Awards & Recognitions

At the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Baltimore in March, Tony Oliver-Smith, professor emeritus of anthropology at UF, was informed that he won the Malinowski Award for this coming year for his work on climate-related disasters, among others, and involuntary resettlement. The award is presented to an outstanding social scientist in recognition of efforts to understand and serve the needs of the world's societies and who has actively pursued the goal of solving human problems using the concepts and tools of social science during one's entire career.

On April 9, FCI co-director Eric Chassignet received FSU's Distinguished Research Professor Award. This it the third highest faculty award at Florida State.

This project is being done for the South Atlantic LCC (http://www.southatlanticlcc.org/). The LCC covers the area from Tallahassee to Jacksonville in Florida and then northward including most of Georgia, the Carolinas and southern Virginia. Dynamically down-scaled climate model data from the USGS project "A Land of Flowers on a Latitude of Deserts," La Florida for short (http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/climate/la_florida.html) will be compared to statistically down-scaled datasets from several sources. Cooperating Investigators include Drs. Vasu Misra and Lydia Stephanova from COAPS, and Dr. Ryan Boyles, State Climatologist for North Carolina.

This project is in support of research needs identified by staff of the Peninsular Florida LCC (http://peninsularfloridalcc.org/). The down-scaled climate model data from the La Florida project will be used as inputs to a variety of ecological models for a number of plant and animal species of interest in Florida and the SE United States. Climate envelop models will be developed to make predictions about potential range expansions, contractions and geographical shifts across the landscape. Species to be modeled could include endangered species (e.g. American Crocodile, Florida Manatee), charismatic fauna (e.g. wading birds, alligator), invasive, exotic species (e.g. Australian mangroves), and possibly others after the research team has consulted with resource managers and Land Conservation Consortium staff. Collaborating Investigators on this project include Dr. Stephanie Romanach, USGS, and Drs. Vasu Misra and Lydia Stephanova, at COAPS.

This 3-year study will examine the dynamics of ice sheets and sea level change during a warm period in earth's history.  his research will involve field work in the Seychelles, Bahamas, and Jamaica to constrain the position of sea level in the far- and near- field of the large ice sheets that exist during glacial periods. These observational data will be reconciled with glacial isostatic modeling to understand the behavior of globally averaged, or eustatic, sea level change. 

An integral part of the process will be use of an innovative mix of hardware and software that will allow small groups to interact with geospatial data through visualization software projected onto a tabletop. The tabletop is interactive and allows participants to create and modify scenarios and generate information real time based on the scenarios. Use of scenarios will allow participants to generate data based on impacts of sea-level rise such as increased storm surge or coastal flooding.

NEW WEBSITE: The Florida Sea Grant Sea Grant College Program has launched a coastal planning website that focuses primarily on adaptation to sea-level.

The page, whose development is on-going, provides resources directed at local government attorneys and local government planners. The website is available at

www.flseagrant.org/coastalplanning.  

NEW VIDEO: Droughts and Downpours: Harvesting Rain on a Dryland Farm

Grower Kirk Brock talks with Wendy-Lin Bartels about adapting to rainfall extremes on his dryland farm in Florida and how seasonal climate forecasts should help him improve his operation. The video is posted here in NOAA's ClimateWatch Magazine. 

NEW HIRE: Florida Sea Grant (FSG) recently received a grant from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) to hire a Sea Level Rise Outreach Coordinator. A search was conducted early this year, and Ms. Whitney Gray now is in this position. Whitney will be a liaison between FSG and the FWC on work related to sea level rise and coastal natural resource impacts and adaptations. She will work out of the FWC headquarters in Tallahassee, embedded with that agency's climate change adaptation team. She will lead efforts to inventory coastal habitats at risk from sea level rise, identify research needs to support natural system adaptation initiatives, work to incorporate sea level rise adaptation planning into FWC coastal resource protection programs, and develop education and outreach materials related to sea level rise for Extension Agents in FSG, staff at the FWC, elected and appointed officials and the general public. Before coming to UF, Whitney was the Senior Environmental Planner for the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, a City Commissioner for Clearwater, Florida, and a Head of the Science Department at a Pinellas County High School.

The Advisory Committee had contacted Charlotte County Sea Grant Agent Betty Staugler requesting information on sea-level rise, and subsequently invited Mr. Ruppert and Mr. Beever to present. As part of questions and discussions after the meeting, the Advisory Committee voted to recommend to the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners to invite Mr. Ruppert and Mr. Beever to give a similar presentation to the Board of County Commissioners. The Board accepted this recommendation and has issued an invitation for a presentation in May.