NE CASC News

The NE CSC’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellows are actively engaged in research that provides scientific information and tools that natural resource managers can use to aid climate adaptation in the Northeast region.  What are they working on and who will benefit from their research?  Watch the video!

NE CSC Fellow David Johnson was standing in a salt marsh on the northern Massachusetts coast when he saw a fiddler crab, Uca pugnax, nearly 50 miles north of its supposed natural range. The migration north of this charismatic crab with the big, waving claw may be yet another sign of climate change.

Funded in part by the NE CSC, WaterViz for Hubbard Brook represents the nexus between the hydrologic sciences, visual arts, music, and computer design. Hydrologic data captured from a small watershed at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire using an array of environmental sensors

In a recent article in International Innovation, NE CSC PI Anthony D’Amato explains his investigations of land use and weather impacts on North American temperate forests.  His findings will help establish evidence-based management strategies to cope with climate change and invasive species.  Effectively managing forests against a context of climate change is a complex task.  Researchers are analysing historical and current empirical records to explore adaptation and mitigation approaches for effective forest management in a warming world. 

On October 14-17, participants from tribal, federal, state, higher education and non-profit agencies and organizations came together for the Shifting Seasons: Building Tribal Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation Summit. The program was presented by the Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin and partially funded by the Northeast Climate Science Center.

The University of Missouri hosted the Second Annual NE CSC Fellows Retreat, October 8-10, 2014, at Reis Biological Station near Steelville, MO. Twenty-two graduate student and postdoctoral fellows from six NE CSC partner institutions gathered to share their research, meet with natural resource managers, develop interdisciplinary connections and collaborations, and learn about climate impacts to the Central Hardwoods forest ecosystem.

The LCCs and CSCs are working together to provide scientific information, tools, and decision support for conservation of large connected areas that sustain natural and cultural resources in a rapidly changing world. 

Ethan Coffel, NE CSC Graduate Fellow from Columbia University, traveled west this summer to spend a week with other CSC fellows and learn about how the Northwest views the impacts of climate change.  In Ethan's words:

Several speakers are lined up to present the progress of NE CSC funded projects.  Our theme for the fall will focus on how NE CSC science is engaging stakeholders in climate adaptation techniques and technologies.  Topics include forest adaptation, a stream temperature mapping tool, climate impacts to Great Lakes fisheries, structured decision making for headwater stream management, and a report from the upcoming "Shifting Seasons" Tribal Summit!  Mark your calendars for the webinars that interest you. 

A selection of projects funded by the Northeast Climate Science Center will be presented at the American Fisheries Society Meeting on August 18-21, 2014.

Several of our NE CSC Fellows and Principal Investigators are presenting at this year's Ecological Society of America conference in Sacramento, CA.  If you're at ESA next month, come see what we're up to!

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