CA LCC Project

Climate Change/Land Use Change Scenarios for Habitat Threat Assessments on California Rangelands

Project Information

Phase 1 (2011): Integrating Science into Decisions: Climate Change/Land Use Change Scenarios and Outreach for Habitat Threat Assessments on California Rangelands
This project will aid conservation of California rangelands by identifying future integrated threats of climate change and land use change, and will quantify two main co-benefits of rangeland conservation - water supply and carbon sequestration. Through a multi-stakeholder partnership, the project proponents will develop integrated climate change/land use change scenarios for the Central Valley and Chaparral and Oak Woodland eco-regions, and disseminate information about future potential threats to high priority conservation areas within the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition (CRCC) study area, which includes the foothills around the Central Valley and most of the southern Inner Coast Range.

Phase 2 (2012): Integrated Scenarios and Outreach for Habitat Threat Assessments on California Rangelands: Metrics and Economic Analysis for Decision Support
In year two of this work, the project team will calculate metrics at the landscape and watershed scale for the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition (CRCC) focus area and will quantify fragmentation of grazing land; change in bioclimatic distribution of oaks, grassland and shrubland; change in wildlife habitat; change in runoff, recharge and stream discharge; and change in carbon stocks and flux. The project team will develop an on-line tool that will include maps of important areas where changes in water availability and wildlife habitat coincide. Economic analysis of scenarios will be applied to quantify costs and benefits to the CRCC landscape. Comparison of analyses across scenarios will allow resource managers to identify potential risks and opportunities - both biological and economical - for rangeland across alternative futures.

Science Delivery Phase (2013): Integrated Scenarios and Outreach for Assessing Threats to Ecosystem Services on California Rangelands: Science Delivery
Resource Conservation Districts (RCD's) staff will be recipients of training on project results and the web-based data visualization tool so that science products can be applied in local decision-making. Trainings will be accompanied by a peer-reviewed USGS Fact Sheet and additional online content. Focus will be on the RCDs located in the 6 case-study watersheds, there will be 3 trainings that summarize findings from the project and provide instruction on the use of the online tool. A project presentation and demonstration of the online tool will also be provided at the 2013 California Association of RCDs Annual Conference.

There is a website with project results and interactive maps at http://climate.calcommons.org/aux/rangeland/index.html

The raster geospatial data from this project is available at: http://data.prbo.org/RangelandRasterData_Geotiff/

Vector geospatial data is available at the links below.

Full Proposal Title: 
Phase 1 (2011): Integrating Science into Decisions: Climate Change/Land Use Change Scenarios and Outreach for Habitat Threat Assessments on California Rangelands. Phase 2 (2012): Integrated Scenarios and Outreach for Habitat Threat Assessments on California Rangelands: Metrics and Economic Analysis for Decision Support. Science Delivery (2013): Integrated Scenarios and Outreach for Assessing Threats to Ecosystem Services on California Rangelands: Science Delivery.
Project Lead: 
Kristin Byrd, kbyrd@usgs.gov
Status: 
Completed
Starting Date: 
2011-09
Ending Date: 
2014-04
Total LCC Funding: 
251524
Total Matching or In-Kind Funds: 
489748
Attachments

Products of this project

Titlesort descending Deliverable Type Release Date Commons Catalog Record or External Link
Bioscience Publication: "Adapting California's Ecosystems to a Changing Climate" Publication Feb 2015
Case Study in USFWS Scenario Planning Guide Publication : Article Sep 2014
Conservation masks Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Land use-land cover change maps Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Multiple ecosystem services change maps Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Percent change in climatic water deficit Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Percent change in critical habitat Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Percent change in grassland soil carbon sequestration potential Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Publication: "Integrated climate and land use change scenarios for California rangeland ecosystem services: wildlife habitat, soil carbon, and water supply" Publication Jan 2015
Raster Datasets: Integrated Scenarios for Assessing Threats to Ecosystem Services on California Rangelands Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Ratio of recharge to runoff Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Training for Alameda RCD Training / Outreach / Workshop Mar 2014
Training for Butte, Glenn, and Tehama County RCDs Training / Outreach / Workshop Mar 2014
USGS Factsheet: Future Scenarios of Impacts to Ecosystem Services on California Rangelands Publication Mar 2014
Water-wildlife hotspot maps Datasets / Database Apr 2014
Web-based Map Visualization Tool Website Mar 2014
Webinar: Economic Valuation of California Range Land Ecosystem Services Impacted by Climate and Land Use Change: Challenges and Opportunities Training / Outreach / Workshop : Webinar Dec 2014