Climate Change Implications for Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge

June 1, 2009

Alaska is experiencing visible signs of climate change, including melting permafrost, drying wetlands, and increased fire activity. To better understand what changes are taking place, and how land managers might deal with these changes on public lands, Dr. Wendy Loya, an ecologist with The Wilderness Society (TWS), initiated a project to apply climate change scenarios to Alaska’s federal wildlands. Together with TWS GIS analyst Anna Springsteen, and in partnership with the University of Alaska’s SNAP (Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning) program, Dr. Loya used temperature and precipitation data from five down-scaled global climate models to estimate how growing season length, climate variability, and water availability might change.