May 2017 Newsletter
May 2017 Newsletter
Welcome to the Southeast Climate Science Center’s May 2017 Newsletter.
In this newsletter you will find:
SE CSC News
Resources
Notable Publications
Tribal News
Partner News
NC State Seminars and Events
Webinars
Upcoming Events
Opportunities
For news and upcoming events related to the Southeast Climate Science Center subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
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Southeast Climate Science Center News
SE CSC Partner Survey, We are seeking input on science and management needs related to strategic issues and problems that fish and wildlife agencies face in the southeastern US. Responses are anonymous and will be used for internal review and planning only. Take the survey here or read more about it here.
University Director, Nick Haddad’s, Connectivity Project highlighted by The Wildlife Society: The future for many species is all about connections, yet climate change is getting in the way. Read more.
Global Change Fellow Spotlight: Elsita Kiekebusch, Combining a passion for preservation with a love of insects, Elsita Kiekebusch studies how changes in climate are affecting the life cycles and development of butterflies. Read more.
Global Change Fellow Spotlight: Ryann Rossi, Off in the Caribbean, Ryann Rossi dives deep into the region’s mangrove ecosystems and studies how climate change plays a part in the processes. Read more.
SE CSC PI, Katharine Hayhoe, was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss exactly how unproductive it is to label someone as a “climate denier”. Listen to her interview here.
Faculty Affiliates, Krishna Pacifici, Brian Reich, and Jaime Collazo, are co-authors on paper in Ecology, Integrating multiple data sources in species distribution modeling: a framework for data fusion. The paper analyzes various models for calculating species distribution that doesn’t jeopardize quality or quantity. Read More
Research Ecologist Mitch Eaton facilitated the development of a Structured Decision-Making framework to identify and agree upon a set of core values and fundamental objectives among conservation partners representing >20 agencies and organizations in the Gulf of Mexico, laying the groundwork for the Gulf of Mexico Avian Monitoring Network. The coordinated monitoring recommendations resulting from that work were emphasized in a recent paper. See the project page.
Faculty Affiliates, Brian Reich and Ross Whetten, join with other NCSU researchers to publish the paper, Optimal Seed Deployment under Climate Change using Spatial Models: Application to Loblolly Pine in the Southeastern US. Journal of The American Statistical Association, February 2017. The paper looks at which loblolly pine genetics grow best in various changing climate conditions. Read here.
SE CSC PI, Jacob LaFontaine, will present the next webinar in the NCCWSC Ecological Drought webinar series “Hydrologic Research and Assessment: From Local to Regional Scales,” which will summarize results from SE CSC-funded research. Learn more and register.
May Newsletter for the Conservation Corridor, Read Now
Application Period Open to Participate in Climate Science Center Review Teams. Read more
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Resources
FEATURED RESOURCE
iSeeChange, This app is taking a citizen science approach to tracking changing climates in our own backyard. The iSeeChange Almanac encourages anyone to record the changes in their environment and has a community discussion about trends or differences they might see. Each post shares a comment with a picture and is connected with a location and weather tag. The iSeeChange Tracker is collaborating with NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory Mission to allow communities to investigate ongoing research and help NASA capture changes that satellites can’t capture from space. The iSeeChange Community Investigations tool can call community and citizen science groups to track a particular area over time, which can help provide baseline data and guide decisions and policies. Check it out here.
New Report: Climate Change Education: Effective Practices for Working with Educators, Scientists, Decision Makers, and the Public Guide, The Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance has published recommendations on effective education and communications practices that encompass climate change knowledge for decision-making. Find it here.
New coral bleaching database to help predict the fate of global reefs, Researchers recently collaborated on a new, high-resolution global mass coral bleaching database in hopes of filling in the gaps of coral bleaching information. Read the research article here and find the database here.
Model Forest Policy Program, A national nonprofit organization that helps communities create climate adaptation plans that are ready for implementation. Learn more here.
Solving the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid Crisis, A new video from Untamed Science examines the ensuring the survival of hemlock trees and their associated habitats through interviews with forest researchers and managers and footage shot around western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee where the invasive hemlock wooly adelgid has caused extensive damage to these iconic trees. Read more.
Coastal Drought Index Using Salinity Data, Paul Conrads with the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center and Lisa Darby with NOAA recently published a Coastal Salinity Index (CSRI) which characterizes coastal salinity conditions with respect to drought periods of higher-saline conditions and wet periods of higher-freshwater conditions. Read more.
Mapping the World’s Ocean Ecosystems, For a long time, the earth’s oceans remained a mystery to researchers. But recently, a group of scientists from USGS (including the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center), ESRI, NOAA and other partners have produced the first ever detailed maps that group the entire global ocean into 37 distinct 3D ecosystems. The Ecological Marine Unit Explorer organizes an incredibly rich collection of data and provides a convenient open-data platform to facilitate science and marine resource management. Read more.
Wetlands included in EPA’s GHG Inventory, The 1990-2015 GHG Inventory is finalized and includes Coastal Wetlands for the first time! Coastal Wetlands are included under section 6.8 Wetlands Remaining Wetlands and 6.9 Land Converted to Wetlands. Find it here.
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Notable Publications
How do en route events around the Gulf of Mexico influence migratory land birds populations? A new paper in The Condor looks at how migratory birds use a variety of coastal habitats, from vast tracts of hardwoods to patches of vegetation embedded in agricultural or urban areas. Threats to birds passing through the Gulf of Mexico include coastal habitat loss like forest clearing, wetland filling and dredging, and shoreline hardening; tall structures like cell phone towers and wind turbines; and of course, climate change.
Local temperature response to land cover and management change driven by non-radiative processes. New insights into the impact forests have on surface temperature will provide a valuable tool in efforts to mitigate climate change, according to a new research paper. By coupling information from satellites with local data from sensors mounted to research towers extending high above tree canopies, researchers have given a much more complete, diagnostic view of the roles forests play in regulating climate.
Ocean warming since 1982 has expanded the niche of toxic algal blooms in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Climate change is predicted to cause a series of maladies for world oceans including heating up, acidification, and the loss of oxygen. A newly published study published online in the April 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that one ocean consequence of climate change that has already occurred is the spread and intensification of toxic algae.
Can we manage coastal ecosystems to sequester more blue carbon? An April 2017 paper in The Frontiers of Ecology and the Environment discusses ways to sequester more blue carbon through three potential management strategies reducing anthropogenic nutrient inputs, reinstating top-down control of bioturbator populations and restoring hydrology. A key research priority is to more accurately quantify the impacts of these strategies on atmospheric greenhouse-gas emission in different settings at landscape scales.
IUCN greatly underestimates threat levels of endemic birds in the Western Ghats, A new study indicates that the number of plant and animal species at risk of extinction, which in the past has been estimated through citizen science, may be considerably higher than previously thought. A team of researchers, however, believe they’ve come up with a formula that will help paint a more accurate picture.
Climate-Resilient Wheat Fructans Varieties, A Potential Breeding Target for Nutritionally Improved, Climate-Resilient Varieties, One component of wheat, fructans, is known to serve physiological roles in the plant and confer health benefits to humans. Increases in climate variability have placed new emphasis on the need for resilient wheat varieties. A new paper in ACCESS identifies potential breeding targets to create climate-resilient, nutritionally improved wheat varieties is of particular interest.
New estimate of the current rate of sea level rise from a sea level budget approach, Global sea level is rising faster now that it was in the 1990s, according to a mammoth analysis published last month in Geophysical Research Letters. The new analysis looks at altimeter readings with rising global mean sea level rise since 1993.
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Tribal News
Hiring Tribal Climate Science Liaison (Midwest), The College of Menominee Nation is seeking to hire a Tribal Climate Science Liaison to help identify and address Tribal climate science needs in the midwestern portion of the Northeast CSC region. The hire will serve as a liaison between Tribes, respective Bureau of Indian Affairs regions, and researchers to improve outreach, capacity building, and identify and address research gaps to guide adaptive planning and implementation of tribal resiliency projects. Open until filled. Learn more.
Hiring Tribal Climate Science Liaison (Southeast and Northeast). The Office of Environmental Resource Management (OERM) Tribal Climate Science Liaison will serve as a technical expert on climate change issues, resource vulnerability, and climate adaptation actions to Tribal nations in the USET region, and more broadly in the combined region comprising the Department of Interior’s Northeast Climate Science Center and Southeast Climate Science Center (NE CSC and SE CSC). The Tribal Climate Science Liaison will be responsible for developing and implementing a communication, education and outreach program; identify climate research needs and priorities, and provide climate adaptation planning support to Tribal nations. This position will be based at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Learn more.
Honoring Tribal Legacies Project, The goal of the Honoring Tribal Legacies project is to make resources available to educators so they can integrate Native American Tribal perspectives into curricula at all grade levels and in multiple subject areas. The project is funded by the National Park Service and the University of Oregon. A diverse team of educators came together to design seven model Teachings (curricula) that are available in their entirety on a complimentary basis on the project’s website. Learn more.
Native American Conservation Corps (NACC). The Native American Conservation Corps (NACC) is an innovative partnership between Northwest Youth Corps, AmeriCorps, and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. The program is specifically designed to provide hands-on training and experience to Native American young adults living in the Greater Portland metropolitan area who are interested in pursuing employment with conservation corps, land and water resource management agencies, and other outdoor careers. Learn more.
Indigenous Climate Justice Teaching Materials & Advanced Bibliography, Michigan State University Professor Kyle Whyte has compiled a working bibliography of papers on the intersection of climate justice and indigenous peoples. Find it here.
Teaching Native Cases Summer Institute, The Summer Institute of the Enduring Legacies Native Cases Initiative will build on teaching interdisciplinary case studies on significant issues in Indian Country and offering workshops for educators to network and learn how to use the cases in their classes. The workshops welcome faculty from a variety of disciplines and institutions as well as practitioners in Tribal and other organizations that might benefit from this work. June 20-21, 2017. Learn more.
41st Annual National Indian Timber Symposium, The Intertribal Timber Council is hosting a symposium designed to facilitate communication from the perspectives of tribes, the BIA, private industry, legislative bodies, and academia on issues and concerns of current forestry management practices. June 26-29, 2017. Hosted by the Yakama Nation. Learn more.
BIA Water Resources Technician Training Program, The Stewards Individual Placement Program’s Water Resources Technician Training (WRTT) program is a 26-week program that includes an intensive academic course load and in-the-field, hands-on training in the monitoring of water quality and quantity. Learn more.
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Partner News
LCC NEWS
Appalachian
New Study Shows Americans’ Deep Appreciation for Nature, Barriers to Connection. Read more.
More News from Appalachian LCC
Caribbean
Partner Spotlight: Sierra Club Puerto Rico. Read more.
More News from Caribbean LCC
Gulf Coast Prairie
June 2017 GCP LCC Steering Committee meeting. Learn more.
More News from Gulf Coast Prairie LCC
Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks
Time flies when you’re having fun: the GCPO LCC’s 7th annual spring meeting! Read More.
GCPO LCC Steering Committee to meet May 17-18 in Florida. Read More.
More News from Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC
South Atlantic
Blueprint workshops so far. Read more.
A conservation blueprint for the nation? Read more.
More News from South Atlantic LCC
LCC Network Releases One-Year Progress Report on Accomplishing Recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, When the Review of the LCC’s was released in December 2015, the LCC Network committed to reporting on our progress in responding to the National Academy of Sciences’ recommendations. The LCC Network assembled a “Next Steps” team and drafted an Action Plan to set a trajectory of continual improvement. Implementation of the Action Plan is expected to take approximately two years, with many of the activities intended to be ongoing such as developing living documents and fostering ongoing, collaborative relationships. Find it here.
Partner News
Western North Carolina Community Contemplates Upcoming Wildfire Season, Seeks Solutions, NPR: Citizens in Western North Carolina join in Asheville, North Carolina to discuss the likelihood of increased wildfires in the area. The discussion was lead by a panel of experts in the region including members of the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy and more. Read more.
Gullah/Geechee Nation Depends on the Ocean’s Abundance, news feature in the Citizen-Times. Find it here.
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NC State Seminars and Events
June 6 | 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM, Triangle Smart Cities Summit
The first Triangle Smart Cities Summit, sponsored by NC State University and the City of Raleigh. This event will bring together local city, industry, and academic leaders for engaged discussion and share ideas to help make our region a smarter and more connected community. Mayors, industry and academic executives, and national leaders in the smart cities movement will discuss the biggest challenges they face and their current efforts and vision towards making the Triangle a smart region. The event is free and open to the public. No registration required.
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Webinars
Find more webinar information in our calendar.
May 18 | 10:00 – 11:00 AM, Third Thursday Web Forum: Blueprint workshop results
May 18 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM, Coral Reefs and People in a High-CO2 World: Where Can Science Make a Difference to People?
May 18 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM, Hydrologic Research and Assessment: From Local to Regional Scales
June 1 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM NCA4 Land Cover and Land Use Change Public Webinar – Updated
June 13 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM Modeling and Observing Hydrodynamics and Carbonate chemistry over Florida’s Shallow and Deep Coral Reefs
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Upcoming Events
May 16 – 18 | Gulf of Mexico Climate Community of Practice Annual Meeting | Covington, LA
The Climate Community of Practice (CoP) brings together extension, outreach, and education professionals and community officials in the Gulf to learn how coastal communities can adapt to sea-level rise, precipitation changes, and other climate-related issues. More info.
May 17 | 9:00 – 11:00 AM. Community Decision Making Workshop | Georgetown, SC
The North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) and Coastal Carolina University (CCU) are hosting a free climate and coastal flooding workshop that will simulate the decision-making process to increase awareness and concerns about potential climate change risks and explore opportunities and obstacles to addressing them as a community. The program is limited to 15 participants and is located at CCU Georgetown building at 901 Front Street, Georgetown, SC. A light breakfast is included. Registration is required.
July 10 – 14 | Regional Sea Level Changes and Coastal Impacts | Columbia University, NYC
The World Climate Research Program has established the theme “Regional Sea-Level Change and Coastal Impacts” as one of its Grand Challenge science questions. A five-day event with a leading theme guiding the activities of each day. The structure of the conference will consist of plenary sessions followed by extensive poster sessions. In the evenings, we are planning to hold “think-tanks” focusing on new science frontiers and activities. Register.
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Opportunities
Hiring Announcements
Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative Project Coordinator, The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative is looking to fill a full-time, one-year position to lead the development of the selection decision support tree tool – Gulf Tools for Resilience Exploration Engine (Gulf TREE). The Coordinator will be encouraged to seek funding to extend their time to work on sea-level rise adaptation in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Closing Date: Will remain open until filled. More info.
Strategic Conservation Assessment (Four Positions Available), The Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks LCC is hiring four positions to support the Strate Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes (SCA) project. This project will coalesce existing conservation and socio-economic priorities into conservation planning decision support tools to aid the Restore Council and their stakeholders in identifying high priority lands for voluntary conservation efforts. The SCA project is being led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Gulf Restoration Team and administered through a cooperative agreement with Mississippi State University, with support from the four Gulf Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. Learn more about each position here.
Tribal Climate Science Liaison (Midwest), The College of Menominee Nation is seeking to hire a Tribal Climate Science Liaison to help identify and address Tribal climate science needs in the midwestern portion of the Northeast CSC region. The hire will serve as a liaison between Tribes, respective Bureau of Indian Affairs regions, and researchers to improve outreach, capacity building, and identify and address research gaps to guide adaptive planning and implementation of tribal resiliency projects. Open until filled. Learn more.
Tribal Climate Science Liaison (Southeast and Northeast), The Office of Environmental Resource Management (OERM) Tribal Climate Science Liaison will serve as a technical expert on climate change issues, resource vulnerability, and climate adaptation actions to Tribal nations in the USET region, and more broadly in the combined region comprising the Department of Interior’s Northeast Climate Science Center and Southeast Climate Science Center (NE CSC and SE CSC). The Tribal Climate Science Liaison will be responsible for developing and implementing a communication, education and outreach program; identify climate research needs and priorities, and provide climate adaptation planning support to Tribal nations. This position will be based at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Learn more.
Research Grants
Science for Nature and People Partnership | Request for Proposals for new Working Groups
SNAPP is accepting RFPs for new working groups until 5 p.m. PDT, 7 June 2017. Project proposals must have the potential to generate clear outcomes for improving human well-being and nature conservation and should examine a geographic scale that may produce generalizable conclusions and/or replicable solutions.
USDA | Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate Challenge Area
The AFRI Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate Challenge Area supports activities that enable the nation’s agriculture and forest lands to adapt to current and future climate conditions (including increased droughts and other extreme events), maintain or increase production, efficiently use soil and water resources, and improve soil, water, and air conditions. Proposals due July 13th.
NSF | Antarctic Research
The U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) supports scientific research in Antarctica and provides operational research support. The NSF Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Sciences Section (ANT) supports research to 1) expand fundamental knowledge of the Antarctic region, 2) improve understanding of interactions between the Antarctic region and global earth systems, and 3) utilize the unique characteristics of the Antarctic continent as an observing platform. Proposals due May 23rd.
Miscellaneous
DOI National Monument Antiquities Act Public Comments, change in the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities in hopes of connecting researchers across disciplines. Applications due June 15, 2017global The Department of the Interior opened the first ever formal public comment period for members of the public to officially weigh in on monument designations under the Antiquities Act of 1906, and the Department released a list of monuments under review under the President’s Executive Order 13792, issued April 26, 2017. Comments may be submitted online after May 12 at http://www.regulations.gov by entering “DOI-2017-0002” in the Search bar and clicking “Search,”. Comments due July 10th. Read More.
Public Commenting for Project Identification, The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resources Assessment Trustee Council is identifying restoration projects for 2017-2020 planning years. The deadline to submit project ideas is May 15, 2017. Projects submitted after the deadline will be considered in future planning.
Graduate Climate Conference, The 11th Graduate Climate Conference will be conjoining in Cape Cod, Massachusetts this upcoming November. The conference goal is to create a platform for graduate students studying global change in the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities in hopes of connecting researchers across disciplines. Applications due June 15, 2017. Read More.
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