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"Responding to Climate Change II" NEAFWA workshop presentations available

Responding to Climate Change II: Tools and Solutions for Safeguarding Wildlife and Habitats workshop co-hosted by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Climate Change and Wildlife Alliance — Massachusetts during the NEAFWA Conference in April, featured speakers providing the latest thinking on how climate change is impacting fish and wildlife resources and presenting opportunities to participate in on-the-ground management activities, establish a regional context for climate change issues, and identify emerging issues.

Copies of the presentations are available from the alliance Web site . Topics include:

•  History and Creation of Climate Change and Wildlife Alliance- MA
• Manomet Vulnerability Assessment: How results will be used to inform agency decisions
• BioMap 2.0: Conserving Massachusetts’ Biodiversity in a Changing World
• Site Management Under Climate Change
• Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Northeast: A Partner Based Approach to Conservation Science
• Phenology Network: A role for citizen science
• The States: NEAFWA, Kresge and Beyond
• Emerging Issues and News

NASA icebreaker to probe climate change impact on Arctic

WASHINGTON -- NASA's first dedicated oceanographic field campaign goes to sea June 15 to take an up-close look at how changing conditions in the Arctic are affecting the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems that play a critical role in global climate change.

The "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" mission, or ICESCAPE, will investigate the impacts of climate change on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. A key focus is how changes in the Arctic may be altering the ocean's ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a leading cause of global warming.

Predictions of future climate change depend on knowing the details of how this carbon cycle works in different parts of the world. NASA's Earth science program conducts research into the global Earth system using satellite observations. Identifying how Earth's ecology and chemistry are influenced by natural processes and by humans is a key part of this research.

The Arctic Ocean, unlike other oceans, is almost completely landlocked, making it an ideal location to study ongoing climate changes in a marine ecosystem already heavily impacted by declining sea ice cover, ocean acidification, and an increase in incoming solar radiation. These changes are likely to modify the physics, biogeochemistry, and ecology of this environment in ways that are not well understood. Satellite remote sensing has provided some insight into these changes which ICESCAPE is designed to advance.

The Nature Conservancy creates climate change knowledge base

For anyone looking for methods and best practices for climate change adaptation, The Nature Conservancy’s Knowledge Base for Climate Change Adaptation offers news and updates, reference materials, project information, and much more.

According to the site, The Nature Conservancy is working to develop climate change adaptation strategies that work in real places, and to advocate for ecosystem-based adaptation and resilience strategies that can help sustain communities in this time of global change.   This site will be a place to gather input, share products and ideas, and communicate about organizational efforts to draw together scientific research and innovative conservation projects to iteratively test, refine and summarize promising methods and best practices.

Materials are divided into the following categories: Tools & Methods, Reference Materials, Habitats, Projects, and News Archive. The site is hosted at TNC’s vast collection of resources at www.ConserveOnline.org.

Poll: Americans Want Real Energy Reforms in Wake of Gulf Coast Disaster

By Huge Margin, Public Supports Comprehensive Energy Bill that Encourages Clean Energy, Limits Carbon Pollution

As the Gulf Coast oil disaster continues to unfold, the League of Conservation Voters released a new poll by the Benenson Strategy Group today showing overwhelming public support for comprehensive energy legislation that goes beyond simply making BP pay for the damage they’ve done. The poll also found that the oil spill is intensifying the public’s desire for clean energy investments and increased regulation on corporate polluters.  Additionally, the poll shows that comprehensive energy legislation can be a powerful election issue, with high support among key electoral groups.
 
“This poll makes crystal clear that the Gulf Coast disaster is the final straw for voters when it comes to allowing corporate polluters to dictate our energy policies,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “Now, more than ever, it is clear that our dependence on oil – be it from hostile nations or friendly coasts – hurts our economy, threatens our security and harms our environment. Senators must work to deliver comprehensive energy and climate legislation this year that prevents future energy disasters, makes polluters pay their fair share and creates a thriving clean energy economy.”
 
 “Voters firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay for the Gulf Coast oil spill, they want Senators to pass real reforms to invest in clean American energy and hold polluters accountable,” said Joel Benenson, President of the Benenson Strategy Group.

For additional findings continue reading...

Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin

The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack and Vermont Chapters have released “Climate Change in the Champlain Basin: What natural resource managers can expect and do,” one of the first efforts in North America to assess climate change on a watershed scale and offer adaptation strategies.

Climate change is no longer just a philosophical or future threat. It's a reality in the Champlain Basin, as the 42-page, peer-reviewed report outlines with a complete set of weather records from the United States Historical Climatology Network. Some changes that have already taken place in the Champlain Basin are:

• Mean temperatures in the Champlain Basin rose by 2°F between 1976 and 2005, slightly faster than the global average.
   
• The average level of Lake Champlain is 1 foot higher than it was prior to the 1970s, illustrating the effects of recently increased precipitation.
   
• The duration of ice cover on local lakes has shortened during the 20th century, with freeze-up now occurring two weeks later, on average. The main body of Lake Champlain now often fails to freeze over at all in winter.

Previous climate studies have been global or regional in scope, which has limited their applicability at the watershed, landscape or site scales, where most conservation work takes place. “Climate Change in the Champlain Basin” draws on current scientific literature and uses a new generation of analytical tools, including Climate Wizard, to focus climate model simulations on the 8,234-square-mile watershed, which lies in Vermont, New York and Quebec. More

Conservation Biology creates virtual issue on climate change

The journal Conservation Biology has created anopen-access online virtual issue focused on climate change in honor of  the International Year of Biodiversity. Two other virtual issues focus on Connectivity and Corridors and Conservation Social Science Articles in the issue have publication dates ranging from 1988-2009.

According to the site:

"Changes in climate, coincident with changes in human use of terrestrial and aquatic systems, are creating fundamentally new combinations of biological and physical conditions for which there are no past analogues on which to base predictions. Moreover, the extent to which human populations and biological diversity at all levels are affected by global phenomena or factors well outside their immediate geographic and temporal sphere are unprecedented in the history of human society.

Articles in this virtual issue highlight research in all conservation sciences – social, biological, and physical – that may reduce uncertainty about the potential effects of alternative management and investment decisions on diverse conservation targets."

For a list of articles,

TRCP Facebook page exceeds 1,000 fans

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (a Seasons' End and Beyond Seasons' End partner organization) recently surpassed 1,000 fans on the its Facebook fan page.  The TRCP has been building a social media presence since the creation of its Facebook page in 2008. In an effort to draw more people to the site, the TRCP announced that the 1,000 person to become a fan of the site would win a hat and the book, "How Sportsmen Saved the World," by E. Donnall Thomas, Jr. 

The competition sparked a remarkable increase in membership bringing the total number to more than 1,000. The winning fan, Duffy Leahy, found the TRCP Facebook page to be an engaging way to get involved with issues important to sportsmen.

"The TRCP makes it easy to get involved and be enthusiastic about supporting our rights," said Leahy, who lives in the Los Angeles area.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets present the TRCP with a unique opportunity to reach a variety of partners throughout the country and inform them of the current initiatives the group is taking to conserve the hunting and fishing traditions of America.

"Social media has helped us reach hunters and anglers who were previously unaware of our efforts.  It has encouraged more people to become TRCP partners, ultimately adding to the list of activists who will work to improve and conserve the critical fish and wildlife habitat across America about which we as sportsmen care so deeply," said TRCP Director of Policy Initiatives and Communications Geoff Mullins.

Become a fan of the TRCP on Facebook.

Three new climate change reports released

As part of its most comprehensive study of climate change to date, the National Research Council – the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering – has released three new reports examining how the nation can combat the effects of climate change. One focuses on the science that supports human-induced climate change, and the others review options for limiting the magnitude of and adapting to the impacts of climate cha. The reports are part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America’s Climate Choices.

At a public briefing to discuss the reports, Ralph J. Cicerone, (right) president of the National Academy of Sciences, delivered opening remarks, and members of the panels that wrote the reports discussed their recommendations. A webcast of the briefing is available online at in Flash format and  .wmv format

The compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities is based on a strong, credible body of evidence, says Advancing the Science of Climate Change, one of the new reports.  While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never "closed," the report emphasizes that multiple lines of evidence support scientific understanding of climate change.  The core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations.

Bird Conservation Alliance meeting to discuss climate change

The next Bird Conservation Alliance meeting, "Conserving Endangered Ecosystems", June 9, will feature several keynotes including Paul Schmidt, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Migratory Bird Program, who will discuss the 2010 State of the Birds report on Climate Change.

The meeting, at the auditorium of the visitors' center at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is being held in cooperation with the Smithsonian and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A reception will be held following the meeting at the zoo’s bird house to celebrate the birds and network with bird conservation colleagues. The cost of registration is $30. Register online at https://www.abcbirds.org/membership/bca_0510_reg.cfm.

Species extinctions happening before our eyes

According to a paper in Science magazine by Barry Sinervo and several other scientists, climate change is beginning to cause the extinction of lizards, with the potential for 39 percent of species in localized areas worldwide to be gone by 2080 The paper, Erosion of Lizard Diversity by Climate Change and Altered Thermal Niches, compares recent and historical surveys for 48 Mexican lizard species at 200 sites. A summary of the paper is online at www.skepticalscience.org.