Contact Person: Jones, James W.

Collaborators: J. O'Brien, J. Christy, G. Hoogenboom, K. T. Ingram, J.W. Jones, D. Letson, P. Srivastava

Institutions: University of Florida, University of Miami, Florida State University, University of Georgia, University of Alabama- Huntsville, Auburn University

Funding Agency: NOAA/OGP/RISA

Start: July 2010    End: June 2015

Status: Funded

Filed Under: Agriculture, Climate Sciences, Coastal Ecosystems, Extension, Land, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Water

Abstract: Growing from the Florida Consortium, which was founded in 1996, the Southeast Climate Consortium (SECC) mission is to use advances in climate sciences, including improved capabilities to forecast seasonal climate and long-term climate change, to provide scientifically sound information and decision support tools for agricultural ecosystems, forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, and coastal ecosystems of the SE USA. As a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team, the SECC conducts research and outreach to a broad community of users and forms partnerships with extension and education organizations to ensure that SECC products are relevant, reliable, and delivered to the public by these organizations through their networks and mechanisms. The SECC is adopting a new organization to address the climate information needs of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in addition to the agricultural ecosystems. Research for the coastal and terrestrial ecosystems will build on the success of the SECC in providing an effective decision support system for agriculture, AgroClimate.org. Research and extension activities will emphasize collaboration among investigators from natural resources sciences, including climate, water resources, land, and energy, and investigators from applications sciences, including extension and outreach, human dimensions, integrated participatory systems analysis.

Our four scientific objectives are:

1. Working with boundary organizations, planners, regional data clearinghouses, and other stakeholders, assess the needs of decision makers for climate information, their access to and applications of climate information, and time-scales for needed information
2. Based on stakeholder assessments, develop partnerships with appropriate boundary organizations to meet the climate information needs of stakeholders, particularly in coastal and other terrestrial ecosystems
3. Provide reliable, timely, probabilistic, and local climate information according to stakeholder needs for adaptation and resilience to climate change and climate variability. Providing this information will require production of downscaled forecasts at the local level and at 1- to 30-year time scales, as well as maintaining and providing historical data and analyses for the region
4. Through integrated, multi-disciplinary activities, develop decision support tools and information delivery systems that give decision makers access to climate information that will help decision makers manage risks associated with climate change at various time scales.