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New Report Details Climate Change Challenges and Adaptation Strategies for the Marshall Islands

Growing challenges from sea level rise and risks to water and food security and human health are among the major issues detailed in a new report on climate change in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Considerations for managing threatened resources, including fresh water, fisheries, and infrastructure, are outlined in the report by the Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA), a consortium of several government, NGO, and research entities.

Climate Change in the Republic of the Marshall Islands: Indicators and Considerations for Key Sectors is one in a series of PIRCA reports. Authors from Arizona State University, the East-West Center, the Majuro Weather Service Office, and the University of Hawaiʻi—along with 29 technical contributors from local government, NGOs, and research—collaboratively developed the RMI PIRCA report. Read More

Building an Intelligent Data Exploring Assistant for Pacific RISA

Advances in natural-language processing and large language models (LLMs), such as those utilized by ChatGPT, are transforming how geoscientists interact with complex datasets, enabling efficient and intuitive scientific analyses. As part of the Tracking and Communicating on Sea Level Pacific RISA project, PI Widlansky and the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Center (UHSLC) are developing tools that use LLMs to allow researchers to ask questions in everyday language and receive clear explanations and data analyses in response, minimizing the need for time-consuming tech support for project managers. One such tool, called the Station Explorer Assistant (SEA), draws on the UHSLC’s extensive databases and uses AI to analyze sea level data, compare water levels to normal conditions, and predict potential flooding. It even writes and runs its own analysis software, which it shows the user to check that its results are accurate. By making sea level science easier to understand and access, SEA can support communities adapting to rising seas and other coastal challenges.  Read More

New Publication on Islands and Invasive Species

A recent white paper, co-authored by Pacific RISA’s Laura Brewington and the U.S. Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC) highlights the critical importance of islands to the United States, and the harmful impacts that invasive species have on them. In “Island Resilience is American Resilience: Actions Towards Reducing the Impacts of Invasive Species on US and US Affiliated Islands,” the authors outline how U.S. and U.S.-affiliated islands, such as Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaiʻi, and the Freely Associate States, contribute vital components to national and global food production, economies, biodiversity, cultural heritage, and security. Read More

Advancing Climate Services for Food Production in Palau

This February, the Pacific RISA team traveled to Palau for a week to support the co-development of climate services and products that are locally relevant, impact-driven, support sector-based decision making, and to build local capacity to access and use climate data and information. Part of the team’s international work on climate services delivery, the week advanced our research on climate impacts to human health and agriculture, key priority areas for Palau as identified in multiple national reports and planning documents. Read More

Announcing the Pacific RISA 2023-2024 Annual Report

The Pacific RISA 2023-2024 Annual Report is LIVE!

This year, our third year of Phase IV funding, we accelerated research, outreach, and policy implementation with outcomes across all aspects of the program: engaged with Native Hawaiian and frontline or underserved communities; advanced modeling and visualization tools focused on the Island of Kauaʻi as a research hub; led authorship of the Hawaiʻi and Pacific Islands chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment; mapped compound flooding impacts; informed US federal agencies about the dual threat of invasive species and climate change, and initiated the next-generation of Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) reports.
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Climate Change and Endangered Species Conservation in the Wai‘anae Mountains

The Pacific RISA Team recently took a field day to volunteer with the Army Natural Resources Program on Oʻahu (ANRPO) in the Wai‘anae Mountains, where we got to see firsthand what it takes to manage and restore some of Hawai‘i’s most remote and precarious native ecosystems. Read More

Palau Climate Services and Coordination Workshop

As part of Pacific RISA’s UNEP CIS-Pac5 research program on climate information and early warning systems, the team convened a Sector-based Climate Services and Coordination Workshop in Koror, Palau from February 26 to March 1, 2024. The workshop was funded by the Green Climate Fund and hosted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific RISA, and the University of Hawaii in partnership with the Palau Ministry of Finance Bureau of Budget and Planning, Palau Office of Climate Change, and the Palau Weather Service Office.

Participants at the Sector-based Climate Services and Coordination Workshop included President Surangel Whipps of Palau and US Ambassador to Palau Joel Ehrendreich, center.

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Invasive Species Threaten US Climate Change Resilience

Invasive species are a significant threat to climate-preparedness and resilience, according to a new white paper prepared for the US Department of the Interior by the Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC). The paper, Invasive Species Threaten the Success of Climate Change Adaptation Efforts, addresses one of the most critical intersections between invasive species and climate change—where invasive species are posing a direct threat to natural climate solutions and climate resilience—and provides recommendations for action at the federal level.

“There are many examples—in the Pacific Islands and beyond—of how efforts to prevent and manage invasive species have resulted in more climate-resilient communities, ecosystems, and economies”, said white paper author and Pacific RISA Co-Lead Investigator Laura Brewington

Executive Order No. 14008 mandates that US federal agencies and departments develop Climate Change Adaptation Plans to enhance the nation’s resilience to climate change, but invasive species are also documented to reduce the effectiveness of climate adaptation and mitigation actions. For example, fire-tolerant invasive grasses are supercharging wildfires in many parts of the United States, including Hawaii and the US Pacific Islands, which not only threatens critical infrastructure and ecosystems, but also reduces wildland climate resilience and carbon storage capacity.  In spite of this, only eight of the 26 federal Climate Change Adaptation Plans directly reference invasive species, and just four meaningfully consider the reciprocal impact of invasive species on climate adaptation efforts.

The devastation of Lahaina, Maui, after wildfires fueled by invasive grasses and high winds in August, 2023
Credit: Elyse Butler

To develop recommendations for addressing this intersection of climate and invasive species, the ISAC author team conducted a gap analysis of the US Climate Change Adaptation Plans and synthesized case studies around the impacts of invasive species on US climate resilience. The five recommendations, if implemented, would transform how invasive species are considered within federal climate change planning, programs, and policies.

Five key recommendations for US federal agencies and departments to integrate invasive species into climate adaptation planning and processes. Source: ISAC 2023

“Our research confirmed what we already suspected: federal agencies have not yet actively integrated invasive species management into climate action planning, funding, and implementation—and they must take clear steps to do so in order to meet their own climate goals,” said Leigh Greenwood, TNC’s Director of Forest Pests and Pathogens programs and Chair of ISAC’s Climate Change subcommittee. “Each of the five recommendations is achievable and would help protect both people and nature from the damaging impacts of climate change.”

Download and share the full 2023 ISAC climate change white paper!

Featured image: Water hyacinth, a fast growing invasive weed that clogs waterways and flood control mechanisms in the southeastern United States. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife (via Flickr).