Data Release: Climate Change in State Wildlife Action Plans

The Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville are undertaking research to support southeastern states and partners engaged in the process of preparing revisions of State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) that are mandated by Congress (learn more about SWAPs here). This effort focuses specifically on integration of climate change into SWAPs.

The project, Accounting for Ecological Impacts of Climate Change in State Wildlife Action Plans: A Comparison of Model-Based and Index-Based Vulnerability Assessments, has released two datasets.

Climate Vulnerability Estimates from Correlative Niche Models for Southeastern U.S. Species: A Tool to Support State Wildlife Action Plan Revisions

This data product provides a collation of estimates of species vulnerability to climate change that have been made using correlative niche models. Other common names synonymous with “correlative niche models” include: species distribution models, ecological niche models, climate envelope models, and MaxEnt models (where MaxEnt is the most popular software package used to generate these models). These models identify shared climate conditions found at sites where a species is known to occur today. The models can be used with future climate projections to predict where climate conditions that a species needs may be found in the future. Resulting predictions allow estimates of whether the climate conditions a species needs are likely to remain stable, become more prevalent, or more scarce in the future. If suitable climate conditions for a species become very scarce in the future, then that species would be considered more vulnerable to climate change than would a species for which climate conditions are predicted to remain suitable over a large geographic area.

Download the dataset:

Armsworth, P.R., Dalliance, E., Durant, J., Insalaco, S., Jantz, S., and Lyon, L., 2025, Climate Vulnerability Estimates from Correlative Niche Models for Southeastern U.S. Species: A Tool to Support State Wildlife Action Plan Revisions (2025): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P14QMCJL.

Estimates Harvested from the Literature Published between 2011 and 2015 for Parts of the Southeast and Northeast United States

This first data product provides a collation of results from previous assessments of species vulnerability to climate change conducted by states and other organizations. Specifically, it focuses on collating vulnerability assessments that were conducted using NatureServe’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI; Young et al. 2015). The summary sheet is to accompany the early data product (CCVI-estimates-V2.csv) that we are providing to interested partners.

Download the datasets and summary sheet:

Armsworth, P.R., Barve, N., Jackson, H., Jones, C., Mamantov, M., Richards, C., Roth, S. and Wade, B., 2025, CCVI Estimates Harvested from the Literature Published between 2011 and 2015 for Parts of the Southeast and Northeast United States: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P16BL9ZY.