[LTER-luq] FW: From ClimateWire -- SCIENCE: Scientists highlight natural areas so they don't 'go away'

Thu Aug 25 08:19:46 MDT 2016

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Subject: FW: From ClimateWire -- SCIENCE: Scientists highlight natural areas so they don't 'go away'

Congratulations to Jennifer Costanza  and the co authors (second link mentioned in ClimateWire article).

Nice to see PR and the USVI included!

Sincerely,
BG

Costanza, Jennifer, Beck, Scott, Pyne, Milo, Terando, Adam, Rubino, Matthew, White, Rickie, and Collazo, Jaime, 2016, Assessing climate-sensitive ecosystems in the Southeastern United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2016–1073, 278 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161073.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1828/pp1828.pdf
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2016/1073/ofr20161073.pdf
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Subject: From ClimateWire -- SCIENCE: Scientists highlight natural areas so they don't 'go away'

Scientists highlight natural areas so they don't 'go away'

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AN E&E PUBLISHING SERVICE

SCIENCE:
Scientists highlight natural areas so they don't 'go away'

Brittany Patterson<http://www.eenews.net/staff/Brittany_Patterson>, E&E reporter

Published: Monday, August 15, 2016

From the limestone shrubland of central Texas to the forested bluffs on the east Gulf Coast, biodiverse ecosystems in the southeast United States are vulnerable to climate change, according to two new reports by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The research aims to lay out how climate change is affecting the region's varied ecosystems for land managers, conservationists, state officials and outdoor enthusiasts, all of whom are at the forefront of protecting the land.

One report<http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1828/pp1828.pdf> focused on so-called insular, or isolated, ecosystems. The other<http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2016/1073/ofr20161073.pdf> looked more broadly at the climate sensitivity of environments across the Southeast.

"Part of what is exciting about this research is that it has wrapped together a lot of information about pretty obscure ecosystems into one place," said Gerard McMahon, director of the Southeast Climate Science Center. "It illustrates there are some amazingly cool ecosystems out there from a biodiversity standpoint, and if we don't pay attention to them, maybe they go away."

Assembled by scientists at the Southeast Climate Science Center, one of eight regional science hubs established by the Interior Department in 2009, the reports draw on scientific literature and geographical information system (GIS) data to highlight the climate change vulnerability of 19 diverse ecosystems across 12 Southern states.

The authors assessed the degree to which species in an ecosystem will be affected by climate, how likely future climate change could affect the environment and how much adaptive capacity the ecosystem is expected to have.

In February, the southeast United States was labeled a world hot spot for biodiversity. On a regional level, the South is home to pockets of land ranging in size from thousands of miles to just tens of feet. Many are rich in plant and animal species.

Biodiversity is the goal

The glades and woodlands in the limestone basin of central Tennessee is one of the ecosystems. It's a grassy, rocky shrubland ecosystem with thin soil that, despite being comprised of drought-tolerant species, is highly vulnerable, researchers found.

An increase in fire, human encroachment, higher temperatures and possibly a lack of summer precipitation could negatively affect eastern red cedar, the linchpin tree species of the ecosystem. This could allow other species to move in and threaten the ecological balance.

Jennifer Costanza, lead author of one of the reports and a scientist with North Carolina State University, said in a statement that many of the ecosystems are already at risk from urbanization and other human land-use policies.

"Identifying the ecosystems at risk from climate change will help inform conservation and management to ensure we don't lose that biodiversity," she said.

Both reports say much needs to be learned. The researchers say future investigations might delve into understanding how changes to hydrological cycles could affect ecosystems and how climate change could change the way species interact with each other, including in the pollination of plants.

McMahon said he hopes the reports can be circulated among people working to conserve the forests, swamps and coastlines of the region, like landscape conservation cooperatives. They represent partnerships between federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, nongovernmental groups, and others that coordinate climate adaptation.

"These reports are a pretty good example of that pre-decision, get-your-heads-around-what-might-be-coming-down-the-pike mentality," he said. "Going forward, this stuff might help landscape conservation cooperatives and stakeholder groups now start to say 'ecosystem X or this assemblage of plant species Y, we see from these reports we should be concerned about them, and they matter to us and our stakeholders.'"

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