U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | WildREACH Workshop Agenda
- Wildlife Response to Environmental Arctic Change (WildREACH):
- Predicting Future Habitats of Arctic Alaska
- 17–18 November 2008
- Westmark Hotel
- Fairbanks, Alaska
- Agenda
Workshop Goals and Objectives
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is faced with the challenge of managing fish, wildlife, and habitat in an arctic environment that will likely be significantly altered by a changing climate over the next century. To meet this challenge, the Service needs to understand the probable consequences of global climate variability and change on arctic ecosystems. To this end, the workshop goal was to advance development of models that predict changes in habitat availability and suitability. Such models will help the Service and other land and resource managers prioritize management/conservation efforts on vulnerable species and habitats, and guide long-term management of arctic trust resources.
The workshop objective was to identify critical activities necessary to advance our understanding of the effects of climate change on birds, fish, and mammals of arctic Alaska. Specific informational needs in both the biological and physical sciences include:
- Species attributes that are anticipated to be sensitive indicators of predicted habitat change.
- Areas of uncertainty in physical and chemical process models that most substantially impede our ability to predict the response of fish and wildlife, and their habitats.
The results of the workshop will be summarized in a 5-year Strategic Plan that identifies priority research, modeling, and synthesis activities. The Strategic Plan will help guide policy and management decisions for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and will promote collaborative efforts among agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental agencies.
Download Final Agenda as PDF (84K)
Presentation Videos
Videos of each
talk are available through the Internet Media Archive
by clicking the Quicktime icon.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Monday, 17 November 2008 |
| Registration: | 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. |
| 7:30 a.m. | Arrival and Coffee Service |
| Plenary Session Held in Gold Room | |
| 8:00 a.m. |
Welcome
|
| 8:10 a.m. |
Introductions
|
| 8:30 a.m. | Workshop Goals and Structure
|
| 8:50 a.m. | Observed Climate Change in Northern Alaska
|
| 9:05 a.m. | Projected Climate of Northern Alaska
|
| 9:20 a.m. | Coastal Processes
|
| 9:35 a.m. | Permafrost and Active Layer Dynamics
|
| 9:55 a.m. | Permafrost-Influenced Geomorphic Processes
|
| 10:15 a.m. | Plenary Discussion/Q&A |
| 10:30 a.m. | Break |
| 10:50 a.m. | Vegetation Change
|
| 11:05 a.m. | Hydrologic Processes
|
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 11:20 a.m. | Hydrology Panel - Predicting Change
|
| 11:50 a.m. | Plenary Discussion/Q&A |
| 12:30 p.m. | Lunch (On your own) |
| 1:30 p.m. | Integration – Potential Ecosystem Pathways
|
| 1:50 p.m. | Charge to Working Groups
|
| 2:00 p.m. | Working Groups Breakout Session I Working Groups were presented with scenarios of climate and landscape change that would affect landscape-scale habitat availability, e.g., broad scale conversion from one habitat type to another. What species (or species attributes) would be sensitive indicators of the hypothesized changes?
|
| 3:30 p.m. | Break |
| 4:00 p.m. | Return to Plenary Session: Working Group Reports
|
| 5:00 p.m. | Summary of Day's Discussion; Plans for Day 2
|
| 5:15 p.m. | Adjourn |
| 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. |
Reception and Poster Session (Light food and cash bar)
|
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| Day 2 | Tuesday, 18 November 2008 |
| 8:00 a.m. | Arrival and Coffee Service |
| 8:15 a.m. | Review of Day 1 Discussion, Day 2 Goal, Workshop Products |
| 8:25 a.m. | Trophic Systems - Herbivores
|
| 8:40 a.m. | Trophic Systems - Aquatic
|
| 8:55 a.m. | Charge to Working Groups
|
| 9:10 a.m. |
Working Groups Breakout Session II Climate-associated processes may lead to changes in habitat suitability which cannot easily be equated with change in availability. Examples include: changes in water temperature that affect physiological processes of fish, enhanced food availability due to increased primary and secondary productivity, changing seasonality that results in asynchrony between optimal food availability and critical life history phases. Based on the scenarios of climate change outlined in the previous Breakout, what are the most important mechanisms by which climate would affect habitat suitability? Express the relationships and mechanisms in the format of "box-and-arrow" conceptual models. |
| 11:15 a.m. | Return to Plenary Session: Report of Working Groups
|
| 12:00 p.m. | Lunch (On your own) |
| 1:00 p.m. | Return to Plenary Session |
| 1:15 p.m. | Bayesian Network Modeling
|
| 1:30 p.m. |
Empirical Temperature Downscaling:
|
| 1:45 p.m. | Charge to Working Groups
|
| 2:00 p.m. | Working Groups Breakout Session III Focusing on the conceptual models identified in the previous breakout session, what are the key areas where reducing uncertainty in physical process models would enhance our ability to predict habitat change? What would we most like modelers and researchers in other disciplines to work on? |
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 3:30 p.m. | Break |
| 4:00 p.m. | Return to Plenary Session: Report of Working Groups
|
| 4:30 p.m. | Identify Areas of Commonality Among Working Groups
Panel Discussion: Working Group Leaders, Workshop Participants |
| 5:00 p.m. | Summary, Discussion, and Next Steps
|
| 5:15 p.m. | Workshop Adjourns |
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| Day 3 | Wednesday, 19 November 2008 |
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Conference Room, Federal Building | |
| 9:00 a.m. | Invited Writing Group
The third day included a small group of participants that are willing to make a substantial commitment to drafting and reviewing the final document from this workshop. |
| 12:00 p.m. | Adjourn |
