Project

The goal of this project is to examine to what degree Brook Trout utilize cold-water refugia in warming streams. Stream temperatures will be monitored, and individual fish will be implanted with a tag that records the water temperature fish are experiencing in both historically cold and warm streams. After collecting temperature data fish experience in the streams, the fish will be thermally challenged in a laboratory setting to measure tolerance and stress response to determine if past thermal experience in the wild affects subsequent thermal performance. 

Brook Trout; Eric Engbretson USFWS
Project

A reconnaissance study distinguishes coastal areas of the northeastern U.S. (approx. Virginia to Maine) that will experience an inundation-dominated response to sea-level rise from those that will respond dynamically due to physical and bio-physical sedimentation and erosion processes. Areas that will be dominated by inundation include urban regions of intense development and/or coastal engineering, as well as bedrock coasts. Areas that will respond dynamically include beaches, unconsolidated cliffs, barrier islands, and wetlands. Distinguishing which processes are relevant to sea-level rise impacts in these areas aids prioritization of scientific research and decision support efforts. Also see Dr. Robert Thieler's A Research and Decision Support Framework to Evaluate Sea-level Rise Impacts in the Northeastern U.S. Tools and Products Sea Level Rise Viewer https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr

Project

There is growing evidence that headwater stream ecosystems are especially vulnerable to changing climate and land use, but their conservation is challenged by the need to address the threats at a landscape scale, often through coordination with multiple management agencies and landowners. This project sought to provide an example of cooperative landscape decision-making by addressing the conservation of headwater stream ecosystems in the face of climate change at the watershed scale. Predictive models were built for critical resources to examine the effects of the potential alternative actions on the objectives, taking account of climate effects and examining whether there were key uncertainties that impede decision making.  Results provide decision analyses that are (1) relevant to the management partners in question; (2) emblematic of landscape-scale cooperative decisions; and (3) sensitive to the practical consequences of climate change

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