on Watersheds and their Connected Coastal Environments; Subelement 3: Hydrologic, Biological, Biogeochemical, and Geological Impacts of Melting Ice; Subelement 4: Sea Level Change; Subelement 5: Water and Energy Cycle Impacts of Biomass Burning.
Funding Details: Total program budget $20M, 20 3-year awards anticipated.

14 July 2009. Decision Making Under Uncertainty Collaborative Groups (DMUU).

Description: The Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU) collaborative groups competition offers awards to support teams of researchers who will advance fundamental understanding of decision making under uncertainty for climate change and related long-term environmental risks. The focus of these collaborative groups will be to generate fundamental new knowledge as well as information and tools that decision makers will find useful to help them incorporate climate change and related long-term environmental risks in their decision making. The focus of these collaborative groups should be to provide new knowledge about how public officials, firms in the private sector, other groups, and/or individuals can incorporate existing knowledge about climate change and related long-term environmental risks into their decisions. In addition to generating societally useful information and tools, DMUU collaborative groups should enhance basic understanding within and across the social and behavioral sciences as well as related science and engineering disciplines.

16 July 2009. NSF Division of Earth Sciences - Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry Program.

Description: This program encourages studies of 1) the interactions between biological and geological systems at all scales of space and time; 2) geomicrobiology and biomineralization processes; 3) the role of life in the evolution of the Earth's system; 4) inorganic and organic geochemical processes occurring at or near the earth's surface now and in the past, and at the broad spectrum of interfaces ranging in scale from planetary and regional to mineral-surface and supramolecular; 5) mineralogy and chemistry of soils and sediments; 6) surficial chemical and biogeochemical systems and cycles and their modification through natural and anthropogenic change; and 7) development of tools, methods, and models for low-temperature geochemistry and geobiological research. GG facilitates cross-disciplinary efforts to harness new bioanalytical tools - such as those emerging from molecular biology - in the study of the terrestrial environment.

16 July 2009. NSF Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics.

Description: This program supports innovative research into processes that shape and modify landscapes over a variety of length and time scales. The program encourages research that investigates quantitatively the coupling and feedback between such processes, their rates, and their relative roles, especially in the contexts of variation in climatic and tectonic forcings and in light of changes due to human impact.

21 July 2009. NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program.

Description: This program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the NSF's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply. PECASE: Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious new CAREER awardees.

A list of additional water-related external funding opportunities is available on the IWW Web site.

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H₂OSU is a periodic e-mail news briefing provided by the Institute for Water and Watersheds. It is distributed primarily through the OSU Hydro Email lists and The Oregon Water List and the Web. Questions, comments and ideas for news briefs may be sent to the IWW at iww@oregonstate.edu. Past newsletters can be viewed at: http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/index.htm.