The 2018 AGU Fall Meeting will be in Washington, D.C. from December 10-14, 2018. Check out our CASC-hosted sessions below:

GC036: Advancing Global Biodiversity Modelling through Lessons Learned from other Modeling Communities, Remote Sensing Advancements, and Model Integration and Inter-comparison Efforts
Session Type: Global Environmental Change
Conveners: National Climate Adaptation Science Center | Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center | NASA Headquarters
Description: Improving large-scale biodiversity models is needed to inform progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, many of which are not on track to meet their 2020 goals, threatening global biodiversity conservation, its understanding and sustainable use. For climate research, well-accepted and global general circulation models (GCMs) are available. In contrast, large-scale biodiversity modeling lacks similar capabilities. Questions remain about whether biodiversity can be modeled effectively at the global scale or if finer-scale models should be aggregated to inform decision-making and policy targets. Global biodiversity modeling presents many challenges not inherent in GCMs, including more complex ecological and biological processes that influence biodiversity change. Despite differences, biodiversity modelers can learn from and build upon strategies from other modeling communities dealing with similar issues, including novel ways of incorporating remote sensing and effective techniques for addressing the challenges and tackling obstacles in global scale modeling.

PA057: Science To Action: Empowering Ecologists to Engage in the Process of Translation for Informed Environmental Decision-making
Session Type: Public Affairs
Conveners: Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center | University of Arizona | Alaska Climate Adaptation Climate Science Center
Description: Responding to challenges posed by rapid environmental change is at the forefront of natural resource management. Managers, decision-makers, and stakeholders are grappling with integrating science into decision-making in the context of wicked social and environmental issues. Although ecologists have a history of generating research relevant to environmental decision-making, ecologists have been slower to embrace intentional partnerships with decision-makers, as equals in co-producing science and policy. Ecologists are now making strides toward the intentional production of actionable science, specifically designed for decision-makers, through the process of translational ecology (TE). The approach extends beyond theory or opportunistic applications of research findings, seeking outcomes that serve managers and decision-makers—thereby distinguishing TE from applied ecology. It differs from strict models of knowledge co-production, acknowledging that scientist-stakeholder interactions occur along a spectrum of engagement intensities and applications. We invite presenters to share results on TE practice, evaluation techniques, and insight for overcoming challenges.

PA036: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Drought and Drought Decisions
Session Type: Public Affairs
Conveners: North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center | Colorado State University | USGS Fort Collins Science Center
Description: Across the world, there has been significant investment in understanding social science dynamics of drought in particular locations, yet we still lack understanding of how human dimensions of drought are similar and different across cases and regions. Shifts in winter precipitation from snow to rain, early snowmelt, rapid onset of drought, more intense but less frequent rainfall events, declining groundwater levels, and other alterations to the hydrologic cycle are contributing to how communities experience drought under a changing climate. How do people define and experience drought? What are the types of drought decisions and which actors make these decisions? To what extent do decision makers enable or constrain each other? This session presents findings of drought impacts, information use, adaptive capacity, and institutional context that represent interdisciplinary perspectives (social-ecological systems, institutional analysis, water resource management, political ecology, rural sociology, etc.) and scale from place-based analyses to broader analytical frameworks.

PA015: Communication of Science: Practice, Research and Reflection
Session Type: Public Affairs
Conveners: University of Washington | Manchester Metropolitan University | George Mason University | University of New South Wales | Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Description: Do you consider yourself a science communicator? Does your research group or institution participate in public engagement activities? Have you ever evaluated or published your education, outreach or engagement efforts? Scientists communicate to non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational and research collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in these engagement activities and these efforts are to a large extent responsible for the public perception of science. However, few opportunities and incentives exist for researchers to optimize their communication practices to ensure effective engagement. This session, run at both AGU and EGU, encourages critical reflection on science communication practices and provides an opportunity for science communicators to share best practice and experiences with evaluation and research in this field.

PA050: Science in the news: Innovative research and programs to improve the quality and quantity of science journalism
Session Type: Public Affairs
Conveners: George Mason University | University of Washington | The Conversation U.S. | Aquent/JPL-NASA | Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Description: The media plays a key role in society by explaining scientific issues—and associated causes, effects, and solutions—that are difficult to understand through direct experience, such as global climate change, air quality, or natural disasters, such as hurricanes and landslides. However, science reporting—especially at the local level—has been challenged by the growing pressures of consolidation, changing revenue models, the internet and the 24/7 news cycle, the increase of misinformation, and other pressures. We invite presentations about journalism and audience research, innovative partnerships, and other programmatic efforts to understand and overcome the barriers to high-quality science reporting. We are particularly interested in the perspectives of journalists, practitioners, and communication scientists who are trying to increase science reporting at local and regional scales, building preparedness for extreme events, improving the number and diversity of journalists reporting about science, and reporting on complex scientific issues, in a rapid-paced news environment.

GH004: Building Bridges to Global Health, Resilience and Sustainability
Session Type: GeoHealth
Conveners: Geology in the Public Interest | Wheaton College | University of Washington | Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Description: The global community faces significant environmental challenges that will increasingly impact and stress society. Addressing global health and sustainability across national, ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries requires international and intercultural collaboration at a time when divisions across society are deepening. This session will include a diversity of perspectives from experts who will explore how collaboration across cultures, industries, fields of research and ways of knowing can transform the impact and outcomes of research. This session is designed to advance the conversation around how innovative collaborations can help address some of the most pressing environmental issues facing society. We encourage submissions representing a diversity methods, approaches, projects and disciplines. This session also serves as an introduction to the collaborative conference, Geoscience and Society Summit: Bridges to Global Health, Resilience and Sustainability the result of a collaboration between nine different geoscience societies, including AGU, taking place in March 2019.

Ecological Drought—an Emerging Threat Across the United States
Session Type: Tutorial Talk
Conveners: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Integration & Application Network | National Climate Adaptation Science Center
Description: Historically, drought has been viewed in terms of its agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic impacts. How drought affects ecosystems—and the services they provide human communities—is often not discussed. In response, the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center is leading a national-scale initiative that’s addressing the gap in drought research. A new concept—ecological drought—was needed to capture the emphasis on how drought impacts ecosystems. Ecological droughts are manifested in multiple ways and are becoming more prevalent due to a) increased variability in precipitation, combined with b) rising temperatures and c) increased water demand by agricultural and urban sectors. This tutorial provides an overview of ecological drought synthesis, and builds on efforts to synthesize our knowledge of the impacts of ecological drought, communicate knowledge to resource managers and stakeholders, and support decision-making by ensuring that managers have information they need to prepare for and respond to drought.