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Projects RSS
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Increasing Resiliency of Beach Habitats and Species
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This project is a coordinated effort by Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) partners to integrate existing data, models and tools with foundational data and assessments of both the impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the immediate response. The project will integrate new and existing data and build decision support tools to guide beach restoration, management and conservation actions. Project objectives are to sustain ecological function, habitat suitability for wildlife, and ecosystem services including flood abatement in the face of storm impacts and sea level rise.
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Identifying Resilient Sites for Coastal Conservation
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Sea levels are expected to rise by one to six feet over the next century, and coastal sites vary markedly in their ability to accommodate such inundation. In response to this threat, scientists from The Nature Conservancy evaluated 10,736 sites in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for the size, configuration and adequacy of their migration space, and for the natural processes necessary to support the migration of coastal habitats in response to sea-level rise.
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Decision Support Framework for Sea-level Rise Impacts
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One of the principal impacts of sea-level rise will be the loss of land in coastal areas through erosion and submergence of the coastal landscape. However, changes vary across space and time and are difficult to predict because landforms such as beaches, barriers, and marshes can respond to sea level rise in complicated, dynamic ways. This project developed decision support models to address critical management decisions at regional and local scales, considering both dynamic and simple inundation responses to sea-level rise.
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Beach and Tidal Habitat Inventories
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This series of reports, databases, and data layers generated using Google Earth imagery provides an inventory of sandy beach and tidal inlet habitats from Maine to North Carolina, as well as modifications to sandy beaches and tidal inlets prior to, immediately after, and three years after Hurricane Sandy.
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Atlantic and Gulf Coast Resiliency Project
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Coastal change is a shared challenge along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, yet there are vast differences in the tools and information available in these regions. This project coordinated, synthesized, and delivered coastal resilience information, activities and lessons learned across the coastal portion of the Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) network.
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Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Models
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The project developed habitat capability models for representative wildlife species. It was part of a project led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst to enhance the capacity of partners to assess and design sustainable landscape conservation in the Northeast. These models (as subsequently expanded and enhanced by UMass) have been incorporated into two North Atlantic LCC-sponsored projects, "Connect the Connecticut" and "Nature's Network."
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River Corridor Assessment for the North Atlantic Region
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An urgent need exists to uniformly assess river corridors, including floodplains, and to prioritize areas for protection across the North Atlantic landscape. This project will develop a river corridor assessment method and conservation prioritization toolkit. The tools will be tested through three pilot projects across different topographies before being expanded to additional river corridors across the region.
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Priority Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Areas (PARCAs)
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Amphibians and reptiles are experiencing threats throughout North America due to habitat loss and other factors. To help conserve these species, this project will identify Priority Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Areas (PARCAs) that are most vital in sustaining amphibian and reptile populations, taking into account potential future climatic conditions.
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Prioritization and Conservation Status of Rare Plants in the North Atlantic
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This project created a prioritized list of rare plant species for conservation actions, with a comprehensive analysis of rarity, threats, trends, legal protection, inclusion in State Wildlife Action Plan revisions, conservation status, habitat, and climate change.
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North Atlantic LCC Demonstration Project: White Mountains to Moosehead Lake Initiative
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The purpose of this demonstration project was to show how North Atlantic LCC science products can be used to inform conservation for a Northeast habitat and resilience "hotspot." The Trust for Public Land will integrate LCC and other science products into a clearinghouse and analysis tool for parcel-level conservation planning in the 2.7 million acre White Mountains to Moosehead Lake region of Maine and New Hampshire.
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Impacts of Climate Change on Stream Temperature
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This study gathered existing stream temperature data, identified data gaps, deployed temperature monitoring to locations lacking data, and compared state-of-the-art stream temperature models across the Northeast domain.
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Designing Sustainable Landscapes
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This project highlights the potential for collaboration and coordination among conservation practitioners and research scientists to plan for the future. A team of UMass scientists has developed a landscape change, assessment and design model to assess ecosystems and their capacity to sustain populations of wildlife in the northeastern U.S. in the face of urban growth, climate change, and other stressors. The project plays a major role in developing the science and data for two collaborative landscape planning and design efforts: 1) Connect the Connecticut, the pilot Landscape Conservation Design for the Connecticut River Watershed, and 2) Nature's Network, which expands and elaborates on the data to extend to throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Using the best available science and information, participating partners are developing tools and strategies for conserving a connected network of lands and waters to sustain natural resources and communities within the watershed.
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Designing Sustainable Landscapes, Phase 2
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This project is assessing the capability of habitats to sustain populations of wildlife in the Northeastern U.S. in the face of urban growth, changing climate, and other disturbances. Building on Phase 1, this project expands the geographic scope from three pilot watersheds to the 13 state Northeast region and considers additional wildlife species.
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Climate Change Vulnerability Index for Northeast species
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NatureServe and Heritage Program collaborators have developed a Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) to provide a rapid, scientifically defensible assessment of species' vulnerability to climate change. The CCVI integrates information about exposure to altered climates and species-specific sensitivity factors known to be associated with vulnerability to climate change. This project applied the CCVI to 64 species selected in collaboration with state wildlife staff and other experts.
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Permeable Landscapes for Wildlife in the Northeast
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Landscape permeability, also referred to as "habitat connectivity," is the ability of a land area to allow animals to move and disperse. This project evaluated and mapped landscape permeability across the eastern United States and southeastern Canada.
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Protection of Critical Beach-nesting Bird Habitats in the Wake of Severe Coastal Storms
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Scientists developed models to examine the influence of landscape-scale variables like sea-level rise and beach-management strategies on bird nesting suitability.
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North Atlantic LCC Demonstration Project: Climate Adaptation in Appalachian Forests
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The goal of the project was to help more efficiently achieve a resilient Appalachian forest landscape within the NALCC geography that would be built upon a broadly shared vision for a sustainable, connected mosaic of forest habitats and waters that are home to thriving intact ecosystems and human communities. This project was intended to identify and showcase efforts that, in the light of advances in climate adaptation, best contribute to effective landscape conservation actions in the region.
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Forecasting Changes in Aquatic Systems and Resilience of Brook Trout
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The objective of this project was to develop tools to assist managers in protecting and restoring streams for brook trout and other aquatic resources in the face of threats such as climate change and development. Deliverables from this project included models of stream temperature, stream flow, and brook trout occurrence for headwaters of the Northeast, including projections of the potential effects of climate change. The investigators worked closely with decision-makers such as state water resource agencies to ensure the tools are useful.
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Designing Sustainable Coastal Landscapes in the Face of Sea-level Rise and Storms
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Under a cooperative agreement funded by the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Mitigation Fund, Designing Sustainable Coastal Landscapes in the Face of Sea-level Rise and Storms, will add needed coastally relevant information to the Designing Sustainable Landscapes project for the North Atlantic region.
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Designing Sustainable Landscapes, Phase 1
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The purpose of this project was to assess the capability of current and potential future landscapes to provide integral ecosystems and suitable habitat for a suite of representative species, and provide guidance for strategic habitat conservation. Part of the project included a comparison and evaluation of a representative (focal) species approach against a coarse filter (ecosystem-based) approach to biodiversity conservation to assess what set of complementary approaches are most effective. This was an 18-month first phase that focused on three pilot watersheds and initial model development.
