Resources

Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas, protects many archeological sites in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands region of southwest Texas. Sites are affected by lake level fluctuations related to climate change impacts including precipitation, storms, and changes in agricultural water use. Park managers are documenting the impact of changing water levels on the cultural resources in the park. 

In Florida, the Fort Pickens Road within Gulf Islands National Seashore is regularly destroyed by storms, and repairs are expensive and time consuming. The park continues to reevaluate the local conditions and implement cost-effective, sustainable modes of visitor access to Fort Pickens beaches and the historic fort. 

Golden Gate National Recreation Area is collaborating with local, state, and federal agencies to develop a long-term management strategy for Ocean Beach, where bluff erosion threatens natural and recreational resources, wastewater infrastructure, and a roadway (the Great Highway). Sea level rise and increased storminess are expected to increase the frequency of erosional events. 

Coastal areas face multiple risks related to climate change and variability.

What happens to island and coastal communities in a shifting ocean? This is a question many of Maine’s island and coastal communities are beginning to ask. With changing conditions above and below the ocean, it is important to start identifying these shifts and what coastal communities can do to start preparing.

The Global Marine Hotspots Network was created because the oceans are not warming evenly and those areas that are warming the fastest – ocean warming ‘hotspots’ – can be considered as the world’s natural laboratories to provide the knowledge and tools to enable us to adapt wisely, efficiently, and effectively to meet the challenges of a warming environment.

Atlantic salmon populations have declined throughout North America and Europe in recent decades. These declines have exhibited similar patterns over broad geographic areas, and previous studies have shown correlations between salmon declines and changing marine ecosystem conditions.

The North-central California coast and ocean is a globally significant and extraordinarily productive marine and coastal ecosystem that boasts an array of local, state and federal protected areas and other managed lands. Despite this richness and attention to conservation, this region is still vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The California Coastal Commission Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance serves as interpretive guidelines for addressing sea level rise primarily in local coastal program (LCP) certifications and updates, as well as in coastal development permit (CDP) decisions (California Coastal Commission 2015).