Adam Terando, Ph.D.
Adam Terando is a USGS Research Ecologist (Climate Impacts) with the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. His work focuses on the impacts of global change on ecosystems in the Southeast and U.S. Caribbean, and the complex human-environment relationships that drive these processes.
A geographer and climatologist by training, Dr. Terando received his Ph.D. in Geography from Pennsylvania State University where he examined the relationship between climate extremes and future crop yields in the U.S. At the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, the overarching goal of his research is to gain insights that will benefit the public and natural resource managers in their efforts to understand and adapt to rapid global climate and land use changes. Currently, his work focuses on four research themes:
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Uncertainty characterization and quantification for global change predictions
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Global Climate Model Downscaling
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Future urbanization and land use change
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Wildfires, prescribed fire, and climate change
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. in Geography, Pennsylvania State University
Science and Products
North Carolina State climate report
Projected urban growth in the Southeastern USA puts small streams at risk
Perspective: Developing flow policies to balance the water needs of humans and wetlands requires a landscape scale approach inclusive of future scenarios and multiple timescales
Landscape connectivity planning for adaptation to future climate and land-use change
Partitioning global change: Assessing the relative importance of changes in climate and land cover for changes in avian distribution
Construction of a compact low-cost radiation shield for air-temperature sensors in ecological field studies
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Toward a resilience-based conservation strategy for wetlands in Puerto Rico: Meeting challenges posed by environmental change
Spatial patterns of development drive water use
Downscaling future climate change projections over Puerto Rico using a non-hydrostatic atmospheric model
Southeast
U.S. Caribbean
Science and Products
- Science
Filter Total Items: 23
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Filter Total Items: 54
North Carolina State climate report
Our scientific understanding of the climate system strongly supports the conclusion that North Carolina’s climate has changed in recent decades and the expectation that large changes—much larger than at any time in the state’s history—will occur if current trends in greenhouse gas concentrations continue. Even under a scenario where emissions peak around 2050 and decline thereafter, North CarolinaAuthorsKenneth E. Kunkel, David R Easterling, Andrew Ballinger, Solomon Bililign, Sarah M Champion, D Reide Corbett, Kathie Dello, Jenny Dissen, James P. Kossin, Gary Lackmann, Rick Luettich, Baker Perry, Walter Robinson, Laura E. Stevens, Brooke C. Stewart, Adam TerandoProjected urban growth in the Southeastern USA puts small streams at risk
Future land-use development has the potential to profoundly affect the health of aquatic ecosystems in the coming decades. We developed regression models predicting the loss of sensitive fish (R2=0.39) and macroinvertebrate (R2=0.64) taxa as a function of urban and agricultural land uses and applied them to projected urbanization of the rapidly urbanizing Piedmont ecoregion of the southeastern USAuthorsPeter C. Van Metre, Ian R. Waite, Sharon L. Qi, Barbara Mahler, Adam Terando, Michael Wieczorek, Michael R. Meador, Paul M. Bradley, Celeste A. Journey, Travis S. Schmidt, Daren CarlislePerspective: Developing flow policies to balance the water needs of humans and wetlands requires a landscape scale approach inclusive of future scenarios and multiple timescales
Maintenance of the natural flow regime is essential for continued wetland integrity; however, the flow regime is greatly influenced by both natural and anthropogenic forces. Wetlands may be particularly susceptible to altered flow regimes as they are directly impacted by water flows at a variety of time scales. In Puerto Rico, contemporary water management is decreasing freshwater recharge to wetlAuthorsBrent Murry, Jared Bowden, Benjamin Branoff, Miguel Garcia-Bermudez, Beth Middleton, Jorge Ortiz-Zayas, Carla Restrepo, Adam J. TerandoLandscape connectivity planning for adaptation to future climate and land-use change
Purpose of ReviewWe examined recent literature on promoting habitat connectivity in the context of climate change (CC) and land-use change (LUC). These two global change forcings have wide-reaching ecological effects that are projected to worsen in the future. Improving connectivity is a common adaptation strategy, but CC and LUC can also degrade planned connections, potentially reducing their effAuthorsJennifer K. Costanza, Adam J. TerandoPartitioning global change: Assessing the relative importance of changes in climate and land cover for changes in avian distribution
Understanding the relative impact of climate change and land cover change on changes in avian distribution has implications for the future course of avian distributions and appropriate management strategies. Due to the dynamic nature of climate change, our goal was to investigate the processes that shape species distributions, rather than the current distributional patterns. To this end, we analyzAuthorsMatthew J. Clement, James D. Nichols, Jaime A. Collazo, Adam Terando, James E. Hines, Steven G. WilliamsConstruction of a compact low-cost radiation shield for air-temperature sensors in ecological field studies
With the advent of small, low-cost environmental sensors, it is now possible to deploy high-density networks of sensors to measure hyper localized temperature variation. Here, we provide a detailed methodology for constructing a compact version of a previously described custom-fabricated radiation shield for use with inexpensive thermochrons.AuthorsAdam J. Terando, Sara G. Prado, Elsa YoungsteadtPuerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Average annual temperature for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has increased by more than 1.5°F since 1950. Under a higher emissions pathway, historically unprecedented warming is projected by the end of the 21st century, including increases in extreme heat events. Future changes in total precipitation are uncertain, but extreme precipitation is projected to increase, with associated increAuthorsJennifer Runkle, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Laura E. Stevens, Sarah Champion, David Easterling, Adam Terando, Liqiang Sun, Brooke C. Stewart, Glenn LandersToward a resilience-based conservation strategy for wetlands in Puerto Rico: Meeting challenges posed by environmental change
Designing conservation strategies in human-dominated landscapes is challenging, owing to complex human-natural systems and evolving societal values. To meet this challenge, a robust, adaptive strategy should have a process for flexible implementation of incremental actions. We describe a hypothetical example for the Rio Grande de Arecibo watershed and coastal wetlands in Puerto Rico to address theAuthorsJaime A. Collazo, Adam J. Terando, Augustin C. Engman, P. F. Fackler, Thomas J. KwakSpatial patterns of development drive water use
Water availability is becoming more uncertain as human populations grow, cities expand into rural regions and the climate changes. In this study, we examine the functional relationship between water use and the spatial patterns of developed land across the rapidly growing region of the southeastern United States. We quantified the spatial pattern of developed land within census tract boundaries, iAuthorsG.M. Sanchez, J.W. Smith, Adam J. Terando, G. Sun, R.K. MeentemeyerDownscaling future climate change projections over Puerto Rico using a non-hydrostatic atmospheric model
We present results from 20-year “high-resolution” regional climate model simulations of precipitation change for the sub-tropical island of Puerto Rico. The Japanese Meteorological Agency Non-Hydrostatic Model (NHM) operating at a 2-km grid resolution is nested inside the Regional Spectral Model (RSM) at 10-km grid resolution, which in turn is forced at the lateral boundaries by the Community ClimAuthorsAmit Bhardwaj, Vasubandhu Misra, A. Mishra, Adrienne Wootten, Ryan Boyles, J.H. Bowden, Adam J. TerandoSoutheast
The Southeast includes vast expanses of coastal and inland low-lying areas, the southern portion of the Appalachian Mountains, numerous high-growth metropolitan areas, and large rural expanses. These beaches and bayous, fields and forests, and cities and small towns are all at risk from a changing climate. While some climate change impacts, such as sea level rise and extreme downpours, are being aAuthorsLynne Carter, Adam J. Terando, Kirstin Dow, Kevin Hiers, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Aranzazu R. Lascurain, Doug Marcy, Michael J. Osland, Paul SchrammU.S. Caribbean
Historically, the U.S. Caribbean region has experienced relatively stable seasonal rainfall patterns, moderate annual temperature fluctuations, and a variety of extreme weather events, such as tropical storms, hurricanes, and drought. However, the Caribbean climate is changing and is projected to be increasingly variable as levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase.The high percentageAuthorsWilliam A. Gould, Ernesto L. Diaz, Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos, Felix Aponte-González, Wayne Archibald, Jared H. Bowden, Lisamarie Carrubba, Wanda Crespo, Stephen J. Fain, Grizelle González, Annmarie Goulbourne, Eric Harmsen, Eva Holupchinski, Azad H. Khalyani, James P. Kossin, Amanda J. Leinberger, Vanessa I. Marrero-Santiago, Odalys Martínez-Sánchez, Kathleen McGinley, Pablo Méndez-Lázaro, Julio Morrell, Melissa Meléndez Oyola, Isabel K. Parés-Ramos, Roger Pulwarty, William V. Sweet, Adam J. Terando, Sigfredo Torres-González - News