Leora Nanus of the USGS Water Resources Division joins us in the June edition of Field Talk. Nanus studied the ability of alpine lakes in the national parks of the Rocky Mountains to buffer against harmful acidic pollution from the air. She and her colleagues found that some surprising lake characteristics, like surrounding slope steepness, lake elevation and bedrock minerals, can be used to predict the resilience of a lake to pollution. Nanus used her data to create a model for national park managers that can help determine which lakes are at highest risk of the negative impacts of pollution.