CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:30) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 4-22-16. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 25, 2016. SOUND – ~ 6 sec Those buzzing sounds open an episode on a familiar winged, six-legged animal that relies on water evaporation in its feeding, life cycle, and home maintenance.  Have a listen for about 15 seconds to a large group of these creatures, and see if you know what they are.   And here’s a hint: this society runs on hard workers with a sweet side. SOUND - ~ 15 sec If you guessed honeybees, you’re right! You heard sounds from honeybee hives at a residence in Blacksburg, Va.  Honeybees in North America occur as many varieties of one non-native species that was introduced to this continent in the 1600s.  Honeybees are justifiably famous for their role as pollinators, joining many other native bee species in accounting for billions of dollars of value annually in pollination of food crops and other native and domesticated plants.  Honeybees are also well-known for living in colonies with a definite social structure, including a queen, drones, worker bees with different roles, and developing young. Water evaporation plays a key role in the feeding of those young and in maintaining the colony’s temperature.  Producing honey to feed developing larvae requires foraging bees to gather nectar from various plants and then to evaporate a large percentage of water in the nectar to make a much more concentrated solution of water and sugar.  Bees accomplish this water evaporation by repeatedly moving regurgitated nectar over their tongue.  Meanwhile, bees and other hive insects use the heat-absorbing effect of water evaporation to keep hives from over-heating.  Water collected by foraging workers is placed in the hive, and then other workers fan their wings to increase evaporation, taking away heat in the water vapor. Notable for pollination, honey, and social structure, honeybees also deserve a little buzz for demonstrating some fundamental chemistry and physics of water. SOUND - ~ 5 sec For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The bee sounds heard in this episode were recorded on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg on March 23, 2016, and April 20, 2016, and at honey bee hives in Blacksburg on April 21, 2016.  Thanks to Taylor Richmond and Stephen Schoenholtz for their help in recording sounds. PHOTOS Honeybee (Apis mellifera) on Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in Hadley, Massachusetts, June 2010. Photo by Jamie Weliver, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 4-22-16.Virginia Water Radio host Alan Raflo recording honeybee sounds in Blacksburg, Va., April 21, 2016.  Photo courtesy of Stephen Schoenholtz. SOURCES USED IN AUDIO AND FOR MORE INFORMATION Larry Connor, American Bee Journal Web site, “Beeswax” (August 1, 2015), online at http://americanbeejournal.com/beeswax/. Eric Day, “Native and Solitary Bees in Virginia” (May 2015), online at https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/ENTO/ENTO-151/ENTO-151.html. Iowa State University Department of Entomology, Bug Guide Web site, “Species Apis mellifera—Western Honey Bee” (March 2004), online at http://bugguide.net/node/view/3080. Susan W.

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:52) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 4-15-16. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 18, 2016. This week, we feature another in a series of episodes on water research by Virginia students. To start, have a listen for about 15 seconds to these analytical-device mystery sounds, and see if you can guess what kind of atmospheric gases this device is designed to measure. And here’s a hint: what lets the light in but doesn’t let the heat out? SOUNDS - ~15 sec If you guessed, greenhouse gases, you’re right! You heard sounds from a special kind of spectrometer that uses lasers to measure levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, three key greenhouse gases—that is, gases that transmit solar radiation but absorb heat energy radiated back from the earth’s surface, similar to the way glass in a greenhouse works. Scientists studying current and predicted changes in the earth’s climate focus lots of attention on these greenhouse gases, particularly on their levels, sources, storage, and interactions with temperature and precipitation in ecosystems. Soil ecosystems are one major area of scientific focus. For example, the American Society of Agronomy currently states, “Far too little is known about how management influences soil organic carbon accumulation and greenhouse gas emissions under a diversity of environmental conditions around the world.” Potential effects on soil greenhouse gases from predicted changes in rainfall intensity—that is, the amount and timing of rainfall—were the focus of research by Tyler Weiglein, a 2015 graduate from Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, and one of four Virginia students who received research grants in 2014 from the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. Let’s listen for about 50 seconds as Tyler describes his research methods. GUEST VOICE - ~ 51 sec “We’re here in the Water Quality Lab in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. And right here is a Picarro Cavity Ring-down Spectometer. It’s used to measure carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, three key greenhouse gases. And I used this for my undergraduate research to look at how rainfall frequency and magnitude would affect soil greenhouse gas emissions. Inside the chambers were soil samples that were taken from the Stroubles Creek floodplain, in Blacksburg, Va., near the Virginia Tech campus. And these soil samples were grouped together in treatment groups: each group received the same amount of water, but the timing and magnitude of the water additions was altered to simulate different storm intensities and different storm frequencies.” By helping clarify possible impacts of rainfall intensity on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in streamside soils, Tyler’s work is part of much broader efforts in Virginia and worldwide to understand better the complicated interactions among climate, atmospheric gases, carbon, and the water cycle. Thanks to Tyler Weiglein for lending his voice to this episode, and we close with sounds of two aspects of his research: stream flow at Tyler’s research site, and a heavy rainfall. But we’ll just have to imagine the sounds of interactions in the soil among water, organisms, and atmospheric gases! SOUNDS - ~ 10 sec For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Audio fo

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:28) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 4-8-16. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 11, 2016. SOUND – ~5 sec This week, those sounds above and below the surface of the Appomattox River open a replay of an April 2014 episode about signals on and in Virginia’s water bodies. Have a listen for about 10 seconds to the following mystery sound, see if you can guess what group of water-resources users this sound is designed to alert. And here’s a hint: it’s a powerful signal, for reel...and rod. SOUND - ~10 sec If you guessed, a signal for people fishing, you’re right! You heard a June 2013 recording of a warning siren at the Claytor Lake hydroelectric facility on the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia. The Claytor facility’s staff calls that siren its “fisherman warning signal” and uses it to alert anglers and any other nearby river users that a power-generating unit is about to start operating and releasing more water. While that siren is a human-generated signal to stop fishing, spring in Virginia sends out plenty of natural signals that it’s time to start or increase fishing activity. Anglers follow fish, and fish follow various environmental and biological cues, such as temperature, daylight, sources of insects and other food, predator behavior, and life-cycle demands. Spring brings significant changes to those fish cues, and as a result, gives many anglers their cue to resume trying to outwit the finned inhabitants of the Commonwealth’s ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and coastal waters. As a musical tribute to that perennial battle of wits, we close with about 20 seconds of “Bass Fisherman’s Reel,” courtesy of Williamsburg musician Timothy Seaman. MUSIC - ~20 sec For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This week’s episode is a slightly revised and updated replay of Episode 208 (4-7-14), which has been archived. The underwater sounds in this episode were recorded by Raven Harris, of Newport News, Va., on the Appomattox River in Petersburg, Va., on April 18, 2014; used with permission. The “fisherman’s warning signal” was recorded by Virginia Water Radio on June 30, 2013. “Bass Fisherman’s Reel” is on the 2004 CD “Virginia Wildlife,” copyright Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission. This music was featured in Virginia Water Radio Episode 73, 8-1-11. More information about Timothy Seaman is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/. PHOTOS  Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) sign indicating a trout-stocking area on Cripple Creek along Rt. 641 in Wythe County, Va., February 22, 2014.   Fish nest in Toms Creek in Blacksburg, Va., (Montgomery County), May 8, 2010. A signal for fly-fishing anglers: adult mayflies swarming around a ballfield light in Shawsville, Va. (Montgomery County), near the South Fork Roanoke, River, May 12, 2014. SOURCES USED IN AUDIO AND FOR MORE INFORMATION Information on the fisherman warning signal at the American Electric Power (AEP)/Appalachian Power (APCO) Claytor Hydroelectric Facility, located on the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia, was provided by Elizabeth Parcell, a process supervisor at the Claytor Lake facility, in a 7/16/13 e-mail. More information about the Claytor Lake facility is available from AEP’s Web site for the facility, at http://www.c