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Precipitation in HawaiĘ»i’s higher elevation upland areas provides needed water to both people and ecosystems. Once it reaches the ground, rain can either run off and contribute to water flow in streams, or it can infiltrate into the ground and provide water for plants and recharge aquifers and groundwater. The exact route that water takes is controlled by many factors, including the duration and intensity of rainfall, the topography of the land, soil properties, and vegetation. The introduction and spread of invasive plants and animals in Hawaiian forests, which alters the water-use and soil characteristics of ecosystems, can have large impacts on downstream water users. Increased demand and competition for limited...
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Pacific salmon need cold water and quality habitat to survive. As climate change continues to increase river temperatures, effective methods to restore cool-water refuges and logjam habitats need to be determined. Many salmon habitat restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest have built engineered logjams (ELJs) to create deep, cool pools and reconnect rivers to floodplains to replenish cool groundwater. However, the success of these projects is not often studied. This project will study restoration effectiveness in helping salmon adapt to climate change so that this once-abundant resource can continue to enrich the local culture, economy, and environment. The Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe’s cultural and...
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Throughout the Pacific Northwest, invasive flora threaten river ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Invasive plants harm water quality, occupy habitat for native species, reduce recreation opportunities, and damage infrastructure such as pumps and dams. Resource managers from federal, state, and local agencies, as well as local non-profits, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on monitoring and exterminating invasive plants. Management costs and damages are likely to rise as climate change warms temperatures and reduces rainfall across the basin, expanding potential habitat for invasive plants and affecting the effectiveness of management. For some time, scientists have recognized the potential...
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In the Pacific Northwest, coastal ecosystems are highly productive areas that support millions of migratory waterbirds, shellfish, salmon and related fish. These species depend on food and habitats provided by estuaries (coastal tidal areas where streams and rivers flow into the ocean) for successful migration and breeding. Climate change effects such as drought, sea-level rise, and changing freshwater flow, precipitation, and temperatures will alter these important habitats. This study examined how changing ocean and freshwater patterns and conditions will influence estuary habitats. The main goal was to provide scientific support for future planning efforts and conservation of natural resources found in coastal...
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Karst aquifers—formed when the movement of water dissolves bedrock—are critical groundwater resources in North America. Water moving through these aquifers carves out magnificent caves, sinkholes, and other formations. These formations are home to high concentrations of rare and endangered species, but the hydrological conditions that support these species can change rapidly. Managing these ecosystems into the future requires a better understanding of how climate, hydrology, and karst ecosystems interact. The objective of this project was to determine how species and ecosystems associated with karst might respond to future temperature and precipitation extremes and accompanying changes in groundwater levels and...
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Climate adaptation planning provides a framework for Tribes to exercise sovereignty over wild resources important for the subsistence way of life and economic and cultural activities that are being impacted by climate change. The climate adaptation planning process includes identifying key resources that are currently being impacted by climate change, or that may be impacted in the future, as well as identifying practical and strategic steps that can be taken to mitigate or adapt to the changing circumstances. Through a partnership among the Ketchikan Indian Community, the Metlakatla Indian Community, OceansAlaska, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks this project will support Tribal- and Alaska Native-led...
Climate change is projected to cause earlier and less snowmelt, potentially reducing water availability for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and for municipal and agricultural water supplies. However, if forested landscapes can be managed to retain snow longer, some of these environmental and financial impacts may be mitigated. Results from our research team demonstrate that in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), opening dense forest canopies through creating forest gaps will generally lead to more snow accumulation and later melt (i.e., up to 13 weeks later). However, under certain conditions, such as locations on ridges with high wind speeds and sunny south-facing slopes, the snow that accumulated in the forest is...
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Winter snowpack provides critical water resources for human populations and ecosystems throughout western North America. Increasing temperature and changing precipitation patterns are expected to alter the extent, amount, and persistence of snow in this region. Observations of snowpack and related hydroclimate variables are limited and sparse. This project will capitalize on recent advances in water balance and snow modeling as well as the development of comprehensive North American tree-ring datasets to produce spatially specific, annually resolved, and management relevant reconstructions of snow, streamflow, and warm season temperature. The project researchers will focus specifically on spatiotemporal reconstructions...
Abstract (from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379115300329): Delineating the climate processes governing precipitation variability in drought-prone Texas is critical for predicting and mitigating climate change effects, and requires the reconstruction of past climate beyond the instrumental record. We synthesize existing paleoclimate proxy data and climate simulations to provide an overview of climate variability in Texas during the Holocene. Conditions became progressively warmer and drier transitioning from the early to mid Holocene, culminating between 7 and 3 ka (thousand years ago), and were more variable during the late Holocene. The timing and relative magnitude of Holocene climate...
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The complex mountain and valley chains of the Southwest exert a strong influence on precipitation and wind patterns. Atmospheric rivers deliver some of the most extreme precipitation events to west-southwest-facing slopes of the mountains where strong gusty downslope winds can also spread wildfires. Climate change is making the southwest warmer and dryer resulting in more fire-prone vegetation and more frequent and extreme atmospheric rivers. Understanding this changing system is critical for managing water resources and wildfire in the region. This project will study how climate change is impacting precipitation and winds to create fire weather and drive fire spread on heavily vegetated slopes of coastal mountains....
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Ongoing climate change is impacting areas of snow and ice in high latitudes and high elevation areas and is thus anticipated to change the frequency and magnitude of snow and ice related hazards. In Alaska, snow avalanches are the deadliest natural hazard, and they affect a large portion of the state, significantly impacting the natural landscape, the built environment, and public safety. As climate warming continues, it is expected that Alaska’s vulnerability to avalanche hazards will also continue to increase. Currently, there is limited public awareness and available information to support adaptation, mitigation and preparedness efforts for these hazards. The goal of this project is to improve understanding...
Clouds often come in contact with vegetation (often named fogs) within a certain elevation range on Hawaii’s mountains. Propelled by strong winds, cloud droplets are driven onto the stems and leaves of plants where they are deposited. Some of the water that accumulates on the plants in this way drips to the ground, adding additional water over and above the water supplied by rainfall. Prior observations show that the amount of cloud water intercepted by vegetation is substantial, but also quite variable from place to place. It is, therefore, important to create a map for the complex spatial patterns of cloud water interception (CWI) in Hawaii. In this project, we created the CWI map at 0.8-km resolution based on...
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Results of a citizen science effort in which students and instructors at the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) collected snow observations every 1-4 weeks at their field site within Ponderosa State Park (elevation 1540 m), adjacent to Payette Lake, ID. Students documented snow cover within forested versus open areas at each site via photographs and estimates of the continuity of snow cover. Additionally, snow depth and density were measured via snow pits in the forest and the open. Data were entered via a Google Form, and the results recorded in this table. Site Data Citation for full description of the field campaign and sites. Field photographs are archived along with these data, sorted by site name, with timestamp...
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Understanding how snow will change over the coming century is vital in understanding environmental changes across Alaska. Changes in snow are also economically important to many sectors, from recreation to commercial fishing. An earlier set of rain-snow partitioning and snowfall equivalent projections based on downscaled CMIP3 temperature and precipitation projections have been used extensively. In this project, we developed updated projections for the fraction of precipitation days that are snowy (vs. rainy) and the amount of precipitation that likely falls as snow to be consistent with the newest downscaled temperature and precipitation released by SNAP. The outputs are decadal monthly averages. The updated snow...
This project is working closely with web developers (California Climate Commons, http://climate.calcommons.org; and the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative) to provide user-friendly tools and guidance from site to regional scales with direct feedback from natural resource managers for utility, understandability, relevance, and accessibility. Ongoing projects and relationships across multiple disciplines, organizations, and applications provide this forum. An important aspect of the project was to build capacity of the Commons and engage a larger management community in issues associated with water availability/water supply analysis.
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In California, increased wildfire activity has been linked to decreasing snowpack and earlier snowmelt. Not only has this translated into a longer fire season, but reduced snowpack has cascading effects that impact streamflow, water supplies, agricultural productivity, and ecosystems. California receives 80% of its precipitation during the winter, so mountain snowpack plays a critical role in replenishing the state’s water supply. One factor that affects the amount of winter precipitation (and therefore snowpack) in California is the North Pacific Jet (NPJ)—a current of strong, high altitude winds that occur over the northern Pacific Ocean. Winters when the NPJ is located further north than normal are drier than...
Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Report; Tags: 2013, CA, CA-wide, CASC, Completed, All tags...
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Loss of saltmarsh habitat is one of the biggest threats to coastal sustainability in the Northeast. Salt marsh has been identified as an essential fish and wildlife habitat, and loss of saltmarsh corresponds with precipitous declines in marsh-dependent wildlife. For example, the global population of Saltmarsh Sparrow is predicted to collapse within the next 50 years after experiencing a 9% annual decline across the northeastern U.S. Resource managers require tools to help restore salt marsh habitat for wildlife by adapting marshes to climate change-driven sea level rise. However, adaptation approaches need to be tested and evaluated before widespread application. Researchers are testing a rapidly emerging sea...
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These files include downscaled projections of decadal average monthly snowfall equivalent ("SWE", in millimeters) for each month of the decades from 2010-2019 to 2090-2099 at 771 x 771 m spatial resolution. Each file represents a decadal average monthly mean. Output is available for the NCAR-CCSM4, GFDL-CM3, GISS-E2-R, IPSL-CM5A-LR, and MRI-CGCM3 models and three emissions scenarios (RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5). Snow-fall equivalent estimates were produced by multiplying snow-day fraction ("fs") by decadal average monthly precipitation ("Pr"). (fs*Pr)/100 Snow-day fraction data used can be found here: http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset/projected-decadal-averages-of-monthly-snow-day-fraction-771m-cmip5-ar5 Precipitation...
Abstract (from Water): Climatically driven changes in snow characteristics (snowfall, snowpack, and snowmelt) will affect hydrologic and ecological systems in Alaska over the coming century, yet there exist no projections of downscaled future snow pack metrics for the state of Alaska. We updated historical and projected snow day fraction (PSF, the fraction of days with precipitation falling as snow) from McAfee et al. We developed modeled snowfall equivalent (SFE) derived from the product of snow-day fraction (PSF) and existing gridded precipitation for Alaska from Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP). We validated the assumption that modeled SFE approximates historical decadally averaged snow...
The following pages contain maps of climate-change projections for the northeastern United States (from Virginia to Maine) based on selected datasets from Hamann and others (2013). All maps show absolute projected changes in climate variables between the baseline period (1981-2010) and the 2050s (2041-2070; left) or the 2080s (2071-2100; right). Future climate projections are based on the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emissions scenario (Knutti and Sedlacek, 2012) using an ensemble of 15 Global Circulation Models (GCMs; Hamann and others, 2013). Units are indicated on the color ramp (on right) except for unitless variables.
map background search result map search result map The Influence of the North Pacific Jet Stream on Future Fire in California Evaluating the Impacts of Climate Extremes on Karst Hydrology and Species Vulnerability Citizen science snow observations at the McCall Outdoor Science School, McCall, ID Understanding the Impacts of Ecological Drought on Estuaries in the Pacific Northwest Changes in Water Flow through Hawaiian Forests due to Invasive Species and Changing Rainfall Patterns Alaska Snowpack Response to Climate Change: Statewide Snowfall Equivalent and Snowpack Water Scenarios Water Resource Relevant Hydroclimatic Reconstructions for Western North America Mapping Salt Marsh Response to Sea Level Rise and Evaluating 'Runneling' as an Adaptation Technique to Inform Wildlife Habitat Management in New England Future Changes in Snow Avalanches in Southern Alaska Integrating Economics and Ecology to Inform Climate-Ready Aquatic Invasive Species Management for Vulnerable Pacific Northwest River Communities Building Tribal Capacity to Adapt and Respond to Climate Change in Southeast Alaska South Fork Nooksack River Engineered Logjam Effectiveness Project: Are Engineered Logjams Creating Cool-Water Refuges for Pacific Salmon on a Thermally Impaired River? How do Atmospheric Rivers and Downslope Winds Affect Wildfire Risk and Water Resources in the Arid Southwest? Citizen science snow observations at the McCall Outdoor Science School, McCall, ID Mapping Salt Marsh Response to Sea Level Rise and Evaluating 'Runneling' as an Adaptation Technique to Inform Wildlife Habitat Management in New England Understanding the Impacts of Ecological Drought on Estuaries in the Pacific Northwest Integrating Economics and Ecology to Inform Climate-Ready Aquatic Invasive Species Management for Vulnerable Pacific Northwest River Communities Changes in Water Flow through Hawaiian Forests due to Invasive Species and Changing Rainfall Patterns South Fork Nooksack River Engineered Logjam Effectiveness Project: Are Engineered Logjams Creating Cool-Water Refuges for Pacific Salmon on a Thermally Impaired River? Building Tribal Capacity to Adapt and Respond to Climate Change in Southeast Alaska The Influence of the North Pacific Jet Stream on Future Fire in California Evaluating the Impacts of Climate Extremes on Karst Hydrology and Species Vulnerability How do Atmospheric Rivers and Downslope Winds Affect Wildfire Risk and Water Resources in the Arid Southwest? Alaska Snowpack Response to Climate Change: Statewide Snowfall Equivalent and Snowpack Water Scenarios Future Changes in Snow Avalanches in Southern Alaska Water Resource Relevant Hydroclimatic Reconstructions for Western North America