A framework for ensemble modelling of climate change impacts on lakes worldwide : the ISIMIP Lake Sector

Empirical evidence demonstrates that lakes and reservoirs are warming across the globe. Consequently, there is an increased need to project future changes in lake thermal structure and resulting changes in lake biogeochemistry in order to plan for the likely impacts. Previous studies of the impacts of climate change on lakes have often relied on a single model forced with limited scenario-driven projections of future climate for a relatively small number of lakes. As a result, our understanding of the effects of climate change on lakes is fragmentary, based on scattered studies using different data sources and modelling protocols, and mainly focused on individual lakes or lake regions. This has precluded identification of the main impacts of climate change on lakes at global and regional scales and has likely contributed to the lack of lake water quality considerations in policy-relevant documents, such as the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, we describe a simulation protocol developed by the Lake Sector of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) for simulating climate change impacts on lakes using an ensemble of lake models and climate change scenarios for ISIMIP phases 2 and 3. The protocol prescribes lake simulations driven by climate forcing from gridded observations and different Earth system models under various representative greenhouse gas concentration pathways (RCPs), all consistently bias-corrected on a 0.5 degrees x 0.5 degrees global grid. In ISIMIP phase 2, 11 lake models were forced with these data to project the thermal structure of 62 well-studied lakes where data were available for calibration under historical conditions, and using uncalibrated models for 17 500 lakes defined for all global grid cells containing lakes. In ISIMIP phase 3, this approach was expanded to consider more lakes, more models, and more processes. The ISIMIP Lake Sector is the largest international effort to project future water temperature, thermal structure, and ice phenology of lakes at local and global scales and paves the way for future simulations of the impacts of climate change on water quality and biogeochemistry in lakes.Peer reviewe

Implementation of a collaborative culture in one Midwestern urban school

Today, a wide range of researchers and authors are beginning to focus their attention on school change, decreased teacher isolation and increased collaboration among educators with a focus on improving student learning. A term, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), has come to represent this focus and embodies promise for educational change. The purpose of this study was to examine one Midwest urban school\u27s approach to implementing the concepts and philosophies of a Professional Learning Community. The purpose in doing so was to study the school\u27s process of implementation and how it reflected three themes which emerged from the literature review: Leadership, Collaboration and Focus on Student Learning. The guiding research question was: How is a Professional Learning Community initially implemented within a school? The method of research was a qualitative case study approach with data collection including: interviews with two administrators and three classroom teachers who were involved in the implementation process, observations of collaborative teaching teams and documents which supported the implementation process. The results of the study demonstrated a need for increased professional development in order for teachers to have a better understanding of the function and purpose of a PLC and to address issues that arise from increased collaboration like item analysis and interventions that support student success. A need for more time for the business of collaboration (e.g., meetings, preparation) also surfaced as a result of the study. The shift from teacher isolation to collaboration requires a great deal of time and although there was a common plan time allocated, all teachers noted the need for more time in order to complete the tasks necessary for a well functioning PLC