CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) program is announcing seven new three-year projects for Fiscal Years 2022-2024 that aim to develop new model-based monitoring products addressing key climate impact areas. The competitively-selected projects total $2.7M, including $2.7M in grants and $45K in other awards.
These projects are focused on developing new or experimental monitoring products that use modeling or model-adjacent approaches such as reanalysis, data assimilation, or artificial intelligence. The projects will provide new monitoring products relevant to high-priority climate risk areas around which the Climate Program Office is organizing some of its activities. These include extreme heat, hydroclimate and water resources with a focus on pluvial conditions, and coastal inundation.
Projects will make a number of key new advances including the development of an experimental flash drought monitor, new fine-scale coastal sea level monitoring data that fills gaps between tide gauges, and new products highlighting heat risks. They may, but are not required to, be specific to near-term foci under CPO's risk area activities, which include water in the Great Lakes region under the water resources effort, urban heat under the extreme heat effort, and East and Gulf Coast inundation under the coastal inundation effort.
Funded projects have a strong process focus, are grounded in physical drivers of climate variability and change, and account for complex and multi-variate linkages within and between climate system components. They take into account the utility of monitoring products to stakeholders through documented criteria describing thresholds, metrics, and categorical criteria needed by stakeholders who make decisions related to the areas of extreme heat, water resources, and coastal inundation. Products may also fill information gaps in the National Climate Assessment or the USGCRP Indicators Platform.
Proposals were required to involve a NOAA investigator or collaborator and to demonstrate relevance of intended new products to one or more NOAA Line Offices. Within NOAA, collaborators in the below projects are from the National Ocean Service Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (NOS-CO-OPS), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL).
The seven new projects funded by the MAPP program, with co-funding from CPO’s Climate Observations and Monitoring (COM) program for one project for FY22-24, are:
MISSION: The Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program (CAFA) is a partnership between the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (NOAA Research) Climate Program Office, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) Office of Science and Technology that supports targeted research to promote adaptation and resilience of the nation's valuable fisheries and fisheries-dependent communities in a changing climate. By bringing together NOAA scientists with many partners, CAFA addresses priority needs for information and tools identified in the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy, Regional Action Plans, and other sources.
ISSUE: Healthy fisheries are a significant component of the U.S. economy. Commercial and recreational marine fisheries generate over $200 billion in economic activity and support more than 1.8 million jobs annually (FEUS 2016). Fisheries also support working waterfronts and coastal communities, provide opportunities for commerce, are tied to rich cultures, and help meet the growing demand for seafood across the U.S. and the world.
Climate change is impacting fish stocks, fisheries, and fishing communities, and these impacts are expected to increase. Changing climate and ocean conditions (e.g. warming oceans, changing currents, coastal inundation, extreme events, etc.) can affect the abundance, distribution, and productivity of fish stocks that support economically important fisheries. Sustainable fisheries management requires an improved understanding of how climate, fishing, and other stressors interact to affect fish stocks (including their habitats and prey), fisheries and fishing-dependent communities.
PROGRAM HISTORY: The CAFA Program was established by the NOAA Research Climate Program Office and the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology in 2014 to advance understanding of climate‐related impacts on fish stocks, fisheries and fishing communities. The partnership originated through the former Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications (COCA) Program and in 2021 was renamed the Climate and Fisheries Adaptation (CAFA) Program as part of the Climate Program Office Adaptation Sciences Program.
SPONSORS: Funding for the CAFA Program comes from the OAR Climate Program Office and the NMFS Office of Science and Technology, the Office of Sustainable Fisheries, and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
Jennifer Dopkowski NOAA ResearchClimate Program Office P: (301) 734-1261 E: jennifer.dopkowski@noaa.gov
Roger Griffis NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology P: (301) 427-8134 E: roger.b.griffis@noaa.gov
Americans’ health, security and economic wellbeing are tied to climate and weather. Every day, we see communities grappling with environmental challenges due to unusual or extreme events related to climate and weather.