Keith Musselman

8 in 10 lizards could be at risk due to deforestation

Anonymous — Fri, 17 May 2024 17:46:04 +0000

8 in 10 lizards could be at risk due to deforestation Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/17/2024 - 11:46

Yvonne Ye

In babyֱ��app, people flock to the Rocky Mountains when the summer heat gets unbearable. Animals seek shelter too when temperatures become extreme, and forests serve as critical sanctuaries for small tree-dwelling animals like lizards.

In a new study published March 5 in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists from CU Boulder and Tel Aviv University in Israel revealed that deforestation combined with climate change could negatively impact 84% of North America’s lizards by the end of the century. Nearly one in five could face population decline.

Unlike mammals that can maintain their body temperatures in a variety of ways—sweating when it gets too hot and relying on warm fur when it gets too cold—cold-blooded animals such as lizards have limited strategies to thermoregulate. Tree-climbing lizards move around tree trunks to bask in the sun for warmth. When the ground gets too hot, they climb higher or move into the shade.

“What's really interesting about lizards is that they just need to be able to move a short distance around the tree trunk to get to a very different climate and habitat environment,” said Keith Musselman, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and CU Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. “These microhabitats are particularly important when we think about how we modify our natural environment and make conservation decisions.”

Using computer simulations, the team showed that global warming can actually benefit lizards living in colder regions or at higher latitudes in North America. Warmer weather increases the animals’ activity time, meaning they have more time to look for food or mates during the day. However, deforestation would largely reverse these positive effects by reducing opportunities for shade in hotter climates that help them cool down.

The team simulated lizard models for different climate regions across North America. They found that tree loss could decrease lizards’ activity time by an average of 34% by the end of the century. Without trees, the animals would have to hide under rocks or in caves to avoid overheating. The impact would be especially prominent for species that already live in warmer regions, where future summers will become too warm for activity on the ground.

The team estimated that deforestation would accelerate population declines for 18% of lizards in North America.

“Our work provides new insights into the mechanisms by which deforestation may cause population declines in the face of climate change,” said Ofir Levy, a zoologist and Musselman’s collaborator at Tel Aviv University. “The decline in lizards can lead to a cascading effect as they are an important part of almost every ecological system.”

Despite international pledges to halt deforestation, tree clearing continues to happen globally. From 2001 to 2022, about 459 million hectares, or 12%, of global tree cover disappeared.

“Deforestation is a worldwide problem, and our conclusions can help decision-makers on other continents in designing conservation and habitat restoration programs that consider climate change,” said Omer Zlotnick, the paper’s first author and a Ph.D. student at Tel Aviv University.

Lizard populations are already at risk because of climate change. In one study, scientists estimated that 54% of lizard populations in Mexico would go extinct by 2080 because of their inability to adapt to the rapidly warming planet.

Deforestation would further exacerbate the threat by taking away these animals’ refuges.

“Here in the Rocky Mountains, elevation provides an escape for animals that can travel longer distances, including us humans. On those summer days when it hits 100 degrees, many of us will go into the mountains. But small animals like lizards can’t travel far. They heavily depend on the refuge provided by the local landscape, including tree trunks,” said Musselman. “The study highlighted the importance of understanding which elements in the environment can serve as refuges for other organisms on this planet.”

This work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and National Geographic.

Reprinted from CU Boulder Today, article by Yvaine Ye (March 4th, 2024)

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Keith Musselman Briefs U.S. Congress on Advancing Community-based Research and Knowledge Co-Production in the Arctic

Anonymous — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:19:20 +0000

Keith Musselman Briefs U.S. Congress on Advancing Community-based Research and Knowledge Co-Production in the Arctic Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/10/2024 - 11:19

Keith Musselman was on Capitol Hill on March 5th, 2024 where he contributed to a Congressional Briefing hosted by the Senate Arctic Caucus Co-Chairs (Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Angus King (ME)) and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I contributed to the briefing with CU’s Dr. Twila Moon (NSIDC/CIRES) and others (see below). The title of our briefing was ‘Advancing community-based research and knowledge co-production in the Arctic’.

As the Arctic experiences rapid and significant environmental changes, there is a need for federally-funded research to be conducted differently – in closer coordination with Arctic communities, and increasingly led by Arctic community members and Indigenous Peoples. The Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) Initiative is the largest federal investment in Arctic research that has incorporated a focus on co-production of Arctic science and the applicability of research projects to addressing the challenges facing Arctic residents as the climate changes. This briefing highlighted how a co-productive approach to Arctic research has been applied in NNA research projects investigating river health, fishery management and education, and permafrost thaw.

Panelists:

Dr. Jessica Black, TAMAMTA, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Dr. Keith Musselman, Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research, University of babyֱ��app Boulder

Dr. Howard Epstein, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia

Dr. Nikoosh Carlo, CNC North Consulting and NNA Community Office

Moderated by: Dr. Twila Moon, NNA Community Office and National Snow & Ice Data Center, University of babyֱ��app Boulder

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Using an Equitable Co-Production Framework for Integrating Meaningful Community Engagement and Science to Understand Climate Impacts

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:11:43 +0000

Using an Equitable Co-Production Framework for Integrating Meaningful Community Engagement and Science to Understand Climate Impacts Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/19/2023 - 14:11

By Keith Musselman

The Arctic and rivers located in the Arctic and subarctic are warming due to climate change. To understand the impacts this warming will have on people, partnering with impacted Indigenous communities in the region is important. It is also important that these partnerships are ethical and equitable and produce science that is actionable. A new, open-access paper in the journal Community Science discusses efforts undertaken by the Arctic Rivers Project, funded by the NSF’s Navigating the New Arctic program. The interdisciplinary project team, led by Geography’s Assistant Professor Keith Musselman, aims to conduct ethical and equitable research with Indigenous communities and generate science that is useful to those communities.

Through this research, their goal is to better understand potential future impacts of climate change on rivers, fish, and Indigenous communities in central and northern Alaska and the Yukon Territory in Canada. To achieve this goal, the project team formed an Indigenous Advisory Council (IAC) and together developed guidelines for how we can work collaboratively with Indigenous communities. The process of forming an IAC and related guidelines is a new way to approach collaborative research when working across a large geographic area. The paper is led by USGS social scientist Nicole Herman-Mercer and co-authored by Indigenous leaders and the interdisciplinary project team. Together, they present their research process so that it may provide an example for other scientific efforts.

Now in its fourth year, the Arctic Rivers Project has provided support and research opportunity for over 10 undergraduate researchers, one Ph.D. student (Dylan Blaskey, Civil Engineering), and one postdoctoral fellow (Dr. Peyton Thomas, INSTAAR).

Link to the paper:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022CSJ000024

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Keith Musselman Joins the Department of Geography as Assistant Professor

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 20:25:59 +0000

Keith Musselman Joins the Department of Geography as Assistant Professor Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 14:25

Dr. Keith Musselman grew up on the U.S. East Coast where his excitement for the science of climate, snow, and water grew from his love for skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. As an Assistant Professor in Geography and fellow at INSTAAR, he studies how mountain snowpack supports sustainable ecosystems and water supply for people, wildlife, and agriculture. Motivated by the thrill of scientific discovery and collaborative communication, Keith develops approaches with diverse groups, including Indigenous leaders, to inform sustainable adaptation and decision strategies. Effective communication of climate change issues to diverse groups and the public is a central theme of his work. Keith conducts fieldwork on three continents and uses supercomputers to assess climate change impacts on water availability, streamflow, and flood risk. His background includes degrees in Geology, Hydrology and Water Resources, and Civil Engineering, and training at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Saskatchewan.

Keith is committed to building and encouraging a diverse research community and believes that society collectively benefits from the storytelling and communication that is made richer by our differences. Efforts to be more inclusive improve our knowledge and better serve smart decision strategies of individuals, organizations, and policymakers. Keith has authored over 32 publications, some of which are ranked in the top 1% of referenced Earth Science papers. His work has been featured broadly in media including the New York Times. He received an Outstanding Mentor Award from the University of babyֱ��app in 2021. In his free time, Keith skis, snowboards, bikes, and floats rivers —increasingly finding himself in hot pursuit of his two young kids as the family recreates in babyֱ��app and beyond.

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