Climate Stress, CT River Watershed

This dataset is a component of a complete package of products from the Connect the Connecticut project. Connect the Connecticut is a collaborative effort to identify shared priorities for conserving the Connecticut River Watershed for future generations, considering the value of fish and wildlife species and the natural ecosystems they inhabit. Click here to download the full data package, including all documentation.

This dataset represents the climate stress metric, which is a measure of the estimated climate stress that may be exerted on a focal cell in 2080. Specifically, the climate stress metric reflects the 2080 departure from the current climate conditions that a cell may be exposed to in relation to its current climate niche breadth. Essentially, this metric measures the magnitude of climate change stress at the focal cell based on the climate niche of the corresponding ecological system and the predicted change in climate (i.e., how much is the climate of the focal cell moving away from the climate niche of the corresponding ecological system) between 2010-2080 based on the average of two climate change scenarios: RCP 4.5 and 8.5. Cells where the predicted climate suitability in the future decreases (i.e., climate is becoming less suitable for that ecological system) are considered stressed, and the stress increases as the predicted climate becomes less suitable based on the ecological system’s current climate niche model. Conversely, cells where the predicted climate suitability in the future increases (i.e., climate is improving for that ecological systems) are considered unstressed and assigned a value of zero.