Climate Change Effects Along a Latitudinal Gradient in the Pacific Northwest: The USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center has completed a three-year long study investigating the effects of sea-level rise on nine tidal marshes in Washington and Oregon. With the goal of providing scientific data to support future coastal planning and conservation, the investigators compiled physical and biological data to assess and model how sea level rise may alter these ecosystems in the future.
 
Record-setting bloom of toxic algae in North Pacific: Algal blooms are the rapid accumulation of phytoplankton, or microscopic marine plants, and can be toxic depending on the presence of certain toxin-producing species. The North Pacific has been experiencing a record-breaking algal bloom along its coastal waters. The bloom has spread from the Aleutian Islands all the way to the coasts of southern California and continues to expand. Some species of phytoplankton produce neurotoxins that get passed up the food chain and become harmful toward marine mammals and humans. Along these impacted coasts a large number of marine mammal deaths have been reported. The cause of deaths is currently being investigated. 
 
When dams come down, salmon and sand can prosper: The decision to undam a river is usually based in the desire to bring back migratory species, like salmon, to the river’s ecosystem. However, the removal of dams on the Elwha River in northern Washington is demonstrating that the release of formerly dammed-up sediment can be equally desirable. Scientists from the USGS, National Park Service, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe have observed the rebuilding of an estuary and coast that had been gradually eroding since the dams were built in the early 20th Century. 
 
Flood protection plans by wealthy nations may work poorly in the long run: Deltas are highly sensitive to increasing risks arising from local human activities, land subsidence, regional water management, global sea-level rise, and climate extremes. Tessler et al. quantified changing flood risk due to extreme events using an integrated set of global environmental, geophysical, and social indicators. 
 
Flooding’s impact on wetlands measurable via low-cost approach: A new method for studying the impacts of sea-level rise on wetlands was recently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Scientists designed an in situ, low-cost enclosure called a weir that can realistically simulate low, intermediate, and high level flooding on coastal wetlands. The particular design of weirs enables scientists to manipulate its water level and drainage rate, making it functional under both high and low tides.

Scientists say that climate change is intensifying drought in California: The debate on the causes of the California drought continues. A research team concluded that global warming has intensified the drought in California by 15 to 20 percent and warned that future dry spells are likely to be as bad or worse than the current one. The team shows how climate change was responsible for between 8 to 27 percent of the soil moisture deficit that occurred in California between 2012 to 2014. However, Columbia University climate scientist A. Park Williams noted in an interview that the method used in the study did not take into account accelerated global warming trends since the 1970s. Taking this into account, climate change is most likely responsible for about 15 to 20% of the moisture deficit. 

Understanding the California drought as an extreme value: This study uses the statistical technique of extreme value theory to understand the probability of how often a drought as severe as California’s is expected to occur. The author, Scott Robeson of the University of Indiana at Bloomington, draws upon the method of Griffin and Anchukaitis (2014) but shows how their method had an error because it did not account for the respective areas (in square kilometers) of Central and Southern California. He uses observational data from 1895 – 2014 on the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) from tree rings to estimate the occurrence of droughts beginning in the year 800. 

Understanding the hydroclimatic conditions that preceded the 2014 Oso Landslide: A team of UW and UCLA researchers, along with USGS and NOAA scientists, have studied the hydroclimatic conditions that preceded the March 2014 Oso landslide, also called the SR 530 landslide by the State of Washington, in an effort to understand how and why it occurred.

Selecting climate change scenarios for specific impacts: Climate change studies oftentimes involve the selection of a small number of climate scenarios, with varied methods for how to select which climate models and scenarios should be chosen. Vano et al. develop a method that characterizes climate projections on an impacts spectrum that uses a sensitivity analysis technique described in Vano and Lettenmaier (2014). Performance of the climate models is specific to the Pacific Northwest region. 

Climate change presents increased potential for very large fires in the contiguous United States: Very large fires, which are typically defined as the top 5% or 10% of the largest fires, account for the majority of burned area in many parts of the US. Since the 1980s, the number of very large fires has increased. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, federal expenses on fire suppression in the US have more than doubled in recent decades, and the vast majority of these costs are spent on the suppression of very large fires, or VLFs. A new study by a team of researchers from the University of Idaho, US Forest Service and the Canadian Forest Service links VLFs to meteorological and climatological variability. Although this result is not new on its own, the study uses a large ensemble of global climate models (17) to estimate potential changes in VLF occurrence in the contiguous US. 
 
WA Experiences Worst Fire Year On Record: Washington has been experiencing its worse fire year on record, and the year is not yet completed. Approximately 732,608 acres have burned, and the Okanogan Complex fire has been the largest wildfire that the state has every seen. Prior to 2015, 2014 was considered to be the worst year yet. Washington Department of Natural Resources director Peter Goldmark stated “It’s been a wildfire season of enormous proportion and consequence and impact on people.” Goldmark further stated that the DNR’s staff and resources are stretched thin, despite the overwhelming number of volunteers they have had.
 

 

Obama Administration and the EPA Announce Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: On August 3, 2015, President Obama and the EPA announced the Clean Power Plan, which is an historical and significant step in reducing carbon emissions from power plants. The plan is designed to move the US toward cleaner and lower-emissions forms of energy production. The EPA finalized the Clean Power Plan Rule for cutting pollution from existing power plants. The plan sets standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32% by 2030 (relative to 2005 levels).
 
For Obama’s speech announcing the plan, see: https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change
 
Clean energy from water pipes comes to Portland: A start-up in Portland, Oregon is trying to use water pipes to create energy. LucidEnergy, which launched in 2007, is harnessing energy from running water in city water pipes. The company started with a pilot project in Riverside, California funded by the Department of Energy and now has a full-scale project in Portland. The system generating electricity is installed in sections of the water pipes where water flows downward due to gravity. There are four sections of pipe, and each has a generator and turbine that moves as water flows. The technology can be installed in cities like Riverside and Portland by replacing a section of existing pipe with Lucid’s pipe. 
 
Obama Makes Climate Change Central Message during Recent Visit to Alaska: In a recent visit to Alaska along with Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and White House Director of Science and Technology John P. Holdren, President Obama issued a global call for action on climate change and called climate change the “defining challenge of the century”. According to President Obama, “’Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now.’” The President warned that effects of global warming would soon be felt globally, submerging entire countries and annihilating cities – unless emissions are reduced. He emphasized repeatedly “’we’re not acting fast enough.’” As part of his trip, the President traveled to Kotzebue, above the Arctic Circle, where coastal erosion has been a serious problem for villages. At one point, the President compared climate change to World War II, stating that world leaders need to come together and address it.

Understanding ENSO Diversity: A new article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) discusses the diversity of behaviors that El Nino Southern Oscillation (called ENSO or just El Nino) years produce. Since this year has been widely discussed as being a large El Nino year, the article comes at a time when El Nino events are on the minds of many people in the western US. A typical way of understanding ENSO diversity is to compare sea surface temperature anomaly patterns at the peak of an El Nino year. Although there is debate over what will occur with ENSO patterns under climate change conditions, extreme El Nino events in terms of equatorial rainfall patterns are expected to increase in frequency (similar to what occurred in 1982-1983 and 1997-98 cases).
 
Natural Defenses from Hurricanes and Floods: A new report from the National Wildlife Federation discusses how to protect communities and ecosystems as extreme weather conditions increase. The report focuses on coastal regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and regions surrounding streams and rivers. It suggests that millions of people are in danger that live and work close to these areas and are at risk from floods and hurricanes. 
 
Groundwater depletion in California Causing Valley Land to Sink: The California Department of Water Resources released a new NASA report showing that the San Joaquin Valley is sinking at a faster rate than ever before, even up to about two inches per month in some locations. Due to the drought, groundwater is being pumped at a much higher rate, leading to record low levels of groundwater, according to Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. Sinking land, which is referred to as subsidence, is not a new phenomenon in California. However, it is occurring much faster than before, which puts infrastructure at a significant risk. 
 
Report on Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: A new report produced by a partnership between the Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory, the Northwest Climate Hub and the USDA Forest Service looks at climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies. The assessment discusses where scientists and practitioners need to focus in the Northwest to deal with climate risks. 
 

 

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