$39,959 for 12 months

To downscale global climate change models to a regional scale with potential applications for local and regional resource managers in California.

This project is the result of a perceived need by the team for a tightened coupling between global climate change models and their potential applications for local and regional resource managers. This collaboration of Fellows actively engaged in multiple dimensions of climate change modeling, policy and adaptation seeks to bridge the traditional gaps between science, policy, and management, bringing global climate change models down to a practical, easily visualized level making them more readily understandable and use-able by the people charged with monitoring and managing the resources that will shift with the changing climate. Healy, Lisa and Amy will use their complementary skills to downscale international climate change models to a regional scale to assist policy makers and resource managers in California on best practices to cope with change and minimize species extinctions that may result from the effects of climate change. The project will generate: (1) a pilot climate change biodiversity impact assessment that integrates science with management options in three pre-selected climate regions in California; and (2) a strategy document that will provide examples of impact assessments and how to interpret results from those assessments into suggested policy actions (for use beyond the pre-selected regions). (Healy Hamilton, top, and Lisa Micheli, bottom, at right)

$39,510 for 12 months

To use upcoming FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) relicensing of hydropower dams in the Yuba and Bear River watersheds in California as an opportunity to incorporate predicted effects of climate change on river management, and to ensure that new licenses for hydropower dams are flexible enough to adapt to future impacts of climate change.

Upcoming hydropower re-licensing decisions provide an opportunity for this team to bring climate change to the forefront of water management in California. This collaboration will ensure that new FERC licenses for hydropower dams in the Yuba-Bear River watershed fully consider climate change; and will establish national precedent for incorporating climate change into dam licensings throughout the country under FERC.