Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, North & West Alaska CESU

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The USGS Alaska Science Center seeks to provide financial assistance for research in the development of down-scaled climate projection models that generate future temperature and precipitation patterns at a higher temporal and spatial scale across Alaska and quantify sources and magnitudes of uncertainties associated with these projections. The research will strive to generate high resolution (<2 km), monthly data sets of future (21st century) temperature and precipitation for Alaska. The down-scaled projection models will also provide a robust understanding of the sources and magnitudes of uncertainties associated in the temperature and precipitation projections.Climate warming is occurring at unprecedented and alarming rates in Alaska. Large investments have been made in research to predict how climate will change in the future; however, these predictions occur at global scales and are without sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to provide inferences on how habitats and species will vary in response to changes in climate. The research solicited here will generate finer scale climate model predictions that will advance the capabilities of resource managers to address regional scale issues of climate change impacts on fish and wildlife and their habitats in Alaska, and make significant contributions in quantifying sources of uncertainties associated with downscaling methodologies and natural variability of the climate system.

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