Events
2021
Southern Plains Climate Science Webinar
Join us on April 22 at 11 a.m. CDT for our next Southern Plains Climate Science Webinar: a riveting panel discussion
on how climate change is impacting severe weather events!
Our panelists will look at these impacts from an agricultural, emergency management
and scientific perspective and give insight on what is currently being done and what
is planned to reduce the impact severe weather has in these areas. The panelists include:
- Dr. Cait Rottler - Ecologist & Research Associate with the South Central CASC
- Debi Wagner - Emergency Manager for Midwest City OK
- Dr. Harold Brooks - Researcher for the National Severe Storms Laboratory
Open to resource managers, emergency managers, but also includes those of the general public who are interested in this topic.
Register for the Southern Plains Climate Science Webinar
Managing for a Changing Climate Free Course
Registration is now open for our final Spring short course! This free, self-paced,
4-week course will cover the physical impacts of climate change and adaptation strategies
that can be used for planning purposes. The 3 week, self-paced course will cover the
physical and ecological changes that can impact hydrology, polar regions, coasts and
marine life, and wildlife. The course was designed to focus on resource managers,
however can be taken by educators and the general public.
Registration is open until April 4, 2021
Course runs April 5-30, 2021.
Learn more about the Managing for a Changing Climate Course
18th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop
Taking place virtually April 20-22, 2021. This event aims to share developments in research and application of weather and climate information for societal decision-making.
Register for the Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop
Shifting Seasons Summit
Happening April 19-21, 2021. This summit includes relevant tribal climate change initiatives developed outside of the northeast by capacity-building organizations, academic institutions and tribes who have approved climate adaptation plans.
Learn more about the Shifting Seasons Summit
Southwest Adaptation Forum
Save the date! This virtual event will be held April 6-8, 2021 and bring together leaders, practitioners, and researchers from across the Southwest to explore advancing climate change adaptation efforts.
Learn more about the Southwest Adaption Forum
2020
Climate 101 Workshop For Natural Resource Managers
Join a 2-day Climate 101 Workshop to learn more about future climate projections and regional climate impacts on natural resources across the south-central U.S!
This workshop will include interactive presentations and hands-on activities designed to help bridge the gap between climate science and resource management
Registration is free, but required:
Event: April 29-30, 2020
University of Oklahoma
4 Partners Place 301 David L. Boren Blvd.
Norman, OK 73072
2018
Early Career Researcher Training
Associate professor Kristine DeLong and doctoral candidate Clay Tucker co-hosted with
the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences the biennial Early Career Researcher
Training from August 6–10, 2018 funded by the South Central Climate Adaptation Science
Center. The 28 participants were from the South Central U.S. and represent a wide
variety of environmental and climate related research interests. The workshop covered such
topics as science communication to grant proposal writing with the purpose to provide
professional development training to graduate students, post-docs, and early career
professionals. The theme for this year’s training was WATER, a topic well known in
Louisiana.
Throughout the week, the participants interacted with more than 30 seasoned professionals
and stakeholders working on water issues in Louisiana – ranging from environmental
engineers to a federal politician. The week was filled with field trips to see real
world Louisiana issues and solutions first hand including flood protection structures
in New Orleans, the Mandeville wastewater treatment plant, the urban Bluebonnet Swamp,
the LSU Center for River Studies, and The Water Institute of the Gulf. The participants
were separated into multidisciplinary groups to discuss and address one of Louisiana’s
many issues with water and then propose a possible project that would include stakeholders.
These projects ranged from sediment diversions to oyster bed creation, Mississippi
River shipping channels to LSU Lakes restoration.
2017
Undergraduate Summer Internship for Underrepresented Minorities Sponsored by the South Central Climate Science Center: June 9th - 15th
The South-Central Climate Center Underrepresented Minority Undergraduate Internship for Summer 2017 was held at Louisiana State University (LSU) on July 9-15, 2017. They had a group of outstanding undergraduates from all over the south-central region ranging from New Mexico to Louisiana. The first couple days included settling into the East Campus Apartments, getting to know each other, as well as the professors, Drs. Victor Rivera and Kristine DeLong, and their graduate students. Monday was an introduction to LSU and the Internship followed by demonstrations of the type of equipment they would be using. The next couple of days were spent at Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) where they rode on a boat to a nearby island to look at damage from Tropical Storm Cindy and measured elevation changes on the island, took cores in the saltwater marsh, and had a quick kayaking trip in between thunderstorms. LUMCON presented the interns and staff with great hospitability throughout the visit, showing them their aquariums and specimen collection plus taking time out of their schedules to visit with the interns. On the way back to LSU, the interns received a special “white boots” treatment from the local United Houma Nation members where they learned about living on the coast from a native perspective saw how shrimp are processed and distributed. Shrimp Kingdom Seafood even provided a shrimp boil for the interns, one of Louisiana’s delicacies. The next day was spent at the Atchafalaya basin with the Nature Conservancy of Louisiana. The interns all took part in collecting sediment cores and were given a behind the scenes swamp tour. On the last field day with the interns, they were taken to New Orleans for Dr. Barry Keim’s famous Katrina tour showing them the high flood lines from Hurricane Katrina, which parts of the levees failed those areas, and how the city is now protected. The next day the LSU crew said farewell to the interns as they begin another week full of research and field experience at The University of Oklahoma followed by a week at Texas Tech University.
Interns: Fiala Bumpers, Jorgianna Calderon, Destiny Coleman, Larissa Howard, Hailey
Hester, Fernando Lopez, Hilario Lumbreras, Melody Martinez, Janayah Murray, Celinda
Vallejo-Rodriguez
SC-CSC Affiliates: Dr. Kristine DeLong and Dr. Victor H. Rivera-Monroy (co-leaders);
Dr. Barry Keim
Graduate Assistants: Marissa Vara, Meghan Kelsall, Gilman Ouellette, Clay Tucker
2015
Student Attends Climate Boot Camp
Jacob Warner, a Ph.D. student in Geography and Anthropology at LSU, attended the 2015 Climate Boot Camp sponsored by the North West Climate Science Center (NWCSC). This year’s boot camp was located in the Pack Forest, an experimental research forest owned by the University of Washington. Participants were primarily early career scientists or graduate students representing a variety of fields including ecology, geomorphology, hydrology, glaciology, biology, and climatology. Representatives of the National Parks Service, United States Geological Survey, and various tribal nations of the Pacific Northwest worked with attendees during the camp. The camp featured classroom exercises on science communication, scientific video production, integrating scientific and traditional knowledge, working with Native American tribes, climatology, and working with land managers, with a focus on the unique climate issues of the Pacific Northwest. Field trips included visits to Mt. Rainier National Park and NWCSC-funded research sites in and around the park as well as restoration areas managed by the Nisqually tribe near Peugeot Sound. Jacob found the trip to be an invigorating and enlightening experience with excellent opportunities to see climate change impacts in the Northwest. He also learned a lot about science communication and outreach, and enjoyed the chance to meet other young scientists and professionals studying climate-related issues. Jacob is a research assistant funded by grants from the South Central Climate Science Center.
Undergraduate Summer Internship for Underrepresented Minorities Sponsored by the South Central Climate Science Center: June 14th - 20th
This year’s South Central Climate Science Center (SC CSC) undergraduate Summer Internship for underrepresented minorities wrapped up in Louisiana. Students from Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Nebraska began their trip in Monroe, traveled down the Mississippi River to the coast while learning about the climate, ecology, geomorphology, and the history of the state along the way. The students started their week at the archaeological site of Poverty Point, a prehistoric settlement with monumental architecture whose creation and eventual abandonment over 3000 years ago may have been closely linked to climate change. The interns then traveled south to the Old River Control Structure, learning about the past, present, and current issues related to maintaining the Mississippi River’s present-day path and flooding, which the river was quite high this year.
After spending the night in Baton Rouge, the group then traveled south to the coast, including a visit to the mangroves around Port Fouchon and Grand Isle State Park, and eventually reached the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), while tropical storm Bob was offshore. At LUMCON, the students received the opportunity to tour the R/V Pelican, one of the long-range research vessels run by the consortium, and the next morning explored nearby marshes via kayak to see the effects of wetlands loss firsthand.
That same afternoon the students traveled north to Mandeville, where they saw an innovative project to provide reclaimed freshwater to wetlands near the city. After returning to Baton Rouge, the interns toured LSU campus for a day, meeting various professionals and professors studying climate and environmental issues across the state and region, as well as visiting several labs in both the Department of Geography and Anthropology and the School of Coast and the Environment. Finally, the students visited New Orleans and its surrounding suburbs for a hurricane Katrina tour with Dr. Barry Keim, the Louisiana State climatologist. Before leaving on Saturday, the interns presented the weather and climate data they had been gathering since the internship began, noting several important differences between the conditions in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
Interns: Haley Bloomquist, Olivia Broussard, Johnwilliam Carroll, Chantelle Davis,
Aaron Flores, Taylor Gillespie, Juan Martinez, Shannon McAlester, Sydney Salas
SC-CSC Affiliates: Dr. Kristine DeLong and Dr. Victor H. Rivera-Monroy (co-leaders);
Dr. Barry Keim
Graduate Assistants: Tess Danielson, Gilman Ouellette, Johnny Ryu, Jacob Warner
Undergraduate Summer Internship for Underrepresented Minorities
Sponsored by the South Central Climate Science Center
31 May–20 June, 2015
The SC-CSC will again be offering a summer undergraduate internship opportunity in 2015 for students of underrepresented minorities interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (for example, agricultural science, economics, environmental engineering). Interns will be involved in hands-on activities related to climate research that will allow them to see the direct impacts of climate variability and change on forest ecosystems in Oklahoma, coastal areas in Louisiana, and the Texas Hill Country. Internship participants will travel across the South Central United States to visit university campuses and field locations and interact with faculty conducting cutting edge research.
Interns will spend one week with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, one week with Louisiana State University, and one week with Texas Tech University. All meals, lodging and travel will be provided during the three-week period. In addition, interns will receive a $200/week stipend for the duration of the program. The program will not cover local travel between the participant's home to their closest airport, personal equipment (clothing, cameras, etc.), or other personal expenses.
A sample of last year's itinerary is available below, and a video about the internship produced by participants in the 2014 experience is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShN9yawAWAs
The deadline to apply is 5:00 PM Central Time on Friday, March 20, 2015.
For eligibility requirements and to access the application form, please see: http://goo.gl/ifHV35