In the North Central U.S., drought is a dominant driver of ecological, economic, and social stress. Drought conditions have occurred in the region due to lower precipitation, extended periods of high temperatures and evaporative demand, or a combination of these factors. This project will continue ongoing efforts to identify and address climate science challenges related to drought, climate extremes, and the water cycle that are important for natural resource managers and scientists in the North Central region, to support adaptation planning. To accomplish this goal, researchers sought to (1) provide data and synthesis on drought processes in the region and on how evaporative stress on ecosystems will change during the 21st century; [...]
Summary
In the North Central U.S., drought is a dominant driver of ecological, economic, and social stress. Drought conditions have occurred in the region due to lower precipitation, extended periods of high temperatures and evaporative demand, or a combination of these factors. This project will continue ongoing efforts to identify and address climate science challenges related to drought, climate extremes, and the water cycle that are important for natural resource managers and scientists in the North Central region, to support adaptation planning.
To accomplish this goal, researchers sought to (1) provide data and synthesis on drought processes in the region and on how evaporative stress on ecosystems will change during the 21st century; (2) work with stakeholders to provide climate data that can be used to assess climate impacts; (3) improve the usability of an existing drought early warning and monitoring tool known as the Evaporative Drought Demand Index; and (4) develop a new drought monitoring tool to provide better information about moisture availability in soils. Researchers aim to continue to develop and provide information on potential future climate conditions for specific areas that are of interest to stakeholders, in order to understand potential impacts and develop adaptation strategies.
This project team is part of the North Central Climate Science Center’s Climate Drivers Foundational Science Area Team, which supports foundational research and advice, guidance, and technical assistance to other NC CSC projects as they address climate science challenges that are important for land managers and ecologists in the region.
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ArapahoNatlForest_AlanCressler.jpg “Arapaho National Forest, Wyoming - Credit: Alan Cressler”
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Purpose
This proposal will continue to facilitate the engagement of the North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC) Climate Foundational Science team to identify and address the physical climate science challenges that are important for ecologists and natural resource managers in the NC CSC region, as well as meet their needs for climate information to assess impacts to their desired system as well as develop strategies for effective climate adaptation. In this one year proposal, we will build on our existing research and outreach engagements with stakeholders in the NC CSC region. We specifically propose to work on four specific tasks which will enhance a broader-understanding and usability of research, datasets, and tools that we have developed in our ongoing engagement with the NC CSC. These include our foundational research into drought processes in the NC CSC region and how the evaporative stress on the ecosystems will change during the 21st century. Related to that, we will continue to work with the stakeholder community in providing climate data for impacts assessment as well as in the use and applicability of a drought monitoring tool, called EDDI, which assesses evaporative stress on land at very high resolution. We also propose to develop another drought indicator tool that uses high resolution satellite based observations to inform us about moisture availability in the soils. Lastly, we will continue to develop and provide information related to future climate scenarios to different stakeholder for their target region and sector in order to understand impacts and develop adaptation strategies.
This project team is part of the North Central Climate Science Center’s Foundational Science Area Team, which supports foundational research and advice, guidance, and technical assistance to other NC CSC projects as they address climate science challenges that are important for land managers and ecologists in the region.
Project Extension
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Technical Summary
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This proposal facilitates the continuation of NCCSC Climate Foundational Science and Services activities which identify and address the physical climate science challenges that are important for ecologists and natural resource managers in the NCCSC region, as well as meet their climate information and data requirements. In this one year proposal, we specifically aim to build on our ongoing research and tools development effort to produce synthesis materials in form of data and research briefs to promote advancement of user engagement with the most informed scientific understanding, and emerging tools and applications. We propose engagements on four specific topical areas in addition to the general outreach with stakeholders that we will continue to deliver. The first topic includes synthesis of our work on evaporative demand (aka potential evapotranspiration) and its projections in the 21st century in the NCCSC region. We will develop high-resolution datasets, maps and 2-pager type synthesis materials to bring our best understanding currently into the nature of change of the evaporative demand term in the NCCSC region during the 21st century. The second topic includes our continuing engagement with and development of the climate scenarios tool, which will include putting together a web-based platform to generate and disseminate this information. The third topic relates to our engagement with users towards increased understanding and usability of the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) tool as well as examining EDDI’s applicability to predict streamflow in systems with snow-melt dominant hydrology where sparse network of station observations does not provide adequate and reliable information. Our final topic includes development of an actual evapotranspiration (AET)-based drought indicator as an important complementary product – particularly in providing information on high resolution land-surface moisture anomalies – to some of the existing drought indices, including EDDI, and thereby improving regional drought assessment.
projectStatus
Completed
Budget Extension
annualBudgets
year
2017
totalFunds
99950.0
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Award Type
value
Grant
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Award Number
value
G17AP00096
totalFunds
99950.0
Preview Image
Arapaho National Forest, Wyoming - Credit: Alan Cressler