Resources

Conservation priority maps based on combined bird species current and projected abundance and distribution, updated with new model with improved inputs.

Climate change is raising challenging questions for systematic conservation planning. Are methods of planning based on the current spatial patterns of biodiversity effective given long-term climate change trends? In response to this concern, some conservation scientists argue that conservation planning should focus on protecting the abiotic diversity in the landscape, which drives patterns of biological diversity, rather than focusing on the distribution of focal species or community types, which shift in response to climate change.

Percent change in climatic water deficit relative to the 1981-2010 climate period These maps display the average percent change in climatic water deficit (CWD) from the 1981-2010 climate period to a future climate period for each watershed. Percent change in CWD is provided for two climate projections for each of the three IPCC-SRES scenarios – A1B, A2 and B1. Future time periods displayed include 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099. Watershed boundaries are from the 8-digit Watershed Boundary Dataset (http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/huc.html).

This update describes the project’s background and summarizes progress and data produced.

In California, the near-shore area where the ocean meets the land is a highly productive yet sensitive region that supports a wealth of wildlife, including several native bird species. These saltmarshes, mudflats, and shallow bays are not only critical for wildlife, but they also provide economic and recreational benefits to local communities. Today, sea-level rise, more frequent and stronger storms, saltwater intrusion, and warming water temperatures are among the threats that are altering these important habitats.

Website with project description, access to data, Building Commons Knowledge webinar discussions, and Public Presentations.

These archives are intended to support the research of the marine fog science community and others interested in fog science research results. The archives are divided into two sections:

This business plan provides the rationale for developing an Environmental Change Network for the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative. This plan will illustrate important potential uses of the network and its data and show how these uses will increase the efficiency and efficacy of adaptation planning and implementation efforts. We will demonstrate how the value of the network will be greater if implemented sooner.

These materials, most of which are in PDF format, are a record of what members of the Pacific Coastal Fog Project have presented at various scientific and public meetings. They range from slide shows given during technical sessions at scientific conferences, to presentations delivered to potential funders and talks to the general public interested in the subject of coastal marine fog. These presentations and posters, like the WebEx recordings, are also documents of the process of creating common knowledge.

In a rapidly changing climate, effective bird conservation requires not only reliable information about the current vulnerability of species of conservation concern, but also credible projections of their future vulnerability. Such projections may enable managers to preempt or reduce emerging climate-related threats through appropriate habitat management. We used NatureServe’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) to predict vulnerability to climate change of 168 bird species that breed in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, USA.

Coastal areas are high-risk zones subject to the impacts of global climate change, with significant increases in the frequencies of extreme weather and storm events, and sea-level rise forecast by 2100. These physical processes are expected to alter estuaries, resulting in loss of intertidal wetlands and their component wildlife species. In particular, impacts to salt marshes and their wildlife will vary both temporally and spatially and may be irreversible and severe.

This set of elevation models was developed to understand current (2010) conditions of San Francisco salt marshes and for input into sea-level rise prediction models. These elevation models were built by interpolating surveyed elevation points. The elevation surveys were conducted with a Leica RX1230 Real-Time Kinematic GPS which is capable of

We conducted detailed resurveys of a montane mammal, Urocitellus beldingi, to examine the effects of climate change on persistence along the trailing edge of its range. Of 74 California sites where U. beldingi were historically recorded (1902–1966), 42 per cent were extirpated, with no evidence for colonization of previously unoccupied sites. Increases in both precipitation and temperature predicted site extirpations, potentially owing to snowcover loss. Surprisingly, human land-use change buffered climate change impacts, leading to increased persistence and abundance.

The vulnerability of species at risk from climate change is recognized as an important issue in California as well as globally. Assessing vulnerability requires information on the long-term viability of populations and understanding the influences on that viability, due to environmental drivers as well as impacts of management action. We developed population-dynamic models to assess and better understand the long-term population viability of four key, tidal marsh-dependent species, under a variety of environmental conditions, including climate change impacts.

An online decision support tool for managers, planners, conservation practitioners and scientists.

Distribution maps of ensemble averages and standard deviations for each species modeled future bioclimatic envelope. These maps demonstrate the diversity of projections from the array of modeled studied by the project. Consists of 200 layers: 100 species (50 bird, 50 plant) 2 stats (avg, std) value is 0..1 suitability.

Each of full climate models (excluding vegetation and elevation variables for which there were no future projections) were subsequently projected onto predicted future climate layers from the IPCC 4th Assessment Report A1B climate change scenario for the decades 2050-2060 and 2080-2090. These predictions represent conservative efforts, however, as the predictions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations may be reached much sooner, as current emissions already exceed the trajectories of the highest scenarios.

Coastal land managers are faced with many challenges and uncertainties in planning adaptive strategies for conserving coastal ecosystems under future climate change scenarios. As transitional ecotones between the marine and terrestrial environment, nearshore habitats are particularly sensitive to climate change. Projected climate change effects on coastal environments include sea-level rise, changing storm magnitude and frequency, salt water intrusion, accelerated erosion, shifting mudflat profiles, and increased water temperature and acidity (Huppert et al. 2009).

The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense; hereafter, CTS) is classified as a federally threatened species (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2004). Consequently, much research has been done to provide information for its management and conservation. However, previous research has primarily focused on the use of upland, terrestrial environments by CTS (Trenham and Shaffer 2005), the demography of populations (Trenham et al. 2001), and the effects of hybridization between CTS and the introduced, barred tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium; Johnson et al. 2013).

Climate change is predicted to alter aquatic habitats to the extent that many imperiled salmon and trout species (salmonids; Oncorhynchus spp.) face an escalating threat of extinction in California. This dissertation examines the impacts of climate change on salmonids from the Klamath River basin, the second largest river system in California, and now most likely the primary producer of wild salmonids in the state.

Indian Valley sits atop the Sierra Crest, 30 miles south of Lake Tahoe. The 250 acre meadow was once a
high-elevation sponge that soaked up spring snowmelt and slowly released water throughout the
summer. However, historic overgrazing caused erosion and downcutting of the stream channel and
formed a network of gullies that quickly drained water from the meadow. In 2012, a partnership that
included the US Forest Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Coca Cola and American Rivers

Change in the percentage of watershed area with critical habitat from 2010 to a future time period These maps display the change in the proportion of watershed area that contains critical habitat from 2010 to a future time period for three IPCC-SRES scenarios – A1B, A2 and B1. Future time periods displayed include 2040, 2070 and 2100. Watershed boundaries are from the 8-digit Watershed Boundary Dataset (http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/huc.html).

This insert into the March 2014 Estuary news offers snapshots of how seven CA LCC projects have been laying the foundations for lasting cooperative conservation partnerships. The CA LCC has been striving to ensure that its projects complete research and make it accessible to resource managers – through publications, maps, the Climate Commons web site, workshops, webinars, and more. The CA LCC also completed a five-year strategic plan and science management framework in 2013.

The objective of this review is to discuss physical processes over a wide range of spatial scales that govern the formation, evolution, and dissipation of marine fog. We consider marine fog as the collective combination of fog over the open sea along with coastal sea fog and coastal land fog. The review includes a history of sea fog research, field programs, forecasting methods, and detection of sea fog via satellite observations where similarity in radiative properties of fog top and the underlying sea induce further complexity.

A collection of information resources assembled to support the CVLCP partnership efforts, including scenario planning, assessing vulnerabilities, and developing adaptation strategies.