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October 2022 Newsletter

October 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center’s October 2022 Newsletter.

For news and upcoming events related to the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, subscribe to our monthly newsletter

SE CASC News | Resources | Publications | Tribal News | Partner News | Webinars | Events | Opportunities

Photo Credits: Alan Cressler, USGS

Science Climate Adaptation Science Center News

Thank you to all participants of the 2022 SE CASC Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Symposium! Learn more about this great event on our resource page, and we’d love to hear your feedback. 

Join the SE CASC Global Change Fellows for Global Change Seminar “NOAA’s New Agenda for a Climate Ready Nation on Oct. 19 at 4pm (note time change). Learn more & register.

The next Global Change Seminar, Yellowstone to Yukon: Indigenous Leadership in Conservation,” will be Nov. 16 at 3:30pm. Learn more.

Researcher Spotlight: Learn more about Global Change Fellow Samantha Michlowitz.

SE CASC initiated six new Actionable Science Projects in FY22. Learn more about them

SE CASC staff and scientists are joining CASC colleagues at the National Adaptation Forum from Oct. 25-27. Learn more

SE CASC researchers will be participating in this year’s SEAFWA (Oct. 23-26) & TWS (Nov. 6-10) Annual Conferences. Learn more

Southeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change Management Network (SE RISCC) is hosting a webinar, National Invasive Species Council (NISC) – Overview of Priorities, Activities, and Opportunities for Engagement, Oct. 20, 1pm ET. Join here.

SE CASC is co-sponsoring an event Nov. 10 & 11 exploring the award-winning investigative story, “Land-grab universities.” Learn more & register.

2021-22 Global Change Fellow Lauren Pharr & Global Change Fellow Murry Burgess co-founded the nonprofit Field Inclusive to support Black and historically excluded field researchers in the natural sciences through recognition, financial aid, and field safety support. 

University Director Rebecca Irwin co-authored Pollen limitation of native plant reproduction in an urban landscape

2020-21 Global Change Fellow Jin Bai recently started the non-profit City Bird LLC

2015-16 Global Change Fellow Erica Henry, 2018-19 Fellow Deja Perkins, and Faculty Affiliate Caren Cooper co-authored, Mapping for Whom? Communities of Color and the Citizen Science Gap

New SE CASC supported publications:

Strategies for meaningful engagement: A commentary on collaboration in archaeological climate adaptation planning by 2021-22 Global Change Fellow Courtney Hotchkiss and Consortium PI Erin Seekamp (NCSU).

Developing a State-Level Natural and Working Lands Climate Action Plan by Katie Warnell and Lydia Olander (Duke Consortium PI).

Development of a survey instrument to assess individual and organizational use of climate adaptation science, by Steph Courtney (USET), Amanda Hyman (UT), Karen McNeal (Auburn Univ. Consortium PI), Lindsay Maudlin (Spring 2018 Global Change Fellow), and Paul Armsworth (Univ. of Tennessee Consortium PI), product of SE CASC project Best Practices for Project Design: Effectively Addressing Natural Resource Management Needs.

Future changes in habitat availability for two specialist snake species in the imperiled rocklands of South Florida, USA by Suresh Subedi (AR Tech), Susan Walls (USGS), William Barichivich (USGS), Ryan Boyles (SE CASC Deputy USGS Director), Michael Ross (FIU), J. Aaron Hogan (FIU), and John Tupy (FWS), product of Developing Future Habitat Condition Scenarios for Wildlife in the Imperiled Pine Rockland Ecosystem of South Florida project.

Considering science needs to deliver actionable science by Gustavo Bisbal (USGS) and Mitch Eaton (SE CASC Research Ecologist).

Conservation Corridor: An integrated climate-biodiversity framework for connectivity planning and policy.

Project Spotlight

Clarifying Science Needs for Determining the Impact of Climate Change on Harmful Algal Blooms in the Southeastern United States

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are becoming more common in the southeast United States. This project will address different parameters that stimulate algae growth as well as the influence of climate change. Researchers are reviewing existing information in the literature to organize and summarize what is known. They’ve also started reaching out to scientists and reservoir managers in the southeastern United States to learn from their experiences and articulate their concerns about harmful algae. This information will be compiled and organized into a comprehensive report that will provide water-resource managers with a clearer picture of the role that climate change and different environmental parameters play in algal blooms. It will also point out weaknesses in the literature and identify topics that need further study to clarify their importance. The project is being led by PIs Thomas Byl (USGS), Jennifer Cartwright (SE CASC), and Champagne Cunningham (USGS). Learn more.

Resources

The following tools were presented at the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Symposium during the Poster/Tools Networking session

UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) with NOAA’s Climate Program Office (CPO) conducted research of the US Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT) to redesign the CRT website. During this session, attendees interacted with the updated website and participated in live usability testing to provide feedback that will inform further development of the website. Learn more.

NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management presented the recently completed data update to the Sea Level Rise Viewer, one of the most popular tools on the Digital Coast. The tool is useful for demonstrating the potential impacts from coastal flooding, land subsidence, and sea level rise. Learn more.

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy presented the Southeast Conservation Blueprint, a living, spatial plan that identifies the most important areas for conservation and restoration across the region. New improvements are planned for the upcoming release of Blueprint Version 2022. Learn more.

GeoCoast: A Decision-Support Tool for Visualizing Coastal Inundation: GeoCoast is an interactive, web-based tool for visualizing coastal inundation from sea level rise and storm surge along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Current efforts are focused on expanding data simulations to include other areas of the northern gulf coast. Learn more.

As part of the Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes (SCA) project, GIS experts developed three web-based geospatial planning conservation assessment tools through a co-production of knowledge process that involved more than 650 conservation stakeholders in the Gulf Coast Region. Learn more.

In the Media
Puerto Ricans await aid, fret about post-hurricane recovery | AP News
Climate change makes storms like Ian more common | NPR
Youth Climate Stories – Dr. Seuss has a lesson about the environment | NC Health News
Overcoming “Analysis Paralysis” through Better Climate Change Scenario Planning | National Park Service
Partnering with Indigenous Communities to Confront Climate Change | UMass Amherst

Notable Publications

The pursuit of an antiracist, anticolonial agenda for urban greening conservation starts with recognizing the implications of these powerful forces when it comes to traditional approaches to conservation. Traditional conservation practices, or fortress conservation, resulted in the systemic oppression and displacement of racialized minorities. Traditional practices protected areas by limiting or excluding human access and use, holding people and nature apart. This protection of land through dispossession, institutionalized the separation of certain types of people from nature. Proponents of this type of conservation have turned towards urban greening initiatives, prioritizing people and nature in cities. According to the authors, if this is going to be successful, conservationists must intentionally counteract the oppressive legacies of fortress conservation. The authors propose integrating action-and policy-oriented research objectives into the existing environmental justice framework to move beyond racist and colonial practices towards distributional, recognition, and procedural justice. This means a move towards the co-production of knowledge, increasing transparency, incorporating local knowledge, and using community liaisons to achieve these goals. Link to article.

Researchers wanted to better understand how birds are able to adapt to changing environmental conditions by looking at expansion and contraction along range margins. To do this, the authors used a newly developed dynamic species distribution model to quantify breeding range dynamics of 32 species of eastern North American birds using 43 years of migratory data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Through this analysis the authors found that resident/temperate-wintering migratory species have shifted their northern range margins northward but have shown no directional change at their southern margins. Neotropical migrants have shown measurable shifts in their southern range margins but no directional shift in their northern margins. In other words, North American residents have expanded their latitudinal distribution while neotropical species have contracted their latitudinal distribution. This pattern shows how species differ in their ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and highlights recent responses to climate change by bird species & possible future trends in population dynamics for migratory birds. Link to article.

When it comes to grassland ecosystem recovery, there has been a continual need to understand how to speed or guide recovery. Currently accepted restoration methods do not take into account the difficulty of restoring biodiversity or the time it takes to complete the restoration process. This study reviews recent knowledge surrounding grassland restoration as well as some possible interventions that can create a more successful process. The authors focus on old-growth grasslands that have unique underground structures and characteristics that can help guide restoration. These characteristics include long-lived perennial plants, complex belowground structures that enable above-ground regeneration, and carbon storage. Grazing and fire are the two most influential disturbances in grassland ecosystems and if these disturbance regimes are altered, it can have negative impacts, especially if the below ground structures are destroyed. If however, the belowground system is not fully destroyed, it is possible to reestablish broken feedbacks and aid recovery. It is important to also look at how to accelerate or facilitate the recovery of old-growth species. The authors conclude that research and practitioners should view grassland restoration as moving towards old-growth characteristics with belowground complexity and functional diversity which will enable managers to achieve ambitious restoration goals. Link to article.

Many global diversity and ecosystem services models do not account for the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecological functions. This study looked at integrating biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem service modeling to enhance policy and sustainability development. The authors convened a team of modelers and socioeconomic and policy experts who helped (1) review existing models, (2) identify areas of complementarity and mismatches, (3) develop a conceptual framework for how to link models, and (4) illustrate the potential of the framework through case studies. They mainly looked at models from the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystems Model Intercomparison Project as well as intercomparison of biodiversity and ecosystem services models using harmonized scenarios. The authors proposed two pathways as a result of this research. The first pathway involves using biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships derived from empirical data to bridge the biodiversity and ecosystem service models. This pathway can be implemented on a global scale right away. The second pathway suggests using biodiversity model outputs to parameterize models that predict changes in ecosystem function and can be applied to more systems and taxa than the first pathway. The authors conclude that both pathways should be pursued to improve our overall understanding of biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships. Link to article.

Climate adaptation is becoming increasingly important for wildlife managers. There has been a lack of practical guidance, however, when it comes to implementing climate adaptation actions with many actions being beyond the decision space of wildlife professionals. To solve this issue, the authors developed a Wildlife Adaptation Menu of tiered adaptation actions for terrestrial wildlife management with actionable approaches to be used with the Adaptation Workbook. The authors first conducted a broad literature review of terrestrial wildlife management and conservation publications to gather management recommendations related to climate adaptation. With the 2,300 recommendations they collated a master list creating general strategies and more specific approaches. They also illustrated each approach by including tactics and examples of how to implement them. The authors then held three-in person two-day workshops with wildlife management professionals. The final version includes 13 broad strategies, 80 associated approaches, and hundreds of tactics for implementation. Link to article

Tribal News

Visit USET Climate Change Headlines for updates on information regarding climate science events, funding opportunities, best practices, and highlights from across the USET region.

Registration is open for the Tribes and Climate Change Conference sponsored by the Evergreen State College Native Cases Initiative and the Center for Climate Action and Sustainability. The conference is taking place Nov. 8-9 at Squaxin Island Tribe’s Little Creek Resort Hotel Shelton, Washington. Learn more & register.

AmeriCorps posted its FY2023 notice of funding opportunities through the 2023 State and National Native Nations Grants and Planning Competition. Opportunities include grants to develop programs that implement evidence-based solutions to community needs. Learn more and apply by April 5, 2023.

The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians is holding the 2022 National Tribal Leaders Climate Change Summit: Asserting Tribal Sovereignty on the Path to Climate Justice from Nov. 28-30. Call for posters and lightning presentations ends Oct. 30. Learn more and register.

The 2022 Tribal Exchange Network Conference (Oct. 18-20) aims to expand tribal capacity for environmental data sharing, management, and analysis. Learn more and register.

Regional Partner News

US Forest Service: Wildfires on a warmer planet: Projections of future fiscal risks

Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy: The Nature Conservancy uses the Blueprint to help inform low impact solar siting in Georgia

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation: NFWF and NOAA Announce $7.7 Million in Conservation Grants to Support Coastal Resilience Projects

EPA Awards $3.5 Million to Protect Coastal Habitats through a National Estuary Grant Program

Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies: New State of the Birds Report Reveals Widespread Losses of Birds in All Habitats–Except for One

Webinars

Find more upcoming events in our calendar.

Oct. 18 | 1pm-2pm | The Historic Cemetery Landscape of North Carolina’s coast
Oct. 18 | 1pm-2pm | Climate Adaptation for Forest-Dependent Wildlife Webinar Series
Oct. 19 | 1pm-3pm | Alliances for Inclusive Resilience Virtual Forum Series
Oct. 19 | 4:15pm-5:15pm | SE CASC Global Change Seminar – NOAA’s New Agenda for a Climate Ready Nation
Oct. 20 | 10am-11am | South Atlantic Third Thursday Web Forum
Oct. 20 | 2pm-3pm | HERS Webinar – Dr. Lori Peek – Power of Convergence: Interdisciplinary Extreme Events Research
Oct. 21 | 3pm-4pm | Geospatial Forum with Dr. Rachel Levy (NC State)
Oct. 24 | 2pm-3pm | Genesis of the Gulf Stream subseasonal variability in the Florida Straits
Nov. 2 | 3pm-4pm | Collaborative Science Conversations: BOO! Does Working Across Political Boundaries Scare You? Try Collaborative Science!
Nov. 3 | 9am-10am | Climate and Conservation Coffee
Nov. 8 | 10am-11am | Southeast Climate Monthly Webinar
Nov. 10 | 10am-11am | Land-Grab Universities: How the Morrill Act funded land grant universities
Nov. 11 | 9:30am-10:30am | Coffee & Viz: Mapping Land-Grab and Next

Upcoming Events

Oct. 23-26 | SEAFWA 76th Annual Conference | Charleston, WV
Nov. 6-10 | The Wildlife Society’s 29th Annual Conference | Spokane, WA
Nov. 10-11 | The 2022 Coastal & Island Symposium | Fulton, MD
Nov. 29-30 | 2022 Tribal Leaders Climate Change Summit | Airway Heights, WA
Jan. 24-25 | Southeast & Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership Annual Meeting | Miami, FL

Opportunities

Student Announcements

Student position available to coordinate/advance Climate/Environmental Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion activities across the CASC network. Contact Katherine Smith, katherinesmith@usgs.gov or Jordan Bush, jbush@contractor.usgs.gov. Applications due Oct 21.

Hiring Announcements 

The South Central CASC is looking for a New Mexico Tribal Liaison. The liaison will be responsible for working closely with partners from a variety of Tribes in New Mexico to develop and deliver training on climate adaptation and related topics, provide support to communities seeking or engaged in adaptation activities, and work to identify and reduce barriers to implementing Tribal adaptation activities. Learn more.

The North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center within the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder invites applications for a Postdoctoral Scientist in Ecology to perform research activities on the topic of Ecological Impacts and Transformation under Climate Change in the 21st Century. Learn more and apply by Nov. 1. 

USGS Mendenhall Research Fellowship Program is accepting applications from researchers interested in guiding federal agency prioritization for implementation of nature-based climate solutions. Learn more and apply by Nov. 1. 

The Nature Conservancy is hiring a full-time Tribal & Indigenous Engagement Program Director who will serve as a primary liaison with Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. They will work internally to build cultural competency and capacity for appropriate partnership and to support co-creating of mutually beneficial conservation projects. Learn more & apply by Oct. 24.

The NCSU State Climate Office, Carolinas Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment NOAA (RISA) program, and the Carolinas Collaborative on Climate, Health, and Equity, is recruiting a postdoctoral research scholar with expertise in environmental or climate justice. Learn more.

The Department of Applied Ecology at NC State University is looking for a Department Head who will help advance the mission of the Department and promote programs in teaching, research, and extension. Learn more and apply. Open until filled.

Funding Opportunities

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is requesting proposals for the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative to reverse the effects of habitat loss, human disturbance and predation of migratory birds. Learn more and apply by Nov. 3.

The NOAA Climate Program Office Adaptation Sciences (AdSci) program is soliciting proposals for interdisciplinary and participatory research activities that address island-identified resilience needs in the Caribbean and Pacific. Learn more and apply by Jan. 31.

NOAA’s National Ocean Service and National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science are accepting proposals for the Prevention Control and Mitigation of Harmful Algal Bloom (PCMHAB) and Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) programs. Learn more and apply by Jan, 31.

The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP) and North Carolina Sea Grant are accepting applications for the 2022 Graduate Fellowship in Estuarine Research. The fellowship will fund a graduate student based in North Carolina to conduct applied research within the NC portion of the APNEP management area. Learn more and apply by Oct. 31.

Connecticut Sea Grant is calling for proposals for research on Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Coastal and Estuarine Areas of the U.S. East Coast, accepted until Oct. 25. Learn more.

The EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers Program is accepting applications to establish technical assistance centers to support communities with environmental justice concerns. Learn more and apply by Nov. 1. 

Miscellaneous

The Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) has announced the 2022 SNAPP Request for Proposals. SNAPP is a tool for developing sustainable solutions to global conservation challenges. Learn more and apply by Dec. 15.