NE CSC Newsletter
News and upcoming events related to the Northeast Climate Science Center.
NE CSC Investigator in Journal of Geophysical Research: UMass Amherst Climate Modelers See Possible Warmer, Wetter Northeast Winters by 2070 AMHERST, Mass. – A new high-resolution climate study by University of Massachusetts Amherst climate scientists, the first to apply regional climate models to examine likely near-term changes in temperature and precipitation across the Northeast United States, suggests temperatures are going to be significantly warmer in all seasons in the next 30 years, especially in winter.
Also, they project that winters will be wetter, with more rain likely than snow. Michael Rawlins and co-authors provide the highest resolution climate projections to date for the Northeast from Pennsylvania to Maine for the period 2041 to 2070. The study used data from multiple climate model simulations run at greatly improved resolution. Read more...
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST
Conservation Science Webinar Series presents:
"Effects of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning: Do They Matter? A Tale of Two Answers."
Dr. David Hooper, Professor of Biology at Western Washington University
To register, visit: https://doilearn.webex.com/ (Enter the webinar title in the search box)
Human society has had a negative impact on genetic, species, and functional diversity in ecosystems worldwide. A key question arising at the time of the first Earth Summit in Rio, twenty years ago, was: how will this loss of biological diversity alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper? In the interim, a breadth of evidence has accumulated that addresses different aspects of this question. In particular, recent evidence suggests that changing biodiversity could rival climate change and pollution in their effects on both plant production and decomposition. On the other hand, evidence that changing species richness has strong effects on ecosystem services directly valued by human society is more mixed. Finally, scientists are still struggling to link the patterns measured in experiments that directly manipulate species richness with actual changes in biodiversity at local to regional scales. In this webinar, I will review the findings that have allowed scientists to provide answers to some of these questions, as well as the key questions that remain.
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Wednesday, January 17, 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
Ohio State University's Changing Climate webinar series presents:
"Climate and Carbon Impacts on Productivity, Chemistry, and Invasive Species in the Great Lakes"
Galen A. McKinley, Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at University of Wisconsin − Madison
To register, visit: http://changingclimate.osu.edu/webinars/
The ecosystems of the Great Lakes are critical national resources, yet their large-scale functioning and interactions with climate change are poorly explained. How do physical drivers impact chemistry and ecology? How are invasive species reacting to physical change? How will the Great Lakes respond to increasing atmospheric CO2? Numerical models and data help us to answer these questions, and to identify future research priorities.
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January 15-17, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
13th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment:
"Disasters and Environment - Science, Preparedness, and Resilience"
To register and learn more, visit: http://www.environmentaldisasters.net/
Join over 1,200 leaders from the emergency response, scientific, policy, conservation, and business communities, as well as federal and local government officials, to address themes such as cascading disasters, the intersection of the built and natural environments, disasters as mechanisms of ecosystem change, rethinking recovery and expanding the vision of mitigation, human behavior and its consequences and "No Regrets" resilience.
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February 11-15, 2013 in Shepherdstown, WV (USFWS NCTC)
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center presents,
"Addressing Climate Related Uncertainty for Natural Resource Management"
To register and learn more, visit: http://nctc.fws.gov/NCTCWeb/catalog/CourseDetail.aspx?CourseCodeLong=FWS-ALC3192
This course provides participants with a foundation in structured decision making in the context of natural resource management problems addressing climate-related uncertainty. It will illustrate applications to water resource management, mitigation and endangered species decisions. A solid foundation in structured decision making begins with understanding current practices, theory, and noteworthy case studies including examples assessing climate change impacts. Adaptive management is framed within the context of structured decision making, with an emphasis on uncertainty about responses to management actions and the value of reducing that uncertainty to improve management. You will learn practical approaches to critical thinking, logic, reasoning, and structuring decisions that support your work. You will discover techniques for calculating the expected value of information to reveal the sensitivity of the decision to new information. This course gives you the skills to develop structured approaches in order to make a recommendation or decision that is explicit, transparent, and clear, even when faced with significant uncertainty. Read more...
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Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on
Ecosystems and Species Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment. Read more...
A River Runs Through It: Hydrogeomorphic restoration and public-private partnerships build a future for the Big Muddy Cutting edge research funded by Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Midwest, coupled with on-the-ground conservation and management through public-private partnerships, is building a future for the lower Missouri River. The Plains and Prairie Potholes LCC and Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers LCC, charged with identifying priority science needs to combat landscape scale natural resources threats, joined forces this year to support the Lower Missouri River Hydro-geomorphic Restoration and Management Project. This project will inform more effective conservation and management across 670 miles of the Missouri River from Decatur, Nebraska to St. Louis, Missouri. Read more...
GLISA Great Lakes Climatic Divisions In partnership with the Midwest Regional Climate Center and the Office of the Michigan State Climatologist GLISA has developed summaries of the observed historical climate for NOAA U.S. Climatic Divisions within the Great Lakes Basin. Each summary includes an overview of temperature and precipitation to help guide local-level climate adaptation decisions. Read more…
Consortium of universities, institutions to meet at U-M to discuss future of Great Lakes ANN ARBOR — The University of Michigan hosts dozens of Great Lakes researchers, advocates and policymakers Wednesday at its Ann Arbor campus for a meeting of the Great Lakes Futures Project. The consortium of universities and institutions in the U.S. and Canada is developing plans for long-term research projects to protect and restore the Great Lakes. Participants will discuss forces that shaped the Great Lakes region in the past and those that will shape it over the next half-century, including climate change, energy, economics, water quantity, biological and chemical contaminants, invasive species and demographics. Read more...
Call for Abstracts: International Congress for Conservation Biology The Call for Abstracts for Contributed Oral, Speed with Poster, Poster, and Student Award Presentations for SCB’s 26th International Congress for Conservation Biology is now open. The deadline to submit your abstract is 30 January 2013. ICCB takes place 21-25 July 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Read more...
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Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States National Climate Assessment Global sea level rise has been a persistent trend for decades. It is expected to continue beyond the end of this century, which will cause significant impacts in the United States. Scientists have very high confidence (greater than 90% chance) that global mean sea level will rise at least 8 inches (0.2 meter) and no more than 6.6 feet (2.0 meters) by 2100. These are the among the findings presented in this new report, published by NOAA's Climate Program Office in collaboration with twelve contributing authors from ten different federal and academic science institutions in response to a request from the U.S. National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee. It provides a synthesis of the scientific literature on global sea level rise, and a set of four scenarios of future global sea level rise. The report includes input from national experts in climate science, physical coastal processes, and coastal management. Read more or Download
EPA Releases National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change EPA announces the release of the final National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change following a public comment period. This document sets out long-term goals and specific actions that are EPA's contributions to national efforts to prepare for, and build resilience to, the impacts of a changing climate on water resources. The EPA National Water Program looks forward to working with state, tribal, and local governments, as well as other partners to implement actions that address climate change challenges in key areas. The Strategy focuses on protecting water infrastructure, coastal and ocean waters, watersheds and wetlands, and water quality. Read more or Download
EPA Report: Climate Change Indicators in the United States EPA is working with many other organizations to better understand the causes and effects of climate change. With help from these partners, EPA has compiled a set of 26 indicators tracking signs of climate change. Most of these indicators focus on the United States, but some include global trends to provide context or a basis for comparison. These indicators represent a selected set of key climate change measurements, and are not an exhaustive group of all climate change indicators. EPA's indicators are based on peer-reviewed data from various government agencies, academic institutions, and other organizations. EPA selected these indicators based on the quality of the data and other criteria. Read more or Download
Online Course: Preparing Hydro-climate Inputs for Climate Change in Water Resource Planning Climate Change and Water Working Group agencies (Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Geological Survey) in cooperation with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) COMET Program and the Western Water Assessment have developed a pilot training program that includes both an online course for self-paced training, and a set of subsequent residence courses where students will apply what they learned through the online training. We are pleased to announce the first product of this pilot effort: Preparing Hydro-climate Inputs for Climate Change in Water Resource Planning, an online course focused on the preparation of hydro-climate inputs for incorporating climate change in water resources planning. Space is currently available in the March 5-7 residence course: Climate change impacts on water demand for irrigated crops. Read more
