Florida Climate Institute News

December 2020 Newsletter

Two FCI Universities to Participate in Resilient Design Challenge

Building on the success of the last three FCI @UF Field Courses, the University of Florida and the University of Miami will be two of the five universities that will participate in the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge to address sea level rise. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, The School of Architecture at Northeastern University, and Yale School of Architecture will make five universities working together in this new model. Instead of an X-Prize-type competition, the teams have decided to create a new model for sharing ideas in a non-proprietary manner increasing collaboration.

Carolyn Cox, Coordinator of the FCI, is helping to design this multi-university, multi-disciplinary collaborative model with the goal of inspiring Nantucket and other coastal communities around the world to envision innovative adaptations to sea level rise. Envision Resilience brings together graduate (and some undergrad) students from five geographically diverse universities to collaboratively re-imagine the Nantucket waterfront. Each school participating in the spring 2021 design studio will assemble a team of eight to ten students from across disciplines, who will be tasked with identifying threats, researching possible solutions and proposing adaptive pathways forward.

Equipped with the latest climate research, a lecture series with national and international experts, planning guidelines, and an expert cohort of 23 Nantucket advisors, students will be encouraged to engage with community members to better understand the unique challenges of the Island. Fortunately, the multidisciplinary nature of the challenge promises holistic insight to the unique complexities coastal communities face with rising sea levels, especially since the teams will be guided by leaders in the field: Jeff Carney of the University of Florida, Chris Reed and Alysoun Wright of Harvard, Sonia Chao of the University of Miami, Sara Carr and Cullen Meves of Northeastern and Alan Plattus and Andrei Harwell of Yale.

Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge design studio begins in late January. A weekly lecture series will deliver global, national and local expertise to inform the process. Each lecture will be recorded and available to the public. The spring studio will culminate in a hybrid programming event open to the community during the summer of 2021.

Contact Carolyn Cox for more info. Also visit www.envisionresilience.org and watch this promo video!

ReMain Nantucket and ReMain Ventures are funded by Wendy Schmidt and her husband Eric to support the economic, social and environmental vitality of the island of Nantucket.

Committee to Meet on the Long-Term Environmental Trends in the Gulf of Mexico

The Committee on Long Term Environmental Trends in the Gulf of Mexico will be assessing various aspects of current U.S. Gulf of Mexico restoration efforts.

Join the meeting on December 14th, 2020 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm to hear from Christopher Swarzenski from the U.S. Geological Survey and Robert Spies, Former Chief Scientist, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

More details and registration information can be found here.

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

Other Upcoming Events & Webinars

Gulf of Mexico Alliance "Fully Serving the Underserved" Workshop | January 12-13, 2021 | Virtual

Coastal GeoTools 2021 Conference | February 8 - 11, 2021 | Virtual

2021 National Stormwater and Watershed Conference | St Petersburg, FL | Call for Abstracts

At What Point Managed Retreat? 2021 Conference | Call for Abstracts

Job, Internship, and Fellowship Opportunities

Florida

PhD Position, Grassland Ecosystem Services and Climate Resilience, UF | Fort Lauderdale, FL

Director of Environmental Planning & Community Resilience | Broward County, FL

Climate Resiliency Officer, Seminole Tribe of Florida | Hollywood, FL

Director of Development Services and Coastal Environmental Resiliency | City of New Smyrna Beach, FL

Climate Justice Program Manager, New Florida Majority | Miami, FL

Climate Resilience Program Coordinator, Broward County | Fort Lauderdale, FL

National/International and Partial Remote

Science Policy Fellowship, Gulf Research Program, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine | Washington, DC

Early Career Research Fellowship, Gulf Research Program, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine | Washington, DC

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University | Stillwater, OK

PhD Fellow, Genetic Engineering & Society Center at NC State | Raleigh, NC

Climate Solutions Collaborative (C2C) Senior Program Manager, Confluence Philanthropy | New York

Program Specialist, Agricultural Research Service , USDA | Ames, IA or remote

PhD Research Assistantship – Modeling Cultural Adaptation to Climate Change, UM | Maine

PhD Research Assistantship - Using Data Science to Understand Farmer and Rural Community Climate Adaptation, UVM | Vermont

Climate Risk Assessment Analyst, LMI | Tysons, VA

Coastal Program Analyst, California Coastal Commission | CA

Postdoctoral Scholar in Climate Change and Health Adaptation, University of Washington | Seattle, WA

Awards and Achievements

Jiangxiao Qiu is lead PI on a recently-awarded USDA NIFA/AFRI grant ($500k) to study climate change impacts on grassland ecosystem services.

Sadie J. Ryan recently joined the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health "Climate Change and Health" Section.

Brett Scheffers receives SE CASC funding for research on invasive species shifts in the Southeast.

Congratulations!

Publications

The new University of Miami book on climate change and health was recently published, including the chapter:

Huda Asif and Mehdi Mirsaeidi. (2020). Climate Change and the Risk of Desertification with a Focus in the United States. In Climate Change and Global Public Health (pp. 459–482).

Ayankojo, I. T., Ayankojo IT, Morgan, K. T., & Morgan KT. (2020). Increasing Air Temperatures and Its Effects on Growth and Productivity of Tomato in South Florida. Plants (Basel), 9(9), 1245.

Biglan, A., Bonner, A. C., Johansson, M., Ghai, J. L., Van Ryzin, M. J., Dubuc, T. L., et al. (2020). The State of Experimental Research on Community Interventions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Systematic Review. Sustainability, 12(18).

Bilgen, S. I. and K., B.P. (2020). Impact of ocean model resolution on understanding the delayed warming of the Southern Ocean. Environ. Res. Lett, 15.

Braswell, A. E., Heffernan, J. B., & Kirwan, M. L. (2020). How Old Are Marshes on the East Coast, USA? Complex Patterns in Wetland Age Within and Among Regions. Geophys. Res. Lett., 47(19).

Braun de Torrez, E.C., Frock, C.F., Boone, W.W., et al. (2020). Seasick: Why Value Ecosystems Severely Threatened by Sea-Level Rise? Estuaries Coast.

Campbell, C., & McAvoy, G. (2020). Florida Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Adaptation and Response to COVID-19. J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev., 9(4).

Chang, N. - B., Hossain, U., Valencia, A., Qiu, J., & Kapucu, N. (2020). The role of food-energy-water nexus analyses in urban growth models for urban sustainability: A review of synergistic framework. Sustainable Cities and Society, 63.

Chen, Z., Orton, P., & Wahl, T. (2020). Storm Surge Barrier Protection in an Era of Accelerating Sea-Level Rise: Quantifying Closure Frequency, Duration and Trapped River Flooding. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 8(9), 725.

Clements, S. L., Powell, E.A., Mothes, C.C., Searcy, C.A. (2020). Assessing the conservation risk of Sphaerodactylus notatus, the U.S. herpetofaunal species most vulnerable to sea level rise. Biological Conservation.

Clonan, M., McConchie, C., Hall, M., Hearnden, M., Olesen, T., & Sarkhosh, A. (2021). Effects of ambient temperatures on floral initiation in Australian mango (Mangifera indica L.) selections. Scientia Horticulturae, 276.

Cruz, R. E. A., Kaplan, D. A., Santos, P. B., Ávila-da-Silva, A. O., Marques, E. E., & Isaac, V. J. (2020). Trends and environmental drivers of giant catfish catch in the lower Amazon River. Mar. Freshwater Res

Dai, N., Arkin, P.A. (2020). Diagnosis of ENSO-related precipitation changes during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries using reanalyses and two multi-model clusters. Clim. Dyn.

Dell'Apa, A., Kilborn, J. P., & Harford, W. J. (2020). Advancing ecosystem management strategies for the Gulf of Mexico's fisheries resources: implications for the development of a fishery ecosystem plan. bms, 96(4).

Fuess, L. E., Palacio-Castro, A. M., Butler, C. C., Baker, A. C., & Mydlarz, L. D. (2020). Increased Algal Symbiont Density Reduces Host Immunity in a Threatened Caribbean Coral Species, Orbicella faveolata. Front. Ecol. Evol.

Ghiasian, M., Carrick, J., Rhode, Barbarigos, L., Haus, B., Baker, A. C., et al. (2020). Dissipation of wave energy by a hybrid artificial reef in a wave simulator: implications for coastal resilience and shoreline protection. Limnology and Oceanographic Methods.

Holt J.R., Bernaola, L., Britt, K.E., et al. (2020). Synergisms in Science: Climate Change and Integrated Pest Management Through the Lens of Communication-2019 Student Debates. J Insect Sci, 20(5).

James, W. R., Topor, Z.M. & Santos, R.O. (2020). Seascape Configuration Influences the Community Structure of Marsh Nekton. Estuaries and Coasts.

Jane, R., Cadavid, L., Obeysekera, J., & Wahl, T. (2020). Multivariate statistical modelling of the drivers of compound flood events in south Florida. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2681–2699.

Ketter, W., Padmanabhan, B., Pant, G., & and Raghu, T. S. (2020). Special Issue Editorial: Addressing Societal Challenges through Analytics: An ESG ICE Framework and Research Agenda. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(5).

Klavans, J. M., Clement, A. C., Murphy, L. N., & Zhang, H. (2020). Identifying the Externally Forced Atlantic Multidecadal Variability Signal Through Florida Rainfall. Geophys. Res. Lett., 47(20).

Kuilman, M. S., Zhang, Q., Cai, M., & Wen, Q. (2020). Using the climate feedback response analysis method to quantify climate feedbacks in the middle atmosphere. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20.

Lowe R, Ryan, S. J., Mahon, R., et al. (2020). Building resilience to mosquito-borne diseases in the Caribbean. PLoS Biol, e3000791.

Mahjabin, T., & Abdul-Aziz, O.I. (2020). Trends in the Magnitude and Frequency of Extreme Rainfall Regimes in Florida. Water.

Mallet, M., Solmon, F., Nabat, P., Elguindi, N., Waquet, F., Bouniol, D., et al. (2020). Direct and semi-direct radiative forcing of biomass-burning aerosols over the southeast Atlantic (SEA) and its sensitivity to absorbing properties: a regional climate modeling study. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13191–13216.

Matich, P., Nowicki, R. J., Davis, J., Mohan, J. A., Plumlee, J. D., Strickland, B. A., et al. (2020). Does proximity to freshwater refuge affect the size structure of an estuarine predator (Carcharhinus leucas) in the north-western Gulf of Mexico? Mar. Freshwater Res.

McNamara, S.C., Pintar, M.R., & Resetarits, W.J. Jr. (2020). Temperature but not nutrient addition affects abundance and assemblage structure of colonizing aquatic insects. Ecology, e03209.

Nicholas, P.K., Breakey, S., White, B.P., et al. (2020). Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change: Perspectives for the ED Clinician. J Emerg Nurs, 46(5), 590–599.

Qiu, J. & Cardinale, B.J. (2020). Scaling up biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships across space and over time. Ecology, e03166.

Reider, K. E., Larson, D. J., Barnes, B. M., & Donnelly, M. A. (2020). Thermal adaptations to extreme freeze-thaw cycles in the high tropical Andes. Biotropica.

Rohal, M., Ainsworth, C., Lupher, B., Montagna, P. A., Paris, C. B., Perlin, N., et al. (2020). The effect of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on two ecosystem services in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Environmental Modelling & Software.

Ryan, S.J., Carlson, C.J., Tesla, B., et al. (2020). Warming temperatures could expose more than 1.3 billion new people to Zika virus risk by 2050. Glob Chang Biol.

Sales, L. P., Sales LP, Galetti, M., Galetti M, Pires, M. M., & Pires MM. (2020). Climate and land-use change will lead to a faunal "savannization" on tropical rainforests. Glob Chang Biol.

Sandifer, P., Knapp, L., Lichtveld, M., et al. (2020). Framework for a Community Health Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico Region: Preparing for Future Disasters. Front Public Health.

Scharping, R.J. & Garey J.R. (2020). Relationship between aquifer biofilms and unattached microbial indicators of urban groundwater contamination. Mol Ecol.

Sharp, S. and A., Christine. (2020). Predators enhance resilience of a saltmarsh foundation species to drought. Journal of Ecology.

Smith, M., Chagaris, D., Paperno, R., & Markwith, S. (2020). Ecosystem structure and resilience of the Florida Bay Estuary: an original ecosystem model with implications for everglades restoration. Mar. Freshwater Res.

Stroud, J.T., Mothes, C.C., Beckles, W., et al. (2020). An extreme cold event leads to community-wide convergence in lower temperature tolerance in a lizard community. Biol Lett, 16.

Sweet, W. V., Genz, A. S., Obeysekera, J., & Marra, J. J. (2020). A Regional Frequency Analysis of Tide Gauges to Assess Pacific Coast Flood Risk. Front. Mar. Sci.

Tan, Y., Guzman, S. M., Dong, Z., & Tan, L. (2020). Selection of Effective GCM Bias Correction Methods and Evaluation of Hydrological Response under Future Climate Scenarios. Climate, 8(10).

Valle Levinson, A., & Martin, J. B. (2020). Solar Activity and Lunar Precessions Influence Extreme SeaLevel Variability in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Coasts. Geophys. Res. Lett., 47(20).

Woods, A., Rodbell, D.T., Abbott, M.B. et al. (2020). Andean drought and glacial retreat tied to Greenland warming during the last glacial period. Nat Commun, 11.

Yao, F., & Wang, Y. (2020). Towards resilient and smart cities: A real-time urban analytical and geo-visual system for social media streaming data. Sustainable Cities and Society, 63.

Zhang, C., Comas, X., & Brodylo, D. (2020). A Remote Sensing Technique to Upscale Methane Emission Flux in a Subtropical Peatland. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci., 125(10).

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.

Email: info@floridaclimateinstitute.org

Website: floridaclimateinstitute.org