NECSC News

New grant awarded to NE CSC Consortium Insitution College of Menominee Nation through the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA) to work with regional tribes in the Upper Great Lakes region in developing climate change adaptation planning scenarios. 

The NE CSC introduces the first webinars in a new series for the 2013-2014 academic year focusing on extreme events and climate change adaptation.  Here in the Northeast region, extreme events are a critical concern for managers in charge of safeguarding important resources. 

The College of Menominee Nation (CMN), in partnership with the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS – a division of the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service), hosted a one-and-a-half day workshop on the CMN campus on August 20-21.  Forest and natural resource managers from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Forest Service Northeastern Area, and multiple tribes participated in the Forest Adaptation Planning and Practices (FAPP) training.

Funded by the NE CSC in 2012, the first stakeholder-directed research project is completed.  Researchers with U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Centers in Iowa, Kansas and Massachusetts collaborated to conduct a comprehensive literature search of both published and ongoing research (2000-present) that sheds light on the interactions between climate change, agriculture and water quality across the combined geographies of the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers LCC and neighboring Upper Midwest and Great Lakes LCC.

On August 8th, the NE CSC hosted the first Monthly LCC-CSC Coordination Call. The purpose of this call was to have an open discussion on joint CSC-LCC science priorities, and the potential role of the NE CSC in pairing the expertise of our Consortium members and institutions with the LCCs to address outstanding science questions. 

Consortium member, Tony D'Amato from University of Minnesota was appointed to Upper Midwest and Great Lakes (UMGL) LCC Forest Focal Area Work Group.  D'Amato participated in work group call on July 24 to discuss strategies for linking forest conservation efforts throughout region with ongoing, related work being led by UMGL LCC and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

Michelle Staudinger, Science Coordinator for the NE CSC attended a successful fisheries science meeting in Providence, RI on July 23, "Understanding Climate Impacts on Fish Stocks of the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem:  Key research needs and future directions".

The NE CSC is featured in UMass Magazine's summer 2013 issue in an article titled, "Climate Change Clarified".  The article highlights past, present, and future of climate change research at UMass Amherst.  NE CSC Graduate Fellow Lynn Brennan is featured on the cover!

Richard Stanton was partially funded by the NECSC to complete his M.S. research and prepare two publications titled “Patch Occupancy By Brown-Headed Nuthatch Along A Range Extension Front Is Not Predicted Solely By Patch Quality”  and “Cost-Sensitive Resource Selection In A Cooperatively-Breeding Resident Bird.” 

NE CSC Graduate Fellow Tom Bonnot and co-authors published a recent paper in Biological Conservation.  The authors use landscape-based population viability models to demonstrate the potential for large-scale conservation to restore and sustain regional bird populations.

A group of graduate students and early career researchers affiliated with Climate Science Centers around the country recently released a new website and blog called the Early Career Climate Forum. The objective of the effort is to build a national network of early career climate researchers and professionals centered around the Climate Science Centers.