Building Strong for Tomorrow: Recommendations for the Organizational Design of the NOAA Climate Service

The U.S. Congress asked an expert panel of the National Academy of Public Administration to assist NOAA with a study and analysis of organizational options for a Climate Service within NOAA. Further, NOAA formally asked the Panel to provide an independent assessment of how NOAA should organize its climate capabilities and make recommendations for a Climate Service line office structure that would integrate NOAA's climate science and research with service delivery.Main FindingsThe Panel strongly supports the creation of a Climate Service to be established as a line office within NOAA.The Panel concluded that a NOAA Climate Service, properly configured and implemented, would be uniquely qualified to serve the public and private sectors as a lead federal agency for climate research and services, and to provide an ongoing accessible, authoritative clearinghouse for all federal science and services related to climate.The report also includes the Panel's observations and recommendations regarding the larger federal climate enterprise, key elements of support needed by the NOAA Climate Service and the importance to the new organization of a clear strategic plan and a comprehensive implementation plan. Additionally, the Panel offered observations about institutional change management in the federal sector, identified several management recommendations for implementation and addressed operational priorities and budget challenges

Maine\u27s Climate Future Report

Maine’s Climate Future 2020 builds on the Maine’s Climate Future 2009 and Maine’s Climate Future 2015 reports and the Coastal Maine Climate Futures report (below); it is not intended as a comprehensive revision of all aspects of the previous reports. This update demonstrates the progression of accelerating change in the climate in Maine and its effects, reflecting dramatic evidence for accelerating climate change around the globe with the often dire consequences of those changes. This report looks at examples of evidence of effects in Maine drawn from the scientific literature and news media accounts of Maine people and their experiences. MCF 2020 highlights some of the many national and international reports over the past several years demonstrating the urgent need to implement aggressive solutions to what many now call the ‘climate crisis’. This report also highlights the importance of simultaneously investing in science-informed, cost-effective adaptation to accommodate the reality of a changing Maine in which we live, work and play. It goes without saying that the many people who contributed to this report or are referenced in this report share a common experience of the escalating consequences of out changing climate. However, it is the generations to come who will pay the highest price, or benefit the most, from the decisions and actions we take now and in the next several years. To that end, the report also points to resources detailing the many people and organizations who have been working to address the climate challenge in Maine, and to the important framework that Maine state government has launched in 2019 to get the job done

Bibliography of global change, 1992

This bibliography lists 585 reports, articles, and other documents introduced in the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database in 1992. The areas covered include global change, decision making, earth observation (from space), forecasting, global warming, policies, and trends

MODELING SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS: APPLICATIONS AND METHODS FOR MARINE BIOGEOGRAPHY AND CONSERVATION

I employed multidisciplinary approaches for understanding distributions of marine fishes in the present, past, and future, and for considering more broadly the historical role of primary research in policy decisions. In chapter 1, I generated ecological niche models (ENMs) for Latimeria chalumnae using two different modeling algorithms; these models anticipated occurrences of L. chalumnae's sister species, L. menadoensis, but sample sizes were not large enough to assess the statistical significance of these species' niche similarity. Furthermore, the range of coelacanths may extend beyond their presently known distributions; future exploration may reveal additional populations of these elusive fishes. In chapter 2, I developed a holistic biogeographic history of codfishes in the subfamily Gadinae. I found both ecological niche and geographic distributions of gadine fishes to be largely conservative, but two clades, tomcods and crown cods, included both Pacific and Atlantic species. Divergence in both clades was estimated to have begun in the Pliocene; environmental tolerance reconstructions support temperate origins of both clades, and cyclical Arctic ice formation may have driven divergence. In chapter 3, I addressed the role of general circulation model (GCM) bias as a significant source of uncertainty in estimates of species' potential distributional responses to climate change. ENMs of 15 gadine species calibrated using an observation-based dataset and a dataset derived from the CCSM4 GCM showed areas of disagreement concordant with known GCM biases. Consciousness of bias in GCM data will allow researchers and policy makers to identify areas of particular concern for biodiversity more realistically. Finally, in chapter 4, I explored the evolution of the relationship between policy makers and researchers through the lens of the U.S. Fisheries Service. Building cooperative capacity between these two groups led to a more systematic understanding of the oceans, and thus to success in reducing numbers of overfished stocks

Climate Change Impacts in Virginia: Status of Natural Resource Data Records as Tools to Assess Continuing Trends

As scientists we pose the hypothesis that climate change over the past decades has left a signal in natural resource status and productivity in Virginia. This signal exists subsumed in a variety of data from crop and forestry production, to fishery landings, to spatial distribution of numerous plant and animal species of interest. Description of these signals in concert with known changes in climate descriptors (temperature, rainfall and more) provide a basis for hind-casting possible cause and effect relationships. If such relationships exist, and we hypothesize that they do, then projections of climate descriptors (temperature, rainfall and more) provide the basis for projections of impacts on defined natural resources, with obvious economic and societal impacts. Before a comprehensive analysis of extant data can occur we must start with a simple inventory of available data. As simplistic as this may sound we can find no single database that describes the general status of natural resources in Virginia over the past decades. Indeed, we suggest that the majority of such data exists as unpublished (in peer review, and in some instances even technical reports) compilations spread among the various state and federal natural resource agencies active in Virginia. This body of work had several goals; 1) to assess the scope of natural resource descriptive data available in the Commonwealth of Virginia, 2) to assemble an index of such data, and 3) develop a bibliography to serve as a resource for more comprehensive analyses in the future

Case Study - Climate Change and Water Resources: A Primer for Municipal Water Providers

This case study summarizes the best available scientific evidence on climate change for water utility managers, including both natural changes and changes that may be caused by human activities. The document suggests the types of impacts climate change can have on water resources and provides guidance on planning and adaptation strategies useful to managers. To plan effectively for the future, utilities should assess the potential impacts of a range of plausible climate change scenarios on their ability to meet customer needs and comply with quality standards and environmental objectives in a cost-effective manner. Educational levels: Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional