Ecological niche models predict plant responses to climate change by circumscribing species distributions within a multivariate environmental framework. Most projections based on modern bioclimatic correlations imply that high-elevation species are likely to be extirpated from their current ranges as a result of rising growing-season temperatures in the coming decades. Paleoecological data spanning the last 15,000 years from the Greater Yellowstone region describe the response of vegetation to past climate variability and suggest that white pines, a taxon of special concern in the region, have been surprisingly resilient to high summer temperature and fire activity in the past. Moreover, the fossil record suggests that winter conditions and biotic interactions have been critical limiting variables for high-elevation conifers in the past and will likely be so in the future. This long-term perspective offers insights on species responses to a broader range of climate and associated ecosystem changes than can be observed at present and should be part of resource management and conservation planning for the future.

UNL scientists are part of a coalition helping two American Indian tribes prepare for drought and other climate fluctuations. The tribes — the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, both located on the Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming — have worked with climate and social scientists in the past year to prepare regular climate and drought summaries for use in making water and resource decisions. A second phase, launched this summer, includes UNL's Cody Knutson and will generate a vulnerability assessment designed to help the tribes reduce the likelihood of future drought-related impacts. Read More:   http://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/unltoday/article/researchers-help-tribes-enhance-drought-and-climate-resilience/

The NC CSC has collaborated with the USGS AmericaView program to deploy cameras that will record phenology throughout the region.  Although, not all cameras were deployed throught AmericaView, they were deployed at the following sites: Ashland Bottoms, Kansas Bangtail Study Area in Bozeman, Montana Central Plains Experimental Range, Colorado Grand River Grasslands, Iowa Grand Teton National Park National Elk Refuge, Wyoming Nine Mile Prairie, University of Nebraska, Nebraska Oakville Prairie, North Dakota Poudre Learning Center, Colorado Sagebrush Steppe, Wyoming Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, South Dakota  

In addition to the major projects funded by the North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC), selected through its solicitation process or the directed funds going to the foundational Science Areas, there remains a need within the north central domain to support work that builds capacity among stakeholders that have been otherwise left out of the major projects funded by the NC CSC. During the course of this project, we focused on stakeholder capacity building by providing regional offerings of climate-related courses for resource managers, supporting tribal college students and deploying technology to better understand how climate impacts living things, and supporting strategic scientific study of the climate/energy/environment nexus in the Missouri River Basin. First, the NC CSC provided climate education opportunities in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center (NCTC). We offered the NCTC Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment class to managers and students from April 22 - 24, 2014 in Jackson, WY, and from September 30 - October 2, 2014 in La Crosse, WI. Future courses will include Climate Smart Conservation. The NC CSC has also worked with the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change working group to establish an Indigenous Geography Phenology Network by providing support to tribal college students to collect observations of plant and animal life-cycle stages (known as phenology) for culturally significant plants and animals, and uploading these observations to a citizen-science database ( USANPN). In addition, the NC CSC has collaborated with the USGS AmericaView program to deploy cameras that will record phenology throughout the region. Finally, we supported the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (ICOUP) to formulate a strategic scientific study to understand and demonstrate how climate science can be integrated into resource management decisions, particularly with regard to the climate/energy/environment nexus in the Missouri River Basin.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming are preparing for drought and other climate fluctuations with help from a broad coalition of scientists, including groups at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read More:   http://drought.unl.edu/NewsOutreach/NDMCNews.aspx?id=204

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming are preparing for drought and other climate fluctuations with help from a broad coalition of scientists.  Read More:  https://www.drought.gov/drought/sites/drought.gov.drought/files/media/whatisnidis/Newsletter/October%202015%20v4.pdf