Climate Change

Changes in weather and climate driven by rising global temperatures are impacting ecosystems around the world. In the northern Great Plains, warming temperatures in combination with altered frequency and severity of wet and dry periods are influencing the regions terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in new and potentially unique ways. Given the valued services these ecosystems provide to society, NPWRC researchers have initiated efforts to better understand the ultimate effects of climate driven changes on the functioning of natural systems. As changes related to climate change become increasingly pronounced in the coming decades, stresses placed on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the northern Great Plains will increase, [...]