A new mission: Mainstreaming climate adaptation in the US Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes growing climate risks across its responsibilities as land manager, operator of hundreds of installations, and in its core mission to protect national security. However, DoD climate risk reduction is complicated by frequent leadership turnover among base commanders, which encourages focus on near-term challenges, and changing US government priorities that downplay climate risk. We used risk-based deliberation, through workshops, with climate scenario-based fire and flood impact modeling to evaluate risk and adaptation opportunities at bases in the southwestern United States. We found that success in working with Defense installations hinges on linking risks of increasing climate-related impacts to DoD's ability to achieve its mission objectives at installations. Workshop participants offered insights into barriers to adaptation, including access to decision-makers in a hierarchical organization, leadership focus on near-term challenges, insufficient training or capacity to integrate climate information into short and long-term decisions, and rapid turnover in leadership. We also found opportunities for mainstreaming climate risk management into DoD activities, including emphasizing risks to DoD's mission, opportunities to form symbiotic partnerships with external partners, and the potential for standardized procedures for considering physical climate risks that could be integrated across the DoD to achieve longer-term solutions to climate change challenges. © 2021 The AuthorsOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Recent changes in the distribution of a marine gastropod, <i>Patella rustica</i> Linnaeus, 1758, and their relationship to unusual climatic events

Aim: Recent colonization of northern Portuguese shores by Patella rustica Linnaeus, 1758, led to the bridging of a historical gap in the distribution known since the 1900s. Long-term oceanographic data collected over the last half-century were examined in order to detect possible mechanisms for the observed change in its distribution.Location: This study was carried out along the entire Portuguese coastline, from 41°50' to 37°06' N. Time-series of hydrographical variables (sea surface temperature and salinity) were derived for the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula.Methods: Abundance and size-frequency distributions of the newly observed limpet populations were compared with those from well-established populations in southern Portugal. Anomalies were computed for sea surface temperature (1950–2000) and sea surface salinity (1958–2001) data, covering the whole Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. An upwelling index (1967–2005) was derived for a single location within the distributional gap of P. rustica. Split moving window analysis was performed to detect significant discontinuities in hydrographical data sets.Results: Patella rustica has gradually been expanding in northern Iberia, and in the late 1990s the historical gap in distribution in northern Portugal was bridged. Size-frequency distribution differed between historical and recent populations, the latter lacking small-sized individuals. At the same time, several anomalous oceanographic events occurred off the Portuguese coast and were probably related to this expansion.Main conclusions: Although sea surface temperature might be a major determinant of the reproductive success of P. rustica and hence its dispersal potential, it is more likely that a coincidence of several factors occurring in the late 1990s provided exceptional conditions that allowed the geographical expansion of this species