Projects by Region

In coastal Alaska, changes in snow, ice, and extreme weather events threaten human communities, critical infrastructure, valuable natural resources, and traditional, subsistence hunting and fishing lifestyles. Understanding how changing climate conditions impact Alaska’s coastal ecosystems, and how these changes may be tied to the ability of coastal communities to adapt to changing conditions, ha

In coastal Alaska, changes in snow, ice, and extreme weather events threaten human communities, critical infrastructure, valuable natural resources, and hunting and fishing livelihoods. Identifying how changing climate conditions impact Alaska’s coastal ecosystems, and how these changes may be tied to the ability of coastal communities to adapt to changing conditions, has been identified as a prio

Led by members of the South Central Climate Science Center (SC CSC) consortium, this project builds upon the successes of the 2014 and 2016 trainings to develop and implement professional development training for graduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers within the SC CSC region. The objectives were: (1) introduce a new cohort of early-career researchers to the research challenges

Consortium Principal Investigators lead Working Groups on a variety of global change topics that draw on their scientific strengths and interests. The Working Groups bring together multi-disciplinary teams of academics, USGS staff, Tribal Nations, representatives from state agencies, other stakeholders, and students to address regionally-relevant emerging issues and to develop syntheses of topics

The Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC) promotes collaborative research, with a focus on training next-generation scientists through active engagement with stakeholders and agencies, to enhance landscape-level conservation and management of natural and cultural resources. The SE CASC is hosted by North Carolina State University (NCSU) with consortium partners Duke University, Aub

In order to assess and understand the potential impacts of climate change on important natural resources, managers, planners, and decision-makers need climate information at a local or regional scale. In general, Global Climate Models (GCMs) provide data at coarser scales than most natural resource managers need but Regional Climate Models (RCMs) are starting to deliver finer scale results. The pr

The 2017 Idaho Climate Summit - Safeguarding Idaho’s Economy in a Changing Climate: Our Water, Our Land, Our Health, Our Future was a two-day conversation about Idaho’s changing climate led by businesses, resource and land managers, Idaho tribes and tribal organizations, researchers, public interest organizations, community members, and government officials. The summit explored market-based soluti

The Northwest Climate Conference annually brings together researchers and practitioners from around the Pacific Northwest to discuss scientific results, challenges, and solutions related to climate impacts on people, natural resources, and infrastructure in the region. It is the region's premier opportunity for a cross-disciplinary exchange of knowledge and ideas about regional climate, climate im

The Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers provide drinking water to millions of people in the Southwest and South Central U.S. Snowmelt accounts for 70% of streamflow in these rivers, meaning that water use downstream is directly impacted by snow accumulation and snowmelt patterns in the mountains. Mountain forests are a critical part of the hydrologic cycle that feeds these rivers, providing water suppl

Phenology, or the timing of the annual cycles of plants and animals, is extremely sensitive to changes in climate. We know that plants and animals may adjust the timing of certain phenological events, such as tree flowering or migration, based on changes in weather. However, it’s important that we also understand how the timing of phenological events is changing over longer time frames, as climate

Invasive plants are a major land management problem in the Western U.S. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is the most prominent and problematic invader in cold deserts, with negative effects on rangeland fire patterns, wildlife habitats, and forage/vegetation. Red brome (B. madritensis) is an invader in the Mojave Desert, and can similarly introduce a new fire patterns to sensitive warm desert scrub. T

Climate change influences apex predators in complex ways, due to their important trophic position, capacity for resource plasticity, and sensitivity to numerous anthropogenic stressors. Bald eagles, an ecologically and culturally significant apex predator, congregate seasonally in high densities on salmon spawning rivers across the Pacific Northwest. One of the largest eagle concentrations is in t