Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center plus 3 more

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Title: USGS Newsroom

Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center plus 3 more

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• Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center
• Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Alaska Climate Science Center
• Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Northwest Climate Science Center
• Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Southwest Climate Science Center

Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 10:00 AM PST

Climate Science Centers' Research Designed to Fill Knowledge Gaps, Provide Land and Wildlife Managers with Tools to Adapt to Climate Change

Reporters: Descriptions of the funded projects for the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center are available here.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s Pacific Islands Climate Science Center is awarding more than $700,000 to universities and other partners for research to guide managers of parks, refuges and other cultural and natural resources in planning how to help species and ecosystems adapt to climate change.

"Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country," said Secretary Jewell. "These new studies, and others that are ongoing, will help provide valuable, unbiased science that land managers and others need to identify tools and strategies to foster resilience in resources across landscapes in the face of climate change."

The six funded studies will focus on how climate change will affect natural resources and management actions that can be taken to help offset such change. They include:

• Assessing the vulnerability of species to climate change in Hawai`i and other Pacific Island ecosystems by expanding and improving a novel model to identify which plants are vulnerable most to continuing change. This model, developed by federal, state and non-profit organizations, will allow project leads to respond to the needs of resource managers for such species vulnerability assessment to help inform adaptation decisions regionally and locally for some nearly 2000 plant species, and to prioritize their conservation actions.
• Understanding how native and non-native Hawaiian forests will respond to climate change to help resource managers plan for and make effective adaptation and other decisions to slow the spread of invasive species and to keep Hawai`i’s native ecosystems, streams and forests healthy.
• Assessing coral reef vulnerability in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. Climate change poses the single greatest long-term threat to coral reefs and is expected to result in more frequent severe tropical storms and more frequent and severe coral bleaching events. Coral reefs are additionally stressed by human activities, including coastal development and overfishing. This project will assess the resilience potential of coral reefs in the Commonwealth; results will help managers target actions that support and build reef resilience.
• Developing a pilot decision-support tool for coral reef management that can map, assess, value and simulate changes in ecosystem services under alternative climate scenarios and adaptation strategies. Ecosystem services are the benefits that people receive from ecosystems such as coral reefs, which provide recreation and food among other benefits. This tool will help decision makers understand the social and economic tradeoffs of their management and adaptation decisions.
• Preparing for the impacts of climate change on Pacific Island coral reefs. The research team will use a system of models that will ultimately identify reef areas that are either vulnerable or resilient to the many stressors that the future may hold. Such models can identify areas that might benefit from management actions to minimize local stressors such as land-based pollution, and it will directly provide scientific knowledge to aid in planning for adaptation to climate change.
• Providing the best possible projections of future climate change at a regional scale for the islands of Kaui`i and O`ahu. Although the Pacific Islands are notable in their vulnerability to climate change, they have received considerably less attention than more populated areas in climate models. This project will fill that gap in providing downscaled models that will be provided to resource managers for helping them make more effective planning and management decisions.

In Hawai`i and the Pacific Islands, changing climate already is a reality for urban and rural communities, cultural life ways and sites, watersheds, ecosystems and hundreds of imperiled species in this vast oceanic domain of island, atoll and marine ecosystems. "It is vital that we work on climate change effects now to better prepare our communities, ecosystems and species for the future," said David Helweg, director of Interior’s Pacific Islands Climate Science Center. "These studies are designed for the people who need them: managers, policy makers, and community leaders already grappling with the effects of climate change." 

Each of the Department of the Interior's eight Climate Science Centers worked with states, tribes, community leaders, federal agencies, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, universities supporting the CSCs and other regional partners to identify the highest priority management challenges in need of scientific input, and to solicit and select research projects.

The studies will be undertaken by teams of scientists and students from the universities that comprise the Pacific Islands CSC, from USGS science centers, and from other partners such as the State and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USDA Forest Service and the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the region.

The eight DOI Climate Science Centers form a national network and are coordinated by the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, located at the headquarters of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey. CSCs and LCCs have been created under Interior's strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America’s waters, land, and other natural and cultural resources. Together, Interior's CSCs and LCCs will assess the impacts of climate change and other landscape-scale stressors that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit and will identify strategies to ensure that resources across landscapes are resilient in the face of climate change.

The Pacific Islands Climate Science Center is hosted by the University of Hawai`i, Manoa, along with the University of Hawai`i, Hilo, and the University of Guam. 

Useful links:

Pacific Islands CSC Projects

Pacific Islands CSC Homepage

Full list of funded projects for all eight DOI Climate Science Centers

Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Alaska Climate Science Center

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST

Climate Science Centers' Research Designed to Fill Knowledge Gaps, Provide Land and Wildlife Managers with Tools to Adapt to Climate Change

Reporters: Descriptions of the funded projects for the Alaska Climate Science Center are available here.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s Alaska Climate Science Center will share more than $130,000 with the Northwest Climate Science Center and North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative for research to assist Native groups in planning for and adapting to climate change.

In addition, the Alaska CSC will continue with five funded projects from previous years; those projects include climate change research on projects ranging from regional ecosystem modeling to understanding the impacts of coastal storms. 

"Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country,"said Secretary Jewell. "These new studies, and others that are ongoing, will help provide valuable, unbiased science that land managers and others need to identify tools and strategies to foster resilience in resources across landscapes in the face of climate change."

The funded studies will focus on how climate change will affect natural and cultural resources, and management actions that can be taken to help offset such change.  In addition, these studies also document the Center’s priority on entering collaborative partnerships – such as these -- that help leverage limited resources and address shared priorities among different climate science centers.

Alaska-region focused projects include:

• Researchers, working with the Chugachmiut tribal consortium, will develop a model that predicts where subsistence berry plants will be most resistant to recent moth outbreaks that are decimating berry harvests in south-central Alaska.  The Native people of this region rely heavily on gathered food for sustenance and nourishment, but the recent outbreaks of geometrid moths may be linked to climate change; tribal elders and scientific records document that such outbreaks have not occurred in the area before.
• Identifying climate vulnerabilities of eulachon, a highly nutritious smelt that is culturally significant to peoples of the Tlingit Nation in Southeast Alaska. The project will conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan for eulachon in the Chilkoot and Chilkat rivers near Haines, Alaska. A tribal group will analyze these climate change projections, apply traditional knowledge, rank climate vulnerabilities and prioritize adaptation strategies. This project's results will be valuable to Native communities throughout the region.

Alaska CSC Director Steve Gray says that these projects represent a critical step forward in the development of their regional science portfolio.  "This research will provide us with a host of new opportunities to engage with resource managers in our Native communities," said Gray.  "At the same time, these projects are designed to help the Alaska CSC understand how climate science can be directly integrated into tribal decision-making processes, planning and climate change adaptation."

Each of the Department of the Interior's eight Climate Science Centers worked with states, tribes, federal agencies, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, universities supporting the CSCs, and other regional partners to identify the highest priority management challenges in need of scientific input, and to solicit and select research projects.

The studies will be undertaken by teams of scientists, including individuals from the universities that comprise the Alaska CSC, from USGS science centers, and from other partners such as states, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USDA Forest Service, tribal groups and the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in each region.

The eight DOI Climate Science Centers form a national network and are coordinated by the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, located at the headquarters of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey. CSCs and LCCs have been created under Interior's strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America’s waters, land, and other natural and cultural resources. Together, Interior's CSCs and LCCs will assess the impacts of climate change and other landscape-scale stressors that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit and will identify strategies to ensure that resources across landscapes are resilient in the face of climate change.

The Alaska Climate Science Center is hosted by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Useful links:

Alaska CSC Projects

Alaska CSC Homepage

Alaska CSC Consortium Homepage

Full list of funded projects for all eight DOI Climate Science Centers

Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Northwest Climate Science Center

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

Climate Science Centers’ Research Designed to Fill Knowledge Gaps, Provide Land and Wildlife Managers with Tools to Adapt to Climate Change

Reporters: Descriptions of the funded projects for the Northwest Climate Science Center are available here.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s Northwest Climate Science Center is awarding nearly $1.3 million to universities and other partners for research to assist Native Americans and federal and state land managers plan for and adapt to climate change.

"Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country,"said Secretary Jewell. "These new studies, and others that are ongoing, will help provide valuable, unbiased science that land managers and others need to identify tools and strategies to foster resilience in resources across landscapes in the face of climate change."

The Northwest CSC will fund seven new projects and continue funding eight projects from previous years; the ongoing projects range from developing future climate, water, and vegetation scenarios for the Northwest to determine how climate impacts will affect different habitats, such as wetlands, streams and sagebrush steppe, and the animals that live in them, such as frogs, salmon and sage grouse.

Most of the new projects focus on the effects of climate on resources of cultural significance to tribes. While the emphasis is on Northwest tribes, the NW CSC has built a partnership with the Alaska CSC and the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative to fund projects that benefit Native Americans in both regions. This underscores the NW CSC pledge to provide enhanced services to the Native American community at large and to engage in collaborative partnerships that leverage limited resources and address shared priorities. New projects include:

• Assessing the vulnerability of traditional women’s foods of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe to climate change in the Olympic Peninsula, Wash. Elders and wisdom keepers in these tribes are deeply concerned that climate change may diminish or eliminate culturally significant plant species. Researchers will work closely with them and resource managers to document the historical distribution of these plants and assess future distribution using climate scenarios. Study results will produce specific management options for the tribes.
• Understanding Native American cultural responses associated with climate change. There are aspects of tribal culture -- such as songs, stories, prayers and dances – that focus on fish, wildlife or plants as central images or main symbolic figures. Because climate change affects the presence, abundance and patterns of distribution of animals and plants, the study will concentrate on four Northwest tribes to document whether and how such changes influence tribal cultural aspects connected to those significant resources. These observations will help better describe the nuances and dimensions of Northwest tribal culture and its vulnerability and adaptive capacity to a changing climate. 
• Supporting  the Pacific Northwest Climate Science Conference, an annual forum that provides an opportunity for  researchers and practitioners to exchange scientific results, challenges, and solutions related to the impacts of climate on people, natural resources, and infrastructure in the region.
• Through several projects funded jointly by the NW CSC, the Alaska CSC and the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative, researchers will:
  • Work with the Chugachmiut tribal consortium to develop a model that predicts where subsistence berry plants will be most resistant to recent moth outbreaks that are decimating berry harvests in south-central Alaska. The Native people of this region rely heavily on gathered food for sustenance and nourishment, but the recent outbreaks of geometrid moths may be linked to climate change; tribal elders and scientific records document that such outbreaks have not occurred in the area before.
  • Identify climate vulnerabilities of eulachon, a highly nutritious fish that is culturally significant to peoples of the Tlingit Nation in Southeast Alaska. The project will conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan for eulachon in the Chilkoot and Chilkat rivers near Haines, Alaska. A tribal group will analyze these climate change projections, apply traditional knowledge, rank climate vulnerabilities and prioritize adaptation strategies. This project’s results will be valuable to Native communities throughout the region.
  • Evaluate the impacts of future climate scenarios on the survival and health of Pacific lamprey and Pacific eulachon; these species are used as important food sources by the Native American tribes of the Columbia River basin and coastal areas of Washington and Oregon. This project will also include certain salmonid (steelhead and salmon) species of importance to these tribes.
  • Foster a more collaborative tribal and government approach for tribal climate change and adaptation planning in the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California. A tribal youth intern program will be created, building on current efforts to integrate western science and traditional ecological knowledge for climate change and adaptation planning in the area.

 "Our Center contributes a broad range of services that better prepares the Northwest community to respond to the effects of climate on its people and resources," said Gustavo Bisbal, director of the Northwest CSC. "These services involve a large cohort of regional academic, agency and tribal minds to undertake complex science projects, help organize and translate climate data and results as they come in, educate and train young professionals, and communicate actively with a wide audience that is both curious and concerned about the changes they are experiencing now and those to come."

Each of the Department of the Interior's eight Climate Science Centers worked with states, tribes, federal agencies, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, universities supporting the CSCs and other regional partners to identify the highest priority management challenges in need of scientific input, and to solicit and select research projects.

The eight DOI Climate Science Centers form a national network, and are coordinated by the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, located at the headquarters of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey. CSCs and LCCs have been created under Interior's strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America’s waters, land, and other natural and cultural resources. Together, Interior's CSCs and LCCs will assess the impacts of climate change and other landscape-scale stressors that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit and will identify strategies to ensure that resources across landscapes are resilient in the face of climate change.

The Northwest Climate Science Center is hosted by Oregon State University with University of Washington and University of Idaho. The NW CSC conducts climate science for Idaho, Oregon, western Montana, and Washington.

Useful links:

Northwest CSC Projects

Northwest CSC Homepage

Full list of funded projects for all eight DOI Climate Science Centers

Interior's Secretary Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the Southwest Climate Science Center

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

Climate Science Centers’ Research Designed to Fill Knowledge Gaps, Provide Land and Wildlife Managers with Tools to Adapt to Climate Change

Reporters: Descriptions of the funded projects are available here.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s Southwest Climate Science Center is awarding nearly $1.2 million to universities and other partners for research to guide managers of parks, refuges and other cultural and natural resources in planning how to help species and ecosystems adapt to climate change.

"Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country," said Secretary Jewell. "These new studies, and others that are ongoing, will help provide valuable, unbiased science that land managers and others need to identify tools and strategies to foster resilience in resources across landscapes in the face of climate change."

The six funded studies will focus on how climate change will affect natural resources and management actions that can be taken to help offset such change. They include:

• Characterizing how the changing climate of the Southwest is affecting cool- and warm-season precipitation in the Colorado River basin and the corresponding response of stream flow in individual sub-basins. The result will be a stream-flow projection product that better accounts for physical mechanisms of weather and climate on a regional and local scale, which can be directly used by water resource providers.
• Clarifying impacts of natural climate variability on the frequencies and intensities of specific extreme temperature and precipitation events as well as their cascading influences on stream flow in the changing climate of the Southwest. Results of this study will help water, park, forest, fisheries and wildlife managers make better-informed decisions.
• Linking climate, hydrological and ecological changes over the next 30 years in a Great Basin watershed. Climate change in this region is forecasted to affect water resources, and this project will help water managers identify threats and opportunities posed by climate variations in the next decades.
• Examining the changing effects of the North Pacific Jet on water resources and Sierra Nevada fires. The NPJ is a high-altitude narrow path of strong winds over the North Pacific Ocean, and a key determinant of snowpack variability in California. Changes in the NPJ trajectory are forecasted for the future as the climate changes, which could greatly influence California water resources, ecosystems and fire. The project will inform decision makers for proactive wildland fire management.
• Two studies that together will help improve best practices and communications among climate scientists and stakeholders, including agency managers.  With thousands of resource managers across the Southwest making tens of thousands of decisions that may well require climate science information, effective information transfer and stakeholder engagement in climate science are vital. The results from these assessments will be shared widely among the climate science and resource communities, and will help ensure that climate science is prioritized by what information is most critical for resource managers and decision makers.

"With its dry climate, flammable forests, extensive public lands and urban centers dependent on distant water sources, the southwestern United States faces many significant climate-related challenges," said Stephen T. Jackson, Interior’s Southwest Climate Science Center director.  "These projects will advance our scientific understanding of climate impacts while providing information that resource managers can use directly to guide their decisions and planning."

Each of the Department of the Interior's eight Climate Science Centers worked with states, tribes, federal agencies, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, universities supporting the CSCs, and other regional partners to identify the highest priority management challenges in need of scientific input, and to solicit and select research projects.

The studies will be undertaken by teams of scientists from the universities that comprise the Southwest CSC, from USGS science centers and from other partners such as the states, the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, Indian tribes, regional and municipal water-management agencies, and the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in each region.

The eight DOI Climate Science Centers form a national network, and are coordinated by the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, located at the headquarters of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey. CSCs and LCCs have been created under Interior's strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America’s waters, land, and other natural and cultural resources. Together, Interior's CSCs and LCCs will assess the impacts of climate change and other landscape-scale stressors that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit and will identify strategies to ensure that resources across landscapes are resilient in the face of climate change.

The Southwest Climate Science Center is hosted by the University of Arizona, Tucson, with the University of California, Davis; University of California, Los Angeles; Desert Research Institute; Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego); and University of Colorado, Boulder. The CSC conducts climate change science for Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and the Colorado River Headwaters in parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.  

Useful links:

Southwest CSC Projects

Southwest CSC Homepage

Southwest CSC Consortium/University webpage

Full list of funded projects for all eight DOI Climate Science Centers