UC Davis will co-host the new Southwest Climate Science Center, established this week by the U.S. Department of the Interior to address current and future effects of climate change on the region's natural and cultural resources.
Six western universities, including UC Davis, were selected through an open competition. The consortium will work closely with the Department of Interior to provide the knowledge needed for decision-making.
"UC Davis brings a broad range of scientific support to this consortium. With our history of engaged scholarship, and our traditional strengths in the social, biological and physical aspects of environmental sciences, we have the opportunity to impact how public lands are managed in the face of climate change," said Mark Schwartz, Director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment (JMIE) at UC Davis.
"The uncertainty of climate change requires flexible, adaptive management strategies to make decisions under an uncertain future. Working through JMIE, UC Davis will work to coordinate regional stakeholders in developing the scientific understanding needed for decision-making."
The Southwest Climate Science Center is the fourth of eight planned regional Climate Science Centers to be established by the Department of the Interior. The Southwest consortium also includes UCLA; Desert Research Institute, Reno; University of Arizona; University of Colorado; and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Researchers say signs of climate change in the region are prevalent: rising temperatures, earlier snowmelt, northward-shifting winter storms, increasing precipitation intensity and flooding, record-setting drought, plummeting Colorado River reservoir storage, widespread vegetation mortality, wildlife declines and more large wildfires.
Adding to the catalogue of changes is the diverse topography, climate, biology, hydrology and land use in the region – a huge swath of land and coastal area stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border region north to the headwaters of the Colorado River and west to the Pacific Coast of California.
"The consortium … brings a wide range of scientific and impact assessment capabilities to the Southwest Climate Center because it includes institutions located in and familiar with the incredible diversity of ecosystems and human settlements and activities that characterize the U.S. Southwest," said Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
The consortium is well versed in issues such as coastal management, drought and its impacts on people and the environment, water management in the Colorado and other Southwest rivers, and the impacts of exploding populations of bark beetles on western forests.
The Department of the Interior previously announced climate science centers for Alaska, the Southeast and the Northwest. The North Central, Northeast, South Central and Pacific Islands centers have yet to be announced.