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Tag: drought

  • 3 [more?] Surprising Ways Water Depends on Healthy Forests

    3 [more?] Surprising Ways Water Depends on Healthy Forests

    Healthy forests are critical to providing clean water. Forests can positively impact the quantity, quality and filtration costs associated with a city’s water, sometimes even reducing the need for costly concrete and steel infrastructure. The world’s major watersheds lost 6 percent of their tree cover on average from 2000-2014. Today, about 31 percent of the…

  • Water use rises as drought restrictions fade from memory

    Water use rises as drought restrictions fade from memory

    In the months after Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to California’s five-year drought, water use in the state has risen, though not as much as it was before the dry spell took hold. But as California emerges from a second straight summer of increased water use, experts say those savings — no longer mandated…

  • Plant roots go to extreme lengths to find water

    Plant roots go to extreme lengths to find water

    Understanding how plants will survive and adapt to climate change is crucial as they provide oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. A new study from Rutgers University-New Brunswick set to find how resilient plants are by looking at the roots and how deep they travel to find water. The research revealed that some trees will…

  • Large algae bloom forms on Lake Okeechobee, could repeat 2016

    Large algae bloom forms on Lake Okeechobee, could repeat 2016

    (Above) A diagram from 2016 shows water flow in South Florida. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post) Florida’s freshwater heart is choking on nutrient-laden inflows from the north, south and east this summer, but Treasure Coast waterways have so far been spared the damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges that seeded 2016’s widespread algae bloom. In…

  • Florida city to alleviate water shortage with Israeli technology

    Hoping to help curb the severe drought that has overtaken South Florida in recent years, the suburb of Miami Gardens is partnering with an Israeli company that generates water from thin air. Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver G. Gilbert III announced the beginning of a pilot program on Monday that will demonstrate the use of the…