CA LCC Project

Determining Landscape Connectivity and Climate Change Refugia Across the Sierra Nevada

Project Information

Phase 1 (2011): This project used species distribution modeling, population genetics, and geospatial analysis of historical vs. modern vertebrate populations to identify climate change refugia and population connectivity across the Sierra Nevada. It is hypothesized that climate change refugia will increase persistence and stability of populations and, as a result, maintain higher genetic diversity. This work helps managers assess the need to include connectivity and refugia in climate change adaptation strategies. Results help Sierra Nevada land managers allocate limited resources, aid future scenario assessment at landscape scales, and develop a performance measure for assessing resilience.

Science Delivery Phase (2013): Focus was directed to outreach to natural resource managers and decision makers. Outreach activities included: a 3-day regional workshop on climate change refugia, targeted agency meetings with NPS, USFS, CDFW, USFWS, and USGS, a webinar to communicate project and workshop results, and an enhanced website highlighting the work that particular agencies are doing to incorporate climate refugia and connectivity into their on the ground decisions.

In December 2013, this project produced a workshop called "Landscape Connectivity and Climate Change Refugia Across the Sierra Nevada: Presentation and Application of Products for Sierra Nevada Decision-makers". Below are links to the presentation given:

Streamed webinar recording
Downloadable presentation

See also this Estuary News Insert featuring an article on this project, and a Climate Commons article about the project called Connectivity and Refugia in the Sierra Nevada.

Full Proposal Title: 
Determining Landscape Connectivity and Climate Change Refugia Across the Sierra Nevada
Project Lead: 
Toni Lyn Morelli, tmorelli@usgs.gov; Craig Moritz
Status: 
Completed
Starting Date: 
2011-09
Ending Date: 
2014-03
Total LCC Funding: 
145432
Total Matching or In-Kind Funds: 
121927
Attachments

Products of this project

Titlesort descending Deliverable Type Release Date Commons Catalog Record or External Link
A Ghost Town's Second Life as a Climate Refuge for Rodents Publication : Article Nov 2013
A test of climate change refugia Publication Jul 2015
Anthropogenic refugia ameliorate the severe climate-related decline of a montane mammal along its trailing edge Publication Aug 2012
Article in March 2014 Estuary News Publication : Article Mar 2014
Belding's Ground Squirrel Genetic Structure Across California Datasets / Database Oct 2014
Belding's Ground Squirrel Yosemite National Park Surveys Datasets / Database Oct 2014
Beyond a global warming fingerprint of climate change: heterogeneous biogeographic responses in California Publication Jun 2014
Climate Change Refugia as a Tool for Climate Adaptation Publication Aug 2015
Climate Change Refugia website Website Jun 2014
Connectivity and Refugia in the Sierra Nevada, an article in the Climate Commons Publication : Article Jul 2014
Evil Cannibal Squirrels Could Make California's Drought Less Terrible Publication : Article Jan 2015
Meeting #1 with Agency Partners: UC Berkeley, USFS, NPS, CADFW, USGS Training / Outreach / Workshop May 2012
Meeting #2 with Agency Partners: UC Berkeley, USFS, NPS, CADFW, USGS Training / Outreach / Workshop Mar 2013
Publication: Managing climate change refugia for climate adaptation Publication Aug 2016
Regional Climate Change Refugia Workshop at UC Berkeley Training / Outreach / Workshop May 2014
Sierra Nevada Refugial Meadows with Connectivity Rankings. Map May 2015
Workshop #1: "Landscape Connectivity and Climate Change Refugia Across the Sierra Nevada: Presentation and Application of Products for Sierra Nevada Decision-makers" Training / Outreach / Workshop Dec 2013
Workshop #2: Climate Adaptation Options for Natural Resource Managers in the Sierra Nevada Training / Outreach / Workshop May 2014
Yosemite National Park Meadow Attributes Datasets / Database Aug 2014