Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) was created by the Oregon state legislature in 2007 to: foster climate change research among faculty of the Oregon University System, serve as a clearinghouse for climate information, and provide climate change information to the public. OCCRI also houses the Oregon Climate Service and serves as the anchor institution for two federally-funded regional climate science centers, the Climate Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC) and the Northwest Climate Science Center, which provides information and tools for adapting to a changing climate in the Northwest.
OCCRI has produced assessment reports of climate change and impacts in Oregon and the Northwest and releases a monthly newsletter featuring recent articles and projects pertinent to the Northwest. A recent project, Integrated Scenarios of the Future Northwest Environment, evaluated and down-scaled global climate models for the Pacific Northwest and produced coordinated simulations of hydrology and vegetation for the region. The project’s data are publicly available.
Climate Science Centers
The U.S Department of the Interior established eight regional Climate Science Centers (CSCs) to address environmental challenges resulting from climate change and to provide natural resource managers with rigorous scientific information and effective tools for decision making.
The Northwest Climate Science Center (NW CSC) was established in 2010 to give resource managers the scientific information and tools they need to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to climate change in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana. The NW CSC is located in Corvallis, Oregon.
The NW CSC is supported by 14 academic institutions primarily led by Oregon State University, the University of Idaho, and the University of Washington. Scientists from the academic consortium, U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies provide capabilities in climate science and modeling, ecology, vulnerability assessments, and advanced information technology to address and respond to climate change in the Northwest. The NW CSC also communicates climate change impacts to various audiences, trains the next generation of climate scientists, provides easy access to data products, and develops strong ties with federal, state, and tribal resource management agencies.
Since fiscal year 2011, the NW CSC invested nearly $5 million in research projects that address critical climate-related issues in the Northwest. Significant efforts include projecting future climate trends for our region and understanding how warmer temperatures and altered snow and rainfall patterns will affect stream flows, flood events, droughts, and wildfire frequency.
Other NW CSC-funded research has focused on the effects of climate change on habitats of bull trout, Northern Spotted Owl, and Greater Sage-Grouse, all of which are Oregon Strategy Species. The NW CSC requires all projects point to ways in which research results can be used by managers to help conserve target ecosystems or species.
A full list of NW CSC projects can be found here.
The NW CSC has also developed a Regional Climate Science Inventory. This includes climate research efforts of the entire CSC network and partner agencies and organizations in the Northwest.