June 2024 Newsletter

June 18, 2024 Maira Brondizio

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Southeast CASC News

We’re so excited to welcome Forrest Vanderbilt as an Acting Assistant Regional Administrator, and Lydia Campbell as a Project Manager, to the SE CASC team!

Meet Eleana and Zavier, our summer science communication interns.

Hilary Morris from SECAS joins the podcast to chat about the Conservation Blueprint.

2023-24 Global Change Research Fellow, Nathan Schunk, is a co-author on a new paper on phosphorus markets.

Matthew Niemiller and his team found a species of silverfish that’s new to the Southeast. as part of a SE CASC supported project.

A new study by Fernando Garcia finds that climate change is likely to make upward spikes of ozone at ground level worse by 2050.

Erin Seekamp is featured in this Yale Climate Communications article on storms and rising sea levels in Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Gregory Guannel is featured in this article about the effects of coastal development in the Virgin Islands.

Check out this article about dispersing habitat boundaries in Conservation Corridor.

Research Affiliate Spotlight

View a searchable list of all SE CASC Research Affiliates and find your next collaborator!

Community News from the Southeast

Partners

The North Carolina State Climate Office previews the 2024 hurricane season.
NOAA’s Climate-Ready Workforce has received $60 million in investments.
National Integrated Drought Information System found that climate trends are making drought monitoring more complex.
DOI and USDA invest $2.8 billion to protect public lands and support conservation efforts across the United States.
SECAS fellow Alyssa Quan continues her work building a rivercane indicator for the Southeast Blueprint.

Tribal

Visit USET Climate Change Headlines for updates and highlights from across the USET region.

USDA Initiates Actions to Support Tribal Food Sovereignty, Co-Stewardship, and Knowledge of Tribal Agriculture Policy. Read more.
Miccosukee Tribe To Host American Indian Day Festival. Read more.
The Catawba Nation and Davidson College have grown a corn collaboration into a multi-year interdisciplinary project. Read more.
ITEP’s Air Quality Internship Program seeks host sites for summer 2025. Learn more.

Gatherings

Webinars

Jun 25 | 1PM ET | Equity in Co-Production – Co-Production with Indigenous Peoples

Events

Resources and Publications

Resources

Wildfire Risk in a Changing Climate. Explore a map of the changing wildfire risks in forests of the southern United States.
Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation. Explore this climate mapping tool with options to assess how local exposure to five common climate-related hazards is projected to change through this century.
Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions. Read this open-access book about the current state of climate storytelling which includes case studies, best practices, and an iterative model of how climate storytelling can lead to concrete action.

Publications

Characterization of the Bee Community and Pollination Network in a Southeastern U.S. Pine Savanna. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

The study found that bees in the southeastern pine savannas change their behavior according to the seasons. Researchers learned this after one season of studying bee and flower interactions in Florida. Based on this, they recommend that no prescribed burns happen in the fall because it’s the peak season for flowers and bees and to leave dead trees and fallen wood for the bees’ nesting.

Ocean Warming, Heat Stress, and Coral Bleaching in Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science

Coral reefs provide many services to life on Earth. Reefs are threatened by bleaching from warming ocean temperatures. In this study, warming trends and heat stress in coral reefs around Puerto Rico were compared with data from the NOAA Coral Reef Watch CoralTemp virtual data station. Coral bleaching observations were paired with this data to advise management and restoration efforts.

The Positive Impact of Conservation Action. Science

In this paper, authors conducted a meta-analysis of 186 studies of biodiversity over time and found that conservation actions improved or slowed the decline of biodiversity in two-thirds of cases when compared to no action. Interventions targeted at invasive species control, habitat loss reduction and restoration, protected areas, and sustainable management were found to be especially effective with large effect sizes. This study strengthens support for the importance of conservation actions, but cautions that scaling up is crucial to the transformational impacts required to meet global targets.

Centering Socioecological Connections to Collaboratively Manage Post‐Fire Vegetation Shifts. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Landscapes across the western US are rapidly changing due to larger and more frequent wildfires. Forms of post-fire vegetation like grassland or shrubland are replacing forests which is leading to difficult questions around how to manage these landscapes. As these transformations become more common in the face of climate change, this paper provides examples of the kinds of information, coordination, and values that should be taken into account to manage them ethically and effectively.

The GFDL Variable‐Resolution Global Chemistry‐Climate Model for Research at the Nexus of US Climate and Air Quality Extremes. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory has developed a new model of US climate and air quality extremes that features much finer spatial resolution over the contiguous US than previous global models used in the latest IPCC Report. This model better represents cities, mountain valleys, thunderstorms, and urban-to-rural air quality variations as well as regional rainfall extremes, drought, and severe air pollution events. Notably, it also reduces the central US dry-and-warm bias that has historically existed in many climate models. Various global climate change effects are accounted for to best understand Earth system feedback to US air quality extremes in a changing climate.

Opportunities

Hiring Announcements

The Alaska CASC is hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow. Due by June 19.
The EPA is seeking a Fellow to conduct Regional Global Change Research. Due Aug 2.
Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science at UMass Amherst is hiring a Government Agency Engagement Coordinator. Due Sept 15.
The Museum of Life & Science is hiring a Program Manager to coordinate the newly funded NOAA Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring. Open until filled.
The University of Florida is hiring an Assistant Professor specialized in invasive aquatic plant management. Open until filled.
Lynker is seeking an Environmental Compliance Specialist to support NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management. Open until filled.
The Water Institute is hiring a Social Scientist for community-based research. Open until filled.
The National Indian Health Board has several positions open across departments. Various closing dates.

Funding Announcements

The North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute and the Urban Water Consortium request proposals for PFAS research in drinking and waste water in the state. Due June 28.

NFWF is requesting proposals for the Central Appalachia Habitat Stewardship Program. Due July 18.

NFWF is seeking proposals for the Southeast Aquatics Fund. Due July 18.

NSF has a program solicitation out for Biodiversity on a Changing Planet funding. Due Sept 5.

The USDA has Rapid Response to Extreme Weather Events funding for projects across food and agricultural systems. Open indefinitely.