Follow the Journey of the millions of gallons of water a day that sustains one of the biggest cities in the world. New York City has some of the cleanest drinking water, but the system is not without its problems. Watch our interactive animation to learn more about where water comes from and what happens to it after it goes down the drain.

The Bahamas Biocomplexity Project (BBP) is an interdisciplinary research effort that combines the study of marine biodiversity, oceanography, and humans in order to improve the design of networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity conservation, fisheries sustainability, and other human uses.

Our work in The Bahamas was motivated, in part, by both the country’s pioneering efforts to establish Land and Sea Parks and its decision in 2000 to initiate one of the world’s first networks of “no-take” marine reserves (MPAs that prohibit extractive activities). In 2002, additional MPAs were created as national parks under the management of the Bahamas National Trust.

The BBP is interested in understanding how this growing MPA network may affect people and marine ecosystems and, in turn, how both human and ecosystem dynamics may influence the effectiveness of networks of protected areas. Although the work focuses on the Bahamian archipelago, we expect that results will be generally applicable to MPAs in coral reef ecosystems elsewhere.

All living things, from tiny cyanobacteria to giant blue whales, need water to survive. Without water, life as we know it would not exist. And life exists wherever there is water.

All organisms, like animals and plants, use water: salty or fresh, hot or cold, plenty of water or almost no water at all. They are adapted to all kinds of habitats, from sizzling deserts to the freezing, pitch-dark ocean floor.

Growing up on a poultry farm in rural Arkansas, 15-year-old Hunter learned early on that clean water was a precious resource. He saw first-hand that poultry houses use large amounts of water that become contaminated with chicken litter, and he wondered if there was a way to filter this water for reuse.

Poultry farms tend to have three to five chicken houses, each with about 28,000 chickens. Using commercial filters to clean the water discharged from the poultry houses is an expensive proposition, so Hunter decided to investigate ways of filtering the water using a cheaper material—different types of local soil.

To start, he collected five kinds of soil: sand, red clay, ash, gravel, and loam, drying each sample and testing for pH, nitrate, and phosphate levels. Hunter then filtered tap water through the soils to remove nitrates and phosphates from the samples.

His second step was to collect water samples. Hunter made a mixture of clean water and chicken litter, letting it sit for two weeks before testing its pH, nitrate, and phosphate levels. He then filtered the contaminated water through the five different soils.

Although his hypothesis had been that sand would be the best filter, his experiments showed that loam removed contaminants better than any other type of soil. Hunter’s investigation led to a winning essay in the 2010 Young Naturalist Awards competition. Moreover, he hopes that his project can be used by farmers to construct poultry houses that filter waste water.

The Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is a unique environment relatively free from human influence. "We are smack in the middle of nowhere, just above the equator in the Pacific about a thousand miles south of Hawaii," Sterling wrote in her post to set the scene. "The total human population on the atoll varies month to month because it consists entirely of refuge managers, researchers and the research station crew. This two-week period we have 17 on the atoll."

Sterling and her team are trying to understand the importance of the remote, uninhabited atoll as a foraging, as opposed to a nesting, site for turtles migrating across the Pacific Ocean. Now readers can peek over the scientists shoulders for the next few weeks.

There's a new way to view—and use—sewage in Southern California. It still flows from household drains, but instead of being discharged into the ocean, the water is purified and sent back to replenish its original source underground.

The purification system continually processes enough water to meet the needs of 500,000 people. This includes everything from showers to drinking water. Southern California is already feeling the effects of drought: the Santa Ana and Colorado rivers that now provide water to the region are running low. Managing water resources, including recycling waste water, is increasingly important as climate change poses additional drought threats.

Orange County's Water Replenishment System purifies 70 million gallons a day as one way to keep up with growing water demand. The local population is expected to rise significantly by 2020. Will there be enough water?

In the 1600’s, New York City’s Bronx River was a drinking water source and a sylvan haven for beaver, oysters, and herring. It became blighted as urbanization progressed, reincarnating as an industrial power source, an open sewer, and a garbage dump. Today, landscape ecologists are reconstructing the waterway’s ecological history as a reference point for its restoration effort. Watch conservation teams coax new life into the Bronx River as they restock it with native fish, lay down oyster beds, and remove invasive species along its shores.

Water has always played a key role in the development, sustenance, and success of Latin American societies, both ancient and modern. Water is a necessity, but in many societies, poor management makes water a valuable commodity or even a luxury. In ancient Latin America, as in other regions, water was managed in a variety of ways depending on the nature of the environment. Latin American archaeologists have discovered ancient water management methods that can help modern societies thrive in or better exploit their environments.

In the Prehispanic world, there were no universal solutions to the procurement and control of water. Each society had its own method that best suited its size, scope, and environment. Scholars have used archaeological data to suggest that some of the most successful and enduring Latin American societies were those that had a thriving water management system tailored to the nature of the environment and the needs of its inhabitants.

Today the situation is very different in Latin American countries. Some areas that once had large populations are now barely occupied while other zones are overpopulated with inhabitants suffering food scarcity.

One key to solving this worldwide problem is to intensify agricultural output through improved water management. Many different agricultural intensification strategies have been hotly debated over the years. With the spread of globalization, many scholars and scientists alike are calling for a large-scale approach to agricultural intensification. Others, such as Dr. Charles S. Spencer, believe that the archaeological record shows us that a small-scale approach based on ancient methods can often be a much more appropriate, efficient, and effective strategy.

Around the world, ecosystems are being disrupted by invasive plants--species purposely or accidentally imported to a place where they lack natural enemies. What's more, many of these species are especially thirsty. This means they can siphon off water needed by other organisms, including people, and can crowd out the native plants better adapted to existing rainfall conditions.

The spectacular but poorly known Lower Congo River and the biological richness it harbors, combined with the growing threats to the region make this a compelling focus for scientific exploration and biodiversity discovery in Africa.
Near the twin capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the Congo River spills out over a rocky sill at the southern edge of Malebo Pool and cascades down through the gorges of the Crystal Mountains, dropping 280m in elevation en route to the Atlantic Ocean 350 km downstream. Fed by a discharge of 23,000-50,000m3s-1 of water this short stretch of the Congo River is punctuated by some of the most spectacular cataracts, falls and gorges on Earth. The region, known as the Lower Congo rapids, harbors a diverse yet poorly known ichthyofauna, with many species characterized by bizarre morphologies, probably associated with adaptations to living in rapids-habitats. The spectacular but poorly known Lower Congo River and the biological richness it harbors, combined with the growing threats to the region, make this a compelling focus for scientific exploration and inventory in Africa.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is an audacious mission to track the impact of climate change on the planet's vast tracts of freshwater, saltwater, and ice. GRACE's pair of satellites responds to the gravitational pull of these massive stores, effectively "weighing" Earth's shifting water resources month by month. The satellites can detect where water is accumulating and drying up on a grand scale—data that were unavailable before. GRACE's unprecedented view of our water planet could prove critical in the effort to anticipate and manage the consequences of climate change for people worldwide.

From rushing rivers to waterfalls to waves breaking on the beach, water energy is all around us. Hydroelectric power plants at dams or alongside rivers use moving water to turn turbines to create electricity. And researchers are currently testing many other ways of tapping into waves, tides and currents.