UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

What’s the logic of “hydrological” – One of science’s petty debates

By Jay Lund A ChatGPT depiction of Hydrologic versus Hydrological. I have always wondered, but have been too embarrassed to ask, “Are there any formal or informal differences between "hydrologic" and "hydrological"?” So I asked one of the oracles of our age, ChatGPT. Edited for length, here is what I got back: “Short answer: no formal difference in meaning…...

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/05/31/whats-the-logic-of-hydrological-one-of-sciences-petty-debates/

Where are they now: Dylan Stompe

“Where are they now” is a series on the California WaterBlog that celebrates the alumni who got their start at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) and have now gone on to bigger and better things. Blog posts from the “Where are they now” series will be peppered throughout our regular blog lineup, highlighting both former students and past employees of CWS....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/05/24/where-are-they-now-dylan-stompe/

Resilient California Fishes: Prickly Sculpin

By Peter B. Moyle and Thomas L. Taylor . . . The fresh waters of California support a diverse, highly endemic fish fauna. Many of them are on extinction trajectories. In this blog series, however, we discuss native fishes that are not considered to be in trouble, but that instead have sufficient resiliency to keep populations large and sustainable, even in highly altered habitats....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/05/17/resilient-california-fishes-prickly-sculpin/

Durable Solutions in California Disaster Resilience

By Nicholas Pinter . . . Earlier this month, California released its Natural Catastrophe Resiliency Study. The study addresses thorny issues in managing California’s disaster risk, and particularly the crises in wildfire insurance and utility liability. We Californians and our leaders should applaud the study and efforts to address these sweeping challenges. The Resiliency Study focuses on wildfire risk management, generally leaving aside additional hazards like flooding that might seem too daunting for policy action....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/05/10/durable-solutions-in-california-disaster-resilience/

Putah Creek Fishes: A Class Gyotaku Project

By Christopher M. Dewees . . . On a crisp and sunny November morning last fall, along the shores of Putah Creek, a group of students quickly dropped their beach seining net when it was suddenly filled with returning adult salmon (which were immediately released!). That moment would have been unimaginable in the 1990s. Putah Creek is a major Northern California stream that flows eastward from Lake County for more than 100 miles, past the towns of Winters and Davis, before entering the Sacramento River....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/05/03/putah-creek-fishes-a-class-gyotaku-project/

AI Water Use Distractions and Lessons for California

By Jay Lund Artificial intelligence (AI) will affect many economic and natural resource sectors as these new technologies develop and mature. We are in the early years of this process. Like most new things, AI has become an object of small and great hopes and fears – from hopes for saving and helping humans to fears for destroying human minds and civilizations....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/04/26/ai-water-use-distractions-and-lessons-for-california/

A chance to multiply your support for the Center for Watershed Sciences

California WaterBlog is a long-running outreach project from the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, a research center dedicated to interdisciplinary study of water challenges, particularly in California. We focus on environmentally and economically sustainable solutions for managing rivers, lakes, groundwater, and estuaries. This weekend, for UC Davis Give Day (April 17 – 18, 2026), we have a matching gift challenge from emeritus Director (and current Vice Director) …...

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/04/17/a-chance-to-multiply-your-support-for-the-center-for-watershed-sciences/

Walling off nature: Exploring the consequences of our urge to claim ecosystems

By Andrew L. Rypel [This article first appeared on Tangled Nature.] Fig 1. Attempt to privatize a lake, photo taken by author in 2025. It's one of the first memories. Getting into the little v-hull aluminum boat with Dad on the shoreline of a small sandy lake. It's summer in northern Wisconsin and water lilies surround the deep parts of the lake like ancient ecological armor....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/04/12/walling-off-nature-exploring-the-consequences-of-our-urge-to-claim-ecosystems/

California and the West’s Current Snow Drought in a Long-Term Context: Key Points for Researchers

By Kyle Greenspan . . . We are well into the 2026 water year in the western United States, and so far, it appears to be an unseasonably warm one. Media across California, the western states, and the nation are covering the impact of our warm winter on snowpack and water resources. This post attempts to put headlines and current events into a longer-term context, explaining long-term changes we expect in snowpack water storage....

https://californiawaterblog.com/2026/04/05/california-and-the-wests-current-snow-drought-in-a-long-term-context-key-points-for-researchers/

Fish domination of avian food webs - California WaterBlog By Christine Parisek & Jon Walter . . . Food webs are the backbones of ecosystems: they chart the flow of energy through ecosystems in terms of who eats whom, and their structure helps determine whether an ecosystem will be stable over time. While food web studies often focus on relationships within...