Images

Planting butterfly-friendly plants in your yard or balcony (especially monarch favorites like native milkweeds), reducing harmful chemical use in your lawns and gardens, and “leaving the leaves” in the fall to protect overwintering pupae can all promote butterfly populations in your area!

Drawing showing climate change impacts to each life cycle stage of monarchs: 1) Butterflies lay fewer eggs in wetter conditions, 2) Warmer temperatures reduce milkweed growth, leaving caterpillars hungry, 3) Erratic winters freeze overwintering pupae, 4) Shifting seasons disrupt migrations.

In this sagebrush community, there are intact biological soil crusts that are composed of cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses. Phlox sp. are growing abundantly on these biocrust communities.

An infographic detailing five ways climate change affects amphibians. 

Created by Courtenay Duzet & Louise Johansson, USGS, May 2023. 

A view of the North and South Bubble Mountains in front of Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park.

Rock pile trincheras with agave plants at Mission Garden, a living agricultural museum of Sonoran Desert-adapted heritage trees, traditional local heirloom crops and edible native plants in Tucson, Arizona.

Kaupapaloʻi o Kaʻamola

A view of the East River Valley from the shoulder of Gothic Mountain, Colorado

This artwork was created to represent the National Climate Adaptation Science Center webinar series "Incorporating Indigenous Knowledges into Federal Research and Management."

Map of Southwest Region generated from ArcGIS Pro using public domain layers from AGOL at 1:20M scale.

Climate Change Refugia (noun): Areas buffered from climate change that enable the continued persistence of plants and animals.

Investing in nature isn’t limited to our public lands, it can be in your own backyard! Nature-based solutions are a way to solve problems by using nature as tool. They can bring the outdoors to you to make your communities safer, healthier, and greener. It’s a win-win!

Nature-based solutions can look like:

An infographic detailing six ways climate change affects the spread of contaminants. 

Created by Courtenay Duzet, USGS, March 2023. 

Close up of Sonoran Desert flowers, including California poppy, lupines, and purple owl's clover. Photo by Laura Shriver.

Aerial image of rocky shoreline at Garrapata State Park, along the Central California coast.

Invasives like the emerald ash borer shift their ranges into new ecosystems with warming. 

Find more Climate Illustrations here. 

Invasives like the Rainbow Trout become more competitive under new climate conditions.

Find more Climate Illustrations here. 

Fire clears the way for invasive species, like cheatgrass, to dominate once diverse ecosystems.

Find more Climate Illustrations here. 

Treatments are less effective under new climate change conditions, allowing sea lamprey to thrive.

Find more Climate Illustrations here. 

An overview of the effects of climate change on the spread of avian malaria and its subsequent impacts on Hawaiian forest birds.

Oro Valley, Santa Catalina Mountains, AZ, USA; Photo Credit: Jose Iniguez (USFS)