In science news this week: Reclaiming the Sierra: California’s mercury legacy; Seasonal rain and snow trigger small earthquakes on California faults; Why the world’s rivers are losing sediment – and why it matters; Billion-dollar dams are making water shortages, not solving them; Dryland cropping systems research addresses future hunger and drought issues; and Eyes on Nature: How satellite imagery is transforming conservation science Reclaiming the Sierra: California’s mercury legacy: “Mercury has left a significant imprint on California’s environment as a result of historical mining.
An estimated 26 million pounds of mercury was used to extract gold from rock deposits in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and up to one third of that may have been lost to the environment.
… ” Read more from the FishBio blog here: Reclaiming the Sierra: California’s mercury legacy Seasonal rain and snow trigger small earthquakes on California faults: “California’s winter rains and snow depress the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, which then rebound during the summer, changing the stress on the state’s earthquake faults and causing seasonal upticks in small quakes, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley seismologists.
This loading and the summer rebound — the rise of the land after all the snow has melted and much of the water has flowed downhill — makes the earth’s crust flex, pushing and pulling on the state’s faults, including its largest, the San Andreas.
… ” Continue reading at Science Daily here: Seasonal rain and snow trigger small earthquakes on California faults Why the world’s rivers are losing sediment – and why it matters: “In September 2011, after 20 years of planning, workers began dismantling the Elwha and Glines dams on the Elwha River in northwestern Washington state.
… ” Read more from Yale 360 here: Why the world’s rivers are losing sediment – and why it matters Billion-dollar dams are making water shortages, not solving them: “Dams are supposed to collect water from rivers and redistribute it to alleviate water shortages, right?
… ” Read more from Science Daily here: Dryland cropping systems research addresses future hunger and drought issues Eyes on Nature: How satellite imagery is transforming conservation science: “As recently as the 1980s, gray seals were effectively extinct on Cape Cod.
… ” Read more from Yale 360 here: Eyes on Nature: How satellite imagery is transforming conservation science Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week … Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!
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About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included.

Drought hurts duck population in North Dakota.
The number of breeding ducks in North Dakota has dropped below 3 million for the first time in nearly a quarter century, and drought in parts of the state this summer could make matters even worse.
A state Game and Fish Department spring survey that gives hunters their first glimpse of how duck numbers might shape up for the fall hunt indicates about 2.95 million birds.
That’s a drop of 15 percent from last year and the first time since 1994 that the number dropped below 3 million.
Breeding duck numbers peaked at a record 5.4 million birds in 2002.
A lot of idled farmland has since been put back into production, however.
There was more water available to ducks in the state at the time of the May survey than there was last year, but that’s misleading because temporary and seasonal wetlands "were struggling to hang on," Szymanski said.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows all of North Dakota being either abnormally dry or in some stage of drought, with about 27 percent of the state in severe drought.
Even if the weather turns around, "it would help us out with the migration and staging ducks during the hunting season, but it’s a little late to turn anything around as far as reproduction," Szymanski said.
Historically speaking, the spring duck survey in North Dakota also is still 23 percent above the long-term average, a 69-year period that dates to 1948.

Northeastern Montana is nearing extreme drought as one of the state’s largest wheat-producing regions sees little rain.
Farmers across a 200-mile swath of the northeastern part of the state have seen just a half-inch of rain in the past two months.
This trend after scant winter snows has farmers from Jordan to Plentywood nervous about the 2017 harvest.
“It looks like August and September here already,” said Tanja Fransen, meteorologist for the National Weather Service station in Glasgow.
Rob Davis farms near Larslan in Valley County, which anchors a region where 45 percent of Montana’s spring wheat is grown.
This year that seems unlikely, Davis said.
Farmers who plant into untilled soil are seeing more moisture than they might have in past years.
But with little moisture in reserve, they’re living from rain cloud to rain cloud.
That’s not where northeastern Montana is currently, Fransen said.
Fransen said farmers need to report their weather conditions to their county extension office, the National Drought Mitigation Center or the Montana Drought Advisory Committee.

Drought, floods slash Sri Lanka’s rice production, threaten food security – U.N.. ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A severe drought followed by floods has slashed agricultural production in Sri Lanka, leaving some 900,000 people facing food insecurity, the United Nations said, warning that without help the situation might further deteriorate.
Production of rice, the country’s staple food, is forecast to drop almost 40 percent to 2.7 million tonnes in 2017, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report on Thursday.
Other crops including pulses, chillies and onion are also expected to take a blow, it said.
In May, the situation was exacerbated by the worst torrential rains in 14 years, which triggered floods and landslides in the country’s southwest, killing some 200 people and forcing many from their homes.
"The level of water in irrigation reservoirs is still well below the average," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Unable to grow their own crops, many families have to buy food at local markets where prices have spiked due to the crisis, it said.
FAO and WFP said seeds, equipment, irrigation support, and cash assistance are urgently needed to help farmers in the next planting season starting in September, and to prevent conditions from deteriorating.
"If (the planting season) fails the situation will worsen a lot for the families affected," Coslet said.
(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Alisa Tang.
Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience.

DICKINSON, N.D.—Burn bans and restrictions across North Dakota may likely prevent Fourth of July fireworks in some counties in the western part of the state.. More than half of the state has issued county or tribal burn restrictions, according to the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services website.
While some counties follow the daily fire danger rating to determine whether burn restrictions are in place that day, others have banned fireworks this year regardless.
Other counties, such as Hettinger and McKenzie County, have burn restrictions in place so that burning is not allowed when the rating is "high," "very high" and "extreme."
"Yes, there was rain received, but as far as blanketing the whole county and preventing from danger, we are not there," said Denise Brew, Dunn County emergency manager.
They were able to put it out without any major threat to homes or other structures.
Billings County Sheriff and Emergency Manager Pat Rummel said his county issued a burn ban on May 2 that follows the fire rating, so restrictions are in place when the rating exceeds "moderate."
When the rating reaches "high" or above, the ban stipulates: • No travel off surfaced roadways except as necessary for farmers, ranchers or industry operations • Industrial crews, farmers and ranchers need to have fire extinguishers and normal firefighting equipment at hand and remain on the site 30 minutes after operations are completed • Smoking is restricted to inside buildings or vehicles • Bans open burning including fireworks, garbage and pit burning and campfires Rummel also said he was concerned around the holiday that people would light off fireworks in more remote areas in the county, which would take fire departments longer to respond to.
McKenzie County Emergency Manager Karolin Jappe checks the fire index every morning to let people know whether the county’s burn restrictions are in place — a practice she will continue all summer.
After approval, the resident has 60 days to light a single fire on a day that permits burning, meaning when the rating is "moderate" or lower.
She asked that they call 911 immediately if they see smoke rather than attempting first to put it out themselves, noting it is better to get help on the way as quickly as possible just in case.

While the western side of the Dead Sea in Israel is well-studied.
"Now we are with our partners and colleagues from Columbia University to study and sample different water resources from the eastern part of the Dead Sea and besides that we are sampling rocks and different soil profiles to see any indicators of the paleoclimate which is the climate thousands of years ago to have a clear idea about what was the climate, what is the climate now, and then we can forecast the future climate of the Dead Sea area," says Marwan al-Raggad, a hydrologist at the University of Jordan.
"Our main objective is to study the climate in the area and to see how the climate affects the Dead Sea and for sure if the climate is affecting the Dead Sea it will affect the ecosystem it will affect the whole community of the area in the Middle East and Northern Africa areas that is contributing to the Dead Sea areas."
Roughly 80 percent of the Dead Sea’s water vanished in the last mega-drought, according to Goldstein, and the same amount is already gone from the watershed because of human activity.
Their findings have led them to believe that the water now used by Israel, Palestine, and Jordan from the Dead Sea watershed will likely disappear during the next mega-drought, a phenomenon predicted to happen this century by climate models.
What is PBA?
PBA is a distinct condition that can happen to people after they suffer from a traumatic brain injury or neurologic condition such as stroke.
It results in sudden, frequent and uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing that don’t match how a person feels.i It affects about two million people in the U.S. who suffer from common neurologic diseases or brain injury, and can affect men and women.ii Who is diagnosed with PBA?
While these conditions can often coexist—meaning some people can have both PBA and depression—both conditions are manageable and should be independently diagnosed.i When she was diagnosed, Dyanna felt relieved to finally have a name for the symptoms she was experiencing.
Talk to your doctor It is important for people who have had a stroke or who are living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, TBI, MS, Parkinson’s or ALS, or their loved ones, talk to the doctor if these symptoms are present, as it could be PBA, and ask if it can be managed.

Warming in the 21st century reduced Colorado River flows by at least 0.5 million acre-feet, about the amount of water used by 2 million people for one year, according to new research from the University of Arizona and Colorado State University.
From 2000-2014, the river’s flows declined to only 81 percent of the 20th-century average, a reduction of about 2.9 million acre-feet of water per year.
Current climate change models indicate temperatures will increase as long as humans continue to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but the projections of future precipitation are far less certain.
Previous research has shown the region’s risk of a megadrought — one lasting more than 20 years — rises as temperatures increase.
The two researchers wanted to provide water managers with insight into how future projections of temperature and precipitation for the Colorado River Basin would affect the river’s flows.
Udall and Overpeck began by looking at the drought years of 2000-2014.
To see how increased temperatures might contribute to the reductions in the river’s flow that have been observed since 2000, Udall and Overpeck reviewed and synthesized 25 years of research about how climate and climate change have and will affect the region and how temperature and precipitation affect the river’s flows.
Those researchers and others suggest the risk of a multidecadal drought in the Southwest in the 21st century is much higher than climate models indicate and that as temperatures increase, the risk of such a drought increases.
Udall and Overpeck found all current climate models agree that temperatures in the Colorado River Basin will continue rising if the emission of greenhouse gases is not curbed.
"Current planning understates the challenge that climate change poses to the water supplies in the American Southwest," Udall said.

North Dakota drought worrying crop and livestock producers.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A severe drought plaguing nearly a third of North Dakota is creating concerns for the state’s agriculture industry.
National Weather Service Hydrologist Allen Schlag told The Bismarck Tribune (http://bit.ly/2sATGTs ) that there’s no relief in the near future.
The situation is considered severe because of the near absence of rain since April, when crops went into the ground and alfalfa and grasses began reaching for moisture to continue growing.
Schlag said Bismarck recorded the fourth driest May in more than a century.
"In my career, this is the driest I’ve seen — the longest time without rain in a growing season," said Chad Weckerly, a crop producer.
It’s so dry, the weeds won’t grow."
Crop producer Stan Blickensderfer said he’s selling his winter wheat for livestock feed, and a pair of cattle producers said they’re glad to get it because their pastures don’t look like they’ll end up supporting grazing into fall.
"It’s deteriorating fast.
"In a few weeks without rain, there’ll be no harvest, and we’ll be dependent on crop insurance."

Projected global warming will likely decrease the extent of temperate drylands by a third over the remainder of the 21st century coupled with an increase in dry deep soil conditions during agricultural growing season.
All of this to simulate the current climate as well as 16 possible future climates.
The variety of possible future climates gave pretty consistent outcomes, lending credibility to the results," says Professor Scott Wilson, visiting researcher at Umeå University and researcher within CIRC.
As the global climate warms this expansion will likely continue.
The certainty of the forecasts is particularly important as warming leads to shifts from temperate to subtropical drylands, which leads to changes in precipitation and soil moisture, which in turn has profound effects on ecological services, provided to humanity, including the viability of certain temperate agricultural systems.
This uncertainty is changing because of improved supercomputer modelling of the movement of water through ecosystems, based on 20,000 locations around the world.
The results suggest that climate change will convert much of the area currently occupied by temperate grasslands and deserts to subtropical vegetation with effects on associated wildlife and human populations.
The impacts can have large consequences for humanity.
"Further, these subtropical drylands are home to aggressive diseases such as dengue and schistosomiasis.
Given the predicted changes to dryland habitats globally, the outcome of this research is essential for developing strategies for adaptation by policy makers."

CHICO, Calif. — The crushing drought and a price slide for several key commodities paused a nearly decade-long boom for agriculture in northeastern California, a university study shows.
Agricultural production in a 13-county region from Sacramento to the Oregon border was worth about $4.2 billion in 2015, up 62 percent from 2006 but down by nearly 9 percent from the previous year, according to a study by California State University-Chico agricultural business professor Eric Houk.
It was the first time since 2009 that the region saw a decline in the value of agricultural production, and it came primarily because of decreased prices rather than a drop in production, Houk stated in his report.
Colusa County had the highest value of production two years ago at $901.8 million.
Walnut growers experienced their first protracted price slide in years, as the average price per pound to the grower dropped from $2.05 in 2013 to about 85 cents.
Almond prices began receding in 2015 as the crop outperformed expectations and shook the world markets.
Agriculture accounted for 18 percent of all economic activity in the region two years ago, down from 21 percent in 2014 but up from 17 percent in 2013, Houk’s report noted.
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