NE CSC Newsletter

Thursday, March 5, 2015

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2014 Annual Report Now Available! The Northeast Climate Science Center is proud to present its Annual Report. Research activities and accomplishments are highlighted for a variety of events and projects held over the last year. Read more >>

Webinar: “FISHTAIL: A decision support mapper for conserving stream fish habitats of the NE CSC region” March 11, 3:30 PM ET. Climate change is expected to further alter the Northeast CSC region’s stream habitats which support diverse and economically-valuable stream fishes. Comprehensive understanding of both current and future condition of stream habitats is essential for conserving and managing fishes and their habitats, and managers require the ability to integrate such information in a spatially-continuous and scalable format to aid management decisions. Read more >>

Webinar: "New Tools for Projecting Impacts of Climate Change on Deer and Waterfowl" March 12, 11am ET. Researchers from an NE CSC-funded project will present a 2-part webinar describing updates on the development of Weather Severity Indices for waterfowl and debuting an open-access web-based tool for querying and visualizing WSI data. The researchers will also discuss the development of projections of winter severity using dynamical downscaling. Read more >>

Evaluating the Coastal Landscape Response to Sea-Level Rise For a project partly funded by the NE CSC, a USGS and Columbia University team recently completed their study evaluating the effects of sea-level rise on the northeastern U.S. The project produced an approach and methodology to distinguish coastal areas likely to inundate in response to sea-level rise from those likely to respond dynamically by moving or changing. Read more >>

Building Bridges Between Tribes and Climate Scientists NE CSC PI Chris Caldwell and NE CSC Graduate Fellow Marie Schaefer from the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation hosted a Roundtable Discussion with the Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and climate scientists in the New England region: "Tribal Interests and Resources, Federal and Academic Resources, and Climate Change Science in the Northeast Region" at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Read more >>

Scientists Work to Understand Conservation Decision Making in the Face of Sea-Level Rise What happens to the value of coastal habitat and wildlife as shorelines continue to be lost to rising sea levels and increasingly frequent extreme weather events? This question is particularly important for coastal National Wildlife Refuge managers serving on the front line of global change impacts to our nation’s natural resources. Their job is made increasingly difficult by factors such as complex and interacting biological and physical systems coupled with human systems, as well as a limited availability of conservation resources. Read more >>

Ground Squirrels Could Make US's Drought Less Terrible Evil cannibal squirrels may be an essential piece of California's hydrological system. And they're disappearing. Research conducted by NE CSC Postdoctoral Fellow Toni Lyn Morelli on the Belding's ground squirrels may have an impact on the public perception of this pest in California's agricultural fields. Read more >>

Upcoming presentations from the NE CSC:

• Alexander, K., Staudinger, MD, and A. Jordaan. Gulf of Maine Seabird Working Group meeting, Bangor ME, March 11.

• Jacobsen, R. Poster presentation at Missouri River Natural Resources Conference, “Identifying floodplain conservation land management priorities and science needs for the Lower Missouri River.” March 10-12.

• D'Amato, A. "Something old, something new: silvicultural strategies for addressing climate change”, New England Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting, Farlee, VT, March 26.

Recent Publications from the NE CSC:

• Letcher, B., Nislow, K., et al. 2014. Robust estimates of environmental effects on population vital rates: an integrated capture-recapture model of seasonal brook trout growth, survival and movement in a stream network. Journal of Animal Ecology.

• Woodall, C.W., M.B. Russell, B.F. Walters, A.W. D'Amato, S. Fraver, and G.M. Domke. 2014. Net carbon flux of dead wood in forests of the Eastern US. Oecologia.

• Russell, M.B., C.W. Woodall, A.W. D'Amato, G.M. Domke, and S.S. Saatchi. 2014. Beyond mean functional traits: influence of functional trait profiles on forest structure, production, and mortality across the eastern US. Forest Ecology and Management.

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The Cities Impacts & Adaptation Tool (CIAT)is a climate adaptation planning support tool for decision makers at the city level in the Great Lakes Region of North America. It provides usable data such as demographics, socioeconomic data, and both current and projected climate trends. Using this information, the tool also identifies a custom network of climate peers whose current climate reflects how yours may look in the future. The CIAT also provides a searchable database of adaptation strategies pulled from existing climate action plans from across the country. Read more >>

------ LCC NEWS HIGHLIGHTS: -------------------------------------

North Atlantic LCC

- Large Landscape Conservation network releases workshop report

Appalachian LCC

- 100 Case Studies Published Today Show How Communities Are Preparing Our Roads, Airports, and Transit Systems for Climate Change

Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC

- An overview of Structured Decision Making-3 trainings offered

------ OTHER NEWS: ----------------------------------------------------

NIACS Highlight: Developing climate change adaptation responses on the Superior National Forest Along the North Shore of Lake Superior, residents and land managers have watched forests of paper birch and aspen decline over the past several years. In addition, conifer regeneration has been nearly absent. The Superior National Forest developed the North Shore Forest Restoration Project to address these concerns, and have included an explicit consideration of potential climate change effects in their proposed management. Read more >>

What the massive snowfall in Boston tells us about global warming Counter-intuitive though it may sound, the fact remains that — as I have noted previously — some kinds of winter precipitation could indeed be more intense because we’re in a warming world. Read more >>

How Indigenous philosophy could help us understand climate change Cut the Sky, a new dance work premiering at the Perth festival, draws on Indigenous Australian traditions to help audiences apply emotion, rather than cold logic, to climate change. Read more >>

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New Publication Features Climate Science Centers and Adaptation Strategies New study examines if the way that conservation organizations are configured positions them effectively for adaptation to global change. Read more >>

CAKE Highlight: Storm Surge Inundation and Hurricane Strike Frequency Map Illustrates current worst-case coastal storm surge or inundation scenarios and hurricane strike frequency. Read more >>

Sea Levels in Northeast US Have Risen Two Inches in Last Two Years A study published in the journal Nature Communications found that sea levels from New York to Newfoundland rose about four inches in 2009 and 2010 due to changing ocean circulation. Read more >>

Salt Marsh Advancement Zone Assessments Connecticut has now become the first state in the nation to complete a future salt marsh assessment down to the parcel scale for its entire coastline! Read more >>

New Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Case Studies Series The Federal Highway Administration will be highlighting climate change adaptation and resilience work in the transportation sector. Read more >>

Sea Level Could Rise Six Feet in NYC, According to Report The New York City Panel on Climate Change released their 2015 report, which found that New York City can expect more extreme precipitation, more frequent heat waves, and more sea level rise. Read more >>

New Survey Report: "Public Health, Energy, and Climate Change" Released by George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, in partnership with the Climate Communication Consortium of Maryland. According to the report, a majority of Marylanders understand the link between energy choices, climate change and public health and say they expect people's health in their communities will be affected by climate change. Read more >>

------ OPPORTUNITIES: -----------------------------------------------------

Job announcement The USA-NPN is hiring a programmer with a background in data analysis, to advance the Network's data and research infrastructure. Read more >>

Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Lake Erie Center Students enrolled will develop a research project related to Lake Erie and carry out the research work in June and July. Read more >>

------ WEBINARS: --------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, March 10, 12:00pm ET

OneNOAA Science Seminar presents,

"Ensemble data assimilation and model validation studies using cloud and water vapor sensitive infrared brightness temperatures"

Jason Otkin, University of Wisconsin/SSEC

To register, visit: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/seminars/index.html

Tuesday, March 10, 2:00pm ET

OneNOAA Science Seminar presents,

"Modeling the Stratosphere: Ozone, Reanalysis, Predictability, and connections with the Troposphere"

Ming Cai, Florida State University, and Judith Perlwitz, NOAA ESRL

To join, visit: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/seminars/index.html

Tuesday, March 10, 2:00pm ET

FHWA's Building a Climate Resilient Transportation System Webinar Series presents,

"FHWA Tools: Developing Future Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Scenarios"

Speakers TBD

To register, visit: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/climate_change/adaptation/webinars/

Tuesday, March 10 at 3:00pm ET

The National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center presents,

“Rangewide Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Threatened Bull Trout”

Jason Dunham, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

To register, visit: https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/webinar/442

Wednesday, March 11, 3:30pm ET

Northeast Climate Science Center presents,

“FISHTAIL: A decision support mapper for conserving stream fish habitats of the NE CSC region”

Wes Daniel & Nick Sievert, University of Missouri

To join, visit: https://necsc.umass.edu/webinars/fishtail-decision-support-mapper-conserving-stream-fish-habitats-ne-csc-region

Thursday, March 12, 11:00am ET

Northeast Climate Science Center and Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks LCC presents,

“New Tools for Projecting Impacts of Climate Change on Deer and Waterfowl”

Michael Schummer, SUNY Oswego and Michael Notaro, University of Wisconsin

To register, visit: http://necsc.umass.edu/news/upcoming-webinar-will-highlight-new-tools-projecting-impacts-climate-change-deer-and-waterfowl

Friday, March 13, 1:00pm ET

The Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the Coastal Environment Program presents,

“Incorporating Nature Based Solutions into Climate Adaptation and Restoration Plans in the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary: A Survey of the Challenges and Opportunities Two Years After Sandy”

Robert Pirani, Hudson River Foundation

To join, visit: http://www.resilient-infrastructure.org/sage-webinars.html

Thursday, March 19, 1:00pm ET

Conservation Biology Institute presents,

"Navigating the Data Basin Platform: A Guided Tour"

Tosha Comendant

To register, visit: http://consbio.org/newsroom/events/webinar-navigating-data-basin-March-2015

Friday, Mar 20, 2:00 pm CT

The Conservation Biology Institute and GCPO LCC presents,

“GCPO LCC Conservation Planning Atlas Outreach Strategy”

Kristine Evans and Gregg Elliott, GCPO LCC

To join, visit: http://www.consbio.org/newsroom/events/GCPO-CPA-outreach-strategy