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Using water flow sensors and plastic “leaves” that sense wetness, UC Berkeley biologists have discovered that trees living in tropical mountaintop cloud forests drink through their leaves as well as their roots. Todd Dawson and Greg Goldsmith of integrative biology note, however, that studies show that the clouds are disappearing because of climate change.
Tag: water
Floating robots use GPS-enabled smartphones to track water flow
May 9, 2012:
A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River on May 9, in a field test organized by UC Berkeley engineers. The devices, equipped with GPS-enabled smartphones, demonstrated the next generation of water-monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies track one of the state’s most precious resources.
Tyrone Hayes premieres in new documentary on coming water crisis
May 8, 2012:
Integrative biology professor Tyrone Hayes joins Erin Brockovich in a documentary, “Last Call at the Oasis,” that’s already getting praise for its discussion of a coming global water crisis. Directed by Jessica Yu & produced by the same people who created “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary opened May 4 in New York and Los Angeles and comes to the Bay Area May 11.
Steelhead trout lose out when water is low in wine country
May 7, 2012:
The competition between farmers and fish for precious water in California is intensifying in wine country, suggests a new study by UC Berkeley biologists. The study links higher death rates for threatened juvenile steelhead trout with low water levels in the summer and the acreage of vineyards upstream.
Media Advisory: Engineers to toss 100 sensors downriver in Delta field test
May 4, 2012:
UC Berkeley engineers will conduct their inaugural field test of the Floating Sensor Network project on Wednesday, May 9, in Walnut Grove, Calif. They developed floating sensors that can be rapidly deployed in response to emergencies such as levee breaches or oil spills. The fleet includes robotic sensors that can swim around obstacles to target areas of interest and transmit live data to researchers using GPS receivers and mobile phone technology.
NSF awards $2 million to expand Sierra Nevada water sensors
October 3, 2011:
CITRIS researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Merced have received a $2 million NSF grant to expand their network of wireless sensors in the Sierra Nevada. The sensors enable remote monitoring of snow depth, stream flow, water content in soil and use of water in vegetation – data that will be used to help manage one of the most precious resources in the state.
Getting to the root of the water cycle
August 1, 2011:
In a remarkable outdoor laboratory in the Sierra, UC Merced and UC Berkeley researchers are using sensors to gather a mother lode of data to greatly improve ecological measurement and hydrologic forecasting.
New NSF center tackles urban water infrastructure
July 25, 2011:
The NSF has announced a five-year, $18.5 million grant to fund a new Engineering Research Center (ERC) to re-invent the country’s urban water infrastructure, which is seeing increasing challenges from age, population growth and the effects of climate change. The new center will be led by Stanford University in partnership with UC Berkeley, Colorado School of Mines and New Mexico State University.
Latino communities have higher nitrate levels in drinking water
June 23, 2011:
San Joaquin Valley communities with large Latino populations are exposed to disproportionately high levels of the agricultural chemical nitrate through their drinking water, according to a UC Berkeley study. When ingested via drinking water, nitrate can lead to numerous health problems, particularly among women and young children.
Sustainability summit celebrates achievements, sets new water-use target
April 19, 2011: UC Berkeley has set its sights on a new conservation goal: reducing overall use of potable water to 10 percent below 2008 levels by 2020. The target was announced Tuesday by Chancellor Birgeneau at the campus’s 8th Annual Sustainability Summit.
Business students’ NextDrop project keeps on winning
March 9, 2011:
On the heels of winning one international mobile app prize, Haas students’ NextDrop project won the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition. The project — which addresses the challenge of unreliable piped water in developing countries — was awarded a $10,000 prize.
CITRIS researchers deploy IT tools to help monitor California water supply
February 24, 2011:
While more than half of California’s water comes from snow in the Sierra Nevada, it is difficult for water managers to measure and track through the year. Now, scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Merced — supported by the multi-campus Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) — are using networks of wireless sensors to measure snow depth and other environmental factors.
