Based on feedback we are splitting the Region One Climate Change Science Digest into two versions and
targeting emails accordingly for the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Islands. FWS employees can find both
Digests and past issues on the Climate Change Sharepoint site, or send me an email. [Learning opportunities are
also now provided separately.]
Please note that a new national level FWS climate change e-newsletter is now available—you must register with
Kate Freund to be added to the mailing list.
Pacific Northwest Climate Change Science Digest
March, 2014 Issue
A monthly e-newsletter aimed at helping you stay connected to climate change science that is relevant and
integral to our conservation work. Do you have a new published article you would like to share? Please send it
our way. And many thanks to those who have provided material for this edition!
David Patte
Climate Change Coordinator (Senior Advisor on Ecosystem Change)
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Region, Portland, Oregon
(503) 231-6210
Quick Links (Abstracts and Weblinks are Below)
Video of the Month: Polar Disaster Movie
Great Basin Call for documents to support Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge prioritization
Outreach/Education/Engagement
Climate Change Live Broadcast (for schools)
Climate Change Communications and Engagement Strategy for the National Wildlife Refuge System
Special Focus: The Global Warming Slowdown—“hiatus” — Since Late 90’s
Clarity over the Global Warming “Hiatus”
Climate Change-- The Tropical Pacific Ocean—Back in the Driver's Seat?
Puzzling Warming "Hiatus" Linked to Lack of Arctic Temperature Records
The slowdown in Earth's surface temperature increase has made headlines worldwide — but mainly to
dismiss climate science
No pause in the increase of hot temperature extremes
Sage Grouse and Climate Change RFP
Funding for Tribes
Biodiversity/Species and Ecosystem Response
Long-term Demographics and Climate Change Effects on Rare Oregon Native Plants
Biodiversity and Climate Change: Predictive traits to the rescue
Geographical limits to species-range shifts are suggested by climate velocity
Sensitivity to thermal extremes in Australian Drosophila implies similar impacts of climate change on the
distribution of widespread and tropical species
Moose react to high summer temperatures by utilizing thermal shelters in boreal forests
Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US
regions
Columbia Gorge Pikas Adapt by Eating Moss
Forests and Climate Change
New Book: Climate Change and United States Forests
Blue Mountains Adaptation Partnership
Northern Rockies Adaptation Partnership
Large Old Trees Grow Fastest, Storing More Carbon
Study Finds Active Forest Management Likely to Increase Carbon Emissions
Aquatic Resources and Ecosystems/Water Resources/Hydrology
Climate Change and the FCRPS BiOp
Climate-Aquatics Blog: Managing with climate change: Goal setting & decision support tools for climatesmart prioritization
Coastal/Marine Ecosystems/Ocean Acidification/Sea Level Rise
New study reveals timeline of future coral reef decline, highlights urgent need for action
Acidic Waters Kill 10 Million Scallops Off Vancouver
Coastal Blue Carbon Opportunity Assessment for Snohomish Estuary: The Climate Benefits of Estuary
Restoration
New NOAA Changing Climate Vulnerability Assessment Methodology for Fish Stocks
Climate change projected to reduce seafloor life
Climate Change Journal Articles/Publications/News
Arctic Sea Ice Decline Contributes Significantly to Global Warming
From Past to Future Warming
A Drier Future?
Climate Change Evidence and Causes
Rapid Reductions in North Atlantic Deep Water During the Peak of the Last Interglacial Period
Preparing for Climate Change
Federal Adaptation Planning & Implementation
Climate Change Energy Infrastructure Risks and Adaptation Efforts
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
China and the United States, the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases, pledged on Feb 15 to work
together to attenuate the effects of global climate change
National policies advance as climate summit approaches
Russian farming collapse and ecological benefits
Climate and Weather Reports and Services
El Niño to Reappear This Year?
New Satellite Mission: Global Precipitation Measurement
Links to online climate services and newsletters (multiple entries)
List Servers and FWS Tools (Multiple Entries)
___________________________________________________________
Video of the Month: Polar Disaster Movie
This 1 minute video compressing 25 years of satellite data drew gasps at last month’s annual meeting of AAAS,
which publishes Science. The movie, created late last year with data from satellites and buoys, shows how each
year’s sea ice cover pulses like an amoeba, expanding and contracting with the seasons—and ending almost
every summer a little smaller than the year before. The video shows one reason why: The ice is getting younger.
The Arctic Ocean continually loses thick, old ice, the kind that easily survives a warm summer, as currents sweep
it out the Fram Strait, east of Greenland. Because of warmer Arctic temperatures, little multiyear ice forms to
replace what’s lost. Over 25 years, the proportion of the ocean covered by ice at least four years old has
dwindled from 26% to 7%, while the remaining ice is mainly thin, the product of one winter. That quickly melts
the following summer, leaving the ocean barer and bluer than before. [Source: Science News]
____________________________________________________________
Great Basin Call for documents to support Science and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge prioritization
The Great Basin LCC Steering Committee is convening a new Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
(STEK) Working Group to help identify key research and management needs over the next three to five
years. This year, working group members will lend their expertise on the diverse resources, scientific
disciplines, geographies and traditional ecological knowledge encompassed by the Great Basin to create a
strategic plan and annual implementation process to direct resources toward shared priorities.
The STEK Working Group will reference existing research and plans focused on scientific priorities and
management needs. Many of these documents are already available through the Great Basin Research and
Management (GBRMP) Partnership’s Great Basin Bibliography. Any new, relevant documents identified
throughout the STEK process will be posted there as well to help bolster the GBRMP’s efforts at sharing data
and knowledge in the Great Basin. You can assist by identifying any strategic science plans or synthesis
documents with science recommendations on a regional or landscape scale. Please contact Great Basin LCC
contractor Bridger Wineman, EnviroIssues, at bwineman@enviroissues.com or 503-248-9500 to recommend
any relevant documents for consideration during the STEK prioritization process.
____________________________________________________________
Outreach/Education/Engagement
ClimateChangeLIVE is an online initiative to engage students across the country on the topic of climate
change. Over 3700 schools and sites are registered to participate online. 27 agencies and organizations are
part of this national climate change education partnership, offering teachers and students science-based
climate education resources. ClimateChangeLIVE's educational resources are aligned with national science
education standards. Upcoming events include:
*March 5* broadcast: "Educate, Inspire, Engage," will feature the award-winning climate education
school assembly presentation from the Alliance for Climate Education. (Check out a short ACE vid here)
*March 12* broadcast: "Join the Climate Conversation," brings students together with climate experts
for a discussion about climate change and what students and classes around the country are doing to be
part of the climate solution.
Climate Change Communications and Engagement Strategy for the National
Wildlife Refuge System: Issued in February, the strategy calls on each FWS region
to identify at least one Refuge System unit that “has shown exemplary innovation
and progress toward developing and implementing climate change
communication and engagement strategies with multiple audiences.” The first
goal of the new strategy is to share those eight refuges’ successful tricks of the
trade with other refuges nationwide in the near future. A second goal of the new
strategy is to “cultivate a front line of Refuge System staff, Friends organizations
and long-term volunteers to serve as ‘Climate Ambassadors’ to effectively engage
and inspire refuge visitors, local communities and school systems, and other
Service staff to take personal and collective mitigation and adaptation actions.” A third goal is to link climate
change communication and engagement activities to other Conserving the Future teams’ communications
efforts.
___________________________________________________________
Special Focus: The Global Warming Slowdown—“hiatus” — Since Late
90’s
Clarity over the Global Warming “Hiatus” A review on the causes for rate of increase in global average
surface temperature since the late 1990’s being less than that of previous decades, resulting in use of the
term “hiatus” to describe this recent trend. [An issue brief by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions,
December 2013]
Climate Change-- The Tropical Pacific Ocean—Back in the Driver's Seat? Persistent cool conditions in the
eastern tropical Pacific may explain the current global warming "hiatus." [Amy Clement and Pedro DiNezio,
Feb 28, 2014, Science 343, no. 6174 pp. 976-978, DOI: 10.1126/science.1248115]
Puzzling Warming "Hiatus" Linked to Lack of Arctic Temperature Records: (excerpt-- see the Climate
CIRCulator for the full article which provides an overview of several factors for the slowdown plus this new
finding) Researchers Kevin Cowtan and Robert Way point to another reason behind the apparent slow
down: incomplete temperature data. Global coverage in the frequently referenced global temperature
dataset HadCRUT4 (compiled from long-term weather stations, buoys and ship observations) is spotty, the
scientists note. In particular, the Arctic, Antarctic and Africa have significant gaps in sampling. Given that
satellite measurements and other global reconstructions show that the Arctic has been warming faster than
other parts of the globe, its absence from the HadCRUT4 record introduces a potentially important bias. By
incorporating satellite data beginning in 1979, temperatures in the missing regions can be interpolated.
After including all regions into the global average, Cowtan and Way calculate a warming rate during the
“hiatus” that is two and a half times greater than the rate calculated from HadCRUT4. [Cowtan, K., and R. G.
Way, 2014, Coverage bias in the HadCRUT4 temperature series and its impact on recent temperature trends,
Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., doi: 10.1002/qj.2297]
The slowdown in Earth's surface temperature increase has made headlines worldwide — but mainly to
dismiss climate science: The slowdown in Earth's surface temperature increase has made headlines
worldwide — but mainly to dismiss climate science. Scientists responded, but were not proactive….
Researcher Maxwell Boykoff specifically examines the media reporting and highlights how easy it was to
confuse the public discourse around the complexity of climate change. The scientists did not help… as they
were quite slow at responding and, according to Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
Change and the Environment, showed a lack of understanding of the rules of public engagement. [Editorial
and media research articles in Nature Climate Change, 4, p 144, p. 156-158, and p. 170]
No pause in the increase of hot temperature extremes: Observational data show a continued increase of
hot extremes over land during the so-called global warming hiatus. This tendency is greater for the most
extreme events and thus more relevant for impacts than changes in global mean temperature. [Sonia I.
Seneviratne, Markus G. Donat, Brigitte Mueller, Lisa V. Alexander. Nature Climate Change, 2014; 4 (3): 161
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2145]
____________________________________________________
Funding for Tribes
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Announces FY 2014 Funding Opportunity to Support Tribes Addressing
Challenges of Climate Change: The BIA has announced a request for proposals to support Tribes in adapting
to the challenges of climate change in tribal communities, especially with respect to ocean and coastal
management planning. The competitive grants are for tribal adaptation, training, and travel support (to
participate in technical workshops, forums, and cooperative efforts). Awards are available only to federally
recognized tribes and P.L. 93-638 eligible intertribal organizations. As in FY 2013, smaller grants are
available for tribal staff travel to technical climate adaptation management planning sessions, technical
sessions, and workshops, and to serve as representatives at Department of Interior Climate Science Centers
and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, regional (ocean) planning bodies, and other cooperative climate
adaptation organizations or technical groups. FY 2013 proposals that were submitted in November 2013,
but not selected, will be retained in the applicant pool for consideration in this solicitation. The application
deadline is April 30, 2014. ln addition to the FY 2014 grants, each BIA Region will have a small amount of
funding to organize or support tribal sponsored workshops and for tribal participation in training sessions
and climate change organizations. For information on your BIA regional office climate change contact and
for information on the grant application process, visit: http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc1-025664.pdf
____________________________________________________
Sage Grouse and Climate Change RFP
The DOI Climate Science Centers and the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area are interested in promoting
synthesis activities surrounding questions about the implications of climate change effects on Greater sagegrouse and sagebrush habitat in the semi-arid west. They are coordinating with the Powell Center to provide
funding for a Working Group on this topic. A working group would synthesize existing climate science as it
relates to Greater sage-grouse and the sagebrush habitat that supports the species with a consideration for
how climate change may be altering the sagebrush ecosystem. Teams of scientists working at the
intersection of climate science and sage brush/sage grouse are encouraged to consider developing a Powell
Center Working Group proposal related to this topic. Information pertaining to the Powell Center can be
found at powellcenter.usgs.gov. The deadline for proposals is April 30 for Working Groups starting in FY15.
All Powell Center Working Group proposals will be reviewed by the Science Advisory Board. Please refer
questions to Jill Baron or Marty Goldhaber (jill_baron@usgs.gov, mgold@usgs.gov).
____________________________________________________
Biodiversity/Species and Ecosystem Response-- Journal Articles & Other
Publications
[FWS Employees- Click here for the entire FWS R1 Sharepoint CC Species/Ecosystems Response Library]
Long-term Demographics and Climate Change Effects on Rare Oregon Native Plants: Institute for Applied
Science ecologists Ian Pfingsten and Tom Kaye are currently assessing the potential impact of changing
climates on seven rare Oregon natives (six plant species and one butterfly species) by identifying which
aspects of the climate appear to control the populations of these species. This approach uses Climate Driven
Population Models. Learn more
Biodiversity: Predictive traits to the rescue: Climate change poses new challenges to the conservation of
species, which at present requires data-hungry models to meaningfully anticipate future threats. Now a
study suggests that species traits may offer a simpler way to help predict future extinction risks. [Antoine
Guisan, Nature Climate Change, 4, 175-176, published online Feb. 26, 2014, doi:10.1038/nclimate2157]
Geographical limits to species-range shifts are suggested by climate velocity: Researchers used the velocity
of climate change to derive spatial trajectories for climatic niches from 1960 to 2009 and from 2006 to 2100,
and use the properties of these trajectories to infer changes in species distributions. The resulting analysis
provides global and regional maps of the expected direction and rate of shifts of climate migrants, and
suggests areas of potential loss of species richness, for both ocean and terrestrial ecosystems. [Burrow et al.,
Nature, published online Feb. 9, 2014, doi:10.1038/nature12976]
Sensitivity to thermal extremes in Australian Drosophila implies similar impacts of climate change on the
distribution of widespread and tropical species: Extreme weather caused by climate change decides
distribution of insects. [Johannes Overgaard, Michael R. Kearney, Ary A. Hoffmann. Sensitivity to thermal
extremes in AustralianDrosophilaimplies similar impacts of climate change on the distribution of widespread
and tropical species. Global Change Biology, 2014; DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12521]
Moose react to high summer temperatures by utilizing thermal shelters in boreal forests: An analysis
based on airborne laser scanning of the canopy structure at moose locations. [Markus Melin, Juho Matala,
Lauri Mehtätalo, Raisa Tiilikainen, Olli-Pekka Tikkanen, Matti Maltamo, Jyrki Pusenius and Petteri Packalen,
Global Change Biology, Vol 20, Issue 4, pp 1115–1125, Article first published online: 12 FEB 2014 | DOI:
10.1111/gcb.12405]
Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two
US regions Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration
persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. Researchers
propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels,
be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore
the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation
efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of
shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate
negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by
rapid climate change. [Lemieux et al., 2014, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, published
online, 26 Feb, 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2013.876392]
Columbia Gorge Pikas Adapt by Eating Moss (Credit: the Climate CIRCulator) Animals, especially mammals,
that are closely tied to a specific habitat are perhaps most vulnerable in a changing climate. The American
pika is a leading example. In the Great Basin, these small mammals, which typically live at high elevation in
areas with little vegetation and lots of loose rocks, or “talus." For pikas, high temperatures can be lethal,
which helps explain why those in the Great Basin have been disappearing or moving upslope to avoid high
temperatures, according to Erik Beever and his colleagues, including CIRC Principal Investigator Philip Mote.
There is, however, a notable exception to the pikas’ preference for high-elevation talus fields: a population
that lives near sea level in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. Johanna Varner and Denise Dearing have found
that these pikas exhibit more flexible and adaptive behaviors than their high-elevation relatives. Take food,
for instance. While most pikas eat small flowering plants called forbs and small grassy plants called
“graminoids,” Columbia Gorge pikas consume less than 25 percent forbs and graminoids. Instead, they eat
moss — lots of it. More than 60 percent of their diet is, in fact, moss, which offers a number of adaptive
advantages in foraging, fiber content and caching.
Understanding the ability of a species to adapt to novel habitats is crucial to understanding its vulnerability
to climate change, and developing appropriate management and conservation plans.
Varner, J., and Dearing, M. D., 2014, Dietary plasticity in pikas as a strategy for atypical resource landscapes,
Journal of Mammalogy, 95, 1, 72–81, doi: 10.1644/13-MAMM-A-099.1,
http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1644/13-MAMM-A-099.1.
Beever et al., 2011, Contemporary climate change alters the pace and drivers of extinction, Global Change
Biology, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02389.x, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.13652486.2010.02389.x/abstract.
___________________________________________________________
Forests
New Book: Climate Change and United States Forests: Comprehensive, up-to-date view of climate change
effects in U.S. forests; Easy-to-read and accessible to a broad readership including researchers, natural
resource managers and interested members of the public; More than 1000 references help make this a
widely useful source of scientific documentation.
This volume offers a scientific assessment of the effects of climatic variability and change on forest
resources in the United States. Derived from a report that provides technical input to the 2013 U.S. Global
Change Research Program National Climate Assessment, the book serves as a framework for managing U.S.
forest resources in the context of climate change. The authors focus on topics having the greatest potential
to alter the structure and function of forest ecosystems, and therefore ecosystem services, by the end of the
21st century. Part I provides an environmental context for assessing the effects of climate change on forest
resources, summarizing changes in environmental stressors, followed by state-of-science projections for
future climatic conditions relevant to forest ecosystems. Part II offers a wide-ranging assessment of
vulnerability of forest ecosystems and ecosystem services to climate change. The authors anticipate that
altered disturbance regimes and stressors will have the biggest effects on forest ecosystems, causing longterm changes in forest conditions. Part III outlines responses to climate change, summarizing current status
and trends in forest carbon, effects of carbon management, and carbon mitigation strategies. Adaptation
strategies and a proposed framework for risk assessment, including case studies, provide a structured
approach for projecting and responding to future changes in resource conditions and ecosystem services.
Part IV describes how sustainable forest management, which guides activities on most public and private
lands in the United States, can provide an overarching structure for mitigating and adapting to climate
change. [Peterson, David L., Vose, James M., Patel-Weynand, Toral (Eds.), 2014, Springer, ISBN 978-94-0077515-2]
Blue Mountains Adaptation Partnership is a new US Forest Service led science-management collaboration
with the goals of: Increasing climate change awareness; Assessing vulnerability of cultural and natural
resources; and Developing science-based adaptation strategies and incorporating them into management of
federal lands in the Blue Mountains. Learn more and join the list server: BMAP
Northern Rockies Adaptation Partnership is a new US Forest Service led science-management collaboration
with the goals of: 1)Assessing vulnerability of natural resources and ecosystem services to climate change;
and 2)Developing science-based adaptation strategies that can be used by national forests to understand
and mitigate the negative effects of climate change. Learn more and join the list server:
http://adaptationpartners.org/nrap/
Large Old Trees Grow Fastest, Storing More Carbon: Large, old trees store carbon even more effectively
than we understood according to a new study. It turns out that as big trees age, their growth rate doesn’t
slow, it increases. While the importance of large trees in sequestering carbon is well known, it had been
thought that when trees reach a certain age, their ability to amass more carbon tapers off. Instead, the
study found that large, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon that is
absorbed or "sequestered" through natural processes reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, and can help counter-balance the amount of CO2 people generate. As co-author Adrian Das
said, “it’s as if the star players on your favorite sports team were a bunch of 90-year olds.” [Stephenson at
el., Nature, published online Jan 15, 2014, doi:10.1038/nature12914]
Study Finds Active Forest Management Likely to Increase Carbon Emissions: [Tara W. Hudiburg, Sebastiaan
Luyssaert, Peter E. Thornton, and Beverly E. Law 2013. Interactive Effects of Environmental Change and
Management Strategies on Regional Forest Carbon Emissions. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2013, 47, 13132−13140
| dx.doi.org/10.1021/es402903u] [Note: Their study area is the state of Oregon.]
________________________________________________________
Aquatic Resources and Ecosystems/Water Resources/Hydrology
[FWS Employees- Click here for the entire FWS R1 SharePoint C.C. Water Resources Library]
Climate Change and the FCRPS BiOp: A newly available NOAA document which excerpts the main sections
of the 2014 FCRPS Supplemental Biological Opinion that address climate and climate change is provided
here: http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/publications/hydropower/fcrps/2014_fcrps_biop_climate_change_sections.pdf This
includes: Section 2.1.4.1 (BiOp pages 152-167), recent climate patterns, with an emphasis on those relied
upon in the 2008 Biological Opinion analysis, and comparing the observations with the 2008 Biological
Opinion’s analytical assumptions. Section 2.1.4.2 (BiOp pages 168-182), new information on climate change
and its effects on salmon and steelhead, updating reviews in the 2008 and 2010 Biological Opinions. Section
3.9 (BiOp pages 435-442), reasonable and prudent alternative (RPA) actions that help to implement
recommendations of the ISAB (2007) to reduce the impact of climate change on listed species. Appendix D
provides a collection of NOAA's literature reviews for impacts of climate change on Columbia River salmon
including a review of 2012 literature (beginning on p. D-3), 2010 literature (beginning on p. D-51), and 2011
literature (beginning on p. D-109).
Climate-Aquatics Blog #54: Part 1, Managing with climate change: Goal setting & decision support tools
for climate-smart prioritization. …we have time over the next decade or so to develop the monitoring
systems, databases, tools, and adaptive management plans that will provide the information needed for
coping efficiently with changes this century. If we take advantage of this time, that information and the
decisions we make could have a big impact on the fishes swimming in rivers and streams 100 years from
now and the fisheries resources that future generations have to enjoy…. (Dan Isaak, USFS RMRS, contact
Dan to join >6,000 people on the email list: disaak@fs.fed.us)
___________________________________________________________
Coastal/Marine Ecosystems/Ocean Acidification
[FWS Employees- Click here for the entire FWS R1 SharePoint CC Coastal Library]
New study reveals timeline of future coral reef decline, highlights urgent need for action: An international
team of coral reef scientists has used the latest global climate models to reveal timelines for the accelerating
decline of the world’s coral reefs through the end of the century. If global emissions of greenhouse gases
keep rising at or near the current rate, “within 40 years, nearly all coral reefs globally will be subjected to
stressful conditions so regularly that reefs are unlikely to persist as we know them,” says study co-lead Dr.
Ruben van Hooidonk. Dr. van Hooidonk and his co-lead Dr. Jeffrey Maynard developed interactive online
maps of their study results, showing the timelines for when each coral reef area will experience critical levels
of temperature stress and ocean acidification. [van Hooidonk, R., Maynard, J. A., Manzello, D. and Planes, S.
(2014). Opposite latitudinal gradients in projected ocean acidification and bleaching impacts on coral reefs.
Global Change Biology 20: 103–112. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12394]
Acidic Waters Kill 10 Million Scallops Off Vancouver: A mass die-off of scallops near Qualicum Beach on
Vancouver Island is being linked to the increasingly acidic waters that are threatening marine life and
aquatic industries along the West Coast.
Coastal Blue Carbon Opportunity Assessment for Snohomish Estuary: The Climate Benefits of Estuary
Restoration In early February, Restore America’s Estuaries released a new report documenting the carbon
sequestration benefits of tidal wetland restoration in the Snohomish estuary. Also in February, the Verified
Carbon Standard released the draft Methodology for Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Restoration for public
review and comment - the first global greenhouse gas offsets methodology for a range of restoration
activities in salt marsh, mangroves, seagrass beds, and other tidal wetlands.
New NOAA Changing Climate Vulnerability Assessment Methodology for Fish Stocks: NOAA is finalizing a
methodology to rapidly assess the vulnerability of U.S. marine stocks to climate change. The methodology
uses existing information on climate and ocean conditions, species distributions, and species life history
characteristics to estimate the relative vulnerability of fish stocks to potential changes in climate. NOAA
Fisheries is planning to run the first application of the assessment methodology in the Northeast in March
2014.
Climate change projected to reduce seafloor life: The global ocean houses the largest ecosystem on earth.
Over half of the biomass, or weight of life, resides on the deep sea floor. Climate change simulations project
reductions in biological food production in surface waters. As deep-ocean life mostly relies on sinking food
from above, researchers project that climate-related changes will lead to around 5% reductions in the
biomass of seafloor life. Daniel O.B. Jones and his colleagues also predict that creatures will get smaller, with
fewer fishes and more microscopic organisms present. These changes will fundamentally alter the nature of
deep ocean life and may ultimately increase the rate of climatic change. [Jones, D. O. B., Yool, A., Wei, C.-L.,
Henson, S. A., Ruhl, H. A., Watson, R. A. and Gehlen, M. (2013), Global reductions in seafloor biomass in
response to climate change. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12480]
___________________________________________________________
Climate Change Journal Articles/Publications/News
[For FWS Employees- Click here for the entire FWS R1 SharePoint Climate Change Library]
Arctic Sea Ice Decline Contributes Significantly to Global Warming: The Arctic sea ice retreat has been one
of the most dramatic climate changes in recent decades. Nearly 50 y ago it was predicted that a darkening of
the Arctic associated with disappearing ice would be a consequence of global warming. Using satellite
measurements, this analysis directly quantifies how much the Arctic as viewed from space has darkened in
response to the recent sea ice retreat. Researchers have found that this decline has caused 6.4 ± 0.9 W/m2
of radiative heating since 1979, considerably larger than expectations from models and recent less direct
estimates. Averaged globally, this albedo change is equivalent to 25% of the direct forcing from CO2 during
the past 30 y. [Kistone et al., Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea
ice, PNAS, vol 111, no. 9, pp 3322-3326, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1318201111]
From Past to Future Warming: Analyses of past observations help to predict the human contribution to
future climate change. [G. Hegerl and P. Stott, Feb 21, 2014, Science 343, 6173 pp. 844-845
DOI: 10.1126/science.1249368
A Drier Future? Global warming is likely to lead to overall (global) drying of land surfaces. [S. Sherwood and
Q. Fu, Fe. 14, 2014, Science 343, no. 6172 pp. 737-739, DOI: 10.1126/science.1247620
Climate Change Evidence and Causes: The U.S. National Academies of Science and the U.K. Royal Society
have issued a joint report Climate Change Evidence and Causes. [link] to RS website; [link] to NAS website.
The RS website provides this statement on the background of the report: The Royal Society and the US
National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society
and to inform critical policy debates, offer this new publication as a key reference document for decision
makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative answers about the current
state of climate change science. The publication makes clear what is well established, where consensus is
growing, and where there is still uncertainty. It is written and reviewed by a UK-US team of leading climate
scientists. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national science
academies, as well as the newest climate change assessment from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
Rapid Reductions in North Atlantic Deep Water During the Peak of the Last Interglacial Period
Researchers now have hard evidence that the circulation that helps warm the North Atlantic did indeed
abruptly slow or perhaps even stop for centuries at a time more than 100,000 years ago: Changes in the
Atlantic Ocean deep water circulation mode are considered a potential tipping point in future climate
change that could have widespread and long-lasting impacts including on regional sea level, the intensity
and pacing of Sahel droughts, and the pattern and rate of ocean acidification and CO2 sequestration. Until
now, this pattern of circulation has been considered relatively stable during warm climate states such as
those projected for the end of the century. A new study suggests that Atlantic deep water formation may be
much more fragile than previously realised. [Eirik Vinje Galaasen, Ulysses S. Ninnemann, Nil Irvalı, Helga
(Kikki) F. Kleiven, Yair Rosenthal, Catherine Kissel, and David A. Hodell. Rapid Reductions in North Atlantic
Deep Water During the Peak of the Last Interglacial Period. Science, 20 February 2014 DOI:
10.1126/science.1248667]
___________________________________________________________
Preparing for Climate Change
Federal Adaptation Planning & Implementation: The U.S. Global Change Research Program launched a
website with resources for federal agencies to plan and implement climate change adaptation strategies.
Click here to learn more.
Climate Change Energy Infrastructure Risks and Adaptation Efforts-- GAO Report: According to
assessments by the National Research Council and the U.S. Global Change Research Program, U.S. energy
infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to a range of climate change impacts—particularly infrastructure in
areas prone to severe weather and water shortages. Climate changes are projected to affect infrastructure
throughout all major stages of the energy supply chain, thereby increasing the risk of disruptions. [GAO-1474, January 2014]
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Reducing Greenhouse Gases
China and the United States, the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases, pledged on Feb 15 to work
together to attenuate the effects of global climate change
US-China Joint Statement on Climate Change: "In light of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate
change and its worsening impacts, and the related issue of air pollution from burning fossil fuels, the United
States and China recognize the urgent need for action to meet these twin challenges. Both sides reaffirm
their commitment to contribute significantly to successful 2015 global efforts to meet this challenge.
Accordingly, China and the United States will work together, within the vehicle of the U.S.-China Climate
Change Working Group (CCWG) launched last year, to collaborate through enhanced policy dialogue,
including the sharing of information regarding their respective post-2020 plans to limit greenhouse gas
emissions. Regarding practical cooperative actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air
pollutants, the two sides have reached agreement on the implementation plans on the five initiatives
launched under the CCWG, including Emission Reductions from Heavy Duty and Other Vehicles, Smart Grids,
Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage, Collecting and Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data, and
Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Industry, and commit to devote significant effort and resources to secure
concrete results by the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in 2014.”
National policies advance as climate summit approaches: Analysis suggests country-level commitments are
a bridge to an international treaty. Nearly 500 climate-related laws have been enacted in 66 countries that
together are responsible for nearly 90% of the world's heat-trapping emissions, according to an
international survey of climate legislation released today by the London-based Global Legislators
Organisation (GLOBE) and the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics. The United Nations
will hold a climate summit in New York in September in preparation for the next set of climate negotiations
three months later in Lima, Peru. In the first quarter of 2015, countries are expected to submit their
commitments for the talks later that year in Paris. [Jeff Tollefson, Nature, Feb 27, 2014,
doi:10.1038/nature.2014.14786]
Russian farming collapse and ecological benefits: The collapse of collective farming in Russia after 1990 and
the subsequent economic crisis led to the abandonment of more than 45 million ha of arable lands (23% of
the agricultural area). The withdrawal of land area from cultivation led to several ecological benefits
including carbon (C) sequestration in soil. Researchers demonstrate C sequestered in these abandoned lands
compensate all fire and post-fire CO2 emissions in Russia and covers about 4% of the global CO2 release due
to deforestation and other land use changes. [Kurganova, I., Lopes de Gerenyu, V., Six, J. and Kuzyakov, Y.
(2014), Carbon cost of collective farming collapse in Russia. Global Change Biology, 20: 938–947. doi:
10.1111/gcb.12379]
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Climate and Weather Reports and Services
El Niño to Reappear This Year? A new study shows that there is at least a 76 percent likelihood that an El
Niño event will occur later this year, potentially reshaping global weather patterns for a year or more and
raising the odds that 2015 will set a record for the warmest year since instrument records began in the late
19th century. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds
on research put forward in 2013 that first proposed a new long-range El Niño prediction method. [Josef
Ludescher, PNAS, vol. 111, no. 6, pp2064–2066, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1323058111]
New Satellite Mission: Global Precipitation Measurement : Gaps still exist in our knowledge about the
behavior and movement of precipitation, clouds and storms. A satellite mission launched on Feb. 27 by
NASA and the Japanese Space Agency aims to fill in those gaps both in coverage and in scientists'
understanding of precipitation. GPM is an international satellite mission that will set a new standard for
precipitation measurements from space, providing the next-generation observations of rain and snow
worldwide every three hours. The GPM mission data will advance our understanding of the water and
energy cycles and extend the use of precipitation data to directly benefit society. Learn more
The Office of the Washington State Climatologist issues a monthly newsletter that summarizes the WA
climate for the previous month, includes a precipitation and temperature outlook, and also includes a brief
summary of an interesting aspect of the weather or climate of WA, among a few other sections: See
www.climate.washington.edu/newsletter for copies and to join the listserv.
PNW Climate Outlook: This quarterly report from the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Research
Consortium (CIRC) provides a seasonal wrap up of relevant regional issues along with an outlook for the
coming season in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Western Montana. To subscribe send an email to John
Stevenson.
Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard: this website provides up to date climate and weather data
and forecasts/outlooks for the Great Basin including temperature, precipitation, drought, snowpack and
hydrologic information. (Some of the information includes the entire western U.S.) The Dashboard is a joint
effort amongst the Western Regional Climate Center, California and Nevada Applications Program, the USDA
Farm Service Agency and the Great Basin LCC.
NOAA Climate Connection E-Newsletter: Free monthly e-newsletter designed to increase climate literacy
and communication capacity for NOAA and its partners. Subscription requests can be sent to
NOAAClimateConnection@noaa.gov. Click here to view the June 2013 NOAA Climate Connection enewsletter.
NOAA’s State of the Climate Monthly Update
NOAA Monthly Drought Outlook: The monthly drought outlook complements the weekly drought condition
updates via the U.S. Drought Monitor. See this site.
NOAA Climate Portal: http://www.climate.gov/ National Snow and Ice Data Center: http://nsidc.org
The National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center Annual Report for 2012
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List Servers
ClimateNews-- is a snapshot from British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource
Operations, provides new and emerging climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in the natural
resource sector. Contact: katharine.mccallion@gov.bc.ca
Climate CIRCulator (Oregon Climate Change Research Institute)
Climate Impacts Group (Univ. Washington)
EPA Climate Change and Water E-Newsletter
LCC list servers (see your LCC’s website) and the national LCC Network newsletter
OneNOAA Science Webinars
North Pacific LCC Listserve – North Pacific Tidings - important news and announcements; and NPLCC Climate
Science Digest - new science/information affecting natural and cultural resources.
NCTC Climate Change List server (upcoming webinars and courses): send email danielle_larock@fws.gov
Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) (British Columbia) Climate News Scan- a weekly summary of the
major climate-change related science, technology, and policy advances of direct relevance to the BC provincial
and the Canadian federal governments and more generally to businesses and civil society
PointBlue Weekly Ecology, Climate Change and Related e-Newsletter: Send request to ecohen@prbo.org
PNW Tribal Climate Change Network: Send request to kathy@uoregon.edu
US Forest Service Fish & Wildlife Research Updates
FWS Resources and Tools
FWS Pacific Region employees can access journal articles and publications archived at the Region’s Climate
Change Sharepoint site (links below). The Region's Climate Change Science Synthesis document uses these
new findings. (The blog is used to highlight changes made to the document.)
> Home Page
> Read this report in Word/Find previous reports
> Document library (journal articles, reports, etc., updated weekly)
> Best available climate change science-- R1 synthesis (updated weekly)
> Blog (provides updates on new journal articles, R1 examples on use of climate science in decision making,
etc.)
> Use of Climate science: Regional examples
FWS Climate Change Response: How do partnership efforts such as Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
and the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy fit into the Service's overall response
to accelerating climate change? How is our agency reducing its carbon footprint? What is our agency doing
now to reduce the impacts of climate change on fish, wildlife and plants? Learn more
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives: Natural systems and landscapes are impacted by increasing land use
pressures and widespread resource threats amplified by a rapidly changing climate. These changes are
occurring at an unprecedented pace and scale. By leveraging resources and strategically targeting science to
inform conservation decisions and actions, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are a network of
partnerships working in unison to ensure the sustainability of America’s land, water, wildlife, and cultural
resources. Learn more
National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy: The National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants
Climate Adaptation Strategy will provide a unified approach—reflecting shared principles and science-based
practices—for reducing the negative impacts of climate change on fish, wildlife, plants, habitats and
associated ecological processes across geographic scales. Learn more
FWS Climate Change Information Toolkit: A key part of the Service's climate change strategy is to inform
FWS staff about the impacts of accelerating climate change and to engage partners and others in seeking
collaborative solutions. Through shared knowledge and communication, we can work together to reduce the
impacts of climate change on fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats. Here are some resources that can
help.
Climate Change, Wildlife, and Wildlands Toolkit: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in partnership
with the National Park Service and with input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed a kit for use
when talking with the public about how climate change is affecting our nation's wildlife and public lands.
Learn more .
Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change Web Conference Series: The FWS and National Wildlife
Federation have developed a series of web conferences to increase communication and transfer of technical
information between conservation professionals regarding the growing challenges of climate change. Learn
more
(FWS employees only)
NCTC Climate Change Resource Library: The NCTC Climate Change Resource Library provides selected
citations to peer-reviewed journal articles, documents, books, theses, presentations, and Websites on the
effect of climate change on North American fish, wildlife and habitats. FWS employees can access the library
here
For more information on how the Service is working with others to conserve the nature of America in a
changing climate, visit http://www.fws.gov/home/climatechange/