Studying Distant Rivers Locally

People living near rivers can become “citizen scientists” to aid research focusing on Earth’s river systems in a time of changing climate. Leaders of the Global Rivers Observatory Project—WHOI chemist Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink (also the October, 2012, Scientist-in-Residence at the Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka, Alaska), and Woods Hole Research Center scientist Max Holmes—are enlisting local residents to collect water from rivers around the globe. Here, Sitka High School students Destony Rosas (left) and Shaunte Johnson (middle) sampled the Indian River with Scott Harris (right), coordinator of volunteer sampling for the Indian and Starrigavan Rivers in southeastern Alaska.(Photo by Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)