Coordinated by the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, a partnership between Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties, their municipalities and other partners, the Climate Leadership Summit is a major regional event focused on facilitating climate-related collaboration and knowledge sharing. The Summit attracts innovative thinkers and leaders from business, government, academia and the nonprofit community to exchange ideas and dialogue at panel discussions and networking breaks.The 11th annual summit was hosted in Key West from December 3-5. Read more.

(Source: SE Florida Regional Compact website) The Compact released its third update to the Regionally Unified Sea Level Rise (SLR) Projections for Southeast Florida at the December 2019 Climate Summit (see above). The Compact first produced a Unified SLR Projection in 2011 in response to the multiplicity and diversity of local SLR projections-a barrier to achieving regionally consistent adaptation strategies and policies, as well as effectively influencing supportive policies at the state and federal levels. The 2019 projection builds upon the last update in 2015. The Compact updates the projection every five years or sooner based on newly available, peer-reviewed literature and climate modeling that informs an ad hoc SLR Work Group, consisting of experts from the academic community, federal agencies, and local government staff. Read article.

( Source: SE CASC) Investigators supported by Southeast CASC research project, Communicating Future Sea-Level Rise Scenarios for Gulf Coast National Wildlife Refuge and National Park Lands, recently completed their work producing customized fact sheets that describe local sea level rise scenarios and potential impacts on mission for each of the federally managed lands in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The "two-pagers" were developed in response to needs of partners at the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Gulf Restoration Program. Areas covered are federally-managed lands across the northern Gulf of Mexico that are sensitive to sea level rise, encompassing federal coastal refuges, parks, and reserves in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The customized fact sheets include sections that cover: How will sea level rise (SLR) affect my specific refuge, park or reserve? Where can I find SLR scenarios for my site? How do I incorporate these scenarios into my SLR planning? as well as graphical displays of SLR scenarios and information on using probabilities when planning for sea level rise and links to additional SLR resources. The two-page information sheets are currently available on the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative website.

A recent article by Shana Campbell Jones and Thomas Ruppert et al. entitled " Roads to Nowhere in Four States: State and Local Governments in the Atlantic Southeast Facing Sea-Level Rise" has been selected for inclusion in the thirteenth of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR), a joint publication of the Environmental Law Institute's Environmental Law Reporter and Vanderbilt University Law School. The article was selected as one of the four top environmental law articles from a pool of hundreds of law journal articles on environmental topics published between August 2018 and July 2019. Full citation: Jones, Shana Campbell and Ruppert, Thomas and Deady, Erin L. and Payne, Heather and Pippin, J. Scott and Huang, Ling-Yee and Evans, Jason M., Roads to Nowhere in Four States: State and Local Governments in the Atlantic Southeast Facing Sea-Level Rise (January 17, 2019). Columbia Journal of Environmental Law Vol. 44, No. 1. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3349837

 

• Produce a strategic tool with standards, data, analyses, andthresholds for use in planning, decision-making, setting research agendas, and use in public policy and legislation
• Ensure resiliency decisions are informed by the best available science through an iterative, stakeholder driven process that is easily updated and user-focused
• Use the best science in a manner that is responsive, supportive, and critical focusing on systems and not separate sectors
• Improve relationships between knowledge producers and users and yield better decisions and outcomes to build capacity and overcome barriers

The University of Miami's Miami Climate Symposium 2020: Predicting and Living with Extremes will present the state of the science for understanding climate dynamics and extreme events - and managing the associated risks. The interdisciplinary symposium, scheduled for January 22-24, 2020, will focus on the cutting-edge research for predicting extreme events within a changing climate, from the local to international scale. Experts from UM's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science will convene and lead other scientific thought leaders, and local stakeholders to:

• Explore how hurricanes, storm surge, and coastal flooding are exacerbated by long-term climate issues (sea-level rise, salt water intrusion, harmful algal blooms, and extreme heat waves)
• Discuss adaptation policies and strategies
• Assess responses to extreme events at the local level

Join students and faculty in UF Law's Environmental, Land Use and Real Estate Program for the 26th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference in at the UF Law Campus in Gainesville, February 6 - 8, 2020. Registration is free for UF faculty and students but you must register in advance and the banquet is a separate fee. This year's theme is a nod to the growing grass roots interest in the "Rights of Nature," and its expression in theory and application. The opening reception will take place in the Florida Museum of Natural History with a keynote address by renowned scientists, Doug and Pat Soltis, part of a team harnessing big data, super computers and DNA sequencing to construct " The Tree of Life," After the stage setting plenary session of Friday morning, panels include:

• From Shoreline to Stateline: the Marine and Estuarine Policy Scene
• Unnatural Disasters I: We've Been Slimed!
•  Making Sense of Sentience: The Progressive Development of Animal Welfare
• It's a Great State, If We Can Keep It: Florida's Waterkeepers Speak
• Unnatural Disasters II: The Human Cost
• All Creatures Great and Small: The Right to Exist, Persist and Thrive
• When Corridors Collide: Who Pays the Toll?
•  Defending the Biosphere through Agricultural Policy

Fridays' lunchtime roundtable will feature 4 new UF Law faculty whose work lies at the intersection of "Climate And..." - And Insurance, And Poverty, And Corporate Securities, And National Security. Friday's evening's banquet continues the Conference's exploration of the Rights of Nature with a keynote address by Thomas Linzey, Esg., Co-founder and Senior Legal Counsel for the Community Environmental Defense Fund. Saturday's workshop will be devoted to citizens and communities seeking to establish rights for nature through political and policy processes in Florida and elsewhere. The Conference will conclude with a special treat: a visual and verbal exploration of Florida's environmental history by Florida's unofficial "historian laureate," Dr. Gary Mormino, author of "Land of Sunshine: State of Dreams," and Photographer John Moran, whose photos of natural Florida have inspired both awe and action, becoming quite literally "Exhibit A." For more information and to register visit: https://ufpiec.org/ 

Ocean Sciences Meeting 2020 | February 16-21 | San Diego, CA

7th Biennial UF Water Institute Symposium | February 25-26 | Gainesville, FL

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AOS Mewaldt-King Research Award | January 24, 2020

SE CASC FY2020 Funding Opportunity | Jan 31 (Statement of Interest Due)

FDEP | Rebuild Florida's Mitigation Program | February 3, 2020

DOI WaterSMART Drought Response Program: Drought Contingency Planning Grants | Feb. 5, 2020

DOE Atmospheric System Research (ASR) | March 10, 2020

Salazar Center for North American Conservation Conservation Impact Prize | March 12

VoLo's Vision Innovation Sustainability Technology Adaptation (VISTA) Award | March 31, 2020

NatGeo | Enduring Impacts: Archaeology of Sustainability | April 22, 2020

Feinstein, N. W., & Mach, K. J. (2019). Three roles for education in climate change adaptation. Climate Policy, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2019.1701975

Flower, H., Flower H, Rains, M., Rains M, Carl Fitz, H., Carl Fitz H, et al. (2019). Shifting Ground: Landscape-Scale Modeling of Biogeochemical Processes under Climate Change in the Florida Everglades. Environ Manage, 64(4), 416-435.

Gravinese, P. M., Gravinese PM, Enochs, I. C., Enochs IC, Manzello, D. P., Manzello DP, et al. (2019). Ocean acidification changes the vertical movement of stone crab larvae. Biol Lett, 15(12).

Infanti, J. M., Kirtman, B. P., Aumen, N. G., Stamm, J., & Polsky, C. (2019). Assessment of uncertainty in multimodel means of downscaled South Florida precipitation for projected (2019-2099) climate. Int J Climatol, Early View.

Krause, R. M., Hawkins, C. V., & Park, A. Y. S. (2019). The Perfect Amount of Help: An Examination of the Relationship Between Capacity and Collaboration in Urban Energy and Climate Initiatives. Urban Affairs Rev, Online First.

McCoy, S. J., McCoy SJ, Santillan-Sarmiento, A., Santillan-Sarmiento A, Brown, M. T., Brown MT, et al. (2019). Photosynthetic Responses of Turf-forming Red Macroalgae to High CO2 Conditions. J Phycol, Early View.

Molinaroli, E., Molinaroli E, Guerzoni, S., Guerzoni S, Suman, D., & Suman D. (2019). Do the Adaptations of Venice and Miami to Sea Level Rise Offer Lessons for Other Vulnerable Coastal Cities? Environ Manage, 64(4), 391-415.

Ogurcak, D. E., & Price, R. M. (2019). Groundwater geochemistry fluctuations along a fresh-saltwater gradient on the carbonate islands of the lower Florida Keys. Chemical Geology, 527.

Ogurcak, D. E., Sah, J. P., Price, R. M., & Ross, M. S. (2019). Shifting baselines in coastal forests: Rising seas transform plant communities from the ground up. Forest Ecology and Management, 453.

Stewart-Ibarra, A. M., Romero, M., Hinds, A. Q. J., et al. (2019). Co-developing climate services for public health: Stakeholder needs and perceptions for the prevention and control of Aedes-transmitted diseases in the Caribbean. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 13(10), e0007772.

Wisely, S. M. & Glass, G. E.. (2019). Advancing the Science of Tick and Tick-Borne Disease Surveillance in the United States. Insects, 10(10).

Wrathall,, Mueller,, Clark,, Bell,, Oppenheimer,, Hauer,, et al. (2019). Meeting the looming policy challenge of sea-level change and human migration. Nat. Clim. Chang., 9(12), 898-901.

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Florida's Climate: Changes, Variations, & Impacts provides a thorough review of the current state of research on Florida's climate, including physical climate benchmarks; climate prediction, projection, and attribution; and the impacts of climate and climate change on the people and natural resources in the state. The book is available for purchase in paperback and Kindle format at Amazon.com.

Individual chapters may be accessed on the FCI website.

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.     

Member Universities