NE CASC News

NE CASC Tribal Climate Science Liaison Casey Thornbrugh recently received a 2020 Climate Adaptation Leadership Award. This marks the second consecutive year that an NE CASC representative has claimed this prestigious honor.

NE CASC Research Ecologist Toni Lyn Morelli and colleagues from the Refugia Research Coalition organized a session on "Innovative Approaches for Identifying and Managing Climate Change Refugia" at the recently held 2020 North American Congress for Conservation Biology Symposium. Presentations for the session were recorded and are available for viewing. 

Principal Investigators Richard Palmer and Keith Nislow have completed their final report for the project "Slowing the Flow for Climate Resilience: Reducing Vulnerability to Extreme Flood and Drought Events".This research underscores the importance of riparian conservation and restoration in providing ecosystem services such as flood risk mitigation under a climate-altered future. 

NE CASC invites members of the climate adaptation community to participate in our upcoming online workshop, "Biological Thresholds in the Context of Climate Adaptation. This event will take place on October 7-8, 2020. 

The research team of Jennifer Cartwright, Toni Lyn Morelli and Evan Grant have completed the project, "Mapping Climate Change Resistant Vernal Pools in the Northeastern U.S.," which investigated existing management concerns that climate change may cause some vernal pools to dry earlier in the season than they have historically. 

A team led by Curtice Griffin recently completed the NE CASC project, "Mechanisms for species responses to climate change: Are there biological thresholds?"

This work responds to the widespread impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems across the NE CASC region along with the accompanying need to better equip natural resource managers with information that will help them maintain ecological function and species persistence as climate change becomes more intense. 

Invasive species are shifting their ranges in response to climate change.  The Northeast has been identified as a ‘hotspot’ where up to 100 warm-adapted, range-shifting invasive plants could establish before 2050. But, effectively monitoring and managing for 100 species is an impractical and unrealistic strategy. Writing in Biological Invasions, a team of NE CASC researchers led by Bethany Bradley has recently identified a more practical number of species to manage by using an IUCN recommended impacts assessment called the Environmental Impacts Classification of Alien Taxa (EICAT).

Though it is a comparatively small aquatic creature, the sand lance plays a significant role in sustaining the dynamic ecosystem of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes described as a “quintessential forage fish,” the sand lance serves as a food source for myriad predators, including marine mammals, seabirds, and larger fish such as Atlantic sturgeon, cod, and bluefin tuna. Despite its ecological importance, however, most aspects of the sand lance’s ecology, population dynamics and vulnerability to current and future stressors in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWA) are poorly understood.

Over the past century, ice cover in many Wisconsin lakes has declined by an average of one month during winter. Yet the consequences of this pronounced shift are unknown. The research of Hilary Dugan, an NE CASC principal investigator, aims to unravel this mystery by exploring the implications of ice loss for the health of Wisconsin lakes and the aquatic life inside them.

Adrian Jordaan and Michelle Staudinger recently completed their NE CASC project, Ecological and Management Implications of Climate Change Induced Shifts in Phenology of Coastal Fish and Wildlife Species in the NE CASC Region.

Species around the world are facing habitat degradation resulting from overharvesting, overhunting, invasive species, and pollution, in addition to climate change. A new paper by NE CASC researcher Toni Lyn Morelli and her collaborators details the severe impacts of deforestation and climate change in Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot and habitat to two critically endangered species of ruffed lemur found nowhere else in the world. These lemurs are indicators of overall rainforest health and play a critical role in seed dispersal across the ecosystem.  

Karen Terwilliger has released an interim report detailing results from the first year of her work on the NE CASC project "Assessing Climate Change Threats and Actions in Northeast State Wildlife Action Plans". This research synthesizes and prioritizes climate change threats and associated adaptation strategies for regional species of greatest conservation need as identified in recent State Wildlife Action Plans to support coordinated conservation and adaptation by Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) states.