Month: December 2021

Transboundary Groundwater Resiliency Research Network Holds First Virtual Kickoff Event

By Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Program Coordinator

On November 16, 2021, the Transboundary Groundwater Resiliency Research (TGRR) network (funded by the National Science Foundation’s AccelNet program) launched its first virtual kickoff event on Zoom to more than 70 interested participants. This hour-long meeting offered just one of several opportunities to provide input on the challenges and needs for more effective transboundary groundwater research and management. In collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute aspires to create a new, international network of networks that connects hydrology, social science, data science, and systems science networks to establish a novel TGRR approach.

The meeting began with Sam Fernald, Director of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute and Principal Investigator (PI) on the project, and Ashley Atkins, one of the project’s Co-PIs and the Executive Director of the West Big Data Innovation Hub, welcoming everyone to the meeting with opening remarks. Atkins set the stage by explaining that the network was “rooted in the idea that harnessing advances in data science and system science can help build on and work with existing transboundary water networks to help answer critical questions in ways that haven’t been previously possible, and in ways that can meet the diverse needs and priorities of stakeholders to create a more resilient transboundary groundwater future.”

Fernald spoke on the overall goals of the research and provided background on the TGRR network’s efforts. He explained there is a situation with water scarcity in the Mesilla Basin/Conejos Médanos aquifer system and the Hueco Bolson due to climate change and drought. The aquifers’ location on the U.S.-Mexico border creates international challenges but also unique opportunities for collaboration. Fernald stated that the proposed TGRR approach seeks to “understand why this depletion occurs and offer some solutions with this understanding of the complex interconnected systems.”

Fellow Co-PI, Christine Kirkpatrick, who oversees the San Diego Supercomputer Center’s (SDSC) Research Data Services Division, began her presentation with a collaborative activity for all participants using an interactive digital whiteboard. The focus of this activity was to create a stakeholder map documenting groups or organizations who would be interested in the project and cataloging important issues. Kirkpatrick described the purpose of this task as being able to identify who are the stakeholders so goals and priorities of the network can be anchored in what matters to the community and become useful to the people who need this research the most. On January 21, 2022, from 9:00-10:00 AM MT, TGRR will host an interactive and virtual follow-up meeting to gain more input from the community and further prioritize the topics recorded on the Jamboard during the Kickoff. Click here to register for the TGRR Community Jamboard Workshop.

Ilya Zaslavsky, Co-PI and Director of the SDSC Spatial Information Systems Laboratory, gave his presentation on an elaborate survey developed to help manage network outreach and response. A goal of this survey was to give individuals a chance to share their different perspectives and expertise with one another in hopes of creating new research collaborations and finding project development partners. For those interested, please click here to participate in this informative opportunity.

Fernald gave closing remarks to remind the audience this was the first event hosted by the TGRR, and there is a real opportunity for the community to help strengthen this network to meet the objectives of stakeholders and become a robust network of networks to better understand the challenges and needs of conserving transboundary groundwater resources.

To view the YouTube recording of this meeting and all presentations given at this event, please click here. For additional TGRR events, please join us starting January 28, 2022, from 10:00-11:00 AM MT, for the beginning of our virtual Collective Learning Meetings (CLM) featuring researchers who will be sharing their upcoming water-related research. CLMs are for graduate students and early-career researchers to obtain collegial and non-evaluative feedback on their unfinished or exploratory research projects. These meetings are in collaboration with the Worchester Polytechnic Institute, and will be held bi-monthly through Zoom, and will cover systems approaches to water resiliency research. For more information on CLMs, click here. If you are interested in presenting, please fill out this form, and indicate in the presentation description that you are a TGRR member.

Meet the Researcher, Barbara Chamberlin, New Mexico State University

by Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Program Coordinator

This month’s featured researcher is Dr. Barbara Chamberlin, professor and interim department head for the Innovative Media Research and Extension Department, at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Chamberlin has assisted in creating educational tools for several water partners and enjoys making new connections with water experts across the state. The New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) is excited to work with Chamberlin on their first formal collaboration titled, SWIM: Securing a Climate Resilient Water Future for Agriculture and Ecosystems Through Innovations in Measurement, Management, and Markets (SWIM). This research effort will focus on creating more advanced and robust data-driven information systems for stakeholders and other decision-makers by improving how information is shared. These information systems will improve the accuracy of water-based judgments, measurements, and evaluations leading to more secure, sustainable surface and groundwater use. For more information on the SWIM project, please visit the project’s website at the link above, or read NM WRRI’s November eNews article, NM WRRI Receives Funding to Investigate Improvements to Agricultural and Environmental Water Resilience, which describes the project and current collaboration efforts.

In addition to her work with NM WRRI, Chamberlin pursues other research opportunities by partnering with fellow researchers and educators to develop and design educational media. This can consist of games, apps, animations, videos, websites, virtual reality (VR) programs, and interactive labs. Once the media of choice is selected and created, she guides the project through instructional design. Chamberlin describes her job during the design process as “making sure the production team understands the needs of the user, the best ways to teach the content, and the usability of the final product.” She explains that her entire unit is full of professional graphic artists, animators, and programmers who are also instructional designers because they understand the most important aspect of this position is creating meaningful change in the users of their products.

Chamberlin graduated with her BA in Communications Studies and an MA in Agricultural and Extension Education from NMSU. She earned her PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Virginia. Her PhD research sought to improve the quality of educational media products by asking two guiding questions: (1) how to design educational media that is effective, and (2) how to measure those media successes. Chamberlin believes adhering to these guidelines assists in the creation of products that can be accurately measured and designed with intent. Concerning her research, Chamberlin stated, “I love so many aspects of what our team here does—from the creative activity of making a game, the process of testing it with kids or other users, and learning about the content for all the different products.”

Chamberlin has been affiliated with NMSU for over 30 years and feels like her position has evolved over the years. “In addition to making good projects, I realize it is my job to make sure our team members have great experiences as well,” she states. “That includes some amount of mentorship and training, but it’s also about managing our work processes and day-to-day operations to make our department a positive place to work and engage everyone on our team with work that is meaningful to them.” Chamberlin and her team have been awarded several honors for their games, including one titled, Night of the Living Debt, which won Best Overall Digital Game at the Meaningful Play Conference (2016), and gold recognition at the International Serious Play Awards. To view a list of some of their games, please click here.

Chamberlin encourages anyone looking to join the research field to consider the benefits of technology, and how it can be used to share research (such as a video or animation that summarizes it succinctly or communicates findings appropriately to the right audience), and help prepare people to use the results of that research. Providing producers and water managers with different avenues to view and comprehend data could help them better understand prerequisite information and enable them to make more informed decisions. She defines this creation process as articulating a problem to be solved and then developing a procedure to figure out what kind of change is needed to solve it. Creating technology can involve researching which audience is being targeted and then designing a product to address the problem. The solution can be a simple creation, such as a three-minute animation summarizing key points within a project, but sometimes it can involve a more intricate, multi-phase approach to accurately display research highlights.

Future research for Chamberlin and her team involves developing and perfecting VR projects. She is optimistic and sees this as a good opportunity for her department to display and blend their talents to create an entirely new experience. A list of current media projects she and her team are working on include social media education campaigns on growing and eating microgreens, food safety concerning chicken products, and developing materials for youth on preventing food waste. These projects are being developed alongside six other media projects related to food safety-related work and a new game on water markets.

ENMU Student Studies Habitat Characteristics of the Rio Grande Cooter

By Marcus Gay, NM WRRI Student Program Coordinator

The Rio Grande Cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) is a freshwater turtle native to the Rio Grande and the Pecos River in New Mexico, Texas, and northeastern Mexico. The species is currently listed as threatened in New Mexico and Mexico, and is a species of greatest conservation need in Texas. In recent years, the species has been studied in tributaries of the Pecos River in New Mexico and Texas, but the Pecos River itself has not been surveyed for turtles in over a decade.

The Pecos River originates in the mountains of northern New Mexico and runs 926 miles through the Chihuahuan Desert before flowing into the Rio Grande on the Texas-Mexico border. One of the river’s historic attributes is salinity caused by natural saline groundwater. Reduced flood frequency and diminished flows have caused an increase in salinity and a decrease in water quality. The river’s water quality can also be affected by dam construction, channelization, agriculture practices, etc. In addition to being arguably one of the most anthropogenically altered river systems in the southwest United States, the Pecos River continues to be a major water source and habitat for wildlife.

There is a gap in knowledge about how these environmental changes on the Pecos can impact freshwater turtle populations like P. gorzugi. NM WRRI has awarded Laramie Mahan, a graduate student at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), a Student Water Research Grant to address this knowledge gap. The study, titled Occupancy and detection of Rio Grande Cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) on the Pecos River, aims to 1) determine the current distribution of P. gorzugi along the Pecos River, and 2) determine which environmental and habitat characteristics contribute to the presence or absence of the species by utilizing a single-season, single-species occupancy modeling framework.

Under the guidance of Dr. Ivana Mali, Mahan conducted surveys across 32 sites on the Pecos River during the summer months of 2020 and 2021. Each site was visited for three survey occasions within the summer season. At each site, 45 hoopnet traps were placed in the water for 48 hours at a time. Each turtle captured was measured and marked. For each site, the team recorded water quality parameters and river characteristics predicted to affect the presence or absence of P. gorzugi. Water quality parameters included pH, conductivity, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. River characteristics included width, depth, vegetation, and evidence of anthropogenic activity (fishing, trash, agriculture, etc.). Currently, Mahan is utilizing a single-season, single-species occupancy model, which will elaborate on which conditions best explain the occupancy and detection probabilities for the species.

This project aims to shed light on the current distribution of P. gorzugi on the Pecos River. The results obtained from this study could potentially inform the decision-making process for the species and Pecos River water management. According to Mahan, this research is significant because “turtles are important parts of their ecosystems and evolutionary history in general, yet they are amongst the most threatened groups of vertebrates. There is alarmingly little research done on many freshwater turtle species, especially studies conducted that estimate factors contributing to their occurrence and detection. Statistical techniques such as occupancy modeling can aid in pinpointing how site-specific characteristics of water quality, surrounding habitats, and river vegetation, etc., may alter the presence or absence of freshwater turtle species.” Mahan has presented her work at The Wildlife Society Annual Conference and the 66^th Annual New Mexico Water Conference.

Originally from Arizona, Mahan plans to graduate with a Master of Science in Biology in 2022 from ENMU. Mahan obtained her Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from ENMU where she began to work with Dr. Mali on P. gorzugi research. After graduation Mahan plans to continue her work studying freshwater turtles and their role in their respective ecosystems by attending Texas State University to work towards a PhD in Aquatic Resources and Integrated Biology.