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The National Climate Assessment summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. A team of more than 300 experts guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee produced the report, which was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences. The report can be explored interactively at http://nca2014.globalchange.gov.
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The South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) has several Communities of Practice (CoPs) focused on resource manager needs across the region (e.g. understanding at-risk species and ecosystems, building resilient coastal ecosystems, extreme weather and climate change, etc.). Each CoP has expertise in the subject matter and has been working on projects that are relevant to the resource community, including conducting literature reviews and small-scale pilot projects. The current research project will leverage the expertise of the existing CoPs to enhance the content available through the Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox (CART) as identified through the partnership between the South Central...
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Drought is a common consequence of climate variability in the south-central U.S., but they are expected to occur more often and become more intense with climate change. Natural resource managers can improve their planning efforts with advance warnings of impending drought. Using input from resource managers in the Chickasaw Nation, this research team previously created models that forecast droughts up to 18 months in advance with information about their expected timing and intensity. Developed for all climate divisions in Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, these drought models rely on input from predictor variables associated with global weather patterns like El Niño and La Niña. However, it is unclear...
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The design of this survey protocol is based on the indicator framework presented in Wall et. al (2017 https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-16-0008.1) and is intended to evaluate projects funded by Climate Adaptation Science Centers. All survey questions were optional to complete. The intended respondents are stakeholders who were engaged in the creation of scientific knowledge and tools during these projects. The questions cover three topical areas: process (engagement in the process of knowledge production), outputs/outcomes (use of information), and impacts (building of relationships and trust). Results of the survey are presented as summary tables in order to protect personal identifiable information of the respondents....
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Climate projections for the southern Great Plains, and elsewhere in the U.S., indicate that a hotter future with changes in precipitation amount and seasonality is to be expected. As plants become stressed from these changes, wildfire risk increases. One of the most valuable approaches to reducing the impacts of wildfires is fuel reduction through prescribed burns. Fuel reduction helps minimize the destruction of ecological communities, threats of future flooding, and extensive damages by lessening the intensity of future wildfires. Although safe burning practices can largely minimize the risks, prescribed burns may bring some degree of concern among practitioners. The real and perceived risks may include bodily...
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The Ogallala Aquifer lies beneath 111 million acres of land in Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The aquifer provides water for approximately 1.9 million people and has been instrumental in the development of the robust agriculture economy of the Great Plains region. It is also vitally important to the ecology of the region, serving as a critical source of groundwater and sustaining creeks and streams that would otherwise run dry during periods of water scarcity. However, the various social, economic, and ecological challenges of managing this aquifer are expected to increase with climate change as hotter, drier summers exacerbate already unsustainable water demands....
Led by university consortium institutions of the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (South Central CASC), this project builds on the successes of similar workshops in 2014, 2016, and 2018 to bring together a cohort of graduate students, post-docs, and early-career environmental professionals within the South Central CASC region and mentor this cohort to become the next generation of USGS leaders and partners. The objectives of the workshop were to: (1) develop the early-career participants’ knowledge, leadership skills, and interdisciplinary collaboration; (2) introduce participants to the goals, structure, and unique research-related challenges of the South Central CASC, its place within the U.S. Department...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Future climate projections illuminate our understanding of the climate system and generate data products often used in climate impact assessments. Statistical downscaling (SD) is commonly used to address biases in global climate models (GCM) and to translate large‐scale projected changes to the higher spatial resolutions desired for regional and local scale studies. However, downscaled climate projections are sensitive to method configuration and input data source choices made during the downscaling process that can affect a projection's ultimate suitability for particular impact assessments. Quantifying how changes in inputs or parameters affect SD‐generated projections of precipitation is critical for improving...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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The South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) has worked diligently to build new partnerships between scientists and resource managers to help address the science needs and questions of their stakeholders through actionable science. However, the growth of their stakeholder base and the loss of the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives has led to unmet demand for climate “extension services” from stakeholders. This project plans to establish a new scientist position at the South Central CASC focused on climate extension services and research coordination to help discover needed science solutions and to facilitate connections between the researcher and practitioner communities. The Climate Extension...
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Climate change has been, is, and will continue to affect Indigenous peoples across the south-central United States, amplifying a need to plan for and adapt to these changes before the impacts become catastrophic. Since June 2012, the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) has partnered with Tribes across Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to conduct research, education, and outreach related to climate change, adaptation, and resilience; however, much more work is needed to prepare for climate change impacts on Indigenous lands, waters, and people. In this project, the research team will focus on strengthening South Central CASC partnerships with the Tribes and Pueblos in the South Central...
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The South Central CASC supports Communities of Practice who are dedicated to finding solutions to the challenges of a changing climate. The Communities of Practice comprise researchers and stakeholders who share a common interest and choose to invest their time in learning from others and developing new collaborations. As of March 2021, the South Central CASC is actively supporting six Communities of Practice. The Communities of Practice members meet together regularly and engage in a formal check-in with South Central CASC staff on a quarterly basis. The groups are also a key part of our Annual Fall Science Meeting where they outline goals and objectives for their group over the next year. The topics of interest...
This guide is intended to provide lessons learned and best practices for developing and implementing an early-career researcher-based training, including integrating educational sessions on interdisciplinary topics. Such a guide can be useful as a blueprint for future regional or national trainings that bring together students, post-docs, and early-career faculty members from research organizations, such as the USGS Climate Science Centers. The following guide is split into pre-event, the event itself, and post-event items to consider.
The greater Mississippi River Basin (MRB) drains 3.2 million square kilometers of land and spans 31 U.S. states. Ninety percent of all U.S. agricultural exports are grown in the MRB, and about 40 percent of the nation's total exports are transported through its major rivers. Ecologically, 24 terrestrial ecoregions comprise MRB, supporting amphibious, reptile, and mammal species. MRB provides habitat for almost 250 fish and 50 mussel species, its floodplain supports about 40 percent of North America’s wading birds and waterfowl, and over 180 National Wildlife Refuges operate across this region. Climate change is projected to disrupt the amount, frequency, extent, and timing of precipitation events across the MRB....
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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The South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) has worked diligently to build new partnerships between scientists and resource managers to help address stakeholders’ science needs and questions through actionable science. However, the growth of the stakeholder base has led to an unmet demand for climate adaptation services. These services focus on sharing data, tools, research knowledge, and scientific guidance with communities and stakeholders. To meet this need, the South Central CASC will establish a new scientist position focused on climate adaptation services and research coordination to identify critically needed science solutions and to bridge the researcher and practitioner communities in the...
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Science produced by the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) network must ideally be scientifically sound, relevant to a management decision, fair and respectful of stakeholders’ divergent values, and produced through a process of iterative collaboration between scientists and managers. However, research that aims to produce usable knowledge and collaborative approaches that boost usability are not common in academia or federal research programs. As a result, neither the process of creating such research nor the impacts to stakeholders are well understood or well documented. This lack of attention to the processes and impacts of collaborative scientist-stakeholder knowledge production also...
The design of this survey protocol is based on the indicator framework presented in Wall et. al (2017 https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-16-0008.1) and is intended to evaluate projects funded by Climate Adaptation Science Centers. The intended respondents are stakeholders who were engaged in the creation of scientific knowledge and tools during these projects. The questions cover three topical areas: process (engagement in the process of knowledge production), outputs/outcomes (use of information), and impacts (building of relationships and trust).
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Abstract Although decision-making in response to tornado warnings is well researched, most studies do not examine whether individual responses to these warnings vary across different geographical locations and demographic groups. This gap is addressed by using data from a decision experiment that places participants virtually in a simulated tornado warning and asks them to minimize the costs of their decisions. The authors examine the following: 1) what demographic attributes may contribute to choices to minimize costs to protect assets at a specific location in a tornado warning, 2) whether there is a spatial component to how these attributes influence decision-making, and 3) if there are specific U.S. regions...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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The Red River Basin is a vital source of water in the South Central U.S., supporting ecosystems, drinking water, agriculture, tourism and recreation, and cultural ceremonies. Stretching from the High Plains of New Mexico eastward to the Mississippi River, the Red River Basin encompasses parts of five states – New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Further, 74% of the jurisdictional boundaries of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Tribes are located within the basin. Water resources in the basin have been stressed in recent years due to a multi-year drought and increasing demands for consumptive use by metropolitan areas in Oklahoma and Texas. Unfortunately, currently available projections of future precipitation...
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The greater Mississippi River Basin (MRB) is the largest river basin in North America and the fourth largest basin in the world. The MRB encompasses 24 terrestrial ecosystems, providing habitat for 100 species of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians Its floodplain supports 40% of the waterfowl and wading birds in North America, and the MRB’s rivers transport 40% of the nation’s total exports. Dozens of different cultures are scattered across the MRB with different policy structures, worldviews, and economic strengths. The heterogeneity in the environmental and socio-cultural settings across the MRB poses a challenge to climate adaptation and actionable resource management recommendations. Yet climate change has disrupted...
map background search result map search result map Impacts of Climate Change on Water Flows in the Red River Basin Approaches to Evaluate Actionable Science for Climate Adaptation Organizing and Synthesizing Ogallala Aquifer Data to Facilitate Research and Resource Management Climate Extension Services for the South Central U.S. Communities of Practice Future of Fire in the South Central: Towards a National Synthesis of Wildland Fire Under a Changing Climate Climate Adaptation Services for New Mexico Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience for Tribes and Pueblos in OK, TX, NM, and LA Summary of North Central and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers Project Evaluation Survey Data Collected from 2018-2019 Future of Aquatic Flows in the South Central U.S.: Toward Sustainable Water Management in the Mississippi River Basin Expanding the Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox (CART) to the South Central United States Improving Predictive Drought Models with Sensitivity Analysis Improving Predictive Drought Models with Sensitivity Analysis Climate Adaptation Services for New Mexico Impacts of Climate Change on Water Flows in the Red River Basin Communities of Practice Future of Fire in the South Central: Towards a National Synthesis of Wildland Fire Under a Changing Climate Climate Extension Services for the South Central U.S. Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience for Tribes and Pueblos in OK, TX, NM, and LA Expanding the Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox (CART) to the South Central United States Organizing and Synthesizing Ogallala Aquifer Data to Facilitate Research and Resource Management Summary of North Central and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers Project Evaluation Survey Data Collected from 2018-2019 Approaches to Evaluate Actionable Science for Climate Adaptation Future of Aquatic Flows in the South Central U.S.: Toward Sustainable Water Management in the Mississippi River Basin