New funding for Climate Science Center

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has announced new research funding for Interior’s chain of regional climate change science centers, including the Alaska Climate Science Center, hosted by the University of Alaska.

Funding of more than $130,000, shared with the Northwest Climate Science Center and North Pacific Landscape Cooperative, will focus on helping Native groups plan for and adapt to climate change, Interior says.

“Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country,” said Jewell when announcing the funding. “These new studies, and others that are ongoing, will help provide valuable, unbiased science that land managers and others need, to identify tools and strategies to foster resilience in resources across landscapes in the face of climate change.”

Funded projects focused on Alaska include research into the decimation of subsistence berry harvests in Southcentral Alaska by a species of moth, in unprecedented moth outbreaks believed to be related to climate change. Another project will identify the climate vulnerabilities of eulachon, a highly nutritious form of smelt that people of the Tlingit Nation in Southeast Alaska depend on as a food source and as part of their culture.

The Alaska center will also continue five funded projects from earlier years, including climate research ranging from ecosystem modeling to understanding the impacts of coastal storms, Interior says.

—Alan Bailey