National CASC

Join this webinar to learn more about the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework, a decision-making tool that helps resource managers make informed strategies for responding to ecological changes resulting from climate change!

As climate change is impacting water resources and aquatic ecosystems, there is a great need for natural resource managers to assess adaptation measures in a holistic manner. This can be done by integrating model predictions of climate, hydrology, and ecosystems with observational data to better refine estimates of conditions on-the-ground; however, it can be challenging to combine these different

Climate change is reshaping the abundance and distribution of sport fishes across the U.S., creating novel challenges for socially and economically important recreational fisheries. Existing fish and recreational fisheries data sets are invaluable given their broad geographic footprint and long-term data, but integration across datasets to inform management has been limited, leading to obstacles i

The Vietnamese government has committed to mitigation and adaption in support of the Paris Agreement. Implementation of Vietnam’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to adaptation involves “prioritized adaptation actions for the period 2021-2030” to address “institutional, policy, financial, and human resource and technology gaps.” Of particular relevance, the NDC highlight the need for focus...

As droughts become more frequent, there is a growing need to understand how drought impacts streamflow permanence. Intermittent streams, or streams that go dry at some point during the year, are found in all ecoregions and represent over half of the global stream network length. As stream intermittence increases, there will be implications for both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife communities, lan

CASC experts are often requested to provide technical assistance to other Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of State, as well as national and international partners. The U.S. Consulate in Thailand solicited leadership and guidance from the CASCs to help develop community-supported recommendations for increasing resiliency for fishing communities in the Mekong River Basin. Thail

Human-bear conflicts are a common problem and management priority for many wildlife agencies in North America. Bears are adaptable to anthropogenic activity and food sources which creates opportunities for conflict including property damage, livestock depredation, and human injury. Acute climate events and long-term directional climate change can exacerbate human-wildlife conflict by changing reso

In ecosystems characterized by flowing water, such as rivers and streams, the dynamics of how the water moves - how deep it is, how fast it flows, how often it floods - have direct effects on the health, diversity, and sustainability of underlying communities. Yet increasingly, climate extremes like droughts and floods are disrupting fragile stream ecosystems by specifically changing their interna

High latitude northern ecosystems are currently warming twice as fast as the global average. These temperature increases over the last several decades have led to dramatic declines in the terrestrial cryosphere in Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems, through the melting of coastal mountain glaciers, thawing of permafrost, and changes in snowpack.. Therefore, characterizing freshwater habitat for salm

Stream flow is directly tied to climate, and numerous studies provide substantial evidence that climate change is a threat to future aquatic water flow processes. In the southwestern United States, mountain snow is a primary water source for streams and rivers. However, climate change is threatening the region's mountain snow, leading to reduced snowpack, earlier snowmelt, and more precipitation f

Recreational fisheries offer invaluable benefits to the communities they serve, including economic support, food security, and enhanced social connection with natural areas. In North America, bluegill are one of the most important species in terms of providing accessible, harvest-oriented recreational fisheries. In Wisconsin, they are the most caught, most harvested, and second-most targeted speci

Ecosystem services – the benefits that nature provides to people – are a natural link between ecosystem functions and economic and social impacts. However, climate change is already impacting and altering ecosystem services. Research focused on all aspects of ecosystem services falls within the mission of the Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs). While knowledge of ecosystem services supply