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1. Water availability and seasonality shape elemental stoichiometry across space and time

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2842  

   Atkinson, Carla L.; Shogren, Arial J.; Smith, Chelsea R.; Golladay, Stephen W. (April 2023, Ecological Applications)

   Abstract The interaction of climate change and increasing anthropogenic water withdrawals is anticipated to alter surface water availability and the transport of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in river networks. But how changes to river flow will alter the balance, or stoichiometry, of these fluxes is unknown. The Lower Flint River Basin (LFRB) is part of an interstate watershed relied upon by several million people for diverse ecosystem services, including seasonal crop irrigation, municipal drinking water access, and public recreation. Recently, increased water demand compounded with intensified droughts have caused historically perennial streams in the LFRB to cease flowing, increasing ecosystem vulnerability. Our objectives were to quantify how riverine dissolved C:N:P varies spatially and seasonally and determine how monthly stoichiometric fluxes varied with overall water availability in a major tributary of LFRB. We used a long‐term record (21–29 years) of solute water chemistry (dissolved organic carbon, nitrate/nitrite, ammonia, and soluble reactive phosphorus) paired with long‐term stream discharge data across six sites within a single LFRB watershed. We found spatial and seasonal differences in soluble nutrient concentrations and stoichiometry attributable to groundwater connections, the presence of a major floodplain wetland, and flow conditions. Further, we showed that water availability, as indicated by the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), strongly predicted stoichiometry with generally lower C:N and C:P and higher N:P fluxes during periods of low water availability (PDSI < −4). These patterns suggest there may be long‐term and significant changes to stream ecosystem function as water availability is being dramatically altered by human demand with consequential impacts on solute transport, in‐stream processing, and stoichiometric ratios. 

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2. Climate scientists set the bar of proof too high

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03061-9  

   Lloyd, Elisabeth A.; Oreskes, Naomi; Seneviratne, Sonia I.; Larson, Edward J. (April 2021, Climatic Change)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Standards of proof for attributing real world events/damage to global warming should be the same as in clinical or environmental lawsuits, argue Lloyd et al. The central question that we raise is effective communication. How can climate scientists best and effectively communicate their findings to crucial non-expert audiences, including public policy makers and civil society? To address this question, we look at the mismatch between what courts require and what climate scientists are setting as a bar of proof. Our first point is that scientists typically demand too much of themselves in terms of evidence, in comparison with the level of evidence required in a legal, regulatory, or public policy context. Our second point is to recommend that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommend more prominently the use of the category “more likely than not” as a level of proof in their reports, as this corresponds to the standard of proof most frequently required in civil court rooms. This has also implications for public policy and the public communication of climate evidence. 

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3. Hierarchies of Violence, Victimhood, and Remedy in the Pursuit of Women’s Rights After War

   https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksaf051  

   Berry, Marie; Lake, Milli; Raja, Sinduja; Zarook, Soraya (June 2025, Global Studies Quarterly)

   Abstract Recent postwar recovery efforts have paved the way for reforms that advance women's participation in politics, inclusion in the economy, and access to justice. In this article, we show how a singular emphasis on gender reforms after war that are inattentive to other societal cleavages can leave various forms of marginalization in the shadows. Subnational interviews on the reverberations of gender reforms in five postwar countries expose three hierarchies that structure access to rights for war-affected communities. We reveal which violence is privileged, whose violence is privileged, and which responses are privileged from the perspectives of differently situated war-affected women, showing how patterns of access to new rights can reinforce exclusionary dynamics. Importantly, because international and domestic actors tend to privilege top-down, state-based responses to wartime violence (what we term hierarchies of remedy), hierarchies of violence and victimhood frequently also reflect state actors’ priorities. Speaking to debates on legal and policy reform, we acknowledge that attention to women's rights after war offers an urgently needed corrective to earlier gender inequalities. Yet, a singular focus on gender reforms that ignores other conflict-related cleavages, particularly those that are amplified by the distribution of political power within the state apparatus, can risk obstructing access for marginalized women, sometimes reproducing grievances that contributed to violence in the first place. For policymakers, we suggest that striving for more equal access to new rights after war will help foster a more inclusive—and therefore more stable and durable—peace. 

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4. Assessing the Effects of Climate Change on Middle Rio Grande Surface Water Supplies Using a Simple Water Balance Reservoir Model

   https://doi.org/10.1175/EI-D-21-0025.1  

   Holmes, Robyn N.; Mayer, Alex; Gutzler, David S.; Chavira, Luis Garnica (January 2022, Earth Interactions)

   Abstract The middle Rio Grande is a vital source of water for irrigation in the region. Climate change is impacting regional hydrology and is likely to put additional stress on a water supply that is already stretched thin. To gain insight on the hydrologic effects of climate change on reservoir storage, a simple water balance model was used to simulate the Elephant Butte–Caballo Reservoir system (southern New Mexico). The water balance model was forced by hydrologic inputs generated by 97 climate simulations derived from CMIP5 global climate models, coupled to a surface hydrologic model. Results suggest that the percentage of years that reservoir releases satisfy agricultural water rights allocations over the next 50 years (2021–70) will decrease relative to the past 50 years (1971–2020). The modeling also projects an increase in multiyear drought events that hinder reservoir management strategies to maintain high storage levels. In most cases, changes in reservoir inflows from distant upstream snowmelt is projected to have a greater influence on reservoir storage and water availability downstream of the reservoirs than will changes in local evaporation and precipitation from the reservoir surfaces. 

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5. Closing Loopholes in Water Rights Systems to Save Water: The Colorado River Basin

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR036667  

   Debaere, P.; Li, T.; Fox, S.; Bennett, K.; Block, P.; Hietpas, K.; Mekonnen, M.; Quinn, J_D; Richter, B.; Sharma, S.; et al (August 2024, Water Resources Research)

   Abstract Around the world, water rights systems govern the allocation of water to a multitude of users. Such systems primarily come into play during times of drought, when some users have to be shorted. Yet their management during times of excess can have implications for subsequent drought impacts. This is evident in the State of Colorado, where under “free river conditions” in which there is sufficient water to satisfy all water rights, anyone—including individuals lacking water rights—can divert as much as they want, unconstrained by the limit of their water right. Here, we estimate the amount of excess water used under such conditions within Division five of the Upper Colorado River Basin in the State of Colorado. Comparing the daily water withdrawals of diversion structures along the Colorado River and its tributaries with their (daily) water rights, we find that in 2017, 339 structures report days with excess withdrawals, amounting to 108 million cubic meters (87,577 acer feet). While such excess withdrawal is legal in Colorado, we argue that the free river condition is an antiquated rule that will make much needed reform of water allocation within the water‐stressed Colorado River Basin more difficult. We offer policy suggestions to address it. 

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