June 2017 Newsletter

June 14, 2017 superuser

June 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to the Southeast Climate Science Center’s June 2017 Newsletter.

In this newsletter you will find:

SE CSC News
Resources
Notable Publications
Tribal News
Partner News
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

National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center Annual Report. The 2016 annual report highlighting activities and accomplishments of NCCWSC and the CSCs is now available. Learn more.
SE CSC PI Michael Osland recently published an article in Ecology, Mangrove expansion and contraction at a poleward range limit: climate extremes and land-ocean temperature gradients. Read the article. View his project page here.
SE CSC PI Michael Osland recently published an article in Ecological Monographs, Climatic controls on the global distribution, abundance, and species richness of mangrove forests. Read the article. View his project page here.
Conservation Corridor Connecting science to conservation. Learn more.
SE CSC PI Jacob LaFontaine’s recent webinar from the NCCWSC Ecological Drought Series “Hydrologic Research and Assessment: From Local to Regional Scales” is now online for viewing. The webinar summarized SE CSC-funded research.Read the article. View his project page here.
Faculty Affiliate Erin Seekamp recently published Assessing Historical Significance and Use Potential of Buildings within Historic Districts: An Overview of a Measurement Framework Developed for Climate Adaptation Planning. This project, funded by SE CSC, is a pilot study to help inform climate adaptation planning for cultural resources. Learn more. View her project page here.
Faculty Affiliate Caren Cooper recently spoke at TEDx Greensboro on the value of citizen science. Watch it here.
Faculty Affiliate Marcelo Ardon and others tell their story in The Story Collider at Motorco, Durham this upcoming June 26th. The event is organized by Faculty Affiliates involved in the NC State Leadership in Public Science Cluster. Event details below (see Upcoming Events) and here.
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Resources

FEATURED RESOURCE

Nature’s Network is a collaborative effort facilitated by the North Atlantic LCC that brings together partners from 13 states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nongovernmental organizations, and universities to identify the best opportunities for conserving and connecting intact habitats and ecosystems and supporting imperiled species to help ensure the future of fish and wildlife across the Northeast region. Nature’s Network offers a suite of decision-support tools representing five conservation approaches. Learn more.

Using Nature to Address Flooding is a guide of nature-based solutions and included case studies of successful projects from across the country to help communities learn more and identify which nature-based solutions might work for them. Learn more.
The Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in partnership with six other federal agencies, developed the kit to aid educators in teaching how climate change is affecting the Nation’s wildlife and public lands, and how everyone can become climate stewards. Learn more. Watch new video here.
Communicating climate change: Key books and reports. The Yale Climate Connections has compiled Part 1 of a two-part review of key books and reports published between 2006 and 2014 addressing challenges and opportunities in communicating about climate change. Learn more.
Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide. The social cost of carbon is an economic metric intended to provide a comprehensive estimate of the net damages – that is, the monetized value of the net impacts, both negative and positive – from the global climate change that results from a small (1-metric ton) increase in carbon-dioxide emissions. Learn more.
Deepwater Horizon Project Tracker was launched in April 2014 to track research, recovery and restoration projects funded as a result of the disaster. Tour the Deepwater Horizon-funded projects and programs via a Story Map.
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Notable Publications

Divergence of species responses to climate change. This paper analyzes abundance data over time for 86 tree species/groups across the eastern United States spanning the last three decades. The results show that more tree species have experienced a westward shift (73%) than a poleward shift (62%) in their abundance, a trend that is stronger for saplings than adult trees. Link to article.
Understanding the regional pattern of projected future changes in extreme precipitation. A new study by researchers from MIT and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich shows that the most extreme rain events in most regions of the world will increase in intensity by 3 to 15 percent, depending on region, for every degree Celsius that the planet warms. Link to article.
Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide. The social cost of carbon is an economic metric intended to provide a comprehensive estimate of the net damages from the global climate change that results from a small (1-metric ton) increase in carbon-dioxide emissions. Valuing Climate Changes examines potential approaches, along with their relative merits and challenges, for a comprehensive update to the current methodology. This publication also recommends near- and longer-term research priorities to ensure that the social cost of carbon estimates reflect the best available science. Link to article.
Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation in Indian Country. This paper uses a sustainable climate adaptation framework to outline the context and the relationships of power and authority, along with different ways of knowing and meaning, to illustrate the underpinnings of some tribes’ barriers to sustainable climate adaptation. Link to article.
How emotion trumps logic in climate change risk perception: Exploring the affective heuristic among wildlife science students. This article compared how wildlife students in the eastern United States perceive climate change risk to wildlife versus humans. Scientific understanding was the most important predictor of wildlife-related risk perceptions. Students may have used an affective heuristic (i.e., emotions) in assessing climate change risks to society and a cognitive reasoning (i.e., logic and data) when considering climate change risks to wildlife, which suggests that climate change communicators should appeal to these different modes of thinking when considering risks to humans versus wildlife. Link to article.
Migration induced by sea-level rise could reshape the US population landscape. With millions of potential future migrants in heavily populated coastal communities, sea level rise (SLR) scholarship focusing solely on coastal communities characterizes SLR as primarily a coastal issue, obscuring the potential impacts in landlocked communities created by SLR-induced displacement. This letter addresses this issue by merging projected populations at risk of SLR with migration systems simulations to project future destinations of SLR migrants in the United States. Link to article.
Expanding vulnerability assessment for public lands: The social complement to ecological approaches. This paper describes the context of United States federal public lands management with an emphasis on the Bureau of Land Management to highlight this unique decision-making context. It suggests some key design principles for integrated social-ecological vulnerability assessments considering the context of public lands management, the limits of ecological vulnerability assessment, and existing approaches to social vulnerability assessment. Link to article.
The influence of personal beliefs, friends, and family in building climate change concern among adolescents. Understanding adolescent climate change concern (CCC) may be a key strategy for building a citizenry that supports climate change action, as adolescents are likely less influenced by ideological polarization than adults. Prior research shows that climate education or peer pressure may build concern among adolescents. We investigated the relationships between CCC, acceptance of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), perceived level of acceptance among friends and family, and frequency of discussion among 426 middle school students in North Carolina, and developed a novel instrument to measure each of these constructs. AGW acceptance had the strongest association with CCC. Link to article.

Benefits and ancillary costs of natural infrastructure: Evidence from the New Jersey coast. NC State University alum Steve Dundas and faculty member at Oregon State University recently published a paper in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management comparing the property value impacts of homes protected by constructed sand dunes to those with severely eroded beaches. He examined the outcomes in communities that received federal funding to shore up their beaches and protect their communities through dune construction programs to those neighboring areas who did not participate in the federal program prior to Superstorm Sandy making landfall. Learn More.

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Tribal News

Survey Evaluating Collaboration Between Indigenous Peoples and Climate Scientists.
See full description under Partner News.
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation and ultimately aims to support Tribal empowerment to use climate science to support Indigenous self-determination and climate change planning. If you are either a tribal member or work for a climate service organization, please consider filling out this survey.

Tribal Climate Change Action Camp. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium is hosting a Tribal Climate Change Action camp and is recruiting students, teachers and concerned members of Tribal communities to participate, It will be hosted by Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico July 24 to 28, 2017. Lodging and meal costs will be covered, and travel expenses reimbursed. Learn more.
Hiring Announcement: Assistant Sustainability Scientist. The University of Oklahoma, in collaboration with Texas Tech University, Louisiana State University, The Chickasaw Nation, The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, invites applications for the position of Assistant Sustainability Scientist for the South Central Climate Science Center, a program funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Activities in this position are focused in New Mexico. This position is a full-time, 12-month appointment, located in Norman, OK. Travel is required for some Center activities. Apply at http://jobs.ou.edu/, position #171235.
National Food Sovereignty Summit is October 2-5, 2017. First Nations Development Institute and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin will host the National Food Sovereignty Summit October 2-5, 2017, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. An annual forum for sharing and collaboration to build healthy food systems within tribal communities, this event is suitable for Native farmers, ranchers, gardeners, businesses, policymakers, tribal agriculture staff, Native nonprofits working in agriculture, small producers, tribal producers and tribal leaders. Learn more.

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Partner News

LCC News

Appalachian LCC
Wildlife refuge biologist in West Virginia honored for endangered mussel conservation. Learn more
Survey: Controlled Invasive Plants on Property. Learn more.
Caribbean LCC
Too Hot for Coffee! Warming Temperatures in Puerto Rico Present a Challenge to Coffee Growers Learn more.
U.S. Marine Protected Area Classification System. Learn more.
Gulf Coast Prairie LCC
New Field Guide to Bees from USGS. Learn more.
Former First Lady Laura Bush to Keynote South-Central Monarch Symposium at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Learn more.
Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks LCC
Network for Landscape Conservation. Learn more.
Seeking Candidates for 4 Gulf Strategic Conservation Assessment positions. Learn more.
Peninsular Florida LCC
Marine/Estuarine Conservation Target ID Workshop – Ft. Lauderdale. Learn more.
Simple Viewer updated with new data and report feature on Conservation Atlas. Learn more.
South Atlantic LCC
2017 Blueprint workshop results. Learn more.
No fish is an island: Update on the South Atlantic marine ecosystem model. Learn more.

Partner News

Survey Evaluating Collaboration Between Indigenous Peoples and Climate Scientists. The project seeks to improve the quality of interaction and cooperation between Tribes and Climate Science Organizations in the U.S. Tribes are Indigenous peoples, whether U.S. federally-recognized, state-recognized or unrecognized. This project is both Tribally co-led and involves Indigenous persons as lead investigators. The project involves substantial training and professional growth experiences for Indigenous students at the College of Menominee Nation and training in Tribal collaboration and Indigenous research for non-Indigenous investigators and students associated with the Michigan State team. The project work and personnel are equally housed at the College of Menominee Nation and Michigan State. This project is supported by the National Science Foundation and ultimately aims to support Tribal empowerment to use climate science to support Indigenous self-determination and climate change planning. If you are either a tribal member or work for a climate service organization, please consider filling out this survey.

Where are the highest chances for a hot summer in 2017? According to NOAA’s summer outlook, most of the United States is favored to have a hotter than average summer in 2017. Only in the Great Plains do forecasters think the chances for a cool or a normal summer are equal to the chances of a hot summer. Everywhere else—from Alaska to southern California, and from Maine to Texas—odds are tilted toward well above average warmth. The absolute highest chances for a much warmer than usual summer are in Hawaii. Learn more.

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Webinars

Find more webinar information in our calendar.

June 15 | 10:00 – 11:00 AM The Longleaf ARC Project: Accelerating conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf system

June 15 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM Waves of Change: How waves can alter oyster reef communities

June 20 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM Toward Evaluating Outcomes and Impacts of co-produced climate science using mixed-method approaches

June 26 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM Decision Support Tool Suitability: Getting a Decision Maker to Choose Your Tool

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Upcoming Events

June 22 | EPA Resilience Planning Workshop for Water Utilities | North Charleston, SC
This workshop is a free, interactive training workshop to help water utilities. Learn how changing environmental conditions, sea level rise, and extreme weather events in the Southeast could impact drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. Explore strategies for enhancing utility resilience and reducing long-term risk to water infrastructure and resources. Help identify key questions about water infrastructure vulnerabilities. Gain exposure to EPA’s Creating Resilient WaterUtilities tools. The workshop will take place at the College of Charleston – North Campus at 3800 Paramount Drive, North Charleston, SC. Register.

June 26 | The Story Collider | Motorco, Durham
Faculty Affiliate Marcelo Ardon and others tell their story in The Story Collider at Motorco, Durham this upcoming June 26th. The event brings together five scientists personal stories of tackling new challenges in science, from laboratories to power plants. This show is produced in partnership with the NC State Leadership in Public Science Cluster and the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, with support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the NC Science Festival, the NC State College of Sciences and the NC State College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Learn more.
June 2018 | 4th International Symposium on The Effects of Climate Change on The World’s Oceans | Washington DC
The 4th International Symposium will bring together experts from around the world to better understand climate impacts on ocean ecosystems – and how to respond. The Symposium will: highlight the latest information on how oceans are changing, what is at risk and how to respond; identify key knowledge gaps; promote collaborations, and stimulate the next generation of science and actions. Learn more.
July 27 – 28th |  The Northeast Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change (RISCC) Symposium | UMass Amherst
The objective of the meeting will be to bring together natural resource managers and scientists to discuss how climate change might affect invasion risk in the northeastern region and to identify ways to translate research into management action. Session topics will include: range shifts and adaptation, developing watch lists, species-species interactions, communicating science, policies, and funding, early detection and rapid response systems, lessons learned from research, lessons learned from management, data collection tools, emerging threats and climate migrants. Registration is free and open to the public, registration deadline June 30th. Register.
August 14 | Registration Open for the 2017 Tribal Lands and Environment Forum (TLEF) | Tulsa, OK
This year’s Tribal Lands and Environment Forum will be held at the COX Business Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, August 14-17, 2017. The Forum will feature trainings, field trips, and breakout sessions focused on solid/hazardous waste management, brownfields, UST/LUSTs, Superfund sites, and emergency response. Tribal water program topics will include breakout sessions, trainings, and field trips related to water quality, drinking water, and habitat restoration (including wetlands, streams, and fisheries). Register.
August 22 – 24 | The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP’s) Climate Change Adaptation
The courses provide an introduction to planning for climate change impacts, with examples of tribes that have been going through the adaptation planning process. The course is intended for tribal environmental and natural resource professionals who expect to be involved in climate change adaptation planning. Since the course will focus on climate change impacts in a particular region, we especially encourage people from the region to attend. Others are welcome to attend but should realize that there will be a focus on that region. Learn more about the courses and register here.

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Opportunities

Hiring Announcements

Hiring Water Resources Economist. A water resource economics position has been selected as one of 13 new faculty positions for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as part of the CALS/Provost Strategic Hires for the college.CEnREP Director, Laura Taylor, co-led the proposal for a water resource economics position with Dr. John Beghin, Head of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE). Drs. Taylor and Beghin anticipate starting the hiring process in early summer of 2017, and hope to fill the position in the next 6-12 months. Learn more.
Hiring Communications Specialist. The North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve is hiring a Communications Specialist. Duties will include outreach activities for Living Shorelines Strategy and assisting with a marsh vulnerability study, a Coastal Communities Resilience Guide, and a web-based and interactive version of a land use planning guide. Deadline is June 30, 2017. Learn more.

Research Grants

Gulf of Mexico Alliance | Special Call for Coastal Alabama
Request for Community Projects – The Alliance, in collaboration with the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, is seeking proposals from coastal Alabama communities who wish to proactively address their vulnerabilities to coastal hazards. The deadline is June 21, 2017.

U.S. FWS | Wetland Restoration Projects Standard Grants
(North American Wetlands Conservation Act) – Public-private matching grants support long-term protection, restoration, and/or enhancement of wetlands and associated upland habitats. U.S.-based applications are due July 14, 2017.
EPA RESTORE | Northwest Florida Estuary Program
This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits proposals to develop and stand up a place-based estuary program encompassing one or more of the following bays in Florida’s northwest panhandle region: Perdido Bay, Pensacola Bay, Escambia Bay, Choctawhatchee Bay, St. Andrews Bay and Apalachicola Bay. The deadline is August 1, 2017.
NEA | Our Town Grants
The grant program supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work – placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies. The deadline is September 11, 2017.
NPS | Community Assistance in Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Program
Funding to support recreation and conservation projects through its Rails, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program. Through the RTCA program, the National Park Service helps organize, strategize, build public participation and partnerships, and implement a conservation and/or recreation project that is important to your community. Consideration will be given to projects that have specific goals and results for conservation and recreation in the near future, have broad community support, and that advance the NPS mission. Applications Due: June 30, 2017
U.S. FWS | National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program
Funding to acquire, restore, and enhance wetlands in coastal states through competitive matching grants to state agencies. Projects can include acquisition of a real property interest in coastal wetlands ecosystems, restoration, enhancement, or management of coastal wetlands ecosystems, or a combination of acquisition, restoration, and management. Consideration will be given to projects that address climate change concerns, as well as how they will be affected by climate change impacts. Applications Due: June 30, 2017.
U.S. FWS | Tribal Wildlife Grants Program
Funding to provide assistance to tribal governments in programs that benefit wildlife and habitat of tribal cultural or traditional importance, including species that are not hunted or fished. Activities may include, but are not limited to, planning for wildlife and habitat conservation, fish and wildlife conservation and management actions, fish and wildlife related laboratory and field research, natural history studies, habitat mapping, field surveys and population monitoring, habitat preservation, conservation easements, and public education that is relevant to the project. The funds may be used for salaries, equipment, consultant services, subcontracts, acquisitions, and travel. Applications Due: September 1, 2017
U.S. FWS | Coastal Program
Funding to provide direct technical assistance and financial assistance to coastal communities and landowners to restore and protect fish and wildlife habitat on public and private lands. Projects should specify benefits for species and habitats considering the expected effects of climate change. FWS will favor conservation activities and projects that incorporate ecosystem adaptation and help coastal ecosystems and communities adapt to the effects of sea level rise and greenhouse gases. Applications Due: September 30, 2017
NOAA | Climate Program Office
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has advertised the 2018 Federal funding opportunities. There are seven individual competitions for FY 2018, including Extreme Events Preparedness, Planning, and Adaptation within the Water Sector. Letters of Intent are due by 5:00 p.m. EDT on June 14, 2017.
NC Sea Grant | Partnership Fellowship
North Carolina Sea Grant and the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership are accepting applications for the 2017 Graduate Fellowship in Estuarine Research. The fellowship will support one graduate student based in North Carolina and Virginia to conduct applied research within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management boundary. Applications due by 4 p.m. Monday July 31, 2017.

Miscellaneous

Adaptive Management: Structured Decision Making for Recurrent Decisions Training. This course is the department-wide training to support the Department of the Interior’s Technical Guide on Adaptive Management and is organized around the nine steps of adaptive management summarized in the Guide. This course focuses on process, policy, and technical aspects of adaptive management through lecture, case studies, and interactive hands-on exercises. Please see the attached announcement for additional details. Submit a registration request through DOI Learn DOI employees – Ensure your supervisor approves your request in DOI Learn. Non-DOI participants new to the DOI Learn system- you will need to establish an account to obtain a User ID and Password. From the login page, simply use the “Request A New Account ” link. In the Add Reason box, put “Adaptive Management” Deadline to register is July 3rd. Have questions about registration? Jill DelVecchio at jill_delvecchio@fws.gov or 304-876-7424
Public Invited to Help Document King Tides. The UNC Institute of Marine Sciences’ North Carolina King Tides Project invites the public to help document king tide flooding events along the coast. The project is part of an international research effort aimed at documenting high water levels in coastal communities. The organization would like to document, through photographs, nuisance flooding and high water levels resulting from events like king tides and storms. Learn more.
Sentinels of the Sounds. A citizen science project documenting cypress trees along our shores. Cypress trees growing in water are a common sight around the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. The goal of the sentinels of the sounds is to use pictures and locations of these trees in the water to understand how the shores of the sounds are changing. Learn more.

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June 2017 Newsletter