Long considered ground zero for global climate change in the US, Florida presents the perfect case study for disaster risk and prevention. Building on the idea that disasters are produced by historical and contemporary social processes as well as natural phenomena, Amanda D. Concha-Holmes and Anthony Oliver-Smith present a collection of ethnographic case studies that examine the social and environmental effects of Florida's public and private sector development policies. Contributors to Disasters in Paradise: Natural Hazards, Social Vulnerabilities, and Development Decisions explore how these practices have increased the vulnerability of Floridians to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, frosts, and forest fires. The book is available on Amazon and there will be a book launch on Nov. 14 at the Matheson History Museum in Gainesville, FL.

Coral reef declines have been recorded for all major tropical ocean basins since the 1980s, averaging approximately 30-50% reductions in reef cover globally. These losses are a result of numerous problems, including habitat destruction, pollution, overfishing, disease, and climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions and the associated increases in ocean temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have been implicated in increased reports of coral bleaching, disease outbreaks, and ocean acidification (OA). For the hundreds of millions of people who depend on reefs for food or livelihoods, the thousands of communities that depend on reefs for wave protection, the people whose cultural practices are tied to reef resources, and the many economies that depend on reefs for fisheries or tourism, the health and maintenance of this major global ecosystem is crucial. A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines novel approaches for saving coral reefs imperiled by climate change, and how local decision-makers can assess the risks and benefits of intervention. 

A recent article in the American Bar Association's website section on Environment, Energy, & Resources provides a simplified and jargon-free introduction to some of the basic legal and policy issues that sea-level rise presents for local governments that confront sea-level-rise impacts on their infrastructure. End notes to the article, written by Thomas Ruppert, Esq. and entitledSea-Level rise and Infrastructure: A Challenge for Local Government provide detailed resources for those interested in further exploration of the topic.

• 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

Thomas Ruppert, Esq., Coastal Planning Specialist with the Florida Sea Grant College Program, in conjunction with the UF/IFAS Extension and the UF CIVIC program, received a grant from the National Sea Grant Office to engage with under-represented communities in Pinellas County through the project "Citizen-Driven Flood Risk Management and Adaptation: Empowering Florida's Underserved Communities to Improve Resilience." The goal of the research, which will include engaging members of the selected communities about their personal experiences and thoughts about current and future flood risk in their communities, is to empower these communities to leverage their own experiences, local knowledge, and distinct perspectives to advocate for policies to reduce flood damages and promote equity and inclusion.

Florida's Emerging Coastal Resiliency Policy and Law | Oct. 21, 2019 | Audio Webcast

Increasing Flood Risks in Coastal and Low-Lying Regions | Oct. 23, 2019 | NCA4 Webinar Series

5th Annual Climate Solutions Summit | Oct. 29, 2019 | Gainesville, FL

Communicating About Climate Change | October 31, 2019 | Webinar

Southeast CASC Regional Science Symposium | November 13-15, 2019 | New Orleans, LA

11th Annual Climate Leadership Summit | December 3-5, 2019 | Key West, FL

7th Biennial UF Water Institute Symposium | February 25-26, 2020 | Gainesville, FL

PhD Student Position - Ecological modeling and decision analysis to inform decision making for coastal marine ecosystem restoration projects | UF Dept of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation | Gainesville, FL

Graduate Student Research Assistantship - Sustainable Urban Water Management Project | University of Nevada Reno ( contact Dr. Elizabeth Koebele)

Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowships | CIRES University of Colorado | Boulder, CO

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Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) | October 21, 2019

Sea Level Change Science Team | NASA | October 31, 2019

Early Career Grant | National Geographic Society | January 9, 2020 (anticipated)

Climate Change Innovation Grants | Yale University | October 2020 (anticipated)

Health and Climate Solutions | Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | February 2020 (anticipated)

Alba, C., Fahey, C., & Flory S.L. (2019). Global change stressors alter resources and shift plant interactions from facilitation to competition over time. Ecology, Early View: e02859.

Bhardwaj, A., & Misra, V. (2019). The role of air-sea coupling in the downscaled hydroclimate projection over Peninsular Florida and the West Florida Shelf. Clim Dyn, 53(5-6), 2931-2947.

Fu, X., Sun, B., Frank, K., & Peng, Z. - R. (2019). Evaluating sea-level rise vulnerability assessments in the USA. Climatic Change, 155(3), 393-415.

Gintert, B. E., Precht, W. F., Fura, R., et al. (2019). Regional coral disease outbreak overwhelms impacts from a local dredge project. Environ Monit Assess, 191(10).

Keenan, J. M. (2019). A climate intelligence arms race in financial markets. Science, 365(6459), 1240-1243.

Kunkle, K. A., & Monroe, M. C. (2019). Cultural cognition and climate change education in the U.S.: why consensus is not enough. Environmental Education Research, 25(5), 633-655.

Macreadie, P. I., Anton, A., Raven, J. A., et al. (2019). The future of Blue Carbon science. Nat Commun, 10, 3998.

Marlon, J. R., van der Linden, S., Howe, P. D., Leiserowitz, A., Woo, S. H. L., & Broad, K. (2019). Detecting local environmental change: the role of experience in shaping risk judgments about global warming. Journal of Risk Research, 22(7), 936-950.

Peña-Lévano, L. M., Taheripour, F., & Tyner, W. E. (2019). Climate Change Interactions with Agriculture, Forestry Sequestration, and Food Security. Environ Resource Econ, 74(2), 653-675.

Sanders, C.J., Maher, D.T., Smoak, J.M., & Eyre, B.D. (2019). Large variability in organic carbon and CaCO3 burial in seagrass meadows: a case study from three Australian estuaries. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 616, 211-218.

von May, R., Catenazzi, A., Santa-Cruz, R., Santa-Cruz R, et al. (2019). Thermal physiological traits in tropical lowland amphibians: Vulnerability to climate warming and cooling. PLoS One, 14(8), e0219759.

Wing, A. A., Camargo, S. J., Sobel, A. H., Kim, D., Moon, Y., Murakami, H., et al. (2019). Moist Static Energy Budget Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Intensification in High-Resolution Climate Models. J. Climate, 32(18), 6071-6095.

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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