Point Blue Conservation Science(Principal Investigator), Melissa Pitkin(Principal Investigator), Tom Gardali(Co-Investigator), Abigail Ramsden(Co-Investigator), California Landscape Conservation Cooperative(funder), California Landscape Conservation Cooperative(administrator), 2017-03-01(Publication), Future Climate Analogs Upper Pajaro River, http://climate.calcommons.org/sites/default/files/dmpfiles/ClimateSmartRestorationCentralCoast_Analogs_methods_results4.21.17.pdf
Summary
A major challenge with communicating potential climate change impacts to general audiences is that many people have difficulty understanding how projected changes in temperature and precipitation affect the climate they are accustomed to and their lives in general. Climate analogs are an alternative tool that can be used to communicate potential climate change impacts by comparing locations with similar climates to illustrate changes that models project. The approach works by comparing the future climate at a location of interest to the historic climate of all locations (Figure 1). We identify the location with the most similar historic climate (analog site) to the future climate at the location of interest. The location can then be [...]
Summary
A major challenge with communicating potential climate change impacts to general audiences is that many people have difficulty understanding how projected changes in temperature and precipitation affect the climate they are accustomed to and their lives in general. Climate analogs are an alternative tool that can be used to communicate potential climate change impacts by comparing locations with similar climates to illustrate changes that models project. The approach works by comparing the future climate at a location of interest to the historic climate of all locations (Figure 1). We identify the location with the most similar historic climate (analog site) to the future climate at the location of interest. The location can then be used to provide context for what climate change might be like at the location of interest. We can use this tool when planning climate smart restoration to evaluate the types of vegetation that are dominant at the analog sites to consider adjusting restoration pallets. We could also consider looking at analog sites to collect seeds for restoration projects.