1. WILDLIFE/CLIMATE CHANGE:
Federal wildlife, land managers plot plans to address global warming

The pika has been studied as an example of how climate change can impact species dependant on cooler temperatures. Photo courtesy of NPS.

As wildlife managers brace for unprecedented habitat changes wrought by a changing climate, they are forming new partnerships with federal and university scientists to figure out how ecosystems will be altered -- and how to manage them in a warmer world.

Before managers can find solutions, scientists need to get a better handle on just how ecosystems and wildlife populations are responding to climate change at various scales, said Jonathan Overpeck, director of the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. "A lot of it is figuring out what the problems are," he said.

But the managers also acknowledged that finding the resources to support such an all-encompassing effort to match scientific data with management needs will be challenging, despite an increased influx of climate change-related funding at USGS. The agency received $25 million for its climate change research program this year. Go to story #1