The climate varies from year-to-year in ways that can have significant impacts on societies and ecosystems. Researchers at RSMAS, are involved in several ongoing projects that attempt to understand how climate impacts people ’s lives and livelihoods and how they respond.

• Southeast Climate Consortium
• Water resource management in Northeast Brazil
• Climate and Fisheries

Southeast Climate Consortiuum

One example of such a project is the Southeast Climate Consortiuum which has as its mission ‘to use advances in climate sciences, including improved capabilities to forecast seasonal climate, to provide scientifically sound information and decision support tools for agriculture, forestry, and water resources management in the Southeastern USA’ (see http://secc.coaps.fsu.edu/ for more information). Several faculty members at RSMAS are involved in this project. Contact: David Letson

Water resource management in Northeast Brazil

Another ongoing regionally-based study is taking place in the state of Ceara in Northeast Brazil. Ceara is a drought-prone region and year to year variability in water availability can have severe consquences (Figure 1).

An important aspect of understanding climate’s impact on society is to understand how the public responds to climate change. Researchers at RSMAS have been involved in the development of a Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.

Figure 1: caption

Climate and Fisheries

RSMAS researchers are also investigating how climate changes impact fisheries. There are large decadal variations in fish stocks, and recent work by RSMAS faculty has linked these changes to climate changes (Figures 2 and 3, below).