The Climate Science Support Platform is a network of NC CASC scientists and partners that provides climate science support to the NC CASC community of scientists and stakeholders through collaborative research and integration of diverse science expertise. In an effort to increase understanding of climate science and to identify stakeholders’ climate science needs, the Climate Science Support Platform facilitates iterative engagement with the NC CASC community of scientists and stakeholders through direct interactions, science calls to engage with the entire network, and science webinars that bring together researchers and managers. In addition to engaging with stakeholders, the Climate Science Support Platform also works to produce information and tools to address stakeholder needs. Specific initiatives include 1) developing and providing downscaled climate data, 2) synthesizing project specific climate information (e.g. US FWS species assessments), 3) developing workflows to access climate data (e.g., the Climate Futures Toolbox), and 4) developing resource briefs and regional summaries. The Climate Science Support Platform is also doing foundational and applied research in understanding ecological drought processes and risk under a changing climate. For more information on activities conducted through the CSSP, please check the CSSP webpage.

The NC CASC works to communicate the science conducted at the center out to the North Central region through a variety of communication resources such as state specific fact sheets, newsletters, social media and webinars. These communication products aim to connect researchers, managers, and practitioners to usable science, success stories, and solutions for natural and cultural resource management and adaptation under a changing climate. More specifically, the webinar series focuses on ongoing research and practices from the NC CASC network, and feature topics of critical importance to natural resource managers and other stakeholders within the region. To learn more about NC CASC communications, please visit the Communications Tools webpage.  

Tribal nations are priority science partners of the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) and the center is committed to working with Tribal partners to create usable, and relevant science to build resilience to anthropogenic climate change. The NC CASC recognizes the importance and value of Indigenous Knowledges in addressing environmental challenges and any tribal projects funded through NC CASC follow the Guidelines for Considering Indigenous Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives to ensure data sovereignty and best practices for working with sovereign Tribal Nations. To better understand, support, and facilitate climate resilience in Tribal communities, the NC CASC co-hosts a regional Tribal Resilience Liaison. This position supports capacity building for addressing climate change impacts on specific to Tribal groups and assists Tribal resource managers in developing a variety of resources including climate vulnerability assessments, adaptation plans, proposals and grant applications. Additionally, the NC CASC has initiated a Tribal Climate Leaders Program (TCLP) to support Native American graduate students in becoming the next generation of tribal environmental leaders. The TCLP currently provides fully-funded fellowships to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Colorado Boulder in fields related to climate adaptation science. This a pilot program that began in 2020; new applications are not being accepted at this time. To learn more about the work the NC CASC conducts with tribal partners visit the Tribal Climate Leaders Program and the Tribal Partners webpages.  

The NC CASC hosts a variety of virtual and in-person workshops to build partnerships, collaborate and share information among the natural resources community including participants representing federal and state agency employees, university researchers, graduate students and others. Many of these workshops have been aimed at providing guidance on specific climate change tools and products that can be used to better integrate climate science into management and research. Some example topics include using climate data to understand global environmental change, climate change scenario planning, and snow-related data and information needs and next steps for modeling future snow projections. To learn more about NC CASC workshops, please visit the Events webpage.  

The NC CASC hosted a remote Python workshop for resource managers and climate scientists in October 2020. The workshop covered the basics of using scientific programming with Python to analyze and visualize netcdf MACA v2 climate data. All of the workshop lessons, along with hundreds of others, can be found on Earth Labs free open education learning portal and the interactive activities from the event can be found on GitHub. Given the clear need for this type of training, the NC CASC plans to host more data-intensive workshops like this one in the future.  

The NC CASC provides quantitative summaries of downscaled climate and hydrology projections for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 6 Species Status Assessments (SSAs) and other stakeholders.

This paper examines the impact of production network economies on designing cost-effective conservation targeting strategies. We first develop a theoretical model to study the decision to convert land from an extensive (or biodiversity-friendly) use to an intensive use (e.g., crop agriculture) in the presence of network economies in land use returns. The model supports the possibility of multiple land use equilibria due to network economies and identifies policy outcomes that increase welfare. Bandwagon effects can occur whereby spatial production spillovers from lands under intensive use can prompt further conversions on proximate lands under extensive use. Conversely, conservation sites can be placed strategically to block conversion cascades. Lands that support moderate ecological benefits but have strong intensive use potential are desirable conservation targets when these preempt conversion cascades, which is in contrast with the conservation strategies that aim to maximize ecological benefits per unit cost. When network economies exist in land use returns as well as in ecological benefits, a Pigouvian subsidy is shown to favor extensive land cover while a subsidy payment upon preservation of adjacent lands can tilt incentives in favor of either land use. We illustrate our findings with landscape-level simulations calibrated to the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). Finally, we estimate grassland conversion hazard by employing satellite imagery to provide statistical evidence for land use network economies in the PPR.

FY 2021 Projects from the USGS North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC). Contact: casc@usgs.gov