December 2024 Newsletter

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The Trillion-Dollar Hidden Threat from Climate Change: Rising Groundwater

As climate change pushes seas to rise ever higher, shallow groundwater could become a more costly hazard across the Atlantic coast, particularly in South Florida where the water table sits just feet below the surface, according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey.

full story

COP29 UN Climate Conference Agrees to Triple Finance to Developing Countries, Protecting Lives and Livelihoods

With a central focus on climate finance, COP29 brought together nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and reached a breakthrough agreement that will:


  • Triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035



  • Secure efforts of all actors to work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources, to the amount of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035
full announcement

The Tug-of-War on This Super Climate Pollutant Has Big Implications for the Future

What was billed as a “sprint to cut climate super pollutants” may soon slow to a jog. 

Top climate diplomats from the U.S., China and host country Azerbaijan gathered at COP29, the United Nations Climate Conference in Baku, this week to host a summit on methane and other “non-CO2” greenhouse gases.


However, efforts to curb emissions of these climate super pollutants—greenhouse gases that on a pound-for-pound basis are far more effective at warming the planet than carbon dioxide—are likely to stall under President-elect Donald Trump. He has pledged to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, and the oil industry is lobbying him to roll back emission regulations. 

full story

Climate Initiatives Fare Well Across the Country Despite National Political Climate

Despite national election results that have left environmentalists and their allies wary of what’s to come in the next four years, ballot initiatives related to climate policies fared well across the country on election day. 


At least five of six ballot measures related to climate change resulted in what most environmentalists consider wins. But state legislative races across the country that could impact climate policy had more uneven results.

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Indigenous Tribes Should Be More Involved in Everglades Restoration

For Florida’s Native American tribes, the watershed is sacred. A new National Academies report says the federal and state agencies guiding Everglades restoration can learn a lot from them.


Now a new report on the progress of the $21 billion effort to restore the vast watershed acknowledges a lack of meaningful engagement with the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, who consider the soaring cypress swamps and sweeping sawgrass prairies of the river of grass that saved them from annihilation more than 100 years ago to be sacred.

full report

January 23 - 24, 2025 | North Florida Marine Science Symposium 2025 | St. Augustine

Join researchers, managers, practitioners, and students for 2 days of cutting-edge marine science – right next to the sea!


This year the symposium will be held January 23 & 24 on the Atlantic coast at the UF Whitney Lab for Marine Bioscience, just south of St. Augustine, FL. The symposium will kick off with oral research presentations on Thursday afternoon, a gallery-style poster session and banquet on Thursday evening, a keynote address on Friday morning, continue with oral presentations throughout the day on Friday, and finish with a student award ceremony on Friday afternoon.

details & registration

January 30 - February 1, 2025 | Everglades Coalition Conference | Miami

The largest forum for discussing Everglades restoration progress, challenges, and opportunities, bringing together conservation groups, elected officials, business leaders, local, state, tribal and federal partners, scientists, and students to engage in meaningful dialogue about restoring America’s Everglades.

details & registration

Other Events & Webinars

Global Change Research Fellows Informational Webinar | December 4, 2024 | virtual

Southeast Florida Climate Leadership Summit | December 16 - 18, 2024 | Key West

Future Aquatic Invaders of the Northeast: How Climate Change, Human Vectors, and Natural History Could Bring Southern and Western Species North | December 18, 2024 | virtual

Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems in the Southeast | January 7 - 9, 2025 | virtual

GEOHAB Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping | May 12 - 16, 2025 | Florida Keys

Awards & Achievements

Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, Assistant Professor in the CEE Department at FSU, was selected as the Early Career Research Fellow of National Academy of Sciences.

If you have any climate-related research, news items, or events that you would like to submit for consideration in the next newsletter, please email them to info@floridaclimateinstitute.org.

Job, Internship, and Fellowship Opportunities

Florida

Sustainability Manager, Broward County | Ft. Lauderdale

Regulatory & Economic Resources Resiliency Operations Manager, Office of Resilience, Miami-Dade County | Miami

Resilience Program Manager, Broward County | Ft. Lauderdale

National, International, and Remote

Senior Manager, Climate Policy, Audubon | Sacramento, CA

Director, Natural Climate Solutions Strategy, Audubon | flexible

Senior Climate Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund | remote

Senior Manager, Climate Resilient Water Systems, Environmental Defense Fund | remote

Senior Policy & Research Associate, Climate Xchange | remote

Publications
 

Abramowitz, B., Antonenko, P. D., Ennes, M., & Killingsworth, S. (2024). A Narrative Inquiry into Teacher Efficacy for Teaching Climate Science with Technology in a Scientist-Teacher Partnership Program. Journal of Science Education and Technology.


Allen, K. L. & Lewis, K. A. (2024). Future impacts of reduced freshwater inflow and sea level rise on forage fish and their predators in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Food Webs, 41, e00372.


Barry, S. C., Hernandez, E. M., & Clark, M. W. (2025). Performance Assessment of Three Living Shorelines in Cedar Key, Florida, USA. Estuaries and Coasts, 48(1).


Black KL, Liu K, Graham JR, et al. (2024). Evidence for gene flow from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean in bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo). Ecol Evol, 14(9), e70334.


Brodie JF, Bello C, Emer C, et al. (2024). Defaunation impacts on the carbon balance of tropical forests. Conservation Biology.


Buizert, C., Sowers, T. A., Niezgoda, K., Blunier, T., Gkinis, V., et al. (2024). The Greenland spatial fingerprint of Dansgaard-Oeschger events in observations and models. Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 121.


Cho, E., Ahmadisharaf, E., Ahmadisharaf, A., Nematirad, R., & AghaKouchak, A. (2024). Unraveling the Relationships between Trend of Dam Inflows, Hydrometeorological Variables, and Vegetation in Western and Southwestern United States. Journal of Hydrometeorology.


Clarke, A. J., and S.Buchanan. (2024). Why is the Westward Rossby Wave Propagation from the California Coast "Too Fast"? Journal of Physical Oceanography, 54.


Dietze, M., White, E. P., Abeyta, A., Boettiger, C., Watts, N. B., et al. (2024). Near-term ecological forecasting for climate change action. Nature Climate Change.


Escobedo, F. J., Yadav, K., Ossola, A., Klein, R., & Drury, S. (2024). Urban forest cover and ecosystem service response to fire varies across California communities. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 101.


Esplandiu E, Morris J, Enochs I, et al. (2024). Enhancing reef carbonate budgets through coral restoration. Sci Rep, 14(1).


Feagan, M., Muñoz-Erickson, T. A., Hobbins, R., Baja, K., Chester, M., Cook, E. M., et al. (2025). Co-producing new knowledge systems for resilient and just coastal cities: A social-ecological-technological systems framework for data visualization. Cities, 156.


Jenkins, D. G., Bevan, H. R., Chen, W., Hart, J. D., & et al. (2024). Biogeography of the world's worst invasive species has spatially-biased knowledge gaps but is predictable. Frontiers of Biogeography, 16.


Joseph RA, Masoudi A, Valdiviezo MJ, et al. (2024). Discovery of Gibellula floridensis from Infected Spiders and Analysis of the Surrounding Fungal Entomopathogen Community. J Fungi (Basel), 10(10).


Kang, Y. Y., Kaplan, D. A., & Osland, M. J. (2024). Mangrove freeze resistance and resilience across a tropical-temperate transitional zone. Journal of Ecology.


Keisler, J. M., Wells, E. M., & Linkov, I. (2024). A Multicriteria Decision Analytic Approach to Systems Resilience. Int J Disaster Risk Sci, 15(5).


Larson, S. M., McMonigal, K., Okumura, Y., Amaya, D., Capotondi, A., Bellomo, K., et al. (2024). Ocean Complexity Shapes Sea Surface Temperature Variability in a CESM2 Coupled Model Hierarchy. Journal of Climate, 37(18).


Lopez H, Lee SK, West R, et al. (2024). Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons. Sci Adv, 10(46), eadq7856.


Martínez-Abarca, R., Pérez, L., Bauersachs, T., Schenk, F., Kutterolf, S., Brenner, M., et al. (2024). Precipitation variability and environmental change across late Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles in lowland Central America: Insights from Lake Petén Itzá (Guatemala) sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews, 344.


McDonnell, L. H., Hazen, E. L., & Mach, K. J. (2024). Characteristics of animal movement and environmental data for dynamic ocean management: Insights and guidance. Conservation Science and Practice.


Moreno-Garcia P, Montano-Centellas F, Liu Y, et al. (2024). Long-term nitrogen deposition reduces the diversity of nitrogen-fixing plants. Sci Adv, 10(42).


Moretto JA, Berthold DE, Lefler FW, et al. (2024). Genome sequences of toxigenic cyanobacteria from a bloom in Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina (United States). J Phycol.


Neira-Brito, F., Morales-Mite, M. A., Aguilar-Melo, A. R., & Hull, V. (2024). A social-ecological approach to characterize ecosystem services in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Front. Conserv. Sci., 5.


Pakdehi, M., Ahmadisharaf, E., Nazari, B., & Cho, E. (2024). Transferability of machine-learning-based modeling frameworks across flood events for hindcasting maximum river water depths in coastal watersheds. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24.


Paul, S., Sharma, P. J., & Teegavarapu, R. S. V. (2025). Rain event detection and magnitude estimation during Indian summer monsoon: Comprehensive assessment of gridded precipitation datasets across hydroclimatically diverse regions. Atmospheric Research, 313.


Pinkney, J. L.; Iannone, B. V.; Milla-Lewis, S.; van der Laat, R; Schiavon, M., & Dale, A. G. (2024). Investigating multi-trophic effects of St. Augustinegrass cultivar blends in the Southeastern United States. Crop Science.


Ramirez, A., Meza-Salazar, A. M., Gomez, J. E., & et al. (2024). Hurricane-induced changes in mayfly assemblage structure, production and emergence in a tropical island stream. Ecological Entomology.


Rigsby, D., & Bartels, W. L. (2024). Cultivating a bioeconomy: Risks, collaboration, and partnerships in agricultural innovation. NJAS: Impact in Agricultural and Life Sciences, 96(1).


Robbins, E., Breininger, R. D., Jiang, M., Madera, M., White, R. T., & Kachouie, N. N. (2024). Segmentation of Glacier Area Using U-Net through Landsat Satellite Imagery for Quantification of Glacier Recession and Its Impact on Marine Systems. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 12(10).


Rodell, M., Barnoud, A., Robertson, F. R., & Allan, R. P., et al. (2024). An Abrupt Decline in Global Terrestrial Water Storage and Its Relationship with Sea Level Change. Surveys in Geophysics.


Rodgers, J., Misra, V., & Jayasankar. (2024). Using the Observed Variations of the Start Date of the Rainy Season over Central America for Its Reliable Seasonal Outlook. Journal of Climate, 37(18).


Roman, M. R., Altieri, A. H., Breitburg, D., Ferrer, E. M., Gallo, N. D., Ito, S. -ichi, et al. (2024). Reviews and syntheses: Biological indicators of low-oxygen stress in marine water-breathing animals. Biogeosciences, 21(22).


Salim, M. Z., Qiang, Y., Dixon, B., & Collins, J. (2024). A Disparate Disaster: Spatial Patterns of Building Damage Caused by Hurricane Ian and Associated Socio-Economic Factors. Remote Sensing, 16(20).


Sangmanee, C., and A.J.Clarke. (224). Interannual Variability and Trend of the Bering Strait Throughflow Gleaned from Satellite Altimeters. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 54.


Schmidt-Roach, S., Knorr, T., Roch, C., Klaus, R., & et al. (2024). Cost-efficiency and effectiveness of coral restoration pathways. Restoration Ecology.


Scott, A. M., & Carlson, A. K. (2024). A new water temperature modeling approach to predict thermal habitat suitability for nonnative cichlids in Florida rivers. Journal of Freshwater Ecology, 39(1).


Tandoh, S., Ries, R., & Jian, X. X. (2024). Examination of Water Use and Social Vulnerability: A Comparison of Four Communities in Alachua County, Florida. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 13.


Tavares Y, Day J, Giordano BV, et al. (2024). Regional variation in the landscape ecology of West Nile virus sentinel chicken seroconversion in Florida. PLoS One, 19(10).


Villaseñor-Derbez, J. C., Arafeh-Dalmau, N., & Micheli, F. (2024). Past and future impacts of marine heatwaves on small-scale fisheries in Baja California, Mexico. Commun Earth Environ, 5(1).


Wang, J., & Hu, Y. (2024). Unraveling hurricane Ian's Impact: A multiscale analysis of mobility networks in Florida. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 136.


Whitfield, S. M., Scholl, J. P., Frazier, E. M., Hendrickson, K., Figueroa, A., Gapczynski, L., et al. (2024). Status, Distribution, and Management of Gopher Tortoises in Highly Urbanized Southeastern Florida. Southeastern Naturalist, 23(3).


Woodstock, M. S., Bevans, A. T., Sulyman, M., Maples, J., Knoche, S., & Ihde, T. F. (2024). The economic impacts of living habitat changes in the Virginia Middle Peninsula, Chesapeake Bay. Ecological Modelling, 498.


Wright, J. P., Hylton, M. (2024). Exploring Climate Change Adaptations for Cultural Heritage: The ADAPT Framework. Advances in Archaeological Practice.


Yang Y, Tilman D, Jin Z, et al. (2024). Climate change exacerbates the environmental impacts of agriculture. Science, 385(6713).


Zarestky, J., & Rocco, T. S. (2024). The Need Has Never Been Greater for Adult Science and Climate Education. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 36(4).

About Us

The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.

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