16 March 2010

U.S. Geological Survey to Help Devise Climate Adaptation Projects

Researchers seek remedies for changing ecosystems

Retreating glacier in Alaska

By Karin Rives
Staff Writer

Washington — The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has unique knowledge of how rising global temperatures are affecting America’s natural resources. Lately, USGS scientists have been tapped to also help devise strategies that will help nature adapt to climate change.

A number of USGS climate adaptation projects aimed at protecting the nation’s natural resources against ecological havoc are under way — and efforts to boost funding for such work is an indication of how significant this new mandate has become.

President Obama asked for an $8 million budget increase in fiscal year 2011 for USGS’ National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, the office that handles much of the agency’s climate adaptation work. If approved by Congress, the new money will be used to create five regional climate-science centers where USGS scientists will work directly with natural resource managers on climate-change-response strategies.

The first such center is slated to open in April at the University of Alaska in Anchorage. The government will invite bids from institutions or organizations interested in forming climate science centers in the Pacific Northwest and the southeastern part of the United States.

The president also requested $1 million in additional funding to help USGS develop new partnerships and train new scientists to work on climate adaptation.

“This is a very broad mission in all our regional centers that’s been ramped up over the last two or three years,” said Douglas Beard, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center’s interim chief. “These are on-the-ground projects to address the needs of our partner agencies. We hear a lot from them on adaptation and they’re asking for our help.”

In one Alaska project, for example, USGS scientists are trying to project how plankton and, in turn, fish will be affected when glaciers that hold fresh water melt and the chemistry of the ocean water changes. This will help management agencies anticipate resource changes and perhaps change fishery rules to address expected increases or declines.

Rising temperatures can also affect what time flowers bloom, and whether or not breeding birds have enough to eat. Another Alaska project is focusing on that. “So if you’re managing a critical bird habitat, you might want to put in a refuge to better protect such birds,” Beard said.

A warmer climate affects the food supply for migrating birds.

Another study in the Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States focuses on the movement of sand dunes, and how this affects plants that people and animals on the Native American reservation in northern Arizona depend on. With the area growing hotter and drier, plants that keep the sand dunes in place have difficulty growing, causing the dunes to shift. This makes it harder for new plants to take root.

“By studying climate change impacts to sand dunes we can identify strategies for keeping sand dunes more stable, we can identify which plants need to be protected, and what kind of plants may tolerate dune mobility enough to be used in revegetation programs,” Margaret Hiza, the USGS scientist running the project, explained in a recent podcast.

As U.S. government agencies such as USGS focus more on helping people and animals adapt to climate change, they may face some setbacks along the way. The question going forward, Beard said, is what can — and cannot — be done to help nature adapt to rising temperatures.

USGS, like other government stewards of the United States’ natural resources, has a mission to use science to find the best solutions out there. “Everybody’s engaged,” Beard said.

Other USGS climate adaptation projects under way:

• Investigation into how higher temperatures and less precipitation in arid and semi-arid regions of North America affect wetlands that serve as stopovers for migratory birds.

• Study of how temperature changes in streams in the northeastern United States affect the Atlantic salmon population, and projections of future salmon populations in managed fisheries.

• Research into how rising sea levels redistribute tidal salt marshes in the San Francisco Bay area. The results of the study will help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan future land acquisition to protect birds that depend on the marshes.

Learn more about climate change at America.gov.

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(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)