Corals, Turfgrass, and Sediments offer stories of climate past and future
Title: Corals, Turfgrass, and Sediments offer stories of climate past and future
Author: Sid Perkins
Thomas Wagner
Period 1
January 5, 2008
Website: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39485/title/Corals%2c_turfgrass_and_sediments_offer_stories_of_climate_past_and_future
They didn’t know very much about the history in rainfall of the islands of Hawaii. This is essential because they said they can use the coral for ancient rain gauges if there is no data available. They researched it because it is always good to know the history of the places around the world, also since that Hawaii hasn’t been very explored. They ran tests on the coral to see the yttrium content in the coral, it is found in the groundwater which runs into the ocean.
They found the evidence of the yttrium in the water has decreased over years, there also has been a large decrease in the runoff from the streams from 6.4 million gallons a day to just 3.5 million gallons a day. You also can see a decrease in the amount of groundwater seepage. Some conclusions you can get from this information is that you might not know what will happen if there is not enough water seepage and flow, you also may not be able to support all the life for the people and plants there too. In my opinion I believe this is very important seeing how vital this water is for the Hawaiians to live and provide a great environment. Grumet Prouty and her colleagues worked on this project to provide information on this to the world.
Some questions I have is that what would happen to their population if they cannot get their need of the water to have a plush environment? What will happen if the water seepage and the runoff falls way to low? If so could it damage the environment around it?
January 7th, 2009 at 6:16 am
So are you stating that the amount of fresh water available to the people of Hawaii is decreasing over time? Is this happening any where else in the world? What is causing the change?
January 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Yes it is decreasing because they were saying about the flow of water there has been falling. I do not know if there any other place throughout the world that is having these decreases in their water flow.