Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a research center that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
AI can help forecast toxic ‘blue-green tides’
A team of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists plan to use artificial intelligence modeling to forecast, and better understand, a growing threat to water caused by toxic algal blooms. Fueled by climate change and rising water temperatures, these harmful algal blooms, or HABs, have grown in intensity and frequency. They have now been reported in […]
Arctic permafrost runoff driven by climate change
Rising temperatures and changes in precipitation are driving increases to streamflow in areas of high-latitude North America where permafrost dominates the landscape. "We saw long-term trends of increasing streamflows in the Arctic that reflect how deeper layers of the permafrost are thawing and releasing water," said Katrina Bennett, a hydrologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead […]
Arctic temperatures are increasing four times faster than global warming
A new analysis of observed temperatures shows the Arctic is heating up more than four times faster than the rate of global warming. The trend has stepped upward steeply twice in the last 50 years, a finding missed by all but four of 39 climate models. "Thirty years is considered the minimum to represent climate […]
Colorado River basin due for more frequent, intense hydroclimate events
In the vast Colorado River basin, climate change is driving extreme, interconnected events among earth-system elements such as weather and water. These events are becoming both more frequent and more intense and are best studied together, rather than in isolation, according to new research. "We found that concurrent extreme hydroclimate events, such as high temperatures […]
Drought impact study shows new issues for plants and carbon dioxide
Extreme drought’s impact on plants will become more dominant under future climate change, as noted in a paper out in the journal Nature Climate Change. Analysis shows that not only will droughts become more frequent under future climates, but more of those events will be extreme, adding to the reduction of plant production essential to human and […]