Air, Climate, & Energy Research Webinar: Resilience of Ecosystems in a Changing Climate
About the Webinar
This webinar, hosted by the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) was recorded on November 16th, 2021. The webinar is part of EPA’s Air, Climate, & Energy Research webinar series.
Climate change has vast detrimental impacts on ecosystems and communities. Researchers at EPA are investigating the resilience of ecosystems to climate change and natural disasters and developing tools that can be used to help sustain and protect them. This webinar will highlight the following ongoing research: (1) understanding how and where fish populations might be able to cope with future environmental change and informing water and watershed management to foster future resilience in freshwater ecosystems; and (2) advancing the Cumulative Resilience Screening Index, a tool that assists regions, states, and communities in assessing and further developing resilience to acute climate events.
About the Presenters
Dr. Joseph Ebersole is a research fishery biologist with CPHEA.His primary research interest is understanding how organisms cope with challenging environmental conditions. Joe’s research has focused on how water temperature influences the distribution, abundance, and behavior of freshwater fishes, with a recent emphasis on how fish may cope with climate change and wildfires.
Dr. Kevin Summers is a research ecologist with EPA’s Center for Measurement and Modeling (CEMM). Kevin’s research includes developing applications for an index of community resilience to natural hazards; an index of human well-being that can be related to changes in ecosystem, social and economic services; and a sustainability tool for small communities.