The Core Climate Research Program, supported by the California Natural Resources Agency and administered by the California Institute for Energy and Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, funds a suite of climate research that fills important gaps in our understanding of climate change impacts and how we can best adapt in California. Reports span a range of critical topics that were identified through input from over 200 experts and community partners throughout State agencies, academia, non-government organizations, California Native American Tribes, and other interested residents of California.
Reports
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A Multi-Sector Assessment of Climate Change Adaptations in California Agriculture and Communities
Climate change continues to challenge California’s agricultural systems, resulting in economic losses that cascade into rural communities and the regional economies. This research aims to provide action-based science to enhance climate resilience in California by integrating, for the first time, the coordinated adaptations of crop and animal agriculture in the…
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Assessing Cost Effectiveness of Coastal Climate Adaptation Solutions in California: CoSMoS Adapts
California’s coast faces significant climate change challenges that threaten the coastal economy, critical infrastructure, communities, and a rich natural system. In response, State agencies and local communities have been scaling up adaptation efforts, increasingly embracing a “pathway” approach, but they have expressed a lack of tools to evaluate local adaptation…
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Building an Inclusive Future: A Participatory Approach to Transformative Climate Change Resilience
The unevenly distributed future of climate change means that some people are on the frontlines today. How they are learning to respond, adapt, and find resilience will matter to all Californians in the next decade–from households to policy decision-makers. This research project asks: what if we center and amplify low-income…
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Climate Change Impact on Compound and Cascading Hazards in California
Multiple hazard events (whether extreme or not) can occur concurrently or in a series (cascading) to produce compound hazards with extreme impacts on societal, natural, and built systems that have far greater negative consequences than the independent hazards. The overarching goal of this project is to develop and apply a…
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Climate Change-Related Occupational Hazards
Climate change-related rising ambient air temperatures and episodic air pollution events from wildland fires in the Western United States expose Californians to excess heat and reduced air quality which may have substantial, preventable adverse impacts on health and job performance. These direct and indirect impacts on vulnerable populations in California…
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Climate Refugia for Pacific Sardine and Red Abalone in the California Current Ecosystem
Climate change is impacting California marine ecosystems: rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation. In addition, the impact of episodic marine heat waves, El Niño events, and increasing ocean variability are not uniform across space or time. Climate change refugia are areas characterized by relatively stable climate conditions and therefore have…
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Estimating the Impact of Drought on California’s Housing Needs
The increases in housing supply needed to help address the state’s growing shortage of affordable housing sit in stark contrast to the risks of declining water available to meet these housing needs. At the same time, climate change is increasing the frequency and magnitude of drought, resulting in loss of…
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Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for California’s Adjudicated Groundwater Basins to Assess Impacts on Water Sustainability for Vulnerable Communities
Groundwater is a critical water supply source for many communities and an essential back-up source of water during droughts. Over a century, the volume of groundwater withdrawn generally exceeded recharge with concomitant negative impacts to vulnerable communities and the resource. Climate change projections of increased temperatures and more extreme droughts…
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Influence of Future Sea Level Rise on Tsunami Hazards in California
The influence of future Sea-Level Rise (SLR) on tsunami hazards is likely to have substantial health and safety, economic, and societal impacts, especially as more people move to coastal California. Some research has been conducted to evaluate the potential impact of SLR on tsunami hazards in California, yet this work…
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Pollination in a Changing World: The Effects of Habitat and Temperature on the Health of California’s Wild Pollinators
Pollinator-dependent crops in California are valued at more than $11 billion, making California the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the United States. However, California’s reliance on managed honeybees for pollination is problematic. The high cost and carbon emissions associated with hive transport, along with the persistently high rates…
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Sierra Nevada Montane Meadows: Keystone Ecosystems for Carbon Stability and Ecosystem Services Under Climate Change
Montane meadows in the Sierra Nevada region are inland mineral soil wetlands that provide important habitat for over half of the region’s vertebrate species, are critical components of California’s water infrastructure, and contain high densities of soil carbon. Despite the importance of these keystone ecosystems, they remain understudied, particularly compared…
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Surviving the Heat: Photosynthetic Heat Tolerance of California Trees and Shrubs in a Warming World
Despite the well-recognized threat of climate warming, impacts on native plant species are understudied. With over 6,000 plant taxa, predicting the consequences of climate change on the California flora is a significant challenge. There is a strong need for empirical data on plant heat tolerance across the state’s diverse ecosystems…
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The Impacts of Climate Change on Atmospheric River Storms and California’s Water Resource Infrastructure
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs) are the predominant sources of precipitation in California. As a result, these weather phenomena are responsible for nearly all flood hazards in the state with impacts that could be amplified in a warmer, low-to no snow future. This project will analyze the AR-ETC…
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The Potential for Long-Term Soil Carbon Sequestration from Compost Amendments to California Rangelands
Rangelands cover almost 40% of the land area in California and have demonstrated potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, the lack of long-term data has hampered the wider incorporation of these lands into climate action planning. This project will use a 15-year experiment to determine the…
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Weathering the Weather: Strategies to Reduce Harm to People Living Unsheltered
As the climate changes, California will experience more dangerous and frequent heat waves, incidents of toxic wildfire smoke, and flooding from heavy precipitation events. During these hazards, public health advice often centers around encouraging people to stay home or stay inside. This is not always easy or possible for the…