News & Events
Filter news and events:
Similar Species, Divergent Futures: Rethinking Climate Indicator Species
Written by guest author Gavin Graham, summer 2025 NW CASC science communications intern
Is there a shortcut to saving species that are affected by our changing climate? For one group of Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center-supported researchers, what started as an attempt to understand how the changing climate affects a group of threatened amphibians in the Northwest, led them to unexpected findings and insights about species management in a changing climate.
Invasive Species Science at the NW CASC
Invasive species are an ongoing focus of the NW CASC’s efforts to fund and facilitate actionable science, which have included research on more than 24 invasive species since 2011 across Northwestern habitats ranging from Puget Sound prairies to sagebrush steppe, from coastal wetlands to high elevation forests.
Read more
Surprises in the Klamath: How disease, invasives, and warming waters are affecting redband trout
Written by guest author Heidi Shepard, NW CASC communications graduate research assistant for the winter 2025 quarter
Upper Klamath Lake in south-central Oregon is perhaps the last place one might think of as being trout habitat.
Updated Climate Change Vulnerability Index (Release 4.0) Includes New Features to Support Climate Adaptation Planning for Species
A new release of NatureServe’s widely-used Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) is now available, providing natural-resource managers with a rapid and cost-effective way to evaluate species’ relative vulnerability to climate change in specific geographies.
Read more
NW CASC Seeks Postdoc Focused on Coastal Squeeze
The University of Washington, in partnership with the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC), is searching for a talented scientist with an interest in coastal squeeze — when human and natural barriers challenge the inland range shifts of coastal species and ecosystems in response to sea-level rise.
Read more
Meet NW CASC’s New Research Fellows and Faculty Fellows!
Please join us in welcoming the new NW CASC Research Fellows and Faculty Fellows! These Fellows will conduct one-year projects in collaboration with regional natural resource managers, while receiving training in the practice of actionable science.
Meet the Fellows
NW CASC Webinar Shares New Models Related to Climate-Ready Invasive Species Management in PNW Rivers
Throughout the Pacific Northwest, invasive plants threaten rivers and the ecosystem services they provide, a risk that climate change may exacerbate. In a new webinar held earlier this week, researchers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of Washington shared findings from two related studies from their collaborative, NW CASC-supported project, Integrating Economics and Ecology to Inform Climate-Ready Invasive Species Management in Pacific Northwest Rivers.
Read more
UPCOMING WEBINAR: Integrating Economics & Ecology to Inform Climate-Ready Invasive Species Management in Pacific Northwest Rivers
The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) is hosting an upcoming webinar on Tuesday, August 27 at 12:00 p.m. PT, during which researchers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of Washington will share findings from their collaborative, NW CASC-supported project, Integrating Economics and Ecology to Inform Climate-Ready Invasive Species Management in Pacific Northwest Rivers.
Read more
New, NW CASC-Supported Study Explores Relationships Between Future Fire Size and Patterns of Burn Severity to Understand Ecological Effects for the Region
In the western United States, warmer and drier conditions have contributed to increases in large wildfire events in recent decades, a trend that’s expected to continue as the climate changes. A new, NW CASC-supported study led by Research Fellowship alum Michele Buonanduci, with University of Washington Associate Professor Brian Harvey and colleagues, describes an approach for anticipating the relationships between future fire sizes and burn severity patterns on a regional scale.
Read more
NW CASC Researchers and Collaborators Publish New Study on Centering Socioecological Connections to Collaboratively Manage Post-Fire Vegetation Shifts
Wildfires are changing as the climate warms, and so too are the ways in which some ecosystems are responding to fire. In the Northwest and other regions around the world, changes in wildfires (read: bigger, more frequent, and in some cases, more severe), combined with warmer and drier conditions, are making it difficult for some ecosystems to return to their former states after fire.
Read more