Delivering Information and Tools for Increasing Resilience and Adaptation of Communities and Priority Coastal Resources across the Network of Coastal LCCs

This year-long project is in its first few weeks and is being conducted by Emily Powell, Coastal Resilience Associate, with consultation of core and advisory teams representing Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Caribbean LCCs, US Fish and Wildlife, the USGS Climate Science Centers, NOAA, The Nature Conservancy, and others.

Geographic Scope: Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of LCCs from Atlantic Canada to Mexico and including the Caribbean

Specific objectives of the project are to:

• Relate existing projections of sea level rise and storms to impacts to habitats and populations of priority fish and wildlife species across their range.
• Identify thresholds of viability for these species under different rates of sea level rise.

• Identify additional science needs and approaches to address information gaps.
• Assess restoration and management alternatives to increase persistence/resilience of these species and their habitats as well as evaluation of their effectiveness.
• Assess how these alternatives relate to use of natural and nature-based approaches to community resilience (i.e. whether approaches to increasing community resilience will also increase persistence/resilience of priority coastal resources).
  
  

These efforts will:

• Add value to significant ongoing efforts related to coastal resilience by providing a synthesis of existing information on predicted impacts to priority species and habitats, assessment of alternatives to increase their persistence/resilience and identification of key information gaps.
• Allow coastal resilience efforts focused on communities and cultural resources to have complementary information related to species and habitats and encourage investment in natural infrastructure to meet multiple objectives.
• Demonstrate the value-added role of LCCs in integrating ecological resilience with community resilience for adaptation planning
• Provide information to guide strategic investment of DOI Coastal Resilience funding (proposed in FY 16 budget)

 

Project Principal Investigator Name, Affiliation, & Contact Information:

Emily Powell, Coastal Resilience Research Associate, , John Tirpak, Gulf Restoration Program, ; Andrew Milliken and Megan Tyrrell, North Atlantic LCC,  and