Skip to main content
Advanced Search

Filters: Tags: {"type":"Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather"} (X)

692 results (221ms)   

Filters
View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV
To improve understanding of streamflow permanence in the Pacific Northwest, we have developed a method for predicting the annual probability of year-round streamflow at 30-meter intervals. The approach involves collecting and processing nearly 24,000 streamflow observations into “wet” or “dry” values, and synchronizing them with 291 predictor datasets that represent physical (one-time values) and climatic (monthly or annual values) conditions associated with the upstream area for each 30-meter point along streams in the Pacific Northwest. Both of these datasets are among the first of their kind and shed light on the scientific opportunities that ‘Big Data’ techniques allow for. The predictive models developed from...
thumbnail
Climate change is already affecting ecosystems, and will likely trigger significant and permanent changes in both ecological and human communities. Such transformations are already occurring in the Arctic region of Alaska, where temperatures are warming at twice the global average and causing some ecosystems to transition to new states. Arctic warming has led to coastal erosion that has forced human communities to relocate and a loss of sea ice that has forced marine mammals, such as polar bears and walrus, to adapt to a more terrestrial mode of living. Meanwhile, in the Great Plains of the U.S., past interactions between land and water use during the Dust Bowl and recent high rates of depletion of the Ogallala...
thumbnail
In the Northwest U.S., warming temperatures and changing precipitation patterns will likely result in significantly altered snowpack, stream flows, and water availability. Along with these changes comes an increased risk of “ecological drought”, or periods of water stress that impact ecosystems and the services they provide –which can ultimately impact human communities. More frequent and severe ecological droughts have the potential to push ecosystems beyond their ability to recover, resulting in complete changes in ecosystem composition and function. Ecological drought will only worsen existing management challenges, such as competition for water resources, habitat degradation, invasive species, and more frequent...
The Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR) in west-central Wyoming is home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, who reside near and depend on water from the streams that feed into Wind River. In recent years, however, the region has experienced frequent severe droughts, which have affected tribal livelihoods and cultural activities. Scientists with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NCCASC) at Colorado State University, the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and several other university and agency partners in the region worked in close partnership with tribal water managers to assess how drought affects the reservation, which included...
Abstract (from AMS100): Between water years 2012 and 2017, the Truckee–Carson river system in the western United States experienced both historic-low and record-high Sierra Nevada snowpack, anomalously warm temperatures, and winter and spring flooding. As part of an ongoing collaborative modeling research program in the river system, researchers conduct annual interviews with key local water managers to characterize local climate adaptation strategies and implementation barriers, and identify science information needs to prioritize ongoing research activities. This article presents new findings from a third wave of interviews conducted with the same water managers following the historic 2017 wet year. Comparison...
thumbnail
We performed bathymetric surveys using a shallow-water echo-sounding system (Takekawa et al., 2010, Brand et al., 2012) comprised of an acoustic profiler (Navisound 210; Reson, Inc., Slangerup, Denmark), Leica RTK GPS Viva rover, and laptop computer mounted on a shallow-draft, portable flat-bottom boat (Bass Hunter, Cabelas, Sidney, NE; Figure 7). The RTK GPS obtained high resolution elevations of the water surface (reported precision 10 cm water depth. We recorded twenty depth readings and one GPS location each second along transects spaced 100 m apart perpendicular to the nearby salt marsh. We calibrated the system before use with a bar-check plate and adjusted the sound velocity for salinity and temperature differences....
Abstract (from http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JHM-D-16-0194.1): This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of cloudiness across mountain zones in the western United States. Daily average cloud albedo is derived from a 19-yr series (1996–2014) of half-hourly Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) images. During springtime when incident radiation is active in driving snowmelt–runoff processes, the magnitude of daily cloud variations can exceed 50% of long-term averages. Even when aggregated over 3-month periods, cloud albedo varies by ±10% of long-term averages in many locations. Rotated empirical orthogonal functions (REOFs) of daily cloud albedo anomalies over high-elevation...
thumbnail
We performed bathymetric surveys using a shallow-water echo-sounding system (Takekawa et al., 2010, Brand et al., 2012) comprised of an acoustic profiler (Navisound 210; Reson, Inc., Slangerup, Denmark), Leica RTK GPS Viva rover, and laptop computer mounted on a shallow-draft, portable flat-bottom boat (Bass Hunter, Cabelas, Sidney, NE; Figure 7). The RTK GPS obtained high resolution elevations of the water surface (reported precision 10 cm water depth. We recorded twenty depth readings and one GPS location each second along transects spaced 100 m apart perpendicular to the nearby salt marsh. We calibrated the system before use with a bar-check plate and adjusted the sound velocity for salinity and temperature differences....
thumbnail
To assess the current topography of the tidal marshes we conducted survey-grade elevation surveys at all sites between 2009 and 2013 using a Leica RX1200 Real Time Kinematic (RTK)Global Positioning System (GPS) rover (±1 cm horizontal, ±2 cm vertical accuracy; Leica Geosystems Inc., Norcross, GA; Figure 4). At sites with RTK network coverage (San Pablo, Petaluma, Pt. Mugu, and Newport), rover positions were received in real time from the Leica Smartnet system via a CDMA modem (www.lecia-geosystems.com). At sites without network coverage (Humboldt, Bolinas, Morro and Tijuana), rover positions were received in real time from a Leica GS10 antenna base station via radio link. When using the base station, we adjusted...
thumbnail
We used WARMER, a 1-D cohort model of wetland accretion (Swanson et al., 2014), which is based on Callaway et al. (1996), to examine the effects of three SLR projections on future habitat composition at each study site. Each cohort in the model represents the total organic and inorganic matter added to the soil column each year. WARMER calculates annual elevation changes relative to MSL based on projected changes in relative sea level, subsidence, inorganic sediment accumulation, aboveground and belowground organic matter inputs, soil compaction, and organic matter decomposition for a representative marsh area. Cohort density, a function of soil mineral, organic, and water content, is calculated at each time step...
thumbnail
The western coast of Alaska is a remote region, rich in wildlife and providing critical nesting habitat for many of Alaska’s seabirds. It is also home to indigenous communities who rely upon the region’s natural resources to support a traditional lifestyle of hunting, gathering, and fishing. Although the region is frequently subject to extensive inland flooding from Bering Sea storms, little is known about the extent and frequency of flooding and its impacts on vegetation, wildlife, and water quality. Furthermore, information is lacking about how climate change and sea-level rise (which can influence the frequency and intensity of storms and subsequent flooding) are affecting this area, its communities, and their...
thumbnail
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing natural resource management. The disruptions it is causing require that we change the way we consider conservation and resource management in order to ensure the future of habitats, species, and human communities. Practitioners often struggle with how to identify and prioritize specific climate adaptation actions (CAAs). Management actions may have a higher probability of being successful if they are informed by available scientific knowledge and findings; a systematic review process provides a mechanism to scientifically assess management questions. By evaluating specific actions on scientific knowledge and findings, we may be able to increase management...
thumbnail
Forests across the southwestern U.S. are crucial components of recreation and play an important role in state and local economies. Healthy forests also provide needed habitat for many wildlife species and contribute many other important services to our planet. “Hotter droughts” (otherwise normal droughts whose effects on ecosystems are exacerbated by higher temperatures) are an emerging climate change threat to forests with some of their earliest and strongest appearances happening in the Southwest. The Leaf to Landscape project uses California’s unusually hot drought as a potential preview of the future, allowing us to collect information that will help guide forest management in the face of a warming climate....
thumbnail
The Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs) and their managing organization, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey, have chosen the emerging climate science field of Ecological Drought as a research focus area. This workshop is part of a series of meetings at each of the nation’s eight CSCs aimed at collating our existing knowledge of the ecological impacts, resistance, and recovery from drought. The eight CSCs provide a fantastic opportunity to compare the ecological effects of drought, related research activities, and management options at different regions, spatial scales, and biomes of drought, related research activities, and management options...
Public Summary: The area burned by wildfires is expected to increase in many watersheds of the world over the next century as a function of climate change. Increased sedimentation due to soil erosion in burned watersheds can negatively impact downstream aquatic ecosystems and the quality and supply of water. At least 65% of the water supply in the western USA originates in watersheds covered by trees, shrubs, and/or grasses that are prone to wildfire16. Understanding how changing fire frequency, extent, and location will affect watersheds, reservoirs, and the ecosystem services they supply to communities is therefore of great societal importance. A primary threat to socio-ecological systems in this region from...
Abstract (from http://www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF16165): Interannual variability in burn severity is assessed across forested ecoregions of the western United States to understand how it is influenced by variations in area burned and climate during 1984–2014. Strong correlations (|r| > 0.6) between annual area burned and climate metrics were found across many of the studied regions. The burn severity of individual fires and fire seasons was weakly, but significantly (P < 0.05), correlated with burned area across many regions. Interannual variability in fuel dryness evaluated with fuel aridity metrics demonstrated weak-to-moderate (|r| >0.4) relationships with regional burn severity, congruent with but weaker than...
Streams are classified as perennial (flowing uninterrupted, year-round) or intermittent (flowing part of the year) or ephemeral (flowing only during rainfall events). The classifications of “streamflow permanence” were primarily established in the middle 20th century and are often outdated and inaccurate today if they were not adjusted for changes in land use, wildfires, or climate. Understanding where streams are perennial is important for a variety of reasons. For example, perennial streams receive special regulatory protections under a variety of statutes, and provide important habitat for fish, wildlife, and other species. To predict the likelihood that streams are perennial, we compiled nearly 25,000 observations...
This downloadable PDF research feature summarizes the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center-supported project "Climate Change Research in Support of Hawaiian Ecosystem Management: An Integrated Approach". The key goals of this project were 1) to understand how changes in the Earth’s future climate system will affect the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in Hawai`i, 2) to support studies of the ecological impacts of climate change on native Hawaiian plants and animals and 3) to provide information needed by natural resource managers charged with preserving native biodiversity.
map background search result map search result map Modeling Future Storm Impacts on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta The Available Science Assessment Process (ASAP): Evaluating the Science behind Climate Adaptation Actions Alaska EcoDrought Synthesis Workshop Newsletter, September 2015 San Pablo, California: Tidal Marsh Digital Elevation Model Humboldt, California: Tidal Marsh Bathymetry Digital Elevation Model San Pablo, California: Tidal Marsh Bathymetry Digital Elevation Models SLR Projections, Bolinas, Calif., 2070-2110 Leaf to Landscape: Understanding and Mapping the Vulnerability of Forests to Hotter Droughts Extremes to Ex-Streams: Informing Ecological Drought Adaptation in the Northwest Adaptation Strategies in the Face of Climate-Driven Ecological Transformation: Case Studies from Arctic Alaska and the U.S. Great Plains SLR Projections, Bolinas, Calif., 2070-2110 Humboldt, California: Tidal Marsh Bathymetry Digital Elevation Model San Pablo, California: Tidal Marsh Digital Elevation Model San Pablo, California: Tidal Marsh Bathymetry Digital Elevation Models Leaf to Landscape: Understanding and Mapping the Vulnerability of Forests to Hotter Droughts Modeling Future Storm Impacts on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta The Available Science Assessment Process (ASAP): Evaluating the Science behind Climate Adaptation Actions Extremes to Ex-Streams: Informing Ecological Drought Adaptation in the Northwest Adaptation Strategies in the Face of Climate-Driven Ecological Transformation: Case Studies from Arctic Alaska and the U.S. Great Plains Alaska EcoDrought Synthesis Workshop Newsletter, September 2015