Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Brian W Miller, Ph.D.
Dr. Brian Miller is a Research Ecologist with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, one of the nine regional centers that form the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) network.
The USGS CASC program teams scientists with natural and cultural resource managers and local communities to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate. Brian focuses on developing and applying scenario planning, ecological simulation modeling, and related tools to help partners navigate climate change impacts and adaptation options. Brian has an interdisciplinary background studying human-environment interactions. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also worked at the Carolina Population Center.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 20
Species Distribution Modeling to Evaluate Current and Future Habitat Suitability of Jaguars in the Southeastern United States
Project Overview Jaguars plays a crucial role in maintaining balance and biodiversity in ecosystems. Researchers supported by this North Central CASC project will provide models to support the conservation planning of jaguars in the Southeastern United States. These models will inform management with insights into habitat suitability under current and projected climate conditions...
Rekindling Relations: Integrating Mvskoke Indigenous Knowledge for Bio-Cultural Climate Adaptation
Project Overview A collaborative research team including the North Central CASC, University of Oklahoma, and College of the Muscogee Nation will conduct ethnographic interviews in the Mvskoke Language (Opvnvkv) documenting Mvskoke Indigenous Knowledge (IK) on several culturally significant species relevant to climate adaptation. The findings will support local management efforts by...
Deep Dive: Climate Change Scenario Planning
Scenario planning is a powerful tool to help decision makers plan for an uncertain future. Through this process, people consider different ways the climate could change and explore how these changes would affect resources important to them. USGS scientists work with natural and cultural resource managers to use climate change scenario planning to prepare for a wide range of possible futures.
Short Science Syntheses and NEPA Analyses for Climate-Informed Land Management Decisions in Sagebrush Rangelands
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the largest area of public lands in the United States. Decision-making on BLM lands is complex because managers have to balance diverse, sometimes conflicting, resources, uses, and values. Land managers are more likely to achieve long-term land management goals and balance multiple desired uses and values across public landscapes when their...
Managing Ecological Transformation to Enhance Carbon Storage and Biodiversity
In the North Central region, invasive species and climate change are intricately linked to changing fire regimes, and together, these drivers can have pronounced effects on ecosystems. When fires burn too hot or too frequently, they can prevent slow-growing native plants from regrowing. When this happens, the landscape can transform into a new type of ecosystem, such as a forest becoming...
Webinar: Developing divergent, plausible, and relevant climate futures for near- and long-term resource planning
View this webinar to learn how scientists use scenario planning as a tool to prepare for a changing climate.
Developing Resources for Tribal Partnership Science
Tribal Partnership Science (TPS) is a rapidly growing field that brings together biophysical and social scientists, federally recognized tribes, and federal land management agencies. TPS is essential for addressing complex environmental challenges facing tribes and their homelands. In recent years, a proliferation of methods, frameworks, and guidance for TPS has emerged from diverse...
Crafting Ecological Scenarios to Implement the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework
As climate change progresses, profound environmental changes are becoming a widespread concern. A new management paradigm is developing to address this concern with a framework that encourages strategic decisions to resist, accept, or direct ecological trajectories. Effective use of the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework requires the scientific community to describe the range of...
Developing A New Software Package to Enhance Species Distribution Model Functionality
Even when faced with uncertainty about future climate conditions, resource managers are tasked with making planning and adaptation decisions that impact important natural and cultural resources. Species distribution models are widely used by both researchers and managers to estimate species responses to climate change. These models combine data on environmental variables (e.g...
Modeling to Support Grazing Management Planning in U.S. National Parks: A Case Study from Dinosaur National Monument
The National Park Service is responsible for managing livestock grazing on 94 locations across the country and several grazing management planning efforts for this work are underway. However, there is a recognized need to update grazing management plans to address potential future effects of climate change on related resources and practices. This is the second phase of a project that is...
Supporting the National Park Service in Climate Adaptation Planning
Natural and cultural resource managers across the country have begun to use a tool known as "scenario planning" to help prepare for climate change effects that may unfold in the future. In this process, scientific projections are used to identify different plausible, relevant, and divergent climate conditions for a particular area, and then through a participatory process, scientists and...
Open-Source and Open-Workflow Climate Futures Toolbox for Adaptation Planning
Global climate models are a key source of climate information and produce large amounts of spatially explicit data for various physical parameters. However, these projections have substantial uncertainties associated with them, and the datasets themselves can be difficult to work with. The project team created the first version (cst 0.1.0) of the Climate Futures Toolbox, an open source...
Climate Science Champions Season 3: Brian Miller, Research Ecologist
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Climate Science Champions Season 3: Brian Miller, Research Ecologist (AD)
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 20
Species Distribution Modeling to Evaluate Current and Future Habitat Suitability of Jaguars in the Southeastern United States
Project Overview Jaguars plays a crucial role in maintaining balance and biodiversity in ecosystems. Researchers supported by this North Central CASC project will provide models to support the conservation planning of jaguars in the Southeastern United States. These models will inform management with insights into habitat suitability under current and projected climate conditions...
Rekindling Relations: Integrating Mvskoke Indigenous Knowledge for Bio-Cultural Climate Adaptation
Project Overview A collaborative research team including the North Central CASC, University of Oklahoma, and College of the Muscogee Nation will conduct ethnographic interviews in the Mvskoke Language (Opvnvkv) documenting Mvskoke Indigenous Knowledge (IK) on several culturally significant species relevant to climate adaptation. The findings will support local management efforts by...
Deep Dive: Climate Change Scenario Planning
Scenario planning is a powerful tool to help decision makers plan for an uncertain future. Through this process, people consider different ways the climate could change and explore how these changes would affect resources important to them. USGS scientists work with natural and cultural resource managers to use climate change scenario planning to prepare for a wide range of possible futures.
Short Science Syntheses and NEPA Analyses for Climate-Informed Land Management Decisions in Sagebrush Rangelands
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the largest area of public lands in the United States. Decision-making on BLM lands is complex because managers have to balance diverse, sometimes conflicting, resources, uses, and values. Land managers are more likely to achieve long-term land management goals and balance multiple desired uses and values across public landscapes when their...
Managing Ecological Transformation to Enhance Carbon Storage and Biodiversity
In the North Central region, invasive species and climate change are intricately linked to changing fire regimes, and together, these drivers can have pronounced effects on ecosystems. When fires burn too hot or too frequently, they can prevent slow-growing native plants from regrowing. When this happens, the landscape can transform into a new type of ecosystem, such as a forest becoming...
Webinar: Developing divergent, plausible, and relevant climate futures for near- and long-term resource planning
View this webinar to learn how scientists use scenario planning as a tool to prepare for a changing climate.
Developing Resources for Tribal Partnership Science
Tribal Partnership Science (TPS) is a rapidly growing field that brings together biophysical and social scientists, federally recognized tribes, and federal land management agencies. TPS is essential for addressing complex environmental challenges facing tribes and their homelands. In recent years, a proliferation of methods, frameworks, and guidance for TPS has emerged from diverse...
Crafting Ecological Scenarios to Implement the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework
As climate change progresses, profound environmental changes are becoming a widespread concern. A new management paradigm is developing to address this concern with a framework that encourages strategic decisions to resist, accept, or direct ecological trajectories. Effective use of the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework requires the scientific community to describe the range of...
Developing A New Software Package to Enhance Species Distribution Model Functionality
Even when faced with uncertainty about future climate conditions, resource managers are tasked with making planning and adaptation decisions that impact important natural and cultural resources. Species distribution models are widely used by both researchers and managers to estimate species responses to climate change. These models combine data on environmental variables (e.g...
Modeling to Support Grazing Management Planning in U.S. National Parks: A Case Study from Dinosaur National Monument
The National Park Service is responsible for managing livestock grazing on 94 locations across the country and several grazing management planning efforts for this work are underway. However, there is a recognized need to update grazing management plans to address potential future effects of climate change on related resources and practices. This is the second phase of a project that is...
Supporting the National Park Service in Climate Adaptation Planning
Natural and cultural resource managers across the country have begun to use a tool known as "scenario planning" to help prepare for climate change effects that may unfold in the future. In this process, scientific projections are used to identify different plausible, relevant, and divergent climate conditions for a particular area, and then through a participatory process, scientists and...
Open-Source and Open-Workflow Climate Futures Toolbox for Adaptation Planning
Global climate models are a key source of climate information and produce large amounts of spatially explicit data for various physical parameters. However, these projections have substantial uncertainties associated with them, and the datasets themselves can be difficult to work with. The project team created the first version (cst 0.1.0) of the Climate Futures Toolbox, an open source...
Climate Science Champions Season 3: Brian Miller, Research Ecologist
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Climate Science Champions Season 3: Brian Miller, Research Ecologist (AD)
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.
Research Ecologist Brian Miller uses a process called “climate change scenario planning” to help managers think about the many ways climate change could impact the resources under their care, allowing them to create robust strategies ready for anything the future may bring.