Climate change threatens plants and animals across the US, making it important to have tools that can efficiently assess species’ vulnerabilities. In this project, CASC scientists and NatureServe are collaborating to update a popular Climate Change Vulnerability Index to include the latest scientific data, improved metrics, and new user-friendly technology. The tool will help state biologists and scientists prioritize conservation efforts, and in time for preparing updates to State Wildlife Action Plans that are due by 2025.
Climate change is impacting our nation’s plants and animals. To take preventative actions, public land managers need to know which species are most threatened, and how. In other words, biologists working at state fish and wildlife agencies need estimates of species’ vulnerability to climate change to prioritize their conservation work. In the past, NatureServe’s Microsoft Excel-based Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) has been a useful and popular tool for state biologists to perform climate change vulnerability assessments. However, since the index was released in 2015, there have been advances in both our understanding of how climate affects wildlife and in technology available for developing user-friendly tools.
In this project, CASC scientists will work with researchers and software programmers at NatureServe to develop a revised version of the Climate Change Vulnerability Index. The new version will be web-based, allowing collaboration among scientists and users, and will feature the latest scientific projections of future climate across the country. In addition, it will feature new metrics assessing how species can adapt to or cope with climate change.
To make the greatest impact, the project will also conduct usability testing and make refinements of the tool in collaboration with CCVI end-users. By the end of the project, NatureServe will make this free online tool available for use by state biologists and other scientists. This new version of the Climate Change Vulnerability Index is especially timely, as it will be released for state biologists to use while revising State Wildlife Action Plans, which are federally-mandated conservation plans due by 2025.
