May 2018 Newsletter
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Urban Growth Leads to Shorter, More Intense Wet Seasons in Florida Peninsula

New research from Florida State University scientists has found that urban areas throughout the Florida peninsula are experiencing shorter, increasingly intense wet seasons relative to underdeveloped or rural areas. The study, published in the Nature Partner Journal Climate and Atmospheric Science, provides new insight into the question of land development's effect on seasonal climate processes. Using a system that indexed urban land cover on a scale of one to four - one being least urban and four being most urban - the researchers mapped the relationship between land development and length of wet season. "What we found is a trend of decreasing wet-season length in Florida's urban areas compared to its rural areas," said Vasu Misra, associate professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science and lead investigator of the study.

Following the Money: Financial Credit Drives Urban Land-use Change in the United States

Conservationists and natural resource managers have lost ground over the past 20 years as more and more natural land-especially on the coast-has given way to homes and businesses, threatening the natural ecosystem. University of Miami Associate Professor in Biology Kathleen Sullivan Sealey and her colleagues set out to find out why by investigating the ecology of finance and the financial innovations that have facilitated rapid housing development. In a study published in the journal Anthropocene entitled, "Financial credit drives urban land-use change in the United States," Sealey and her team borrowed concepts from ecology, finance, urban studies, and complex systems to develop a hypothesis about the fundamental shifts in the flow of money throughout the entire development and construction process. The paper lays the foundation for a new area of research in the coupled human-natural systems linking modern finance to climate and ecological change. "After three years of research that included a case study specific for South Florida, we found that the greatest attribute for the housing boom, from 1980 to 2008, was the key changes in banking regulations in the 1970s that allowed for increased availability of credit," said Sealey. "The key component was the ability to transfer investment risks for developers and lending institutions."

Sea Level Rise and Coastal Cities 2018 Spring Break Field Course

Materials are now available online from the Sea Level Rise and Coastal Cities 2018 Spring Break Field Course. This interdisciplinary team-taught course -- offered and taught by faculty from the UF Colleges of Design, Construction & Planning, Engineering, Law, and Journalism -- was coordinated by the Florida Climate Institute. In the first part of the semester, students were introduced via lecture to climate science, fundamentals of the planning & design, law & policy, engineering, and communications challenges that sea-level rise presents for coastal cities, using St. Augustine, with its unique cultural heritage and resources, as a case study. During an intensive field segment in St. Augustine over spring break, multidisciplinary grad student teams developed adaptation strategies to address the challenges of increased coastal flooding, outlining law and policy, historic preservation, design, infrastructure, and communication approaches. Working with city officials, staff, residents, and other experts, UF students applied their classroom learning to address real-world problems, developing creative solutions to pressing challenges facing coastal cities today.

UF Professor Wins Pulitzer for Book on Gulf

University of Florida history professor Jack E. Davis is the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History for his book " The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea," the Pulitzer Prize Board announced today. "The Gulf" also won the Kirkus Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, was a New York Times Notable Book, and made a number of other "best of" lists in national publications. When Davis first conceived of "The Gulf," the Deepwater Horizon accident that dumped 130 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico had not yet happened. That Davis was writing a history of the Gulf around the same time as the largest oil spill in history was coincidental, and allowed him to focus on aspects other than the spill, which he says, "seemed to rob the Gulf of Mexico of its true identity. I wanted to restore it, to show people that the Gulf is more than an oil spill," he said. "It's got a rich, natural history connected to Americans, and it's not integrated into the larger American historical narrative. That's a wrong I wanted to correct."

Honors/Updates

Marianne Schmink (UF) was awarded a 2018 UF " Champions for Change" award for her work with the Community Weatherization Coalition.

Michael Martinez-Colon (FAMU) received a FAMU 2017 Emerging Researcher Award. This award is given to outstanding younger faculty members who engage in all areas of research and who demonstrate research excellence in their own fields of expertise.
Additional News

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for action on climate change ( The Economist - Apr 5, 2018)

Harvard says this is how Miami Beach avoids a 'dystopian' future of sea level rise ( Miami Herald - Apr 12, 2018)

She wants to put her house on stilts. The idea could save Miami's flood-prone homes ( Miami Herald - Apr 18, 2018)

Miami Beach's future is 'uncertain,' experts say, but sea rise pumps are a good start ( Miami Herald - Apr 19, 2018)

The risk of sea level rise is chipping away at Miami home values, new research shows ( Miami Herald - Apr 24, 2018)

How will sea level rise affect your home? Miami is creating a tool that will show you ( Miami Herald - Apr 26, 2018)

Mosquito season could get longer and more hazardous to your health - especially in Miami ( Miami Herald - May 1, 2018)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article204971334.html#storylink
Events
 
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Available Now! A New Book from the FCI: Florida's Climate: Changes, Variations, & Impacts

Florida's Climate: Changes, Variations, & Impacts provides a thorough review of the current state of research on Florida's climate, including physical climate benchmarks; climate prediction, projection, and attribution; and the impacts of climate and climate change on the people and natural resources in the state. The book is available for purchase in paperback and Kindle format at Amazon.com. Individual chapters may be accessed on the FCI website.
Publications
FCI affiliates and/or authors from FCI member universities are in bold.
 
Bellomo, K., Murphy, L. N., Cane, M. A., Clement, A. C., & Polvani, L. M. (2018). Historical forcings as main drivers of the Atlantic multidecadal variability in the CESM large ensemble. Clim Dyn, 50(9-10), 3687-3698.
Bertassello, L. E., Rao, P.  S. C., Park, J., Jawitz, J. W., & Botter, G. (2018). Stochastic modeling of wetland-groundwater systems. Advances in Water Resources, 112, 214-223.
Bonneau, M., Sabbadin, R., Johnson, F. A., Stith, B., & Hewitt, J. (2018). Dynamic minimum set problem for reserve design: Heuristic solutions for large problems. PLoS ONE, 13(3), e0193093.
Breithaupt, J. L., Smoak, J. M., Byrne, R. H., Waters, M. N., Moyer, R. P., & Sanders, C. J. (2018). Avoiding timescale bias in assessments of coastal wetland vertical change. Limnol. Oceanogr., 63(S1), S477-S495.
Broo, J., Mahoney, J., Bokor, J., & Hahn, D. (2018). Drowsy Drosophila: Rapid Evolution in the Face of Climate Change. Am Biol Teach, 80(4), 272-277.
Cabezas, A., Mitsch, W. J., MacDonnell, C., Zhang, L., Bydalek, F., & Lasso, A. (2018). Methane emissions from mangrove soils in hydrologically disturbed and reference mangrove tidal creeks in southwest Florida. Ecological Engineering, 114, 57-65.
Carlson, D. F., Yarbro, L. A., Scolaro, S., Poniatowski, M., McGee-Absten, V., & Carlson Jr., P. R. (2018). Sea surface temperatures and seagrass mortality in Florida Bay: Spatial and temporal patterns discerned from MODIS and AVHRR data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 208, 171-188.
Ditri, A., Minnett, P., Liu, Y., Kilpatrick, K., & Kumar, A. (2018). The Accuracies of Himawari-8 and MTSAT-2 Sea-Surface Temperatures in the Tropical Western Pacific Ocean. Remote Sensing, 10(2), 212.
Engström, J., & Keellings, D. (2018). Drought in the Southeastern USA: an assessment of downscaled CMIP5 models. Clim. Res., 74(3), 251-262.
Fujisaki, I., Lamont, M., & Carthy, R. (2018). Temporal shift of sea turtle nest sites in an eroding barrier island beach. Ocean & Coastal Management, 155, 24-29.
Gordon, T. A. C., Harding, H. R., Clever, F. K., ... Harborne, A. R., et al. (2018). Fishes in a changing world: learning from the past to promote sustainability of fish populations. J Fish Biol, 92(3), 804-827.
Gravinese, P. M., Enochs, I. C., Manzello, D. P., & van Woesik, R. (2018). Warming and pCO(2) effects on Florida stone crab larvae. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 204, 193-201.
Hernandez-Ochoa, I. M., & Asseng, S. (2018). Cropping Systems and Climate Change in Humid Subtropical Environments. Agronomy, 8(2), 19.
Huenteler, J., Tang, T., Chan, G., & Anadon, L. D. (2018). Why is China's wind power generation not living up to its potential? Environ. Res. Lett., 13(4), 044001.
Hussain, J., Khaliq, T., Ahmad, A., Akhter, J., & Asseng, S. (2018). Wheat Responses to Climate Change and Its Adaptations: A Focus on Arid and Semi-arid Environment. Int J Environ Res, 12(1), 117-126.
James, S. A., Soltis, P. S., Belbin, L., Chapman, A. D., Nelson, G., Paul, D. L., & Collins, M. (2018). Herbarium data: Global biodiversity and societal botanical needs for novel research. Appl Plant Sci, 6(2), e1024.
Kim, D., Moon, Y., Camargo, S. J., Wing, A. A., Sobel, A. H., Murakami, H., et al. (2018). Process-Oriented Diagnosis of Tropical Cyclones in High-Resolution GCMs. J. Climate, 31(5), 1685-1702.
Kim, S., Saenz, B., Scanniello, J., Daly, K., & Ainley, D. (2018). Local climatology of fast ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 30(02), 125-142.
Larson, S. M., Vimont, D. J., Clement, A. C., & Kirtman, B. P. (2018). How Momentum Coupling Affects SST Variance and Large-Scale Pacific Climate Variability in CESM. J. Climate, 31(7), 2927-2944.
Le Quéré, C., Andrew, R. M., Friedlingstein, P., ... Barbero, L., ... Millero, F., ... Pierrot, D., et al. (2018). Global Carbon Budget 2017. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10(1), 405-448.
Leatherman, S. P. (2018). Coastal Erosion and the United States National Flood Insurance Program. Ocean & Coastal Management, 156, 35-42.
Li, C., & Monroe, M. C. (2018). Development and Validation of the Climate Change Hope Scale for High School Students. Environment and Behavior, 50(4), 454-479.
Lü, X., Lu, T., Kibert, C., Vahtikari, K., Hughes, M., & Zhao, Y. (2018). A dynamic modelling approach for simulating climate change impact on energy and hygrothermal performances of wood buildings. Build. Simul., 11(3), 497-506.
Malone, S. L., Schoettle, A. W., Coop, J. D., & Zang, R. G. (2018). The future of subalpine forests in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Trajectories for Pinus aristata genetic lineages. PLoS ONE, 13(3), e0193481.
McCarthy, M., Otis, D., Méndez-Lázaro, P., & Muller-Karger, F. (2018). Water Quality Drivers in 11 Gulf of Mexico Estuaries. Remote Sensing, 10(2), 255.
McClelland, S. C., Arndt, C., Gordon, D. R., & Thoma, G. (2018). Type and number of environmental impact categories used in livestock life cycle assessment: A systematic review. Livestock Science, 209, 39-45.
Melvin, A. M., Celis, G., Johnstone, J. F., McGuire, A. D., Genet, H., Schuur, E. A. G., et al. (2018). Fuel-reduction management alters plant composition, carbon and nitrogen pools, and soil thaw in Alaskan boreal forest. Ecol Appl, 28(1), 149-161.
Misra, V., Mishra, A., Bhardwaj, A., Viswanthan, K., & Schmutz, D. (2018). The potential role of land cover on secular changes of the hydroclimate of Peninsular Florida. Clim Atmos Sci, 1(1).
Mitra, R., & Buzzanell, P. M. (2018). Implementing Sustainability in Organizations: How Practitioners Discursively Position Work. Management Communication Quarterly, 32(2), 172-201.
Moore, B. D., Kaur, G., Motavalli, P. P., Zurweller, B. A., & Svoma, B. M. (2018). Soil greenhouse gas emissions from agroforestry and other land uses under different moisture regimes in lower Missouri River Floodplain soils: a laboratory approach. Agroforestry Systems, 92(2), 335-348.
Nasim, W., Amin, A., Fahad, S., Awais, M., Khan, N., Mubeen, M., et al. (2018). Future risk assessment by estimating historical heat wave trends with projected heat accumulation using SimCLIM climate model in Pakistan. Atmospheric Research, 205, 118-133.
Nicholls, R. J., Brown, S., Goodwin, P., Wahl, T., Lowe, J., Solan, M., et al. (2018). Stabilization of global temperature at 1.5°C and 2.0°C: implications for coastal areas. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 376(2119), 20160448.
Paff, K., & Asseng, S. (2018). A review of tef physiology for developing a tef crop model. European Journal of Agronomy, 94, 54-66.
Parkinson, J. E., Bartels, E., Devlin-Durante, M. K., Lustic, C., Nedimyer, K., Schopmeyer, S., Lirman, D., et al. (2018). Extensive transcriptional variation poses a challenge to thermal stress biomarker development for endangered corals. Mol Ecol, 27(5), 1103-1119.
Pausch, R., Williams, D., & Miller, M. (2018). Impacts of fragment genotype, habitat, and size on outplanted elkhorn coral success under thermal stress. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 592, 109-117.
Payne, N. L., Meyer, C. G., Smith, J. A., ... Papastamatiou, Y. P., et al. (2018). Combining abundance and performance data reveals how temperature regulates coastal occurrences and activity of a roaming apex predator. Glob Change Biol, 24(5), 1884-1893.
Qiu, J., Carpenter, S. R., Booth, E., Motew, M., Zipper, S. C., Kucharik, C., et al. (2018). Understanding relationships among ecosystem services across spatial scales and over time. Environmental Research Letters, .
Roopsind, A., Caughlin, T. T. van der H., P., Arets, E., & Putz, F. E. (2018). Trade-offs between carbon stocks and timber recovery in tropical forests are mediated by logging intensity. Global Change Biology, .
Rosenzweig, C., Ruane, A. C., Antle, J., ... Hoogenboom, G., ... Porter, C., Raymundo, R. M., et al. (2018). Coordinating AgMIP data and models across global and regional scales for 1.5°C and 2.0°C assessments. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 376(2119), 20160455.
Ross, C., Fogarty, N. D., Ritson-Williams, R., & Paul, V. J. (2017). Interspecific Variation in Coral Settlement and Fertilization Success in Response to Hydrogen Peroxide Exposure. The Biological Bulletin, 233(3), 206-218.
Ryan, S. F., Deines, J. M., Scriber, J. M., Pfrender, M. E., Jones, S. E., Emrich, S. J., et al. (2018). Climate-mediated hybrid zone movement revealed with genomics, museum collection, and simulation modeling. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 115(10), E2284-E2291.
Salerno, J., Chapman, C. A., Diem, J. E., Dowhaniuk, N., Goldman, A., MacKenzie, C. A., et al. (2018). Park isolation in anthropogenic landscapes: land change and livelihoods at park boundaries in the African Albertine Rift. Reg Environ Change, 18(3), 913-928.
Sealey, K. S., Binder, P. - M., & Burch, R. K. (2018). Financial credit drives urban land-use change in the United States. Anthropocene, 21, 42-51.
Skubel, R., Kirtman, B., Fallows, C., & Hammerschlag, N. (2018). Patterns of long-term climate variability and predation rates by a marine apex predator, the white shark Carcharodon carcharias. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 587, 129-139.
Spiegal, S., Bestelmeyer, B. T., Archer, D. W., Augustine, D. J., Boughton, E. H., Boughton, R. K., et al. (2018). Evaluating strategies for sustainable intensification of US agriculture through the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network. Environ. Res. Lett., 13(3), 034031.
Steinmuller, H. E., & Chambers, L. G. (2018). Can Saltwater Intrusion Accelerate Nutrient Export from Freshwater Wetland Soils? An Experimental Approach. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 82(1), 283.
Stephens, B. B., Long, M. C., Keeling, R. F., ... Atlas, E. L., ...Donets, V., ... Schauffler, S. M., et al. (2018). The O-2/N-2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean Study. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 99(2), 381-402.
Teegavarapu, R. S. V., & Goly, A. (2018). Optimal Selection of Predictor Variables in Statistical Downscaling Models of Precipitation. Water Resour Manage, 32(6), 1969-1992.
Tesfaye, K., Kruseman, G., Cairns, J. E., ... Boote, K. J., et al. (2018). Potential benefits of drought and heat tolerance for adapting maize to climate change in tropical environments. Climate Risk Management, 19, 106-119.
Treuer, G., Broad, K., & Meyer, R. (2018). Using simulations to forecast homeowner response to sea level rise in South Florida: Will they stay or will they go? Global Environmental Change, 48, 108-118.
Turner, R. E., Kearney, M. S., & Parkinson, R. W. (2018). Sea-Level Rise Tipping Point of Delta Survival. Journal of Coastal Research, 342, 470-474.
Wadgymar, S. M., Ogilvie, J. E., Inouye, D. W., Weis, A. E., & Anderson, J. T. (2018). Phenological responses to multiple environmental drivers under climate change: insights from a long-term observational study and a manipulative field experiment. New Phytol, 218(2), 517-529.
Weissman, D. E., Morey, S., & Bourassa, M. (2017). Studies of the effects of rain on the performance of the SMAP radiometer surface salinity estimates and applications to remote sensing of river plumes. In IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing IGARSS (pp. 1491-1494).
Wright, E., Kruse, S., Forman, S. L., & Harris, M. S. (2018). Millennial Scale Development of a Southeastern United States Spit. Journal of Coastal Research, 342, 255-271.
Wu, C., Hu, B. X., Huang, G., Wang, P., & Xu, K. (2018). Responses of runoff to historical and future climate variability over China. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22(3), 1971-1991.
Zeyghami, M., Goswami, D. Y., & Stefanakos, E. (2018). A review of clear sky radiative cooling developments and applications in renewable power systems and passive building cooling. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 178, 115-128.
Zhang, M., Leon, C. de, & Migliaccio, K. (2018). Evaluation and comparison of interpolated gauge rainfall data and gridded rainfall data in Florida, USA. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 63(4), 561-582.

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The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.  

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