Redirected flood waters lead to unintended consequences
An intricate system of basins, channels, and levees called the Headwaters Diversion carries water from the eastern Missouri Ozark Plateau to the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau. The system...
View ArticleVideo: NASA animation shows rainfall of Mississippi River flooding
A series of winter storms brought more than 20 inches of rainfall to the Midwest and southeastern United States in December 2015. Massive flooding followed throughout both the regions. An animation of...
View ArticleRecord Missouri flooding was manmade calamity, scientist says
At the end of December 2015, a huge storm named "Goliath" dumped 9-10 inches of rain in a belt across the central United States, centered just southwest of St. Louis, most of it in a three-day downpour.
View ArticleWorld's large river deltas continue to degrade from human activity
From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in Louisiana, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas,...
View ArticleFertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades
Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at...
View ArticleIllinois River water quality improvement linked to more efficient corn...
Good news - the quality of water in the Illinois River has improved in one important aspect. A new study from the University of Illinois reports that nitrate load in the Illinois River from 2010 to...
View ArticleTurtles may not be immune to old age, research suggests
Researchers at Iowa State University are rethinking the long-held conventional wisdom that turtles don't suffer some of the ravages of old age.
View ArticleNew study maps rate of New Orleans sinking
New Orleans and surrounding areas continue to sink at highly variable rates due to a combination of natural geologic and human-induced processes, finds a new NASA/university study using NASA airborne...
View ArticleNew study calls for old methods of coastal management
Almost 90 years ago, the Mississippi River showed the world its power for destruction with the Great Flood of 1927. Now the river's power is once again on display, this time as a stabilizing force to...
View ArticleUnfertilized cover crop may reduce nutrient losses from Tennessee fields
Using what is known as a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), scientists with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have modeled what would happen if Tennessee soybean and corn farmers...
View ArticleResearch shows perennials would reduce nutrient runoff to the Gulf of...
A new study from an Iowa State University agronomist shows that an increase in perennial bioenergy grasses throughout the Corn Belt would lead to a significant reduction in nitrogen moving down the...
View ArticleUpstream trenches, downstream nitrogen
Water quality scientist Laura Christianson is working on a solution to the "dead zone"—an area with dangerously low levels of oxygen— in the Gulf of Mexico. Christianson lives over a thousand miles...
View ArticleRoute 66 becoming green with charging stations, solar panels
Route 66, the historic U.S. highway made famous for attracting gas-guzzling Chevrolet Bel Airs and 1957 Cadillacs traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles, is turning green.
View ArticleScientists release recommendations for building land in coastal Louisiana
Today, a team of leading scientists and community experts with decades of experience released key recommendations to maintain and build land in coastal Louisiana. Their recommendations focus on...
View ArticleLouisiana pols go to court blaming Big Oil for coastal ruin
The oil industry has left a big footprint along the Gulf Coast, where a Delaware-sized stretch of Louisiana has disappeared.
View ArticleCommon US snake actually three different species
New research reveals that a snake found across a huge swath of the Eastern United States is actually three different species. Published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, analyses of...
View ArticleMississippi River could leave farmland stranded
If the Mississippi River continues to go unchecked, the farmland on Dogtooth Bend peninsula may be only accessible by boat. According to a University of Illinois study, each successive flood carves a...
View Article$1M dead zone contest: 5 finalists from AUS, Calif, Ill, NY
Teams from Australia, New York and California are among five finalists in Tulane University's $1 million contest to find ways to fight "dead zones" where water holds too little oxygen to support life....
View ArticleClimate change drove population decline in New World before Europeans arrived
What caused the rapid disappearance of a vibrant Native American agrarian culture that lived in urban settlements from the Ohio River Valley to the Mississippi River Valley in the two centuries...
View ArticleStudy rewrites the history of corn in corn country
A new study contradicts decades of thought, research and teaching on the history of corn cultivation in the American Bottom, a floodplain of the Mississippi River in Illinois. The study refutes the...
View ArticleBee decline threatens US crop production
The first-ever study to map U.S. wild bees suggests they are disappearing in the country's most important farmlands—from California's Central Valley to the Midwest's corn belt and the Mississippi River...
View ArticleWill naming the Anthropocene lead to acceptance of our planet-level impact?
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." This phrase—from William Shakespeare's tragic play Romeo & Juliet—is among the most famous acknowledgements in...
View ArticleChicago waterways—still flowing after over 100 years
As the city of Chicago has grown in population and industry since it was established more than 180 years ago, so has its need for clean water. Meeting that growing need has presented many challenges....
View ArticleResearch sheds new light on forces that threaten sensitive coastlines
Wind-driven expansion of marsh ponds on the Mississippi River Delta is a significant factor in the loss of crucial land in the Delta region, according to research published by scientists at Indiana...
View ArticleRare tooth find reveals horned dinosaurs in eastern North America
A chance discovery in Mississippi provides the first evidence of an animal closely related to Triceratops in eastern North America. The fossil, a tooth from rocks between 68 and 66 million years old,...
View Article'Big Muddy' Missouri river needs a plan
As the Missouri River flows across the Great Plains to where it meets the Mississippi River at St. Louis, it accumulates such a large sediment load that it has earned the nickname "Big Muddy." A recent...
View ArticleMississippi mud may hold hope for Louisiana coast
Many studies say capturing Mississippi River sand through diversions is key to rebuilding Louisiana's vanishing coast. But a new study in the open-access journal Earth Surface Dynamics of an old levee...
View ArticleNASA satellites provide a thermal view Hurricane Nate after landfall
NASA's Aqua satellite and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite analyzed the temperatures in Hurricane Nate's cloud tops and determined that the most powerful thunderstorms and heaviest rain areas were...
View ArticleRising sea levels creating first Native American climate refugees
Rising sea levels and human activities are fast creating a "worst case scenario" for Native Americans of the Mississippi Delta who stand to lose not just their homes, but their irreplaceable heritage,...
View ArticleStudy may improve strategies for reducing nutrient runoff into Mississippi River
Every summer, the Gulf of Mexico is flooded with excess nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater treatment plants and farm fields along the Mississippi River basin. And every summer, those nutrients...
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