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A New Framework for Assessing Beaver-Related Restoration
Climate change and streams in the Northwest
Beavers are a fascinating and charismatic creature of the Northwest, but did you know they also play an important role in shaping our streams and rivers?
Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment Describes What Latest Climate Science Means for Oregon and Opportunities to Adapt
Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s (NW CASC) Tribal Liaison, Chas Jones, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Pathways Intern, Coral Avery, were among authors on the Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment, which was published this week.
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Recurring, Large-Scale Drought Patterns Shape Forest Recovery After Wildfires
Large and severe wildfires, like those recently experienced across much of the West, are expected to become more common as the climate changes. In addition to the obvious damage and disruption these wildfires wreak on human communities, there is a lesser-known side effect of growing concern to managers and researchers — that some forests may not be able to recover from more intense wildfires under hotter and drier conditions brought on by climate change.
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NW CASC Paper Calls for Transforming Science Training to Build Capacity for Actionable Climate Adaptation Science
How can we mobilize science to support the transformational global action required by climate change? By creating a new type of scientist. A new open-access paper in the journal Environmental Research Letters emphasizes the need for science training that builds collaborative science skills at different career stages to develop a strong community of practice around actionable climate science.
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How Might Climate Change Affect Huckleberry in the Pacific Northwest?
Written by guest author Gina Fiorile, Science Communications Specialist, U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center
Huckleberry is both a culturally and ecologically significant plant species that is experiencing an altered growing season due to climate change.
NW CASC’s Mary Ann Rozance and Colleagues Receive Award for Course Design on Environmental Policy, Planning and Activism
Urban rivers, though central to human life, are often places of conflict and racial inequities caused by uneven power dynamics. Why is this? How are decisions made about urban environments and what are the social and ecological outcomes of these decisions?
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Climate Change Refugia Special Issue: Buying Time for Biodiversity to Adapt in a Changing World
Human-caused climate change will rapidly alter ecosystems in the Northwest and around the world, putting species that inhabit them under severe stress. These sweeping ecological changes will leave little time for species and ecosystems to adapt to new conditions, resulting in extinctions and large-scale ecosystem transformations.
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Improving Refugia Identification by Combining Landscape and Species-Based Approaches
Identifying and protecting climate change refugia — areas relatively buffered from climate change that can help species persist in a warming climate — is increasingly important for conservation planning. Until recently, the approaches used to identify refugia at broad scales mainly focused on landscape features and climate conditions.
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A Broader View of Disturbance Refugia in a Changing Climate
Many natural disturbances, like wildfires, which have helped to maintain ecosystem processes and biodiversity in the past, are worsening under climate change and are threatening biodiversity. There is increasing recognition of the role of disturbance refugia — locations disturbed less severely or less frequently than the surrounding landscape — as legacies important to sustaining species under rapid ecological change.
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Lynx on the Edge? Canada Lynx Occupancy in Washington
The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a sensitive indicator species for impacts of climate change, as it is adapted to forested, high-elevation and deep-snow environments. In Washington, part of its southern range, the endangered Canada lynx is especially threatened by increases in temperature and associated loss of snow cover.
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