ClimateToolbox.org

Climate Toolbox Activities

FUTURE WILDLIFE HABITATS

EXPLORE FUTURE HABITAT

OF WOLVERINES IN OREGON

In this activity, we will explore current and future wildlife habitats of the wolverine in Oregon by utilizing the Climate Mapper Tool in the Climate Toolbox.

Climate Effects

Wolverine Habitat

Snow Cover Assumption

In North America, wolverines live in boreal forests, tundra and alpine habitats. In the southern portion of their range in WA and OR, they are confined to the coldest, highest elevations. Though there are many aspects to a wolverine’s habitat, for this activity we will focus on a requirement that female wolverines needs a stable snowpack late in the spring for denning and successful reproduction.

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It would be ideal to have future projections of snow depth but this is not available. Instead we will use projections of snow water equivalent (SWE), which is the liquid water equivalent of the snowpack, as a proxy for snow depth. For this activity, we will assume that at least 16” of SWE is needed for adequate denning of wolverine kits. Mid-May is traditionally around the time when kits emerge from dens, so we will assume that at least 16” of SWE is needed on May 1st.

In a changing climate, high elevation alpine forests are expected to shrink and shift northward. As this stresses the wolverine’s habitat, the wolverine population will slowly migrate to a more suitable climate. If there is not a wildlife corridor connecting current habitat to a more suitable habitat, wildlife managers may intervene in relocating a species to prevent extinction.

Climate Migration

A possible wolverine den in the snow.

Source: Wolverine Blog

ClimateToolbox.org

Data

FUTURE TEMPERATURES

The future snow water equivalent data used in this activity come from a gridded hydrology model that decides the fate of precipitation over each grid cell towards evaporation, infiltration into the soil surface, surface runoff and storage of snow on the ground. The hydrology model uses inputs of daily future climate projections from 10 different global climate models and 2 future greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP 4.5, 8.5) from CMIP5.

Activity

• Go to the Climate Mapper tool (ClimateToolbox.org)
• Choose future, hydrology, snow water equivalent, May 1 and historical simulation.
• Zoom into Oregon and click on the map to see values of SWE at different locations
• To show the wolverine habitat clearly, we will mask to the map. Go to ‘Change Mapping’ section. Set ‘Base Map: ‘World Light Gray Map with cities & rivers’. Set ‘Color for Out of Range Values’: transparent.
• Set ‘Color Range’ to be 16 to 75” to show only those locations where SWE> 16”. This is our assumed wolverine habitat.
• Get a tall, skinny screenshot of WA/OR habitat area for historical, RCP 4.5 (2040-2069) and (2070-2099). WA represents where the wolverine can migrate.
• Get a separate screenshot of legend.

Create a climate data story on future habitats of the Wolverine in Oregon state.

Prepare a 3-5 min presentation (2 slides) on your story.

To Do

Prepare Slide

To Do

Prepare Slide

Prepare Talking Points

The Facts (Slide 1)

The Meaning (Slide 2)

• Picture of wolverine
• Picture of wolverine with kits in snow, den?
• State habitat denning assumption
• 3 maps - Historical, 2040-2069, 2070-2099
• Add title, legend
• Add labels to clarify historical and future years.
• Add statement on source of data

• Future climate change poses a loss in habitat for the wolverine in Oregon.
• As the climate changes, wolverines will need to migrate to suitable habitat along wildlife corridors to avoid extinction.Where will they go?
• Wildlife managers are monitoring habitats and can help protect/establish corridors.

• 2 boxplots at 2 locations
• Large text for the 2 location descriptions
• Mean values for 1971-2000 and 2070-2099 in larger text to highlight on graphs

• Do an internet search to find 2 locations where there are currently wolverines in Oregon.
• Go to the Future Boxplots tool in Toolbox
• Select variable SWE first then time period May 1.
• Select RCP 4.5
• Create a boxplot for each of the locations you found from your search for current wolverine locations.
• Hover over the graph at 2070-2099 to get the median value to add to your slide.
• For which locations will the wolverines likely need to migrate elsewhere?