Climate Mapper
A mapping tool that allows the user to model climate, hydrology, agriculture, or fire with a variety of variables. The user can choose the time scale, variable, and calendar time period.
Agriculture
Agriculture strategies/approaches.
Taxonomy Machine Name
niacs_strategy_ag
Taxonomy Alias
ag
Climate Impacts in the Northwest
Precipitation in the region has seen a decline in both the amount of total snowfall and the proportion of precipitation falling as snow. Declines in snowpack and streamflows have been observed in the Cascades in recent decades.
Climate Impacts in Brief
The combined effects of climate change and climate variability in the Pacific Northwest are expected to result in a wide range of impacts for the region’s communities, economy, and natural systems. These include projected changes in water resources, forests, species and ecosystems, oceans and coasts, infrastructure, agriculture, and human health.
Third National Climate Assessment Northwest Highlights
Changes in the timing of streamflow reduce water supplies for competing demands. Sea level rise, erosion, inundation, risks to infrastructure, and increasing ocean acidity pose major threats. Increasing wildfire, insect outbreaks, and tree diseases are causing widespread tree die-off.
What Climate Change Means for Colorado
This factsheet summarizes the effects that climate change will have on Colorado. This includes snow pack, water availability, agriculture, pests, wildfires, and human health.
Southwest Climate Change Assessment Report
The assessment examines what climate and climate change mean for the health and well-being of human populations and the environment throughout the Southwestern United States, an area of about 700,000 square miles.
Colorado Climate Change Vulnerability Study
The Colorado Climate Change Vulnerability Study provides an overview of key vulnerabilities that climate variability and change will pose for Colorado’s economy and resources. The purpose of the study is to provide state agencies, local governments, and others with background for preparedness planning.
Grassland
Grassland is a natural community group that broadly characterizes several distinct natural communities. Grassland broadly includes: Bracken Grassland, Dry Prairie, Dry-mesic Prairie, Mesic Prairie, Sand Prairie, Wet Prairie, Wet-mesic prairie natural communities. Grasslands with high floral diversity that occur within large open landscapes may fare best: plants may shift locations and composition may fluctuate over time based on responses to climatic variables. This adaptive capacity is further enhanced if a site has (micro)topographical diversity.
Longer growing seasons, warmer temperatures, and greater water demand for agriculture may reduce available water for natural ecosystems in the Southern Plains.
Water is central to the region’s productivity. Projected increases in winter and spring precipitation in the Southern Plains may benefit productivity by increasing water availability through soil moisture reserves during the early growing season. The Southern Plains will remain vulnerable to periodic drought because much of the projected increase in precipitation is expected to occur in the cooler months while increasing temperatures will result in additional evapotranspiration.
The freeze-free season is expected to increase by 18 to 30 days in the Southern Great Plains by the middle of the century.
The freeze-free season is defined as the period of time between the last spring frost (daily minimum temperature below 32 degrees F) and the first fall frost. The length of the annual freeze-free season has been increasing since the 1980s, and all climate models agree that it will continue to increase in the future. The largest increases are projected for southeastern Texas, where the freeze-free season could be 30 days longer.