Projects By Category: Decision Support

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives use a collaborative approach to identify landscape-scale conservation solutions. LCCs work across jurisdictional and political boundaries to work with partners to: meet unfilled conservation needs, develop decision support tools, share data and knowledge and facilitate and foster partnerships.

As part of a shared science strategy, LCCs coordinate closely with the National Climate Change and Wildlife Center and the eight regional Climate Science Centers as well as Migratory Bird Joint Ventures and National Fish Habitat Partnerships across North America.

  • Western Alaska

Research on coastal change in Western Alaska has increased rapidly in recent years, making it challenging to track existing projects, understand their cumulative insights, gauge remaining research gaps, and prioritize future research.

  • Western Alaska

Water temperature plays a critical role in the health of pre-smolt salmon life stages, and changes in water temperature may be a strong driving factor on growth and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon.

  • Western Alaska

One of the major challenges in understanding changes in coastal processes in western Alaska is the lack of measured ocean data in the region.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

Climate change is expected to alter the distributions and community composition of stream fishes in the Great Lakes region in the 21st century, in part as a result of altered hydrological systems (stream temperature, streamflow, and habitat).

  • Western Alaska

Nearshore bathymetry is a vital link that joins offshore water depths to coastal topography.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

The Nature Conservancy - Great Lakes Program is leading the development of a scalable (Great Lakes wide, individual lake basin, to coastal reach within a lake basin) rule-based spatial model for ranking the relative importance of coastal lands and waters as habitat for migrating birds.

  • Western Alaska

The compilation of an accurate and contemporary digital shoreline for Alaska is an important step in understanding coastal processes and measuring changes in coastal storm characteristics.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

This project analyzies projected changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the Great Lakes region, namely heat waves, cold spells, heavy precipitation events, and droughts, using a statistically downscaled climate product produced by the Climate Working Group of the

  • Western Alaska

This project uses previously collected ShoreZone imagery to map nearly 1,600 km of coastline between Wales and Kotzebue.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

Ecological connectivity between the Great Lakes and their tributaries is widely impaired, and many agencies and organizations are currently investing in restoring these connections to enhance target fish and wildlife populations.

  • Western Alaska

This project uses existing ShoreZone coastal imagery to map 719 km of shoreline in Bristol Bay, from Cape Constantine to Cape Newenham. This section of coastline is an extremely important herring spawning area and an important component of the Bristol Bay fisheries.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

This scenario planning decision support tool for the Kankakee River basin as a first case study/proof-of concept.

  • Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide critical habitat for many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and provide essential spawning and nursery habitat for many fish species of ecologic and economic importance.

  • Western Alaska

Permafrost thaw can be a major driver of landscape change.

  • Western Alaska

Thermokarst lakes (lakes formed in a depression by meltwater from thawing permafrost) are common features and important ecosystems in Alaska.

  • Western Alaska

Water temperature influences all biological and physicochemical interactions within aquaticsystems. Water temperature monitoring is an essential part of lake management capable of providing early warning signs of climate change using straight-forward, low-cost techniques.

  • Western Alaska

Western Alaska is one of the fastest warming regions on the globe and recent trends are expected to continue into the next century, likely having substantial effects on the aquatic resources of this region.

  • Western Alaska

Mid-winter icing events have the potential to lead to population declines of grazing caribou and to some species of small mammals due to reduced survival and reproduction associated with restricted access or lack of forage.

  • Western Alaska

This project will produce an existing vegetation type map at 30m resolution for the entire Western Alaska LCC region. The lack of a consistently mapped vegetation data layer for Alaska has been identified as a primary road block for many conservation and management entities across the state.

  • Western Alaska

This project evaluates the connections between climate change impacts and health in Bristol Bay communities. Climate change impacts were assessed through the lens of public health, with an eye towards the potential effects on disease, injury, food and water security, and mental health.

  • Western Alaska

The western coastline of Alaska is highly susceptible to coastal storms, which can cause coastal erosion, flooding, and have other pernicious effects to the environment and commercial efforts.

  • Western Alaska

The purpose of the research is to develop a storm surge model for the YK Delta area and to apply it to determine biological impacts of storm surges in the current and future climates.

  • South Atlantic

We propose to support the revision and implementation of the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative’s Conservation Blueprint by integrating its Ecosystem Indicators into a structured decision support system that makes explicit how the Indicators are interrelated and how these will resp

  • Pacific Islands

Sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the biggest threats to the Hawaiian coastline, and resource managers of coastal wetlands in Hawai‘i must begin planning now for future impacts. The majority of these impacts are expected to occur from 2040 – 2100.

  • Pacific Islands

In the tropics, ample freshwater is the primary resource supporting thriving human and ecological communities. In the Pacific Islands, many watersheds are threatened by climate change, urban encroachment, and invasion by water-demanding exotic plant species like strawberry guava (SG).

  • Pacific Islands

Changes in future wave climates in the tropical Pacific Ocean from global climate change are not well understood. Spatially and temporally varying waves dominate coastal morphology and ecosystem structure of the islands throughout the tropical Pacific.

  • Pacific Islands

The specific objectives of this contract are to identify and categorize key differences and similarities between islands and continental systems that are relevant to achieving sustainable landscapes/seascapes at regional scales; to develop a conservation framework that integrates planning process

  • Plains and Prairie Potholes

The Invasion of native communities by cool-season introduced grasses, especially smooth brome and Kentucky bluegrass in upland prairies, reed canary grass in wetlands, is on one of the most important management issues on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service)-owned lands.

  • Plains and Prairie Potholes

This project will develop species distribution models (SDM) to evaluate current and future occurrence and density of wetland-dependent birds relative to several predictors, including land use patterns, wetland condition and connectivity, geomorphic setting and climate.

  • Plains and Prairie Potholes

Will downscale climate data using statistical and dynamical approaches and project future climate at an 8-km grid resolution.

  • North Pacific

This project will create a targeted and easily understandable guide to tools that support landscape-level planning in the face of climate change for NPLCC partners. The guide will build on previous NPLCC research on decision support needs with an emphasis on tools currently in use in the region.

  • North Pacific

A sea level rise vulnerability assessment has been completed for the shorelines of San Juan County Washington.

  • North Pacific

A "gateway" using Data Basin technology has been developed to serve the data integration, collaboration and outreach needs of the NPLCC.

  • North Pacific

In-person workshops will be conducted to bring the results from the USGS Program on Coastal Ecosystems Response to Climate Change's study on projected climate change effects on coastal environments (funded by NPLCC and NW CSC) to managers in their communities.

  • North Pacific

This project builds upon existing data and collaborations to incorporate climate change and economic considerations into a decision support framework for prioritizing restoration of passage.

  • North Pacific

This project will assess impacts of climate change on stream resources by considering the role of thermal heterogeneity and altered hydrologic regimes.

  • North Pacific

This project will look at how climate change has altered hydrologic systems, Pacific salmon habitat, and survival of salmon in the Nooksack River watershed. It will develop an adaptation plan that can be adopted and integrated into management plans.

  • North Pacific

We will translate existing modeled hydroclimatic data into metrics used for water crossing design and replacement.

  • North Pacific

This project aims to support dry forest and savannah habitats in The Georgia Basin. Management objectives are to synthesize existing data into GIS tools that will prioritize land acquisition and conservation investment.

  • North Pacific

A conservation and restoration priorities tool was developed that provides online access to regional information including: climate change projections, watershed condition, freshwater and terrestrial species, forest ecosystem information and invasive species information.

  • North Pacific

A conservation and restoration priorities tool was developed that provides online access to regional information including: climate change projections, watershed condition, freshwater and terrestrial species, forest ecosystem information and invasive species information.

  • North Pacific

The North Pacific Forest Landscape Corridor and Connectivity Project utilized a landscape connectivity simulator (UNICOR) and a genetic simulation program (CDPOP) to model the functional (dispersal and genetic) connectivity in the North Pacific Landscape.

  • North Pacific

This project developed a soil vulnerability index and map indicating where forest cover will be most affected by climate change. Using this map, researchers developed a greater understanding of potential changes in soil moisture and temperature regimes under future climate conditions.

  • North Pacific

This project initiated the first large-scale Tribal government discussions on the relationship of scientific research and traditional knowledge in the activities of the NPLCC. The project: 1.

  • North Pacific

Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Central Council) assisted the Organized Village of Kasaan (OVK) in their NPLCC grant, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change project.

  • North Atlantic

Classifying estuarine and marine habitats was identified as a priority need for a variety of purposes in the Northeast.

  • North Atlantic

Fishery and aquatic scientists often assess habitats to understand the distribution, status, threats, and relative abundance of aquatic resources. Due to the spatial nature of habitats and associated temporal changes, using traditional analytical methods is often difficult.

  • North Atlantic

Vernal or seasonal pools are small, temporary bodies of water that can serve as critical habitat for frogs, salamanders, reptiles, invertebrates, and other species.

  • North Atlantic

The Open Space Institute (OSI) disseminated knowledge and tools across the northeast U.S. and the Canadian Maritimes to advance the application of NA LCC data sets for land conservation.

  • North Atlantic

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) will facilitate integration of regional science through local land-use decision-making to enhance stewardship of North Atlantic LCC conservation priorities.