New Publication on Wildlife Disease Dynamics

Prairie dogs are a keystone species of the Great Plains, but periodic outbreaks of sylvatic plague can rapidly devastate entire colonies, with cascading effects on grassland ecosystems. New research by Ana Davidson and collaborators draws on nearly 30 years of monitoring and observations...

2nd Annual Tribal Climate Workshop

In June, the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center's Tribal Liaisons, Janna Black & Kynser Bell, joined partners and Tribal communities for the 2nd annual Tribal Climate Workshop in Browning, Montana with Blackfeet Nation.

Conservation enhances resilience of the US "Duck Factory"

A new study published in BioScience offers encouraging news. While climate change is expected to reduce the region's overall capacity to support breeding waterfowl, strategic conservation efforts are helping build resilience into the landscape.

Super El Nino: Projected Impacts for the North Central Region

The earth undergoes a natural cycle of atmospheric patterns called ENSO, or the El Niño Southern Oscillation, with a warm phase called "El Niño." However, NOAA projects that this year’s El Niño will be stronger than recent ENSO events – a “super El Niño."

Next Newsletter Now Out

Our next newsletter highlights the Rapid Climate Assessment Program (RCAP) and features highlights from the Annual Consortium and Tribal Practitioner Tools meetings, recent publications on wildfire and grassland management, and the latest Science Speaks video, showcasing actionable climate research.

NC CASC's Practitioner Tools Workshop: Building Climate Adaptation Capacity with Tribal Resource Professionals

In early June, scientists at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) gathered with tribal resource managers for a day-and-a-half of hands-on learning, in-depth conversation, and relationship-building around climate adaptation science and tools.

Precision in Actionable Science

A new framework from the U.S. Geological Survey challenges scientists to think more carefully about who their research is actually intended to serve. Rather than assuming a generic "resource manager" will use the results, the framework encourages researchers to answer six simple questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And How?

New Publication Now Out

While adaptation efforts often focus on ecological and climate science, a new review led by researchers affiliated with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) highlights the critical role that social science plays in supporting climate resilience.

Prescribed fire provides a valuable tool for habitat management and restoration. Practitioner networks in Oklahoma and North Carolina are compared using government and nonprofit organizational actors as the units of analysis. Measures of individual and network social capital are used to compare actor importance and collaboration with other actor types as well as network centralization and density. The results indicate that the two networks are similar in structure, but that there are differences which include the composition of core and peripheral actor groups as well as prominence of certain actor types. The data reported here suggest a common structural composition of prescribed fire networks. This information may prove useful in adapting similar state networks or determining how to improve the performance of existing networks. Increasing the social capital is a pathway to improve prescribed burning and integrate long-term ecological strategies and funding sources with short-term goals and labor capabilities.

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