Corals & Climate Adaptation Planning (CCAP) Project Climate - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Corals & Climate Adaptation Planning (CCAP) Project Climate Change Working Group Report Out Co-Chairs: Jordan West, EPA Office of Research & Development Britt Parker, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Photo image area measures 2” H x 6.93” W and can be masked by a collage strip of one, two or three images. The photo image area is located 3.19” from left and 3.81” from top of page. Each image used in collage should be reduced or cropped to a maximum of 2” high, stroked with a 1.5 pt white frame and positioned edge-to-edge with accompanying images. *The views expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not represent official policy of the US EPA or NOAA. Office of Research and Development NCEA Global Change Impacts & Adaptation Program 19 February 2015

A Collaborative Effort of the Climate Change Working Group • Co-funded by EPA, NOAA, DOI • Guidance and steering from the CCWG • Technical team expertise from EPA, NOAA, DOI, TNC, EcoAdapt and Tetra Tech • Partnering with practitioners/managers and scientists from 13 Federal, State, Territory agencies, local and national NGOs, academia • Methods and tools to be hosted on the toolkit website of The Nature Conservancy’s Reef Resilience Program 1

Project Inception • Presidential Executive Order 13653 -- Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change (2013) • President’s State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience (2014) • General principles for adaptation to climate change (theoretical frameworks) • Ongoing advances in assessment and planning by coral reef practitioners (real-world explorations) Goal: tailor and test recent adaptation planning frameworks and methods specifically for coral reef management 2

Climate-Smart Approach • Comprehensive review and synthesis of adaptation principles for ecosystem management • Framework for integrating climate change information into every step of the management planning cycle • General adaptation strategies to aid in brainstorming specific actions • Rules for designing management Stein et al. (2014) actions to be “climate-smart” http://www.nwf.org/ ClimateSmartGuide 3

CCAP Framework 1. Define planning purpose & objectives 2. Assess climate 7. Track & evaluate impacts & adaptation actions vulnerabilities General Adaptation Strategies Specific Adaptation Options 3. Review & revise 6. Implement priority Climate-Smart goals & objectives adaptation actions Design Considerations 4. Identify adaptation 5. Evaluate & select options adaption actions 4

CCAP Framework: Coral Reef Adaptation Options CLIMATE SMART STRATEGIES, OPTIONS AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR CORAL REEF MANAGEMENT General Strategies/Specific Climate Smart Design Considerations Management Options R EDUCE N ON -C LIMATE S TRESSES - Minimize localized human stressors that hinder the ability of species or ecosystems to withstand or adjust to climatic events • How will sea level rise and changes in the intensity and frequency of large i. Remove existing structures that harden storms affect coastal hydrology and erosion? • Given the above, which structures should be the highest priority for removal the coastlines to allow inland migration of sand in order to allow more natural migration of sand and vegetation? and vegetation 5

Rules for Climate-Smart Design Two types of design considerations are required: • How will climate change directly or indirectly affect how stressors impact the system? • What are the implications of this information for the location, timing, or engineering design of the management action?

CCAP Framework CLIMATE SMART STRATEGIES, OPTIONS AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR CORAL REEF MANAGEMENT General Strategies/Specific Climate Smart Design Considerations Management Options R EDUCE N ON -C LIMATE S TRESSES - Minimize localized human stressors that hinder the ability of species or ecosystems to withstand or adjust to climatic events • How will sea level rise and changes in the intensity and frequency of large storms i. Remove existing structures that harden the coastlines affect coastal hydrology and erosion? • Given the above, which structures should be the highest priority for removal in order to allow inland migration of sand and vegetation to allow more natural migration of sand and vegetation? P ROTECT K EY E COSYSTEM F EATURES - Focus management on structural characteristics, organisms, or areas that represent important “underpinnings” or “keystones” of the current or future system of interest • What is the vulnerability of functional species and groups to the interaction of i. Manage functional species and groups climate change with other human and natural stressors, and in what necessary for locations are they most vulnerable? • What management options can be employed, and in which locations, to maintaining the health of reefs and other minimize impacts on the most vulnerable species and groups? ecosystems E NSURE C ONNECTIVITY - Protect, restore, and create landscape features that facilitate movement of water, energy, nutrients and organisms among resource patches • Which areas are historically or projected to be less exposed to climate i. Identify and manage networks of resilient reefs change impacts such as increased sea surface temperature or increased connected by currents surface water runoff and/or demonstrably better able to recover after exposure to these impacts? • How will climate change affect currents that provide connectivity among these areas and the benefits connectivity provides (e.g., recruitment to reefs)? • What are the implications of this information for design of managed area networks to maximize connectivity and maintain it into the future?

West Maui Case Study & Workshop Why West Maui: • Priority watershed of the State of Hawaii, NOAA CRCP and USCRTF • Well organized management in place • Existing plans provide good examples • Climate change concerns have been identified Purpose: to explore methods for Climate-Smart adaptation within the context of existing management planning 8

West Maui Case Study Categories = Option Types from Table 4B (associated objectives in parentheses - see Appendix B for key). Run-off controls Water treatment Non-indigenous spp. Fishing restrictions Area based Artificial shading Transplantation upgrades removal management Install water bars, Treat stormwater Remove non- Improve Protect/promote Use artificial shading Transplant coral terraces, microbasins, in using a constructed indigenous algal enforcement of recovery of areas of high when corals are reef organisms dirt roads in agricultural wetland (WMP1, species to preserve fishing regulations coral species diversity exposed to thermal among locations areas (WMP1, WMP2) WMP2) the integrity of coral (H1, H3) and cover using stress, to protect that are no reef communities with temporally flexible no- coral sites of specific longer connected the super-sucker (H2, use zones after extreme importance from by currents (H4) H4) events (H4) coral bleaching (H4) Establish vegetative Install curb-inlet Enhance natural Protect adjacent or cover, filter strips in baskets to filter recovery processes nearby coral reef areas agricultural fields hydrocarbon and through that are (WMP1, WMP2) debris from the replenishment of hydrodynamically storm drains native grazers that connected and can serve (WMP1, WMP2) control algal growth as recruitment sources on damaged reefs for coral reefs in West (H1, H3) Maui (H4) Retrofit in-stream dams Reduce the volume Promote adherence Identify and protect to collect fine sediment of treated to State of Hawaii species with ecological (WMP1, WMP2 wastewater injected catch sizes and bag traits characteristic of into groundwater limits[CAP] (H1, H3) low sensitivity and high through reuse adaptive capacity to (WMP3) climate impacts (H4) Manage watershed Reduce the volume Support fishing Replicate habitat types inputs to reef areas of treated rules and in multiple, designated upstream of target reef wastewater injected regulations on managed areas to spread within the dominant into groundwater fishing based on risks associated with current flow (WMP1, through treatment target species coral bleaching (H4) WMP2) upgrades (WMP3) ecology and life history [CAP] (H1, H3) Reduce nutrient loads Protect spawning Identify and protect from soil runoff using aggregation sites of current and future areas timed and quantified herbivorous that are resistant to amounts of fertilizers fisheries through climate change effects from agricultural and seasonal fishing due to localized landscaped areas restrictions (H1, H3) upwelling (H4) (WMP1, WMP2) Reduce sediment loads Protect aquarium Protect areas of high from soil runoff using fish species through coral species diversity rain gardens (WMP1, species or catch and cover using no-