The State of Climate Adaptation Science for Ecosystems in the Northwestern U.S.

Managing species and habitat in a changing climate requires locally specific information about expected changes in the physical environment, key stressors and related ecological changes. Federal investments have supported the development of a significant scientific knowledge base detailing potential future conditions for many Northwest ecosystem types and geographies. Yet scientists, managers and other decision makers continue to be challenged by the difficulty of efficiently assessing the current state of understanding regarding both impacts and pathways for adaptation. For example, while the most recent Washington and Oregon State Wildlife Action Plans included detailed consideration of climate change-related threats, few species status or vulnerability assessments, or adaptation or restoration plans include the geographic and sub-sectoral variability and detail provided by currently available regional and local scale projections.

This project will support state, federal and tribal management of wildlife species and habitats by providing comprehensive, user-friendly syntheses of climate change data, climate impacts science and climate adaptation examples. These State of Knowledge syntheses will provide credible, easy-to-reference access to the current state of Northwest climate/impacts science and adaptation knowledge. Syntheses will be tailored to the needs of Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) partners and stakeholders, who will be engaged during the entire project lifecycle, from scoping and team building to content development, review and publication. Information will be aggregated, and data summaries provided, at multiple geographic scales, e.g., regional, state, ecoregion, watershed, depending on stakeholder priorities elicited during the project scoping phase. Although specific report and data summary delivery mechanisms will be determined during scoping with stakeholders, it is anticipated that the report will be made available online and as a series of printed briefs, and data products will be delivered via NW CASC and partner online portals.