Sec. Jewell Announces New Wildlife and Climate Studies at the SE Climate Science Center

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that the Department of the Interior’s regional Climate Science Centers and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center are awarding nearly $6 million to universities and other partners for 50 new research projects to better prepare communities for impacts of climate change.
“These climate studies are designed to help address regional concerns associated with climate change, providing a pathway to enhancing resilience and supporting local community needs,” said Secretary Jewell. “The impacts of climate change are vast and complex, so studies like these are critical to help ensure that our nation’s responses are rooted in sound science.”
As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the 50 scientific studies announced today will focus on how climate change is affecting natural and cultural resources and tribal communities, as well as inform management actions that can be taken to help offset those impacts. The research can help guide managers of parks, refuges and other cultural and natural resources to plan how to help species, ecosystems, tribes and other communities adapt to climate change. The studies, most of which will occur over multiple years, will be conducted with fiscal year 2014 funding. A full list of the projects is available here.
The two funded studies at the SE Climate Science Center will focus on how climate change will affect natural resources and management actions that can be taken to help offset such change. They include:

• Actionable Science: Decision Analysis and Science Communication: The purpose of this grant is to provide research opportunities to students and staff working with the Southeast Climate Science Center with a focus on decision analysis and science communication training. Research activities will occur primarily within the framework of existing Southeast CSC funded projec Student research will support project activities associated with the development and use of science-based information to make climate adaptation management decisions.
• Global Change Monitoring Portal: The objective of this project is to provide scientists and the general public with access to information in a centralized location, about the existence and operation of programs that monitor the effects of global change processes, such as climate and land use change, on important air, land and water resources.

“This year the Southeast Climate Science Center is supporting a suite of tools and communication- oriented projects that will help resource managers make climate-smart conservation decisions,” said Gerard McMahon, Interior’s Southeast CSC director. “We must make intentional decisions about the best possible conservation strategies under climate change. Our two newest projects will help create the backdrop through which we build frameworks that will help make more informed choices and to communicate them effectively to a wide range of audiences.”