July 31, 2015 - On July 20-22, the
Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact held its second
Resilient Redesign in partnership with FCI universities UF, UM, FIU and FAU. The FAU Davie campus hosted the event with over 55 participants who gathered with the goal of developing solutions for sites in Key West, Hollywood and Delray Beach, FL, each with their own unique characteristics and challenges. Participants came from the private sector, public sector and academia. The group was divided in city teams to develop potential options for the sites. On Wednesday, July 22, the teams presented to an audience of over 80 attendees. Solutions included renewal of wetlands, elevated co-housing options, living with water, elevation of infrastructure, off the grid solutions and changes in land use. Presentations will be shared again at the
Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit to be held December 1-3 in Key West. Cities will be sharing the concepts with their leadership at upcoming commission meetings.
July 27, 2015 - Scientists at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science investigating the increasing risk of 'compound flooding' for major U.S. cities have found that flooding risk is greatest for cities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts when strong storm surge and high rainfall amounts occur together. While rising sea levels are the main driver for increasing flood risk, storm surges caused by weather patterns that favor high precipitation exacerbates flood potential. The paper describing their research on the causes of compound flooding in urban areas of the U.S will appear in
Nature Climate Change. "Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population resides in coastal counties," said study lead author
Thomas Wahl of the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and the University of Siegen in Germany. "Flooding can have devastating impacts for these low-lying, densely populated and heavily developed regions and have wide-ranging social, economic and environmental consequences."
USF Press ReleaseNature Climate Change Journal Article
July 23, 2015 - New research reveals that some of the earliest civilizations in the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent may have been affected by abrupt climate change. These findings show that while socio-economic factors were traditionally considered to shape ancient human societies in this region, the influence of abrupt climate change should not be underestimated. A team of international scientists led by researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science found that during the first half of the last interglacial period known as the Holocene epoch, which began about 12,000 years ago and continues today, the Middle East most likely experienced wetter conditions in comparison with the last 6,000 years, when the conditions were drier and dustier.
UM Press ReleaseQuaternary Science Reviews Journal Article
July 22, 2015 - The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality named Florida International University (FIU) as the host for its first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) seminar on developing locally relevant exercises supporting community resilience to climate change. The seminar will focus on climate adaptation, preparedness and resilience.
The news of FIU’s selection follows months of active advocacy by the university’s
Sea Level Solutions Center targeting increased federal attention to South Florida and promoting FIU’s own strengths in climate change research and environmental resilience engagements.
South Florida serves as ground zero for climate change in the United States and FIU scientists have predicted sea levels to rise by 9 to 24 inches by 2060. The seminar is set to take place September 21-22 at the FIU campus in Miami. The White House issued a
press release on actions to build resilience to climate change and more detail on FIU’s partnership with FEMA.
FIU Press Release
July 22, 2015 - The coral reefs that have protected Pacific Islanders from storm waves for thousands of years could grow rapidly enough to keep up with escalating sea levels if ocean temperatures do not rise too quickly, according to a new study from Florida Institute of Technology. The study, published Wednesday in the journal
Royal Society Open Science, provides the first evidence that well-managed reefs will be able to keep up with sea-level rise through vertical growth. But that can happen only if carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere stay below 670 parts-per million (ppm). Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas responsible for most of global warming, which in turn increases ocean temperatures. Today, the level of carbon dioxide is 400 ppm. Beyond 670 ppm – which represents a 3.5 degree Fahrenheit ocean temperature increase and could be reached within the next 100 years – even healthy reefs will not be able keep up. "Reefs will continue to keep up with sea-level rise if we reduce our emission of greenhouse gases," said Florida Tech’s
Rob van Woesik, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. "If reefs lose their capacity to keep up with sea-level rise they will drown."
FIT Press ReleaseRoyal Society Open Science Journal Article
July 9, 2015 - When past temperatures were similar to or slightly higher than the present global average, sea levels rose at least 20 feet, suggesting a similar outcome could be in store if current climate trends continue. Findings published in the journal
Science showed that the seas rose in response to melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, said lead author
Andrea Dutton, a University of Florida geochemist. “This evidence leads us to conclude that the polar ice sheets are out of equilibrium with the present climate,” she said. Dutton and an international team of scientists assessed evidence of higher sea levels during several periods to understand how polar ice sheets respond to warming. Combining computer models and observations from the geologic record, they found that during past periods with average temperatures 1 to 3 °C (1.8 to 5.4 °F) warmer than preindustrial levels, sea level peaked at least 20 feet higher than today.
UF Press ReleaseScience Journal Article
June 26, 2015 - The
American Society of Agronomy (ASA) has selected the leaders of the
Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) as the recipients of the 2015 ASA Presidential Award. Under the joint vision and leadership of Drs. Cynthia Rosenzweig (NASA-Goddard/Columbia University),
James W. Jones (UF/FCI), Jerry Hatfield (USDA), and John Antle (Oregon State University), AgMIP has dramatically increased the coordination, transparency, and scientific rigor of agronomic modeling to address the pressing challenges of global change.
This award is given to those who have influenced agronomic sciences or crop production practices so greatly that the impact of their efforts will be enduring on future science. The team will be recognized during the 2015 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in November.
June 22, 2015 - New research suggests we may be closer to a global cholera outbreak than once believed. An article recently published in the journal
Acta Tropica and co-authored by
Dr. Sadie Ryan (University of Florida) shows that, under a conservative future climate scenario, there is a predicted increase in areas with environmental conditions suitable for
Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera. This research is part of a joint UF/SUNY Upstate Medical University project looking at environmental reservoirs of waterborne disease and their response to climate. Funding was provided through the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance (GEIS) program.
Acta Tropical Journal ArticlePopular Science Article
June 17, 2015 - As rising seas and South Florida’s growing environmental concerns dominate conversations of local scientists, officials, business owners and journalists, students from the MAST (Marine and Science Technology) high school at Florida International University join the Student Environmental Advocacy (SEA) Corps to document their experiences as they focus on creating solutions for South Florida’s changing environment. Their multimedia storytelling will be produced in broadcast quality stories, animations, and musical productions that will be showcased this fall.
Miami Herald Article
June 15, 2015 - WeatherSTEM has donated a weather station to Florida A&M University’s Developmental Research School. The laboratory school last year received a $32,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Research Station to create an "outside" classroom where students could explore the wonders of science and technology.
Read Full Tallahassee Democrat Article
June 10, 2015 - Please join us in congratulating Drs.
Andrea Dutton and
Clyde Fraisse for being selected as the 2015-16 University of Florida Florida Climate Institute Faculty Fellows! Both were selected from a distinguished candidate pool for their excellent interdisciplinary climate and extension programs that contribute to the goals of the FCI.
The fellowship term is 3 years and will begin in Fall 2015. They join current FCI Faculty Fellows Drs. Tim Martin, Ellen Martin, Jane Southworth, and Jon Dain and will be honored in an award ceremony in October. Stay tuned for dates and details!
June 4, 2015 - A new research study showed why threatened Caribbean star corals sometimes swap partners to help them recover from bleaching events. The findings are important to understand the fate of coral reefs as ocean waters warm due to climate change. The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science research team placed colonies of Caribbean star coral (Orbicella faveolata) in a heated tank for one to two weeks to replicate ocean conditions that would lead to both mild and severe coral “bleaching” – when corals turn white as a result of the loss of symbiotic algae living in their tissues. The corals, collected from waters off Miami, were then allowed to recover at two different water temperatures, below and above the local average, to see if they recovered with the same or different algal partners. “Since ‘symbiont shuffling’ occurs in only some cases, we wanted to understand what drives this process and whether it could help corals adjust to climate change,” said
Ross Cunning, a UM Rosenstiel School alumnus and lead author of the study. “We discovered that partner switching in Caribbean star corals is dependent upon the severity of the bleaching event and the temperature during recovery.”
UM Press Release
June 3, 2015 - First impressions are important. So much so that even armed with new information, many people won’t change their minds about genetically modified foods and global warming, a new University of Florida study led by
Brandon McFadden shows. Study participants were asked to assess the extent to which they believe human involvement caused global warming. They were given choices ranging from “much less involved” to “much more involved.” The study showed that before they received the information, 64 percent believed human actions are causing global warming; 18 percent were not sure and 18 percent did not believe human actions are to blame. After receiving scientific information about global warming, about 50 percent of participants believed even more strongly that human actions lead to global warming, while 44 percent were not swayed by the information, the study showed. "Possibly, the best indicator for whether a person will adopt scientific information is simply what a person believes before receiving the information," McFadden said.
UF Press ReleaseFood Policy Journal Article
June 3, 2015 - In an article in
The Conversation, Drs.
Vasu Misra and
Mark Powell (FSU) discuss a new method they've developed to project a hurricane’s strength that takes into account the size of the tropical cyclone. Their method, called the Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE) index, considers the distribution of the surface wind speed around the center of the storm, unlike the traditional Saffir-Simpson scale that depends on a point measurement of the maximum wind speed. By measuring total energy, they can make a better prediction as to destructive potential as opposed to just looking at wind speed at a single point location.
The Conversation Article
June 2, 2015 - Popular opinion says that tropical storms and hurricanes that make landfall mitigate droughts in the southeastern United States. But that simply isn’t true, according to a Florida State University researcher.
Vasu Misra, associate professor of meteorology and co-director of the FCI and FSU, disputed the commonly held belief in an article published in the journal
Climate Dynamics. “The perception that land-falling tropical cyclones serve to replenish the terrestrial water sources in many of the small watersheds in the southeastern U.S. seems to be a myth,” Misra said. “This perception is widespread because the southeastern United States has the largest share of land-falling tropical cyclones in the country.” Misra and Satish Bastola from Georgia Institute of Technology examined historical rainfall records and from that, created a soil moisture-based drought index for 28 watersheds across the southeastern United States for a 58-year period. They then reconstructed the database by eliminating the rainfall on days when a tropical storm or hurricane had made landfall. The end result? Soil moisture levels in these watersheds remained about the same.
FSU Press ReleaseClimate Dynamics Journal Article