Media Advisory: Congressional Briefing on Nutrients and Pesticides in the Nation's Rivers and Streams plus 1 more

[USGS Newsroom <oc_web@xxxxxxxx>]

Title: USGS Newsroom

Media Advisory: Congressional Briefing on Nutrients and Pesticides in the Nation's Rivers and Streams plus 1 more

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Media Advisory: Congressional Briefing on Nutrients and Pesticides in the Nation's Rivers and Streams

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Summary: The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Northeast Midwest Institute invite you to a briefing by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) on findings of trends in nutrients and pesticides in the Nation's streams and rivers

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Contact Information:

Ethan Alpern ( Phone: 703-648-4406 );

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The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Northeast Midwest Institute invite you to a briefing by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) on findings of trends in nutrients and pesticides in the Nation's streams and rivers. The briefing will primarily focus on the Mississippi River Basin, which covers about 40% of the nation and represents a wide range of important climatic, agricultural, and urban influences that are present throughout the country.

As Congress debates federal activities and funding for water-quality protection and restoration efforts, it is critical to know how conditions are actually changing over time and to understand why changes have occurred. From NAWQA monitoring, we now know that nitrate loadings from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico increased 14 percent from 1980 to 2010 despite extensive efforts to improve and expand the use of urban and agricultural management practices during the period. Have governmental actions been effective or are other influences causing the changes?

The briefing will also include findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) efforts to assess the health of the Nation’s estuaries and will explain how information and findings from NAWQA’s monitoring and assessments contribute to their assessments and the protection of our estuaries.

Who:	Alan Vicory, Principal – Stantec Consulting & Chair – WEF Government Affairs Committee, Moderator Lori Sprague, Coordinator – NAWQA Surface-Water Trends, U.S. Geological Survey Suzanne Bricker, NOAA National Center for Coastal Ocean Science
Where:	Friday, April 11, 2014 10:00AM – 11:30AM
When:	Congressional Room South, CVC 217 Washington, D.C.

Following presentations by the two speakers, there will be time for questions and discussion from the audience. This briefing is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to cbarbour@xxxxxxxx. If you did not respond, you must show a picture ID. For more information, contact Ethan Alpern.

A Few Winners, But Many More Losers

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 08:00 AM PDT

Summary: Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University.

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Southwestern Bird and Reptile Distributions to Shift as Climate Changes

Contact Information:

Catherine Puckett ( Phone: 352-377-2469 );

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Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University.

Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses – that is, where species are able to live – of nearly half for all but one of the 5 reptile species they examined, including for the iconic chuckwalla. The threatened Sonoran (Morafka’s) desert tortoise, however, is projected to experience little to no habitat losses from climate change. 

Breeding bird ranges exhibited greater expansions and contractions than did reptile species. For example, black-throated sparrows and gray vireos are projected to experience major gains in breeding habitat, but pygmy nuthatches, sage thrashers and Williamson sapsuckers are forecasted to experience large losses in breeding habitat, in some cases by as much as 80 percent. Thus, these three species might be expected to experience large future population declines.

The iconic pinyon jay is expected to experience from one-fourth to one-third loss in breeding habitat in the future, as its welfare is tied to declining pinyon pine habitat.

“Not surprisingly, whether a species is projected to be a winner or a loser depends primarily on its natural history and habitat needs and requirements,” said USGS scientist Charles van Riper III, the lead author on the study. “Land managers should be aware of these potential changes so that they can adjust their management practices accordingly.”

To conduct the study, scientists coupled existing global climate change models with newly developed species distribution models to estimate future losses and gains of 7 southwestern upland bird species and 5 reptile species. The study area focused on the Sonoran Desert and Colorado Plateau ecosystems within Arizona, western New Mexico, Utah, southwestern Colorado and southeastern California, but also included the rest of the Western United States. Focal wildlife species included resident and migratory birds and reptiles, which make up most of the vertebrate biodiversity in the region. 

Temperatures in this region are projected to increase 6.3-7.2 F (3.5–4°C) within the next 60–90 years while precipitation is projected to decline by 5–20 percent.

“Changes of this magnitude may have profound effects on distribution and viability of many species,” noted Stephen T. Jackson, director of the Interior Department’s Southwest Climate Science Center. “Temperature matters a lot, biologically, in arid and semi-arid regions."

One very practical result of the project is a website with a series of range maps projecting the potential effects of climate change on bird and reptile distributions in the Western United States for three different time periods in the next 90 years. These predictions can help managers and policy makers better prioritize conservation effects, van Riper said.

“Wildlife resource managers need regionally specific information about climate change consequences so they better identify tools and strategies to conserve and sustain habitats in their region,” said Doug Beard, director of the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center that supported the project.  “Managers can use these results to help plan for ways to offset projected effects of climate change on these species.”

Detailed Bird Species Projections:

Overall: Black-throated sparrow and gray vireo are projected to experience major gains in breeding habitat.  In contrast, pygmy nuthatches, sage thrashers and Williamson sapsuckers are projected to experience large losses in breeding habitat.  Thus, these three species might be expected to experience large future population declines. (Note: species are linked to their in-depth report summaries.)

• Black-throated sparrow: breeding range projected to increase by 34-47 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Gray vireo: breeding range projected to increase from 58-71 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Virginia’s warbler: breeding range projected to decrease slightly, by 1.5-7 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Sage thrasher: breeding range projected to decrease by 78 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Pinyon jay: breeding range projected to decrease by 25-31 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Pygmy nuthatch: breeding range projected to decrease by 75-81 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Williamson’s sapsucker: breeding range projected to decrease by 73-78 percent between 2010-2099.

Reptiles

Overall: Future climate change will negatively affect the distributions of reptiles in the Western and Southwestern U.S. The one exception is the Sonoran desert tortoise, which is forecasted to expand, and, if a decrease happens, only by about one percent.

Reptiles can’t move as easily as birds nor can they regulate their body temperature, so they can only move minimally in response to changing climates.  The authors found that the greater the projected distributional gain or loss in a reptile species was directly tied to the warmth of its current range.  Thus, the less mobile reptiles will be more greatly affected by increasing temperatures.

• Plateau striped whiptail: range projected to decrease by 42 percent, assuming no dispersal, or by 17 percent, with unlimited dispersal, between 2010 and 2099.
• Arizona black rattlesnake:  range projected to decrease between 32 and 46 percent between 2010 and 2099.
• Sonoran desert tortoise: The Sonoran (Morafka’s) desert tortoise is the only species of reptile for which projections do not include a decrease in suitable habitat by 2099 but only when unlimited dispersal is assumed.  When assuming no dispersal, a slight one percent decrease is forecasted in the extent of suitable habitat.
• Common lesser earless lizard: ranged projected to decrease by 22-49 percent from 2010 to 2099.
• Common chuckwalla: projected ranges are likely to decrease by between 13 and 23 percent between 2010 and 2099.  

The report, Projecting climate effects on birds and reptiles of the southwestern United States, is authored by Charles van Riper III, USGS; James Hatten, USGS; J. Tom Giermakowski, University of New Mexico; Jennifer A. Holmes and Matthew J. Johnson, Northern Arizona University; and others.

For more information about the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, please visit its website.