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For additional information, see the
Southeast Mega-Region
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Links
to Material from the Gulf Coast Assessment Group:
Related Articles from the National Assessment's Newsletter, Acclimations.
Links to other Relevant Material
The Workshop
A workshop was held on February 25-27, 1998, organized by Southern
University and A&M College, an 1890 land grant university, in
collaboration with the Science and Engineering Alliance, a partnership of
four Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. As one of the OSTP/USGCRP regional climate
change workshops, the Gulf Coast workshop brought together a diverse group
of participants, including underrepresented groups, scientists, industry
representatives, state, regional, and national experts, and policy makers.
The workshop focused on six key sectors/issues:
- Wetland, Wildlife Habitat, and Estuaries;
- Farming and Forestry;
- Commerce, Industry, and Energy;
- Health, Water and Air Quality;
- Fisheries and Aquaculture; and
- Recreation, Tourism, and Coastal Community Life.
The workshop report includes the following topics:
- Identification of current stresses or issues concerning the region;
- Examination of how greater climate variability and climate change
interact with the current stresses;
- Discussion of the kinds of information needed to understand and
respond to these changes;
- Finding coping mechanisms and strategies that will be most effective
in reducing vulnerability and/or enhancing capabilities to adapt to or
mitigate the consequences of those changes; and
- Providing suggestions for national-scale research activities that
will contribute to regional information needs.
Issues for Analysis
The follow-up assessment focuses on three key sectors and issues that
are critical in the Gulf Coast region.
- Sector I. Coastal Ecosystem: the key issues include sea level
rise, hypoxia, salt water intrusion, water/hydrology, and wetland.
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- Sector II. Bottomland Forests and Urban Forests: the key
issues include forest ecological processes, health and species
distribution, habitat, and urban forests.
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- Sector III. Minority Environmental Justice: the key issues
include minority perceptions of climate change, climate change impact
on small farms and limited resource minority farmers, and consequences
of climate change and environmental in-justice issues for minority
communities.
Strategy for the Assessment
Teams comprised of experts and the spectrum of stakeholder communities
perform analyses through ten case studies related to the key issues. The
case studies are
- Impact of sea level rise on coastal landscape,
- Climate change impacts on low oxygen zones and its effects on
fisheries,
- Assessing the potential climate change impacts on salinity in
northern Gulf of Mexico estuaries,
- Hydrologic implications of first and second order climate change,
- Wetland soil stability with accelerated sea level rise rates,
- Climate change and ecological processes of the forests,
- Climate change impacts on the health and distribution of mangrove
communities,
- Predicting the effects of sea-level rise on coastal vegetation
habitat,
- Urban forests and carbon dioxide sequestration, and
- Soil organic matter in coastal urban forest island soil: effects of
climate and water balance.
Common climate and socioeconomic scenarios are used to derive
information for each of two sectors, to test out sensitivities, and to
develop information that can be effectively synthesized. The regional
assessment focuses on two time periods. A review of past (1895-1993)
climate change and its impacts is based on an extensive literature review.
Projections of future (2030 and 2100) climate change and its impacts are
assessed by running climate change models with specific sets of sectoral
scenarios and variables. The preliminary results of the assessment were
incorporated in the National Assessment Synthesis report (see Overview
& Foundation).
The final results will be published in a regional report, a compendium,
and journals. Outreach and stakeholder involvement is also a fundamental
part of the assessment. The Assessment report is expected during 2002.
Principal Investigator |
Zhu Hua Ning, Southern University |
Co-Principal Investigator |
Kamran Abdollahi, Southern University |
Coordinating Federal Agency |
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
Agency Representative |
Susan Herrod-Julius, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
Key Sectors/Issues |
- Coastal Ecosystems
- Bottomland Forests and Urban Forests
- Minority Environmental Justice
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Assessment Team
- Sector I. Coastal Ecosystems:
- Drs. E Turner, D. Justic', E. Reyes, and E. Swenson, Coastal
Ecology Institute, LSU, Baton Rouge, LA
- Dr. Virginia Burkett and Thomas Doyle, USGS National Wetland
Research Center, Lafayette, LA;
- Dr. James Mitchell, Institute of Environmental Studies, LSU, Baton
Rouge, LA
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- Sector II. Bottomland Forests and Urban Forests:
- Drs. Z. H. Ning and K. K. Abdollahi, Southern University, Baton
Rouge, LA
- Dr. James Chamber, Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge,
LA;
- Dr. G. F. Shao at Purdue University, West Lafayette, ID
- Dr. Thomas Doyle, USGS National Wetland Research Center,
Lafayette, LA;
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- Climatologists:
- Drs. Jay Grymes and Robert Muller, Southern Regional Climate
Center, LSU, Baton Rouge, LA
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