Resources

This dataset provides a near-real-time estimate of 2017 herbaceous annual cover with an emphasis on annual grass (Boyte and Wylie. 2016. Near-real-time cheatrass percent cover in the Northern Great Basin, USA, 2015. Rangelands 38:278-284.) This estimate was based on remotely sensed enhanced Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (eMODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data gathered through June 19, 2017. This is the second iteration of an early estimate of herbaceous annual cover for 2017 over the same geographic area.

Understanding how annual climate variation affects population growth rates across a species’ range may help us anticipate the effects of climate change on species distribution and abundance. We predict that populations in warmer or wetter parts of a species’ range should respond negatively to periods of above average temperature or precipitation, respectively, whereas populations in colder or drier areas should respond positively to periods of above average temperature or precipitation.

Quaking aspen is generally considered to be a fire-adapted species because it regenerates prolifically after fire, and it can be replaced by more shade-tolerant tree species in the absence of fire. As early-successional aspen stands transition to greater conifer-dominance, they become increasingly fire prone, until fire returns, and aspen again temporarily dominate. While this disturbance-succession cycle is critical to the persistence of aspen on many landscapes, some aspen stands persist on the landscape without fire.

There is increasing interest in climate change adaptation, yet many fish and wildlife field staff remain uncertain how to put adaptation into practice. Our goal with this project is to bridge the gap between high-level climate adaptation guidance and the field staff who carry out a specific regulatory process, Habitat Conservation Planning under Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. Following best practices from the literature on linking science and management, we began with a focus on what people do and are bringing climate considerations into that practice.

On April 13, 2015, the Great Basin LCC hosted a webinar about new Sage-Grouse conservation data presented by the National Wetlands Inventory.

Tool to be developed for sagebrush seed selection decision support.

This web site houses the quick guides, worksheets, and templates developed as part of a project focused on helping practitioners integrate climate change into Habitat Conservation Planning under the Endangered Species Act. It also includes a spreadsheet with information on existing HCPs that have addressed climate change. All guides and worksheets are freely downloadable.

This research project documented the Native American cultural traditions in the Duckwater Shoshone and the Paiute tribes' responses to climate change in the Great Basin region. Aspects of tribal culture often include fish, wildlife, or plants as central images or main symbolic figures. Because climate change affects the presence, abundance and patterns of distribution of animals and plants, it is important to analyze behaviors connected to those resources.

On November 4, 2016, Dr. Peter Adler, Utah State University, discussed how sagebrush sensitivity to climate change varies across the region and the strengths and weaknesses of various climate modeling approaches.

Developed alongside a scenario planning process, this spatially explicit analysis assesses key stressors on Great Basin systems in order to inform alternative futures. Project outputs include land cover, plant and wildlife species and community distributions, urban development, and future habitat under climate scenarios. These data are available to be explored and downloaded through a web-based portal.

In Alaska, changes in snow, ice, and weather, have resulted in risks to human lives, infrastructure damage, threats to valuable natural resources, and disruption of hunting, fishing, and livelihoods.

This report summarizes activities and data collection outcomes for Cooperative Agreement Award F16AC01182, specifically those research activities conducted as a multi-scale assessment of the effects of juniper removal on songbird, small mammal, and raptor/corvid species. In 2017, we conducted 270 surveys for songbirds, 10 surveys for small mammals, and 77 surveys for avian predators that potentially affect greater sage-grouse. We detected 45 songbird species, 6 mammal species, and 9 species of aerial predators.

The Adapt Alaska Collaborative grew out of a set of initiatives to promote climate resilience and adaptation in Alaska. On May 24 and 25, 2017 a group of participants (including representatives of Alaska regional, state and federal agencies and organizations) gathered at a work session to identify next steps to build on the momentum generated by these initiatives toward a more resilient Alaska.

Posters describing coastal processes, food cycles, and relationships among people and marine resources.

Assigning a numerical rank to an introduced species is an objective, quantifiable way to describe their relative impacts, and ranks are a valuable prioritization tool for land managers. We applied the Invasiveness Ranking System previously developed by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program to evaluate introduced species known to occur on Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands. This system uses sixteen criteria grouped into four categories to assess invasiveness: distribution, biological characteristics and dispersal ability, ecological impacts, and feasibility of control.

This project will expand abundance & distribution models for seabirds, currently underway in Aleutian Is region (USFWS-funded project under Survey, Monitoring & Assessment program) to the greater ABSI-LCC region, and integrate 2013 seabird surveys into the analysis. In particular, this expanded effort would first focus on the North Bering Sea/Bering Strait/southern Chukchi region, which has greatest potential for increased vessel traffic and development. Using at-sea survey data, colony data, and environmental parameters, Tern Again Consulting (Dr. M.

​This project takes advantage of an existing helicopter platform on St. Lawrence that will be used to collect ShoreZone imagery of the island. This project is leveraging contributions by the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and NOAA Fisheries to collect imagery in the summer of 2013. The ABSI LCC will provided $10K to map the highest priority section of the St. Lawrence Island coastline.

Accidental introductions of rodents present one of the greatest threats to indigenous island biota. On uninhabited remote islands, such introductions are most likely to come from shipwrecks. Here we use a comprehensive database of shipwrecks in Western Alaska to model the frequency of shipwrecks per Aleutian and Bering Sea island, taken as a proxy for the likelihood of rodent introductions, using physical variables, and the intensity of nearby fishing traffic and activity as predictors.

Continuous, long-term monitoring of the food habits of marine birds is a key component in detecting responses to anticipated climate change of both the birds and the prey populations on which they depend. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) has been collecting seabird diet samples from the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands for more than 30 years. With support from previous LCC funding, AMNWR has developed protocols for zooplankton sample analysis, created a reference collection of seabird prey items, and helped develop and populate a publicly available data management system.

Forage fish play a vital role in marine ecosystems by funneling biomass and energy from lower trophic levels to higher marine vertebrates, including commercial fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Often it is useful to investigate factors influencing forage fish populations from the bottom up, and is equally fruitful to monitor the status of predators that influence them from the top down. Seabirds are conspicuous, highly mobile consumers of forage fish that go to great distances and depths to locate ephemeral prey.

Land managers have incorporated threats to biodiversity into land-use designation and management decisions for nearly two decades, but few efforts have included threats from future conditions and fewer still have assessed vulnerability to climate change. Our work provides foundational information about habitat fragmentation and connectivity in the Southern Rockies ecosystem and identifies the degree of vulnerability of water-limited habitats to climate change.

Reconstructing past Hawaiian precipitation using stable carbon isotope analysis of Māmane trees Data archive

Silversword datasets

The *RAW* Data Results for Integrating detailed assessments of climate threats on Pacific coral reefs and responses of traditional Hawaiian communities into management planning.