Three and a half billion people currently live in cities, and this is projected to rise to six billion by 2050. In much of the world, cities are warming at twice the rate of rural areas and the frequency of urban heat waves is expected to increase with climate change throughout the 21st century. Addressing the economic, environmental and human costs of urban heat islands requires a better understanding of these complex systems from many disciplinary perspectives. The goal of this four-year Urban Heat Island Network is to advance multidisciplinary understanding of urban heat islands, examine how they can be ameliorated through engineering and design practices, and share these new insights with a wide array of stakeholders responsible for managing urban warming so that the health, economic, and environmental impacts can be reduced.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peter SnyderPatrick HamiltonBrian StoneTracy TwineJ. Marshall Shepherd
The Vanessa Migration Project is a citizen science program that has been active since April 2001 as part of the Red Admiral and Painted Lady Research Site. Citizen observers in North America report their sightings of date, location, flight direction, and other activity of four butterflies of the genus Vanessa (V. atalanta, V. cardui, V. virginiensis, and V. annabella). Objectives include 1) monitoring butterflies and their yearly seasonal distribution; 2) tracking migrations and outbreaks; and 3) studying effects of weather and climatic patterns on butterfly activity.
The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with far more data than they could collect alone.
Rothamsted Research is the oldest agricultural research station in the world. It is internationally recognised for its long history of entomological studies, including the Rothamsted Insect Survey which has operated a national network of light traps since 1968. Most of the traps are operated by volunteers, with approximately 90 traps running each year. Altogether, over 460 sites have run for a minimum of one year and 54 have operated for at least 15 years. This has become one of the world’s largest and broadest contemporary insect biodiversity databases, with over 12 million individual macro-moth records. These records are used for fundamental ecological research, linking the effects of land use and climate change with population and distribution changes of common British moths. Recently, data have been used to show dramatic declines and changes in distribution for many common species throughout the UK.
AMC's Mountain Watch is a citizen scientist monitoring program whereby hikers monitor and report the timing of alpine and mountain forest flowers bud break and flowering and document air quality from mountain vistas. Mountain Watch plant observations will aid researchers in understanding how and by what magnitude the biota on the mountains are responding to observed statistical changes in climate variables like temperature and snowmelt.
IceWatch USA™, a program of Nature Abounds, brings citizen science volunteers the opportunity to help scientists study how our climate is changing! In as little as 10 minutes, volunteers can report information that will help to analyze how our climate will change in different regions of the United States, and how our ecosystems are reacting to the change. IceWatch USA™ is modeled after and a proud partner of Ice Watch Canada.
Youth Volunteer Interpreters as Facilitators of Learning about Climate Change in Zoo Settings reports on a project to pilot test climate change education resources featuring youth volunteer interpreters as facilitators for zoo visitors’ experiences. Brookfield Zoo tested inquiry-based and specimen-based interpretation at the polar bear and Humboldt penguin exhibits, and Woodland Park Zoo tested a climate-change themed "activity cart" near their Sumatran tiger exhibit. Both the effects of youth volunteer interpretation on the zoo visitors and on the youth volunteer interpreters themselves were
Global Climate Change as Seen by Latin American Zoo Visitors reports on the findings of a summer 2011 survey conducted at eight Latin American zoos in five countries. The study was designed to characterize the readiness of Latin American zoo visitors to engage with the issue of global climate change. This included describing visitors’ cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral predispositions toward climate change in addition to describing their attitudes and beliefs regarding wildlife, nature, and conservation actions. Results indicate that Latin American zoo visitors have a high degree of
Global Climate Change as Seen by Zoo and Aquarium Visitors reports on the findings of a summer 2011 survey conducted at 15 zoos and aquariums. The study was designed to characterize the readiness of U.S. zoo and aquarium visitors to engage with the issue of global climate change. This included describing visitors' cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral predispositions toward climate change in addition to describing their attitudes and beliefs regarding wildlife, nature, and conservation actions. Results indicate that zoo and aquarium visitors are receptive audiences for climate change
Although informal learning environments have been studied extensively, ours is one of the first studies to quantitatively assess the impact of learning in botanical gardens on students' cognitive achievement. We observed a group of 10th graders participating in a one-day educational intervention on climate change implemented in a botanical garden. The students completed multiple-choice questionnaires in a pre-post-retention test design. Comparing the test scores revealed a significant short-term knowledge gain as well as a long-term knowledge gain. Consequently, our results show the potentials
The Sprouting Green Weeding Practices in Libraries: Web-Based Training project, developed by the Austin Public Library, will offer libraries across the nation an opportunity to engage citizens and raise awareness of carbon neutral reuse options for books and materials being weeded and discarded from library collections. Austin's partner, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas along with other libraries and subject experts from Materials Management, Solid Waste Services, the Office of Sustainability and the public, will draw upon their collective experiences to develop content and disseminate an online training tool. The project will promote examination of collection management policies and workflows and the development of meaningful measurements to communicate success, inspiring the community to become engaged with the library to keep materials out of landfills.
The Scientists-in-Residence Program at the Exploratorium was part of a collaboration with NOAA, in which NOAA scientists collaborated with museum staff in order to create exhibits and to develop and participate in programming. This table provides claims about the Scientists in Residence program, as well as evidence to support them.