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Rural Training and Research Center
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The collective membership of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives owns the Rural Training and Research Center (RTRC), located between the towns of Epes and Gainesville in Sumter County, Alabama. The RTRC is also the base of operations for the Alabama State Association of Cooperatives (ASAC) outreach and technical assistance staff. RTRC staff work on projects with USDA, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, and the Democratizing Rural Electric Cooperatives Campaign.
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Collaborative initiatives
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The Black Family Land Trust
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The Black Family Land Trust, Inc. (BFLT) incorporated in 2004 and based in North Carolina, is one of the nation’s only conservation land trust dedicated to the preservation and protection of African-American and other historically underserved landowners assets.
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Tribal and community-based organizations
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Adapting to a Changing Climate in the Southeast
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Whether it’s change to native terrestrial habitats or sea level rise and impacts to vital coastal wetlands and marshes, we are only beginning to understand what is happening across the country, what is likely to occur in the years ahead, and how our agency will act. Indeed, of the 128 national wildlife refuges in the Southeast more than half are located along the coast. The number of days per year with peak temperatures over 90F is expected to rise significantly. By the end of this century, projections indicate much of North Carolina will have 90F plus days for one-third of the year, up from less than 30 days in that temperature zone in the 1960s and 1970s. Arkansas will see 90F days for up to 150 days a year, and NorthFlorida for nearly 6 months a year.
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Climate Science Documents
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A long-term perspective on a modern drought in the American Southeast
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The depth of the 2006–9 drought in the humid, southeastern US left several metropolitan areas
with only a 60–120 day water supply. To put the region’s recent drought variability in a long-term
perspective, a dense and diverse tree-ring network—including the first records throughout the
Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint river basin—is used to reconstruct drought from 1665 to 2010
CE. The network accounts for up to 58.1% of the annual variance in warm-season drought during
the 20th century and captures wet eras during the middle to late 20th century. The reconstruction
shows that the recent droughts are not unprecedented over the last 346 years. Indeed, droughts of
extended duration occurred more frequently between 1696 and 1820. Our results indicate that the
era in which local and state water supply decisions were developed and the period of instrumental
data upon which it is based are amongst the wettest since at least 1665. Given continued growth
and subsequent industrial, agricultural and metropolitan demand throughout the southeast, insights
from paleohydroclimate records suggest that the threat of water-related conflict in the region has
potential to grow more intense in the decades to come.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Sour Streams in Appalachia: Mapping Nature’s Buffer Against Sulfur Deposition
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Sulfur emissions are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but sulfuric acid that has
leached into soil and streams can linger in the environment and harm vegetation and aquatic life. Some
watersheds are better able to buffer streams against acidification than others; scientists learned why in
southern Appalachia.
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Climate Science Documents
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On the difference in the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 between deciduous and evergreen forests in the southeastern United States
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The southeastern United States is experiencing a rapid regional increase in the ratio of pine to deciduous forest ecosystems at the same time it is experiencing changes in climate. This study is focused on exploring how these shifts will affect the carbon sink capacity of southeastern US forests, which we show here are among the strongest carbon sinks in the continental United States. Using eight-year-long eddy covariance records collected above a hardwood deciduous forest (HW) and a pine plantation (PP) co-located in North Carolina, USA, we show that the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) was more variable in PP, contributing to variability in the difference in NEE between the two sites (DNEE) at a range of timescales, including the interannual timescale. Because the variability in evapotranspira- tion (ET) was nearly identical across the two sites over a range of timescales, the factors that determined the variabil- ity in DNEE were dominated by those that tend to decouple NEE from ET. One such factor was water use efficiency, which changed dramatically in response to drought and also tended to increase monotonically in nondrought years (P < 0.001 in PP). Factors that vary over seasonal timescales were strong determinants of the NEE in the HW site; however, seasonality was less important in the PP site, where significant amounts of carbon were assimilated outside of the active season, representing an important advantage of evergreen trees in warm, temperate climates. Additional variability in the fluxes at long-time scales may be attributable to slowly evolving factors, including canopy structure and increases in dormant season air temperature. Taken together, study results suggest that the carbon sink in the southeastern United States may become more variable in the future, owing to a predicted increase in drought frequency and an increase in the fractional cover of southern pines.
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Climate Science Documents
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Downstream Warming and Headwater Acidity May Diminish Coldwater Habitat in Southern Appalachian Mountain Streams
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Stream-dwelling species in the U.S. southern Appalachian Mountains region are particularly vulnerable to climate change and acidification. The objectives of this study were to quantify the spatial extent of contemporary suitable habitat for acid- and thermally sensitive aquatic species and to forecast future habitat loss resulting from expected temperature increases on national forest lands in the southern Appalachian Mountain region. The goal of this study was to help watershed managers identify and assess stream reaches that are potentially vulnerable to warming, acidification, or both. To our knowledge, these results represent the first regional assessment of aquatic habitat suitability with respect to the combined effects of stream water temperature and acid-base status in the United States. Statistical models were developed to predict July mean daily maximum water temperatures and air-water tem- perature relations to determine potential changes in future stream water temperatures. The length of stream considered suitable habitat for acid- and thermally sensitive species, based on temperature and acid neutralizing capacity thresholds of 20°C and 50 μeq/L, was variable throughout the national forests considered. Stream length displaying temperature above 20°C was generally more than five times greater than the length predicted to have acid neutralizing capacity below 50 μeq/L. It was uncommon for these two stressors to occur within the same stream segment. Results suggested that species’ distributional shifts to colder, higher elevation habitats under a warming climate can be constrained by acidification of headwater streams. The approach used in this study can be applied to evaluate climate change impacts to stream water resources in other regions.
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Climate Science Documents
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News from the South Atlantic Blueprint-November 2019 Newsletter
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News from the South Atlantic Blueprint November 2019 Newsletter
Southeast Blueprint 4.0 finalized by Rua Mordecai, Coordinator, Southeast
and South Atlantic Conservation Blueprints.
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News & Events
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Conservation Newsletters
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South Atlantic LCC Newsletters
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News from the South Atlantic Blueprint-December 2019 Newsletter
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South Atlantic indicator improvements, winter web forum schedule, resilient coastal sites data, and more.
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Conservation Newsletters
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South Atlantic LCC Newsletters
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South Atlantic Blueprint February 2019 newsletter
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New habitat suitability maps for at-risk herps in longleaf, short videos on Piedmont prairies available
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South Atlantic LCC Newsletters
