Projects

The US FWS Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge is associated with a Lower Wabash River LCD team exploring voluntary conservation on public and private lands in a region with fairly cohesive ecology, issues and practices in mixed habitat types of uplands, wetlands and floodplain forest in the ma

This project evaluated the potential impacts of storm surges and relative sea level rise on nesting geese and eider species that commonly breed on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Y-K Delta).

Full Project Title

Project Summary

The project will complete an extensive mapping of coastal change along the entire coastline of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). The work will provide important baseline information on the distribution and magnitude of landscape changes over the past 41 years.

Baseline hydrologic and topographic data in relation to waterfowl productivity is very limited on the Y-K Delta. When considering the potential impacts of climate-driven change to nesting and brood-rearing habitats, these baseline data are important for making informed management decisions.

Understanding the causes of relative sea level rise requires knowledge of changes to both land (uplift and subsidence) and sea level. However, measurements of coastal uplift or subsidence are almost completely lacking in western Alaska.

Alaska’s freshwater resources, vitally important for salmon and other species, are vulnerable to changes resulting from climate change.

This project is focused on establishing a statewide framework to improve the hydrography mapping and stewardship in Alaska.

Water temperature is one of the most significant factors in the health of stream ecosystems.

Streams, rivers, and lakes of the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska, provide essential spawning and rearing habitat for millions of Pacific salmon collectively regarded as a foundation of the regional ecosystem and economy.

This project supports the technical development of a mobile application for identifying and reporting invasive plant species in Alaska.

Concern about invasive species in Alaska is a growing concern, attracting attention from land managers, politicians and the public.

Researchers have consistently prioritized the need to measure the status and trends of stream and lake temperatures across Alaska landscapes, and to compile those data for predictive modeling.

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.

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.

Southwest Alaska is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth and its aquatic resources are at distinct risk from changing climate.

Viable sockeye salmon populations are critical to the economy, culture, and freshwater ecosystems of Bristol Bay in Western Alaska, and it is unclear how populations might respond to warming temperatures during the critical life history stages of spawning and embryo incubation.

By collaborating with water managers and combining climate modeling and paleoclimate methods, the project team will incorporate prediction tools to assess risk of extreme wet/dry climate conditions for the next 10-15 years (i.e. decadal prediction).

The Museum of Northern Arizona will leverage tools previously developed through its Springs Stewardship Initiative to help resource managers in the southwestern U.S.

Trout Unlimited will extend its existing Adopt-a-Trout program to the Henrys Fork River, a tributary to the Green River in the Colorado River basin.

Northern Arizona University will study how forest treatment practices and climate change may impact water balance across the Kaibab Plateau and critical habitats in lower elevations of the Grand Canyon.

Completion of the National Wildlife Inventory has been identified as a top science priority for the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes-LCC (UMGL).  Some areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin still have not been mapped to NWI standards.

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).

This project will improve tribal and First Nation engagement in cooperative natural resource conservation efforts.  Researchers are fostering networking among tribes, First Nations and other relevant partners in the upper Midwest – Great Lakes region, and engaging tribal and First Nation represen

The study seeks to provide a retrospective analysis of the relationships among bird abundance and distribution and changes in land cover and climate in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.  The resultant models will be used to provide spatially explicit forecasts of future avian responses. 

Researchers assessed how an expansion of forest reserves and climate-adaptive  management may improve ecological connectivity and resilience under different climate scenarios.  Resilience is measured as the capacity for these systems to maintain extant forest communities and aboveground live biom

Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera) (a.k.a. EPT taxa) are the most environmentally sensitive of freshwater insects. They are utilized the world over as indicators of water quality in flowing waters.

Full life-cycle vulnerability assessments are identifying the effects of climate change on nongame migratory birds that are of conservation concern and breed in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.

Working within the constraints of the SWAP revision timeline, we propose to advance biodiversity conservation within the region by enhancing the regional effectiveness of SWAPs and the ability of the LCC to address regional biodiversity priorities.

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

For management agencies, there is a growing need to understand (1) how climate change affects and will continue to affect wildlife populations of conservation concern, and (2) how the negative Upper Midwest Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative Request for Funding 2013 demographic effect

The concept of adaptive management provides a set of good business principles to guide strategic habitat conservation, but these principles are only useful if they are put into practice through a complimentary set of business operations.

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.

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

Forest-dominated landscapes provide a wide range of ecosystem services to many different sectors of society, including forest products (e.g., timber), recreational opportunities and support of tourism, carbon sequestration, and habitat for fish and wildlife and other biodiversity.

Waterfowl are ecologically, culturally, and economically important and their annual and long-term distributions in North America can substantially impact ecological relationships and have economic impacts.  In Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana alone, recent annual sales of Federal Duck Stamps e

The primary goals of this proposed project are to help identify and prioritize threats to endangered mussels and to determine whether existing environmental concentrations of ammonia, copper, and major ions in sediment pore-water are contributing to the decline of native mussel populations, as in

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.

This project directly addresses the need for integration of climate change information and strategies into Wisconsin’s Wildlife Action Plan (WWAP) as identified by Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Land Conservation Cooperative.

With the ultimate goal of conserving and restoring threatened native grassland prairies and the wildlife that depend on them, the National Audubon Society (Audubon) is facilitating a landscape conservation design for the grassland birds in the greater Chicago region.

Brief:

Under this project a collaborative and integrated geodatabase of inventoried connectivity barriers within the South Central Lake Superior Basin (SCLSB) was developed to prioritize restoration for more than 2,000 inventoried stream crossings. 

Permafrost thaw can be a major driver of landscape change.

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

Water temperature in lakes and lagoons plays a key role in hydrology, water quality, and habitat suitability for aquatic organisms.

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 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.

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.

Climate change is likely to alter snow patterns and characteristics, impacting vegetation, hydrology, permafrost condition, wildlife, and the Alaskans who depend on these resources.