IN CCIA January 2021 Newsletter

New IN CCIA Educational Materials Available

The Purdue Climate Change Research Center has partnered with climate change education researcher Dan Shepardson to create 3 print-ready lessons (for grades 6-12) using local data from the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment. Teacher guides and additional lessons are under development, so check the IN CCIA Resources for Educators page for updates.

U.S. and Indiana fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions -- Key concepts include carbon dioxide, greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, fossil fuels and usage by sector, and global warming.
Indiana’s temperature: How hot will it get? -- Key concepts include climate, weather, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, global warming, and temperature.
Indiana’s precipitation: Will it be wetter or drier? -- Key concepts include greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, global warming, climate, weather, precipitation, and water cycle.

Looking for more resources?
Try the Indiana Climate Change Education Framework.

The Indiana Department of Education and Purdue University partners worked with K-12 educators across the state to curate climate change resources that intersect with existing Indiana Academic Standards for science. #INclimateEd

IN CCIA Technical Research Papers

In December 2020, a special issue featuring the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) was published in the journal Climatic Change.

This special issue, which builds on more than a decade of state climate assessment research, includes 9 publications (free access links below) that provide an in-depth look at Indiana’s future climate and the consequences of climate change on natural and built systems.

These papers, along with two additional articles that are in the final stages of publication, serve as the scientific foundation for the IN CCIA public reports.

Congratulations to the 58 authors from 15 organizations who contributed their time and expertise to the IN CCIA special issue. Also, thank you to guest editors Jeff Dukes, Melissa Widhalm, Daniel Vimont, and Linda Prokopy for their assistance on the special issue.

Browse the articles:

Introduction to the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment: Overview of the Process and Context (Widhalm & Dukes 2020)
Impacts of Climate Change on the State of Indiana: Ensemble Future Projections Based on Statistical Downscaling (Hamlet et al. 2020)
An Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Freshwater Habitats of Indiana USA (Höök et al. 2020)
An Integrated Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Indiana Forests (Phillips et al. 2020)
Projected Climate Change Impacts on Indiana’s Energy Demand and Supply (Raymond et al. 2020)
Projecting Urban Energy Demand in Indiana for 2050 and 2080 (Wachs and Singh 2020)
Implications of Climate Change for Managing Urban Green Infrastructure in Indiana (Reynolds et al. 2020)
Climate Change Impacts on Human Health at an Actionable Scale: A State-Level Assessment of Indiana USA (Filippelli et al. 2020)
Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change in Indiana and Potential Adaptations (Bowling et al. 2020)

View this list online

Stories of Change: Climate + Birds

Life-long bird-watcher and wildlife ecologist Barny Dunning shares his observations of change over the last 20 years in Indiana. One major thing he can pull from those decades of notes — Indiana’s climate is changing rapidly, and it’s having a real effect on birds.

See the Climate + Birds story
Share your story

Dig Deeper: Climate Risks for Indiana Agriculture

Over the coming decades, Hoosier farmers will have to adapt to rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns that will have some positive but overall more negative effects on row crops, livestock, poultry, specialty crops and soil health, according to the IN CCIA report Indiana’s Agriculture in a Changing Climate.

Among the report's key findings:

* More frequent heat stress and a doubling of water deficits are expected to reduce Indiana corn yields, for current varieties, by 16 to 20 percent by mid-century.

* The number of days each year that reach above 86 degrees F, a threshold for livestock heat stress, is expected to double. Heat stress can decrease animal growth and increase the risk of disease and death.

* By mid-century, increasing cold-season precipitation will result in about a 30 to 50 percent increase in spring flow from the subsurface pipes that drain Indiana’s agricultural fields. These shifts will likely lead to nutrient loss from farm fields, and some existing drains may be overwhelmed by the higher flows.

View more

DIG DEEPER
The IN CCIA Agriculture Working Group has published the technical details behind these key findings in the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change. ⤵️

Bowling, L., Cherkauer, K., Lee, C., Beckerman, J., Brouder, S., Buzan, J., Doering, O., Dukes, J., Ebner, P., Frankenberger, J., Gramig, B., Kladivko, E., and J. Volenec, J (2020). Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change in Indiana and Potential Adaptations. Climatic Change 163: 2005-2027. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02934-9 (free access pdf)

Climate Facts

Did you know?

Over the last 125 years (1895-2019), Indiana's climate has warmed 1.3°F and precipitation has increased 6.5 inches. According to future projections, these trends will continue and intensify, particularly during cold season months. One resulting consequence will be a noticeable shift in the proportion of precipitation falling as rain versus snow from November through March.

Snowfall plays many important roles in natural and social systems, including regulating soil temperatures and soil saturation levels, influencing snow removal budgets, and determining winter recreational opportunities. As precipitation type shifts over the coming decades, Hoosiers will need to shift their approach for managing resources and the risks associated with increasing rainfall.

The graphic below shows the percent of cold-season precipitation falling as snow for three Indiana counties in the past and projected for the future. A value of 100 would mean that all precipitation from November to March fell as snow, while a value of 0 would mean none of the precipitation was snow. In southern Indiana, little snowfall is expected by late century, with snowfall still present but greatly reduced in the north.

Source: Hamlet et al. (2020). View graphic in the IN CCIA report Indiana's Past and Future Climate.

About Us:

Led by the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) is a statewide effort that brings the best available climate change research together into a series of reports designed to help Hoosiers better understand climate change-related risks so they can prepare for challenges and capitalize on opportunities.

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Purdue Climate Change Research Center · 203 S. Martin Jishke Drive · Purdue University · West Lafayette, IN 47907 · USA