1 00:00:08,230 --> 00:00:13,230 - This talk is from the FEMC's very own Project Manager, 2 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,053 Pia Ruisi-Besares. 3 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:22,890 Her talk today is titled Using a New Tool, 4 00:00:22,890 --> 00:00:27,023 Forest Impacts of Climate Change, Monitoring Indicators. 5 00:00:29,230 --> 00:00:30,220 - Good morning, everybody. 6 00:00:30,220 --> 00:00:31,620 Thank you for coming. 7 00:00:31,620 --> 00:00:33,380 My name is Pia, and I'm the Project Manager 8 00:00:33,380 --> 00:00:35,530 for the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative, 9 00:00:35,530 --> 00:00:37,630 and I'm really excited to tell you about our newest release 10 00:00:37,630 --> 00:00:42,020 of the web tool from our most recent regional project, 11 00:00:42,020 --> 00:00:45,230 Forest Impacts of Climate Change, Monitoring Indicators. 12 00:00:45,230 --> 00:00:47,360 I'll spend some time talking about the process 13 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:49,390 and the background of this project, 14 00:00:49,390 --> 00:00:52,050 as well as walk you through the website very quickly 15 00:00:52,050 --> 00:00:54,460 and then also show you some of our preliminary information 16 00:00:54,460 --> 00:00:55,783 on our gap analysis. 17 00:00:56,810 --> 00:01:00,033 So, to start at the very beginning, 18 00:01:01,310 --> 00:01:03,710 the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative 19 00:01:03,710 --> 00:01:06,270 is a collaborative effort between federal agencies, 20 00:01:06,270 --> 00:01:09,190 state agencies, and the University of Vermont, 21 00:01:09,190 --> 00:01:10,270 and the mission is to serve 22 00:01:10,270 --> 00:01:12,160 the Northeast temperate forest region 23 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:14,350 through improved understanding of long-term trends, 24 00:01:14,350 --> 00:01:17,480 annual conditions, and interdisciplinary relationships 25 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,140 of physical, chemical, and biological components 26 00:01:20,140 --> 00:01:22,120 within forested ecosystems. 27 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:23,420 And so in order to do this, 28 00:01:23,420 --> 00:01:26,079 the FEMC has a regional committee of cooperative members 29 00:01:26,079 --> 00:01:28,830 who come from different disciplines in different states 30 00:01:28,830 --> 00:01:31,340 and decide together on a regionally relevant question 31 00:01:31,340 --> 00:01:33,200 that addresses forest ecosystems, 32 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,860 and then the FEMC carries out this project. 33 00:01:35,860 --> 00:01:37,580 This past fiscal year, there were two projects, 34 00:01:37,580 --> 00:01:39,970 and today I will talk about one of them, 35 00:01:39,970 --> 00:01:41,640 the Forest Impacts of Climate Change 36 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:43,560 Monitoring Indicators Project. 37 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:45,950 This project came from a recognized need 38 00:01:45,950 --> 00:01:47,530 to understand more about the impacts 39 00:01:47,530 --> 00:01:50,240 of climate change on forest systems. 40 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:51,970 There is of course a lot of research and effort 41 00:01:51,970 --> 00:01:53,340 put into this topic already, 42 00:01:53,340 --> 00:01:55,090 but because the field is emerging 43 00:01:55,090 --> 00:01:56,790 and ecological systems are so complex, 44 00:01:56,790 --> 00:01:59,120 it can be challenging to find the data necessary 45 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,940 to identify thresholds or patterns of change. 46 00:02:01,940 --> 00:02:04,520 And so this project aims to identify 47 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,880 the most important factors or indicators 48 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:08,289 that shift under climate change 49 00:02:08,289 --> 00:02:10,990 as demonstrated by work that's already been done, 50 00:02:10,990 --> 00:02:13,280 and then identify methods for monitoring these factors 51 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:15,480 and put them in one easily accessible place. 52 00:02:16,641 --> 00:02:20,140 So, why indicators and why monitoring? 53 00:02:20,140 --> 00:02:22,070 When we consider the impact of climate change, 54 00:02:22,070 --> 00:02:24,520 we're using indicators as a way to understand change 55 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:26,510 at the ecosystem process level. 56 00:02:26,510 --> 00:02:28,270 So, for this particular work, 57 00:02:28,270 --> 00:02:30,120 these indicators are not representing 58 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:31,650 direct abiotic changes, 59 00:02:31,650 --> 00:02:33,630 like precipitation rate or temperature, 60 00:02:33,630 --> 00:02:36,400 but rather the indirect impacts at the ecological level 61 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,640 that are being felt as a result of biological changes. 62 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:42,300 So for example, at a community composition level, 63 00:02:42,300 --> 00:02:43,970 you can think about changes in the presence 64 00:02:43,970 --> 00:02:46,840 or abundance of invasive terrestrial plants. 65 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:48,906 It's anticipated that as climate conditions change, 66 00:02:48,906 --> 00:02:51,260 such as increases in disturbance events 67 00:02:51,260 --> 00:02:53,642 that cause forest gaps or changes in the frost, 68 00:02:53,642 --> 00:02:56,630 invasive plants, and particularly those from warmer climates 69 00:02:56,630 --> 00:02:57,880 will become more prevalent. 70 00:02:57,880 --> 00:02:59,930 So although it's difficult to anticipate 71 00:02:59,930 --> 00:03:03,080 exactly how plant communities will develop, 72 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:04,470 changes in invasive plant abundance 73 00:03:04,470 --> 00:03:05,690 can be a clue that climate change 74 00:03:05,690 --> 00:03:07,973 is impacting forest ecosystems. 75 00:03:09,270 --> 00:03:13,940 Another example of this is indication at the species level, 76 00:03:13,940 --> 00:03:16,320 and one of these examples is brook trout. 77 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,003 Brook trout is a particularly sensitive species. 78 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,520 They're impacted greatly by changes in water temperature 79 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:24,120 because of their breeding cycles, 80 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:26,850 and so as stream temperatures increase 81 00:03:26,850 --> 00:03:29,240 due to climate change, brook trout populations 82 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:30,350 will likely be impacted, 83 00:03:30,350 --> 00:03:32,890 and therefore monitoring and tracking changes 84 00:03:32,890 --> 00:03:34,960 in this population can give important information 85 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,700 about the impacts of climate change. 86 00:03:37,700 --> 00:03:41,060 So, by monitoring these critical indicators of impact, 87 00:03:41,060 --> 00:03:42,857 we can see how baselines are shifting, 88 00:03:42,857 --> 00:03:45,220 identify more easily when they start to change, 89 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:47,538 and then gain more insight into priority areas of concern 90 00:03:47,538 --> 00:03:50,863 as complex climate impacts continue to unfold. 91 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:54,810 So with charge your mind, we developed the project 92 00:03:54,810 --> 00:03:56,670 around a couple of core questions. 93 00:03:56,670 --> 00:03:59,110 These are, what specifically do we need to be tracking 94 00:03:59,110 --> 00:04:00,720 to know when forests start to change? 95 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:01,553 In other words, 96 00:04:01,553 --> 00:04:04,900 what are the key indicators that we need to monitor? 97 00:04:04,900 --> 00:04:06,530 The second question is how do we make 98 00:04:06,530 --> 00:04:09,340 monitoring efforts more consistent and comparable? 99 00:04:09,340 --> 00:04:11,200 We didn't want to reinvent the wheel with this project. 100 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,000 We know a lot of monitoring is already occurring, 101 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,580 so we wanted to create a single place to go 102 00:04:15,580 --> 00:04:16,830 to answer the questions, 103 00:04:16,830 --> 00:04:18,460 where is monitoring already happening, 104 00:04:18,460 --> 00:04:19,810 where are there gaps in monitoring, 105 00:04:19,810 --> 00:04:21,680 and how can someone find a replicable 106 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:23,240 and somewhat standardized protocol 107 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:24,730 for establishing a monitoring effort 108 00:04:24,730 --> 00:04:27,243 if they want to create a project of their own? 109 00:04:29,370 --> 00:04:33,253 So the outputs of this project are threefold. 110 00:04:34,260 --> 00:04:36,760 The first is a visual mapping tool 111 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:38,760 to quickly see where monitoring efforts are happening 112 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:41,230 in the region and to be able to read about methodologies 113 00:04:41,230 --> 00:04:42,770 of related studies. 114 00:04:42,770 --> 00:04:44,990 The second is a filterable database 115 00:04:44,990 --> 00:04:47,970 where users can quickly find studies, protocols or datasets 116 00:04:47,970 --> 00:04:50,480 that detail how to monitor for key indicators, 117 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:51,840 and a database that will hopefully grow 118 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:54,270 with additions of new and standardized data. 119 00:04:54,270 --> 00:04:57,110 And finally, a gap analysis to recommend areas of effort 120 00:04:57,110 --> 00:04:59,460 based on where monitoring is not yet happening. 121 00:05:01,690 --> 00:05:04,790 So I'll just spend a few minutes here 122 00:05:04,790 --> 00:05:05,960 just in the next couple of slides 123 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,180 giving some background on the process of the project, 124 00:05:08,180 --> 00:05:09,590 how we determined the indicators 125 00:05:09,590 --> 00:05:11,090 and what these indicators are. 126 00:05:12,242 --> 00:05:13,470 And I think a great place to start 127 00:05:13,470 --> 00:05:15,670 is to acknowledge all the people who were involved 128 00:05:15,670 --> 00:05:16,963 in guiding this project. 129 00:05:18,070 --> 00:05:19,480 Because we can't be experts 130 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:21,240 in every aspect of forest health, 131 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:22,900 we assembled an advisory committee 132 00:05:22,900 --> 00:05:24,130 and a working group with experts 133 00:05:24,130 --> 00:05:26,940 from across various disciplines to help determine 134 00:05:26,940 --> 00:05:27,920 these important indicators 135 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:29,340 and give feedback throughout the process. 136 00:05:29,340 --> 00:05:31,230 And this slide is here to acknowledge those, 137 00:05:31,230 --> 00:05:34,040 but also to show the representation of the backgrounds 138 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,093 of people that contributed to this work. 139 00:05:38,270 --> 00:05:40,720 So with our committee assembled, 140 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,670 we worked through an almost year and a half timeline 141 00:05:43,670 --> 00:05:45,550 to deliver this project. 142 00:05:45,550 --> 00:05:47,220 The first stage was an initial scoping, 143 00:05:47,220 --> 00:05:49,190 where we met with our advisory committee. 144 00:05:49,190 --> 00:05:51,470 We also put out a cooperative survey 145 00:05:51,470 --> 00:05:54,250 to see what questions and audiences 146 00:05:54,250 --> 00:05:56,100 should be targeted by the project, 147 00:05:56,100 --> 00:05:58,210 and we conducted an initial literature review 148 00:05:58,210 --> 00:06:00,660 on sort of the main factors and indicators 149 00:06:00,660 --> 00:06:02,083 that are already identified. 150 00:06:03,820 --> 00:06:05,890 We then convened a working group that included 151 00:06:05,890 --> 00:06:07,940 many of our advisory committee members 152 00:06:07,940 --> 00:06:11,090 and additional folks to determine the key indicators, 153 00:06:11,090 --> 00:06:14,460 and we identified 24 key indicators through this process 154 00:06:14,460 --> 00:06:16,610 that were also supported by the literature. 155 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,750 After this, we had our second advisory committee meeting, 156 00:06:20,750 --> 00:06:24,330 where we reviewed the 24 indicators that had been identified 157 00:06:24,330 --> 00:06:27,510 and the basic functions of the tool 158 00:06:27,510 --> 00:06:29,270 as it was going to be developed. 159 00:06:29,270 --> 00:06:31,730 We aggregated key datasets 160 00:06:31,730 --> 00:06:34,313 and we designed an information portal in this time, 161 00:06:35,310 --> 00:06:37,360 and from there we created our web portal. 162 00:06:38,570 --> 00:06:40,270 Our final advisory committee meeting 163 00:06:40,270 --> 00:06:43,430 was a review of final content and of the database 164 00:06:43,430 --> 00:06:45,570 where we got final input, 165 00:06:45,570 --> 00:06:47,805 and we also produced a technical report 166 00:06:47,805 --> 00:06:50,555 and the version of the web tool, which I'll show today. 167 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:54,910 So just to spend a minute talking 168 00:06:54,910 --> 00:06:57,330 about the indicators a little bit more directly, 169 00:06:57,330 --> 00:06:59,100 there were four broad categories we used 170 00:06:59,100 --> 00:07:02,150 to organize each of the indicators that we selected. 171 00:07:02,150 --> 00:07:04,640 Indicators were identified first as an important way 172 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:07,790 to understanding the impact of climate change in the region, 173 00:07:07,790 --> 00:07:09,630 and then after indicators were identified, 174 00:07:09,630 --> 00:07:10,810 they were organized, 175 00:07:10,810 --> 00:07:13,530 putting them into categories and subcategories. 176 00:07:13,530 --> 00:07:15,480 And so these subcategories are sometimes broad 177 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:16,873 as a result of the process. 178 00:07:17,780 --> 00:07:19,780 So I will just really quickly show you 179 00:07:19,780 --> 00:07:20,900 the slides of what we have. 180 00:07:20,900 --> 00:07:24,660 Our indicators include wood frog, macroinvertebrates, 181 00:07:24,660 --> 00:07:28,423 community composition of streams, brook trout populations, 182 00:07:29,290 --> 00:07:33,280 understory community composition, invasive plant abundance, 183 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:36,090 hemlock woolly adelgid, Southern pine beetle, 184 00:07:36,090 --> 00:07:38,470 phenology and physiology of pollinators, 185 00:07:38,470 --> 00:07:39,690 temporal shifts in trees, 186 00:07:39,690 --> 00:07:41,973 distribution of vulnerable flora and fauna, 187 00:07:43,310 --> 00:07:46,160 stand health, seedling regeneration, 188 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,670 community composition of trees and physical damage to trees, 189 00:07:49,670 --> 00:07:54,530 and finally, in our wildlife category, bird wintering range, 190 00:07:54,530 --> 00:07:57,690 population of Bicknell's thrush, changes in arrival date, 191 00:07:57,690 --> 00:07:59,730 population of black-throated blue warbler, 192 00:07:59,730 --> 00:08:02,340 moose population, snowshoe hare population, 193 00:08:02,340 --> 00:08:04,640 little brown bat and Northern flying squirrel. 194 00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:08,310 So, with that all in mind, 195 00:08:08,310 --> 00:08:12,130 I would like to take a minute to show us the website here 196 00:08:12,130 --> 00:08:14,110 and to take a walk through very briefly. 197 00:08:14,110 --> 00:08:16,023 So I'm going to switch over, 198 00:08:23,964 --> 00:08:25,890 and here we are at the website. 199 00:08:25,890 --> 00:08:30,100 So I opened it up here because I like to just emphasize 200 00:08:30,100 --> 00:08:32,980 that this is a version one of the project 201 00:08:32,980 --> 00:08:34,120 and we are really hopeful 202 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,550 that we'll get more information from people. 203 00:08:37,550 --> 00:08:39,280 So as you look through, 204 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,740 because this isn't a fully complete assessment 205 00:08:42,740 --> 00:08:43,670 of everything that's out there, 206 00:08:43,670 --> 00:08:45,810 we would love you to share your feedback here 207 00:08:45,810 --> 00:08:47,810 or suggest a monitoring effort or protocol 208 00:08:47,810 --> 00:08:50,473 if we missed it, so that's just my little plug. 209 00:08:51,670 --> 00:08:53,440 All right, so here's the website, 210 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:54,813 and I encourage you to take a look at this, 211 00:08:54,813 --> 00:08:58,080 again, but in more detail, 212 00:08:58,080 --> 00:08:59,610 but I just wanted to show what we have here. 213 00:08:59,610 --> 00:09:02,320 So we have on the homepage a description 214 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:03,640 of what the project is about, 215 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:05,700 as well as a link to our about page, 216 00:09:05,700 --> 00:09:07,600 which gives you more information on the specifics 217 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:09,250 of how everything was determined. 218 00:09:10,150 --> 00:09:13,290 There's a couple different ways to use the site. 219 00:09:13,290 --> 00:09:15,300 You can come on and read about the indicators. 220 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:17,650 So if you're not sure what you're interested in yet, 221 00:09:17,650 --> 00:09:21,210 you can dive into these aspects here to learn more. 222 00:09:21,210 --> 00:09:24,410 If you are interested in forest indicators, for example, 223 00:09:24,410 --> 00:09:27,413 you can click on here to see the broader categories, 224 00:09:28,290 --> 00:09:30,630 where we have them listed with a little more information, 225 00:09:30,630 --> 00:09:32,720 and then you can also be taken 226 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:35,990 to an individual page about this indicator. 227 00:09:35,990 --> 00:09:37,890 So if you're interested in invasive plant abundance, 228 00:09:37,890 --> 00:09:40,320 for example, there's a whole page. 229 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:43,210 And so for each indicator, there are pages like this, 230 00:09:43,210 --> 00:09:45,310 but there's an entire page that shows 231 00:09:45,310 --> 00:09:49,170 monitoring protocols that are available for this indicator, 232 00:09:49,170 --> 00:09:51,980 the metrics that were used in most of the protocols, 233 00:09:51,980 --> 00:09:54,529 as well as a filterable table and map 234 00:09:54,529 --> 00:09:58,563 that shows you study protocols as well as study information. 235 00:10:00,330 --> 00:10:02,750 Another way you can use the website 236 00:10:02,750 --> 00:10:05,840 is to look more generally at the map. 237 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,233 So you can click onto this map function here, 238 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:19,000 and you can see a filterable page where you can look 239 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,220 at the various types of indicators. 240 00:10:21,220 --> 00:10:22,638 Right now, they're all selected, 241 00:10:22,638 --> 00:10:27,638 but you could change some of the selection and see studies 242 00:10:28,850 --> 00:10:32,530 that are just related to these variables here, 243 00:10:32,530 --> 00:10:35,480 and that changes the number of studies on the map. 244 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:37,950 You can also select a time range 245 00:10:37,950 --> 00:10:40,883 or you can select which states you're interested in seeing. 246 00:10:42,510 --> 00:10:45,740 And so once you have that, you could look at the table view, 247 00:10:45,740 --> 00:10:48,510 which keeps that filtering within it, 248 00:10:48,510 --> 00:10:50,010 or you can look at the map, 249 00:10:50,010 --> 00:10:52,720 and if you were to click on New York, for example, 250 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:55,070 you would get a pop-up of the various studies 251 00:10:55,070 --> 00:10:56,410 that are related. 252 00:10:56,410 --> 00:10:58,140 And then within this, 253 00:10:58,140 --> 00:11:00,700 if you're interested in the Great Sunflower Project, 254 00:11:00,700 --> 00:11:02,470 you can click on it and you'll see 255 00:11:02,470 --> 00:11:05,920 that there is more specific information 256 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:06,753 about where it takes place. 257 00:11:06,753 --> 00:11:08,440 This is a regional project, 258 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:12,120 although some will be detailed in smaller areas. 259 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,480 And then if there are related datasets or protocols, 260 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:15,970 you can find them here. 261 00:11:15,970 --> 00:11:18,620 You can read more of the details about the project. 262 00:11:18,620 --> 00:11:21,910 You can see which indicators are included, 263 00:11:21,910 --> 00:11:24,010 and you can also go straight to the study. 264 00:11:26,610 --> 00:11:29,410 And again, this filtering is kept in the table. 265 00:11:29,410 --> 00:11:31,900 So you can quickly see here which have protocols, 266 00:11:31,900 --> 00:11:33,320 what the studies are, 267 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,153 and it's the same information that's shown in the map. 268 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:38,120 The final thing I'll show you 269 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,090 is that you can also find this information 270 00:11:41,090 --> 00:11:43,610 quickly through the top bar here. 271 00:11:43,610 --> 00:11:44,980 So if you're interested in going 272 00:11:44,980 --> 00:11:47,150 to those individual pages again, 273 00:11:47,150 --> 00:11:52,110 let's look at, Bicknell's or bird wintering range. 274 00:11:52,110 --> 00:11:54,850 You can click here and you can you be taken 275 00:11:56,220 --> 00:11:58,010 to those individual pages again, 276 00:11:58,010 --> 00:12:00,120 and this is the same map as we had on the front page, 277 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,290 but it's filtered down for this specific indicator. 278 00:12:03,290 --> 00:12:05,680 And so this is a place where you can quickly look 279 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:07,410 at just one indicator if you're not interested 280 00:12:07,410 --> 00:12:08,710 in going through the rest. 281 00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:14,900 Okay, so I'm gonna bring us back to the presentation 282 00:12:14,900 --> 00:12:16,810 because we have limited time, 283 00:12:16,810 --> 00:12:18,810 but I wanted to share that with you all. 284 00:12:23,810 --> 00:12:25,310 Great. 285 00:12:25,310 --> 00:12:28,048 So I'd love to stop and ask for questions, 286 00:12:28,048 --> 00:12:29,870 but my time is running down, 287 00:12:29,870 --> 00:12:31,670 so I'm gonna run through these last slides 288 00:12:31,670 --> 00:12:34,200 and we can answer questions at the end 289 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,350 or I can revisit the website. 290 00:12:37,350 --> 00:12:40,240 So, as I mentioned earlier in the presentation, 291 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:41,600 one of the outputs of the project 292 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,550 is to conduct an in-depth gap analysis 293 00:12:44,550 --> 00:12:47,170 of monitoring for the indicators to potentially identify 294 00:12:47,170 --> 00:12:49,940 or recommend some areas of further development. 295 00:12:49,940 --> 00:12:52,520 We're working on this analysis now, 296 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:54,790 and we'll be seeking input from external folks. 297 00:12:54,790 --> 00:12:55,623 So it's not complete, 298 00:12:55,623 --> 00:12:57,080 but I do want to show the general direction 299 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,610 and the statistics that we have so far. 300 00:12:59,610 --> 00:13:04,570 So overall, the project evaluated 24 indicators. 301 00:13:04,570 --> 00:13:08,583 Across all indicators, there were 346 distinct studies. 302 00:13:09,580 --> 00:13:11,670 This looks different than the state total count on the map 303 00:13:11,670 --> 00:13:12,990 because some studies are multi-state 304 00:13:12,990 --> 00:13:16,470 and appear in the map twice, just for your information. 305 00:13:16,470 --> 00:13:20,490 Of the 346 studies, there are 168 protocols 306 00:13:20,490 --> 00:13:23,030 that were replicable and relevant to the Northeast, 307 00:13:23,030 --> 00:13:23,880 and overall each state 308 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,330 had a similar proportion of studies by indicator. 309 00:13:30,660 --> 00:13:32,730 When thinking about the gap analysis, 310 00:13:32,730 --> 00:13:34,230 we're looking at three main ways 311 00:13:34,230 --> 00:13:36,430 of identifying discrepancies and representation 312 00:13:36,430 --> 00:13:38,500 or coverage by indicator. 313 00:13:38,500 --> 00:13:42,250 These discrepancies are categorized by topic, 314 00:13:42,250 --> 00:13:43,350 geographic dispersion, 315 00:13:43,350 --> 00:13:45,960 and then also across administrative boundaries. 316 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:47,620 And as I said before, this is just preliminary, 317 00:13:47,620 --> 00:13:49,220 but I wanted to give a little more context 318 00:13:49,220 --> 00:13:51,270 on what we'll be exploring further in our gap analysis. 319 00:13:51,270 --> 00:13:54,160 So this table shows the number of studies and protocols 320 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,660 that were included in this project by indicator. 321 00:13:56,660 --> 00:13:57,777 You don't have to look closely at the table 322 00:13:57,777 --> 00:13:59,880 because I'll summarize some of the important findings 323 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:01,560 in the next few slides, but it's important to note 324 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:02,680 that some indicators 325 00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:05,320 have significantly fewer studies linked to them. 326 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:06,750 For example, Northern flying squirrel 327 00:14:06,750 --> 00:14:08,880 only has four that occurred in the region, 328 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:10,930 while black-throated blue warbler had 34. 329 00:14:11,930 --> 00:14:14,760 This project was a version 1.0, 330 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:16,830 so it's not meant to be all-inclusive at this point, 331 00:14:16,830 --> 00:14:18,500 but our milestone search effort 332 00:14:18,500 --> 00:14:21,150 was supposed to be at least 20 studies per indicator. 333 00:14:22,430 --> 00:14:24,180 So if there are less than 20, 334 00:14:24,180 --> 00:14:25,530 it's possibly an important place 335 00:14:25,530 --> 00:14:28,020 to focus monitoring efforts in the future, 336 00:14:28,020 --> 00:14:29,280 and our gap analysis will tell us 337 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:30,690 if these differences are of note 338 00:14:30,690 --> 00:14:32,523 or if it is perhaps just an issue of search effort 339 00:14:32,523 --> 00:14:34,083 that can be reconciled. 340 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,550 The second aspect of coverage is geographic. 341 00:14:37,550 --> 00:14:39,540 And again, you don't need to spend time with the maps above. 342 00:14:39,540 --> 00:14:41,688 This is just an example of some of the discrepancies we see 343 00:14:41,688 --> 00:14:45,390 in indicators within mammal biodiversity subgroup, 344 00:14:45,390 --> 00:14:47,710 for example, and by looking at these maps, 345 00:14:47,710 --> 00:14:49,980 you can see that there is imbalanced representation 346 00:14:49,980 --> 00:14:52,130 of some indicators in certain states. 347 00:14:52,130 --> 00:14:54,670 So for example, most of the moose population studied 348 00:14:54,670 --> 00:14:57,400 are from the Adirondack region and Northern New Hampshire. 349 00:14:57,400 --> 00:14:59,330 However, there are almost no studies 350 00:14:59,330 --> 00:15:01,580 from a similar latitude in Vermont, 351 00:15:01,580 --> 00:15:03,013 and if this is a true gap, and again, 352 00:15:03,013 --> 00:15:06,960 just a potential area to recommend monitoring efforts 353 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:08,610 to be conducted or to be shared 354 00:15:08,610 --> 00:15:10,460 to enrich data about moose populations, 355 00:15:10,460 --> 00:15:12,300 but in a regional level. 356 00:15:12,300 --> 00:15:15,380 And then finally, we're looking at studies by indicator, 357 00:15:15,380 --> 00:15:17,500 and we're looking to see if those studies 358 00:15:17,500 --> 00:15:20,390 are multi-state, regional, or single state coverage. 359 00:15:20,390 --> 00:15:23,080 And I think this is really one of our most important aspects 360 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:24,230 for this project. 361 00:15:24,230 --> 00:15:27,110 Because our focus is a regionalization 362 00:15:27,110 --> 00:15:29,970 and sharing of information across the region, 363 00:15:29,970 --> 00:15:32,650 it's really important that we have access to protocols 364 00:15:32,650 --> 00:15:35,170 and monitoring efforts that are regional. 365 00:15:35,170 --> 00:15:37,410 And so you can see here that some studies 366 00:15:37,410 --> 00:15:40,400 have only single-state monitoring efforts, 367 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:42,900 and this is a great place where we can identify these gaps 368 00:15:42,900 --> 00:15:46,560 and we can focus our effort as a regional community 369 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,060 to either share or create protocols 370 00:15:50,060 --> 00:15:52,163 that will standardize our information. 371 00:15:54,032 --> 00:15:58,532 Okay, so that's sort of where we've landed so far. 372 00:15:58,532 --> 00:16:01,719 This table shows indicator representation 373 00:16:01,719 --> 00:16:05,970 across these different discrepancy categories 374 00:16:05,970 --> 00:16:09,070 and shows low, high, and contradicting coverage. 375 00:16:09,070 --> 00:16:11,620 So overall our low coverage across all categories, 376 00:16:11,620 --> 00:16:14,090 our Northern flying squirrels, snowshoe hare, 377 00:16:14,090 --> 00:16:15,690 and aquatic community composition. 378 00:16:15,690 --> 00:16:18,361 So these are potentially a great place to invest effort. 379 00:16:18,361 --> 00:16:19,791 High coverage in all categories 380 00:16:19,791 --> 00:16:23,020 are pretty much all the bird biodiversity subcategories, 381 00:16:23,020 --> 00:16:25,430 so these have good coverage already. 382 00:16:25,430 --> 00:16:29,550 And these are the possible comparison indicators 383 00:16:29,550 --> 00:16:32,400 to see why there are gaps related to the others. 384 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:34,840 And then we have some contradicting coverage 385 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,610 across categories, including invasive species abundance, 386 00:16:37,610 --> 00:16:40,250 moose population, seedling regeneration, 387 00:16:40,250 --> 00:16:41,600 and understory composition. 388 00:16:42,460 --> 00:16:45,459 So those are important to understand 389 00:16:45,459 --> 00:16:48,250 why some aspects are well-covered and some are not. 390 00:16:48,250 --> 00:16:50,570 So, we're gonna be diving more into this, 391 00:16:50,570 --> 00:16:52,100 and I'm happy to share that information 392 00:16:52,100 --> 00:16:53,730 when it comes out with you all. 393 00:16:53,730 --> 00:16:57,530 And so finally, if successful, we hope that this project 394 00:16:57,530 --> 00:16:58,720 will lead to increased monitoring 395 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:00,520 and sharing of monitoring efforts 396 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,680 to hopefully allow other researchers and professionals 397 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:04,621 to look for tipping points or thresholds 398 00:17:04,621 --> 00:17:06,750 and to create productive management strategies 399 00:17:06,750 --> 00:17:08,370 that mitigate the impacts of climate change 400 00:17:08,370 --> 00:17:10,840 and increase ecosystem resilience. 401 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,220 So we hope there'll be an addition of studies, 402 00:17:13,220 --> 00:17:15,750 additional recommendations and takeaways 403 00:17:15,750 --> 00:17:17,323 from our final gap analysis. 404 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,590 Okay, I think I've gone a little over time, 405 00:17:20,590 --> 00:17:21,640 so I'm gonna wrap up. 406 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:22,770 Thank you again to everyone 407 00:17:22,770 --> 00:17:26,450 who helped contribute to this project and to our funders, 408 00:17:26,450 --> 00:17:27,680 and thank you so much for coming, 409 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,333 and I am available to take any questions. 410 00:17:38,940 --> 00:17:42,050 - All right, I'll open it up for questions now. 411 00:17:42,050 --> 00:17:45,123 I think there's one in the chat already. 412 00:17:47,630 --> 00:17:49,737 - Okay, yep, I see a question here. 413 00:17:49,737 --> 00:17:50,777 "Thanks, this is excellent. 414 00:17:50,777 --> 00:17:52,587 "Is there a relationship between this resource 415 00:17:52,587 --> 00:17:54,997 "and the (indistinct) Continuing Forestry Inventory 416 00:17:54,997 --> 00:17:57,240 "network information?" 417 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,090 My response would be that yes, hopefully there will be. 418 00:18:01,090 --> 00:18:03,380 I think (indistinct) is still sort of in 419 00:18:03,380 --> 00:18:04,540 its developing process, 420 00:18:04,540 --> 00:18:07,840 but because the organizations are related, 421 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:10,053 there will definitely be overlap, 422 00:18:10,053 --> 00:18:12,900 as well as we have a project called Climate Connections, 423 00:18:12,900 --> 00:18:15,880 which there's a link to on the pop-up box 424 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:19,180 when you first go to this site, and it's a resource, 425 00:18:19,180 --> 00:18:20,950 it's a climate-related webpage 426 00:18:20,950 --> 00:18:22,700 that has a whole bunch of different resources, 427 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,510 and so (indistinct) will most likely 428 00:18:24,510 --> 00:18:26,113 be featured there, as well. 429 00:18:27,450 --> 00:18:29,193 I hope that answers your questions. 430 00:18:30,810 --> 00:18:34,597 Okay, I'm seeing another question from Jennifer Dean. 431 00:18:34,597 --> 00:18:37,147 "Is there a way that citizen/community science data 432 00:18:37,147 --> 00:18:39,067 "could be included to complement this collection 433 00:18:39,067 --> 00:18:40,740 "of standardized datasets?" 434 00:18:40,740 --> 00:18:41,603 Yes, definitely. 435 00:18:43,396 --> 00:18:44,483 I think what's interesting about this project 436 00:18:44,483 --> 00:18:46,790 is that we want replicable protocols, 437 00:18:46,790 --> 00:18:49,350 but we also want to see where monitoring efforts 438 00:18:49,350 --> 00:18:52,730 are happening, and there are sort of two different angles 439 00:18:52,730 --> 00:18:53,780 to approach the project. 440 00:18:53,780 --> 00:18:56,820 And so actually this project 441 00:18:56,820 --> 00:18:59,420 is a little bit more monitoring focused, 442 00:18:59,420 --> 00:19:02,270 so we wanna know where there's gaps in monitoring, 443 00:19:02,270 --> 00:19:06,420 so we can have any level of information about the protocols 444 00:19:06,420 --> 00:19:07,620 that are being used. 445 00:19:07,620 --> 00:19:09,540 And so some of the projects that are included 446 00:19:09,540 --> 00:19:11,880 don't say their exact protocols, but they say, 447 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,120 we monitor macroinvertebrates every year in this place, 448 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:15,780 so we know it's at least covered. 449 00:19:15,780 --> 00:19:17,520 And then the protocols that I recommended 450 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:18,890 have to go through a certain criteria, 451 00:19:18,890 --> 00:19:20,610 so that's why there are less protocols 452 00:19:20,610 --> 00:19:21,640 than there are studies included, 453 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,383 so we would love to have any of that information, as well.