CIRC Investigator Dennis Lettenmaier (UW)

Dennis Lettenmaier leads the Land Surface Hydrology Research Group at the University of Washington and is the Robert and Irene Sylvester Professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on interactions between hydrology and climate on larger scales, using modeling and remote sensing. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical…

Columbia Gorge Pikas Adapt by Eating Moss

Animals, especially mammals, that are closely tied to a specific habitat are perhaps most vulnerable in a changing climate. The American pika is a leading example. In the Great Basin, these small mammals, which typically live at high elevation in areas with little vegetation and lots of loose rocks, or “talus.” For pikas, high temperatures…

Streamflow Declines Attributed to Declines in Mountain Precipitation

Since the 1950s in the Pacific Northwest, streamflow, particularly the lowest 25 percentile, has decreased significantly and the timing of peak flow has shifted earlier in the year. The decrease in streamflow has occurred, apparently, without a proportional decrease in precipitation, which with other evidence supports a hypothesis that observed warming is the principal cause…