NE CASC News

Mary Ratnaswamy will be leaving the service of the Federal government when she retires from the USGS on April 30 after serving a rich and varied career.  Mary joined the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CASC, our new name as of March 2018) as Federal Director in 2012 when the NE CASC was in early stages of establishment.  She was instrumental in shaping our work in this region.  

A new publication has highlighted the growing importance of adjusting forest management decisions as climate changes. Looking at the Midwest and Northeast regions the study sought to discover the concerns that land managers tend to plan for and how this influences adaptation strategies.

 Take Aways

NE CSC Graduate Fellow, Marketa Zimova, published two papers on how the worldwide decrease in snow cover already may have dramatic impacts on animals that change coat colors with the seasons.

The final report, "An integrated assessment of lake and stream thermal habitat under climate change" is now available.  PI:  Jordan Read, USGS Center for Integrated Data Analytics. 

A new assessment is available of the vulnerability of forest ecosystems across the New England region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, northern New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont) under a range of future climates.

This spring the NECSC will host several webinars on ranging from the management of floodplains and ecosystems across the country to policy impacts of climate change.

Submit your article to Climate Change Responses - "Mechanisms underlying climate change impacts of montane ecosystems and species" special issue.

NE CSC's Research Ecologist with the USGS, Toni Lyn Morelli, and co-authors have recently published in a special edition of Frontiers in Ecology describing novel ways we can improve our roles as researchers.  

NE CSC Postdoctoral Fellow Tom Bonnot looked into the varying population size and distribution of two critical bird species, the prairie warbler and wood thrush, by modeling their population distribution across the central hardwoods and then predicting how these variables will change up to the year 2100. 

The Northeast Climate Science Center has brought on three new projects recently in order to address wildlife conservation and climate change.

This Fall the NE CSC webinar series will focus on the variability of climate change in the Northeast and Midwest. NE CSC researchers will discuss how we can adapt to and manage potential changes in climate. Join us in Morrill Science Center II, Room 134, or tune in remotely (see webinar page for webinar connection). 

The Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation, a consortium institution with the NE CSC, has launched an online resource for Tribal members, scientists, and supporting partners to engage on similar interests, find research and adaptation opportunities together, and to connect across our region.