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Energy Forcasts Team
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The rapid pace of new energy development coupled with more aggressive methods for extracting traditional fuels pose substantial risks to some of the Appalachians most cherished lands, waterways, and wildlife. Currently, little effort has been paid to the effect of energy development on the swaths of relatively intact, recovering forest habitat that define the Central Appalachian Region. This project employs land use change build-out scenarios from future energy development demand to quantify future impacts on forest habitats across the Appalachian LCC.
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Climate Change Vulnerability Team
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Future climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies will be dependent on the best available projections of how the regional climate will change and on estimates of the impacts those changes will have on the region’s natural and cultural resources. Thus understanding the vulnerability of various species and habitats within the Appalachian LCC to climate change is of critical importance. This project will compile climate change vulnerability assessments and other relevant information on vulnerable species and habitats, discern the various methodologies and criteria used in these assessments, and use a team of exert peer reviewers to recommend the most efficient, effective, and appropriate methods for adoption by the Appalachian LCC for conservation and adaptation planning. The recommended method will then be deployed, resulting in vulnerability assessments for a suite of key species/habitats selected in consultation with partners of the Appalachian LCC.
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Aquatic Ecological Flows Team
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The emergence of hydraulic fracturing has led to the rapid expansion of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposit in portions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Millions of gallons of water are needed per fracturing event and will likely put a substantial strain on regional surface and ground water supplies, as well as lead to changes in stream flow that may alter available habitat for freshwater biodiversity and other ecological processes in adjacent freshwater ecosystems. There is a great need for the development of region-wide flow policies to protect stream ecosystems and enhance long-term management of aquatic resources. To that end, this project will develop model(s) that predict ecological responses to flow alteration within the Marcellus Shale region of the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC).
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Mordecai, Rua
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