Climate Change in America's National Parks: Historical and Projected Climate Change Trends in the 411 US National Parks
Thursday, May 12, 2016
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. EST

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Overview: New spatial and statistical analyses of historical and projected climate change trends across the 50 U.S. states and each of the 411 U.S. national parks provide a set of consistent climate change data for vulnerability analyses and adaptation of management plans. The analyses provide results at 800 m spatial resolution for 1895-2010 historical climate from weather stations and 2000-2100 projected climate from downscaling of all available general circulation models and emissions scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report. The results indicate that the National Park System as a whole has experienced historical changes greater than the U.S. as a whole and that, without emissions reductions, climate change could cause future changes well above recent historical changes. Climate change summary reports for individual parks are providing information to help make resource management decisions based partly on climate change trends, impacts, and vulnerability.

About the Speaker​:​ ​Patrick Gonzalez is the Principal Climate Change Scientist of the U.S. National Park Service, based at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a forest ecologist, conducting research to detect impacts of climate change, analyze vulnerabilities, and quantify ecosystem carbon. He works with managers to adapt resource management, with policymakers to integrate science into policy, and with local people to implement community-based natural resource management. Dr. Gonzalez has conducted and published field research in Africa and North and South America. He has been honored as a Fulbright Scholar, a AAAS Diplomacy Fellow, and a speaker in the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science symposia. He has also served as a lead author for three reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

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About the Webinar Series

This monthly climate change webinar series is presented by the NPS Climate Change Response Program. The purpose of the series is to connect NPS employees, volunteers, and partners with scientists and experts in the field of climate change research. The webinar series is a Service-wide forum where researchers can share credible, up-to-date information and research materials about the impacts of changing climate in national parks and provide participants the opportunity to engage with them in discussion.

Presentations begin at 2 PM EST, on the second Thursday of the month, and last about 90 minutes. They are viewed by logging into GoToWebinar on-line at the time of the presentation. Audio is available via a call-in number (toll charges apply) or through your computer’s speakers (free, but may be limited by connection speed).

For more information about this webinar series or to be added to the mailing list, contact .