We explore 5 ecosystems in our region under the greatest threat from the climate crisis – and the steps we must take to save the Potomac River’s most vulnerable plants, wildlife, and streams.
Published September 27, 2021
A New Climate Reality in the Potomac River Region
From lively freshwater creeks flowing through the Appalachian Mountains to the low-lying, broad stretches of tidal waters, the Potomac is the life force of our region and the country’s wildest urban river.
We treasure our region’s diverse plants, wildlife, streams, and views – but will future generations have the same privilege?
Adding to the urgency of the climate crisis, our research confirms a dreadful reality if we continue down a path of rapid deforestation, increasing runoff pollution, and runaway warming: the Potomac River could experience a decrease in species diversity and extinction of some indigenous plants and animals in our lifetime.
Scroll down or use the navigation to the right to learn how changes in our local weather patterns and rising waters will have critical implications for the future survival of 5 local ecosystems – and solutions to give local animals, plants, and streams the best chance to adapt and thrive.
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Teeming with wildlife and streams, the region’s northern hardwood forests are found in the higher elevations of the Appalachian Plateau and north-facing slopes in Virginia, West Virginia, and western Maryland.
At ground level, ferns and herbs thrive in the shaded environment and at limb height, northern songbirds like the brown creeper, mourning warbler, and yellow-bellied sapsucker flitter between dense deciduous and evergreen branches. The forest provides bats, snakes, salamanders, beavers and other woodland animals with ideal habitat.
Logging and destructive fires eliminated much of this ecosystem type in the early 1900s, but today’s northern hardwood forests often include sugar maple, American beech, black cherry, and yellow birch among many other companion tree species.
Northern hardwood forests are critically vulnerable because rising temperatures and lengthening droughts are shrinking the range of suitable woodland habitat. This is unwelcome news for an ecosystem already under severe threat from human activity.
Today’s old growth forests are scattered. Deforestation and increasing drought conditions have destroyed large areas of upland forests in our region and across North America.
Currently, there are about 414 acres of old growth northern hardwood forest remaining in Maryland.
Forest fragmentation – woodland areas that are reduced in size and cut off from other natural areas – disrupts the health of an ecosystem, lowers indigenous species’ adaptive capacity, and makes the ecosystem less resilient to the added impact of climate change. Confined habitat limits the roaming area that indigenous wildlife need to search for food, mates, and shelter. And increased tree mortality fuels the climate crisis as decomposing trees release stored carbon into the atmosphere.
Conversely, when a large area of forest remains intact and is protected from industrial, agricultural and other sources of pollution, its ecosystem is healthy and in a strong position to withstand the stressors of climate change. In human terms, a healthy patient is much more likely to recover and recover quickly when faced with a health problem than an ill patient whose immune system is already under stress.
Northern hardwood forests in the headwaters of the Potomac River region often contain mixtures of eastern hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis), a tall conifer with soft, coarse-grained wood, short needles, and small pine cones.
Hemlocks help cool the ecosystem and act as a humidifier. Their dense, pine-needled canopy keeps the ground shaded and moist, regulates stream temperature, and provides shelter for birds and small animals seeking respite from sweltering midsummer heat and blistery winter conditions.
Living up to 500 years, the 100-foot-tall eastern hemlock grew in lush pockets throughout Shenandoah National Park. At one time, there were an estimated 800,000 hemlocks in the Park, but only 30,000-40,000 remain.
Stressed from decades of deforestation and the tree-killing hemlock woolly adelgid, the once-abundant eastern hemlock is now considered “near threatened” as the species faces additional threat from warming temperatures and changing weather patterns.
Hemlock and other conifer trees are particularly vulnerable to extreme drought. Water stress can fatally disrupt the tree’s transport of water and carbon, and unlike deciduous trees, they are unable to drop their leaf area in response to environmental stress.
If you look around, look at the understory. It’s much drier. You don’t see ferns very much. You see a few. You don’t see as many mosses. In terms of stream water temperatures, you’re seeing increases in stream temperatures wherever we lose hemlocks along waterways.” Source
Rolf Gubler Pest Manager, Shenandoah National Park
Coldwater streams run with waters 68°F or cooler and are largely found in the forested headwaters region of the Potomac River.
Logs and leaf litter compose the base of the food web, feeding stoneflies, mayflies and other macroinvertebrates that support the surrounding ecosystem. Beaver dams and lodges help filter water and provide habitat for a myriad of wildlife species, including those of greatest conservation need like the brook trout.
Many coldwater stream habitats in our region are degraded as a result of industrial and agricultural pollution and encroaching development. Now, these sensitive ecosystems are further endangered by the heating climate.
A 2014 study from the Journal of Climatic Change shows that most streams in the Chesapeake Bay region, including in the Potomac River sub-watershed, have experienced significant warming from 1960-2010 – with the pace of warming increasing toward the end of this period. Between 1986 and 2010, average stream water temperatures increased by 0.7°F.
This may seem like a drop in the water, but coldwater stream ecosystems evolved to thrive in cooler conditions, so even small changes in the environment can wreak havoc on these sensitive habitats. And with heating trends expected to worsen over time, coldwater species are on the frontlines of this dangerous crisis.
Of all the rivers and streams systems that occur in the region, the coldwater stream habitat is thought to be the most vulnerable to climate change.”
Brook trout, also known as “speckled trout,” or “brookies,” is the only trout species indigenous to Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Brook trout require cold and clear waters and are extremely sensitive to environmental changes such as pollutants, lowered oxygen levels, and changes in stream temperature or pH levels. Considered a key indicator species, large numbers of brook trout indicate that a stream is likely healthy, while diminishing numbers signify poor water quality and deteriorating habitat.
Warming waters are the most critical stressor on brook trout populations, which require stream temperatures to remain under about 65°F. Exposure to temperatures 75°F and over can kill these fish in as little as a few hours. For this reason, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources designated brook trout as a “species of greatest conservation need” associated with coldwater streams.
Unfortunately, human-induced stressors have weakened brook trout populations in our region, making them less resilient to impacts of warming waters. Invasive species, agricultural pollution, and sediment pollution from deforestation are destroying their habitat and harming their reproduction. The removal of streamside trees and other streamside vegetation can also cause trout numbers to plummet as they require such coverage for shaded, cool habitat.
Salamanders are considered an indicator species for the changing climate as their health depends on cool air and water temperatures.
Preferring cooler conditions (33℉ to 60℉) to regulate their body temperatures, cold-blooded salamanders typically lounge underneath rocks on the stream floor during the day and become more active at night when they hunt crayfish, small fish, water snakes, tadpoles, and other small aquatic critters.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources considers the indigenous eastern hellbender, northern red salamander, seal salamander, and northern spring salamander as “species of greatest conservation concern” in our region’s coldwater streams.
The heating climate adversely affects salamanders in a number of ways:
Heat: Hotter conditions interfere with salamanders’ body temperature regulation and threaten their reproductive cycle. Salamanders require cool streams to support their larvae which can take an average of four years before metamorphosing into adults.
Drought: Salamanders must remain moist to survive and require pools of standing water for reproduction. As periods of drought are expected to lengthen in our region, this trend will cause seasonal pools and standing water to abate.
Disease: The changing climate promotes the spread of harmful fungal diseases like chytridiomycosis as temperatures in certain regions of our watershed become optimal for the survival and reproduction of chytrid fungi.
When we consider cities, we often think about the densely packed buildings and streets that dominate their landscapes, but the natural pockets, parkland, and shorelines found in these environments support their own lively and complicated ecosystems.
The Potomac River’s urban center, Washington, DC, is rich with surrounding green space. The National Park Service manages over 7,000 acres of parkland in the nation’s capital – the equivalent of eight Central Parks.
However, as temperatures rise and weather becomes more extreme, our fellow plant and wildlife urbanites will become progressively more susceptible to climate-driven stress and invasive species that adapt more quickly and compete for resources.
In the Washington, DC area, the final freeze of winter has moved up two weeks since 1900 – from the second week in April to the end of March – bringing with it an even earlier spring.
The early warmth is shifting spring blooming season. A thirty-year study in Washington, DC found that 89 out of 100 plants bloomed four and a half days earlier to keep pace with increasing local temperatures.
The district’s beloved cherry tree blossoms, in particular, are now blooming about five days earlier than they did last century, reaching peak bloom between late March and early April.
This early warmth can prove troublesome should a cold snap occur during the blooming season. Further, a mismatch could arise between the blooming cycle and when bees and butterflies are mature enough to pollinate, throwing an entire urban ecosystem out of sync.
In the heart of the District lies Rock Creek Park, a 1,754-acre forested oasis treasured by locals and the more than two million visitors it hosts annually. Geographically, the Park lies where the Northern Piedmont and Coastal Plain provinces meet, creating an ecological transition zone that attracts a diverse array of natural communities.
Connected to neighboring natural areas, Rock Creek Park serves as an important migration corridor for wildlife – allowing animals to wander farther in search of food, water, mates, pollen, and other resources. It also serves as a temporary home for migrating birds in the spring and fall.
Polluted urban runoff and invasive species are top threats to this indigenous habitat, and the heating climate is altering conditions in this urban forest quickly – and drastic changes expected by 2040.
Increased levels of carbon dioxide and warmer, damper conditions combine to make Rock Creek Park more vulnerable to invasive plants, which are already threatening the park’s forests.”
Rock Creek Park is already experiencing the effects of the heating climate. According to a climate change vulnerability assessment by NatureServe, the Park has observed an average increase of 1.3°F from 1981-2014 from the prior thirty-year period.
In the same period of time, NatureServe estimates annual precipitation to increase by 1.2 inches with a 20% decrease of summer rain and a 50% rise in winter precipitation.
Protecting the Park’s natural habitat, controlling invasive species, and protecting surrounding green corridors will mitigate the effects of climate change and provide our fellow wildlife urbanites with the greatest chance of survival.
The hardwood forests of Rock Creek Park provide nesting habitat for the wood thrush, the District’s official bird.
Unfortunately, the past five decades have witnessed a drop of over 60% in the overall wood thrush population as a result of habitat loss from development. “They are the poster child of declining forest songbirds,” Calandra Stanley, a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, told The Washington Post.
Forest fragmentation – the loss of connected corridors of woodland habitat – reduces the area available for nesting and breeding. While some local species, like the brown-headed cowbird, can live in smaller natural areas, wood thrushes require expansive stretches of forest to survive. Forest fragmentation favors the survival of predators like the raccoon, possum, and blue jay that steal eggs and chicks from the wood thrush nests.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate already-stressed wood thrush populations as it disrupts their food supply of insects and fruit in late summer when they are bulking up for migration. The reduction in forest cover and food availability, along with rising temperatures, may prompt the wood thrush to migrate further north during the spring and summer months to breed.
Tidal marshes are found along the length of the Potomac River, from its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay to where the tides diminish just upstream from Washington, DC. Their water level ebbs and flows with the changing tides and salinity levels shape the life we find within them. Studying shoreline plants, trees, fish, and wildlife, scientists can broadly identify three salinity zones in the Potomac River.
As we work our way upriver from the Chesapeake Bay estuary, the Potomac’s marshes shift from slightly salty oligohaline marshland to freshwater marshland with a transition zone in between.
An abundance of wildlife can be found flourishing in both marshland environments.
American goldfinch, coastal plain swamp sparrow and marsh wren are commonly spotted and the least bittern, one of the smallest herons in the world, also makes its home amongst the reeds and cattails of fresh and slightly salty marsh. Various bats, snakes, and turtles – including the northern diamond-backed terrapin – enjoy the habitat offered by the low-lying vegetation and shallow waters.
As the warming climate causes local sea level to rise (at a rate twice the global rate!), the saltwater edge will be pushed farther upriver, affecting where marshlands exist and the distribution of species along the Potomac.
When long-term water levels change, marsh can either move inland, becoming replaced by open water, or expand if sediment levels remain high enough to support shallow waters for their plants.
So, just how far will marsh migrate inland and where? It’s complicated.
Rising waters, sinking lands, sediment pollution, precipitation changes, and shoreline development are among a myriad of variables that impact marshlands and may contribute to their habitat loss.
The interconnected nature, of well, nature makes it difficult to know what will occur. But given the rising temperature and water level changes we’re experiencing, it’s fair to worry about the fate of Dyke Marsh, Mattawoman Creek, Indian Head, and other sensitive wetlands in our region.
Tidal freshwater marshes represent the upper most reaches of the Potomac’s tidal zone, where the water remains consistently fresh – aside from the occasional large spring tides.
Mud flats that are completely exposed during low tide support short, broad-leaf plants and fields of spatterdock, more commonly known as water lily. High elevated areas are dominated by taller, grass-like plants like rice cutgrass, sweetflag, and marsh partridge-pea.
However, as water levels in the Potomac River rise and more brackish waters creep upstream, the geographic ranges of these plants are likely to decline. These habitats will either migrate inland, or decrease in size considerably if development prevents their ability to move to suitable environments. Invasive species put them at further risk.
Found downstream from Dahlgren, Virginia, the Potomac’s slightly salty oliogohaline marshes represent the transition between the higher salinity waters of the Chesapeake Bay and upstream freshwater marsh.
The diversity of plant species generally decreases as salinity increases, so oligohaline marsh is often less biodiverse than freshwater marsh, but it remains a rich ecosystem. Plants like black needlerush and the big cordgrasses thrive in these marshes, as well as the narrow-leaved cattail which often grow in large, tall plots along the edges of tidal channels.
Stretches of oligohaline tidal marsh may be altered or forced to move into previously freshwater habitats. Invasive species, highly resilient to changing environments, threaten the indigenous plants and animals of these marshes.
The highly aggressive common reed has overtaken many tidal marshes throughout the mid-Atlantic region as a result of dredging, development, and the changing climate.
The plant is highly resilient to disturbance and can therefore outcompete indigenous plants for space. It also presents a fire hazard as its fifteen-feet-tall reeds accumulate substantial dead biomass.
Cutting, burning, and herbicides are used to help control their populations, but they are expensive and labor-intensive.
In the ecotones – or transition zones – between regularly flooded tidal marshlands and the upland forests are tidal forests, which are dominated by a mixture of hardwood trees including ash, gum, and maple.
The Potomac River watershed is unique in that bald cypress grows alongside these hardwoods and Atlantic white cedar can be found in rare stands as well.
Considered regionally rare, Atlantic white cedar and bald cypress swamps require extremely fresh and clear water to grow. They were once much more common in our region but development and logging in the 1800s and early 1900s nearly destroyed these tidal species.
Similar to their neighboring marshland ecosystems, tidal forests are at risk of rising temperatures, water, and salinity levels due to the heating climate. The changing environment around them may alter their ecosystem, force their retreat further inland if there’s undeveloped space nearby, or shrink their habitat.
The residential and migratory bird populations that depend on these habitats will suffer too.
Generally speaking, for all migratory birds, we are already seeing subtle shifts in the migration patterns of billions of birds as temperatures become hotter and seasons more variable with climate change. Earlier springs, for example, can disrupt the food cycle as berry ripening and insect hatching may be misaligned with the arrival of migrating birds.
Located in the middle of the Potomac River in Washington, DC is Theodore Roosevelt Island, a tidal forest maintained by the National Park Service. A birder’s paradise, the island is frequented by nearly 200 species including the commonly spotted green heron and wood duck.
The island’s tidal shorelines are also home to the American woodcock, a threatened migratory bird considered in “greatest need of conservation” by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The American woodcock spends most of its time on the forest floor using its long bill to forage for earthworms and insect larvae found in wet soils.
Driven by climate change, longer periods of drought are harming the woodcock’s food source. Earthworms cannot live in dry soils, so the woodcock is likely to struggle to find food during lengthening dry spells. Intensifying storms spell further trouble for this winged friend as downpours wash away soil, inflicting additional stress to a species already suffering from forested habitat loss.
We can protect the Potomac River and help our habitats thrive by tree-ting the problem.
Trees are one of the best tools we have to fight climate change and protect our waterways from pollution.
Provide critical habitat to indigenous plants and wildlife
Filter polluted runoff and support clean streams
Capture carbon and produce clean air
Mitigate flooding
Cool our woodlands and cities
Help our mental well-being
Manage invasive species
The health of the Potomac River’s plants and wildlife depends on what we do today to address forest loss, polluted runoff, and the ever urgent climate crisis.
Take action right now to save a local forest!
Let’s take control of the climate crisis and save the places and wildlife we love!
You can start by protecting Rock Creek Park, the 1,754-acre vibrant forest in the heart of Washington, DC, and the parklands along Rock Creek’s full 33 miles. Home to indigenous woodland critters (including the threatened Wood Thrush!), migrating birds, mature trees, and endless trails – these beloved parklands need your help to thrive for future generations.
Support Rock Creek Conservancy and their efforts to protect this critical habitat from a hotter, more extreme climate.
Roll up your sleeves and help them remove tree-killing ivy, reduce polluted runoff, and protect its forest from reckless road expansion plans.
Sign up to get alerted of upcoming volunteer and advocacy opportunities this fall!
Fun fact: Scientists can identify increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are, indeed, human-made because carbon created by burning fossil fuels has a different isotopic ratio of heavy-to-light carbon atoms than carbon produced naturally by living plants.
Fun fact: While carbon dioxide is the main culprit, other gasses like methane and nitrous oxide also add to the atmospheric soup of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses. Methane is released from natural gas fracking, the decay of organic waste put in landfills rather than composted, and from livestock and industrial agricultural practices. Nitrous oxide is released during fuel combustion and during the application of fossil-fuel based fertilizers or un-composted manure to fields (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2020a).
In 2015, the ATMOS Research and Consulting for Kleinfelder published local climate projections by studying historic emission and temperature data at three District sites: Dalecaria Reservoir, the National Arboretum, and Washington National Airport.
Andrew Elmore co-authored a study on the warming waters of the Chesapeake Bay for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
Fun fact: Scientists can use high resolution climate models to tell whether an extreme event was made more likely by climate change – whether it served as a key ingredient in the storm’s formation. This is called “extreme event attribution.”
Fun fact: A rainfall event that is so heavy and unordinary that it only statistically happens once every 100 years
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF0 tornado touched down in Washington, DC and an EF1 tornado touched down Arlington, VA on Thursday, July 1, 2021. The nation’s capital has only experienced three confirmed tornadoes above an EF0 level in the last fifty years (two of which occurred on the same day in 2001).
FACT: According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), glaciers and ice sheets store enough water to raise sea level by about 68 to 70 meters (223 to 230 feet) (Cronin, n.d.).
Thermal expansion is the phenomenon whereby the upper layer of the ocean absorbs heat from the warming atmosphere and expands
Over 400 miles in length, the Potomac River flows with fresh water from the highlands of West Virginia downstream to Washington, DC where it mixes with brackish saltwater and continues on to the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the world. The Potomac experiences daily low and high tides as far upstream as Washington, DC.
One such effort is underway in Washington, DC where tunnels are being constructed underneath the city’s rivers to divert excess rainwater and reduce sewer overflows into local streams. As part of the $2.7 billion Clean Rivers Project, DC Water has built a 5-mile long tunnel under the Anacostia River with plans to start building another one under the Potomac River in 2023. The plan also includes investments in tree plantings, rain gardens, and other types of nature-based infrastructure.
Living shorelines are a type of nature-based infrastructure that incorporates indigenous vegetation, either alone or in combination with harder materials for structure and stabilization. They restore ecosystems that naturally withstand and recover from the flooding that has become more common because of rising seas, stronger storms and heavier precipitation. Further, living shorelines build habitats that sequester, or store, carbon. According to NOAA, “one square mile of saltwater marsh stores the carbon equivalent of 76,000 gallons of gas annually.
Extreme heat conditions are defined as weather that is much hotter than average for a particular time and place—and sometimes more humid, too.
The heat index is a measure of how hot it feels when relative humidity is factored in with the actual air temperature. Relative humidity is the percentage of moisture in the air compared with the maximum amount of moisture the air can hold. Humidity is an important factor in how hot it feels because when humidity is high, water doesn’t evaporate as easily, so it’s harder for your body to cool off by sweating.
Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive gas composed of three oxygen atoms. It is both a natural and a man-made product that occurs in the Earth's upper atmosphere
(the stratosphere) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere). Depending on where it is in the atmosphere, ozone affects life on Earth in either good or bad ways.
Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O2). The "ozone layer," approximately 6 through 30 miles above the Earth's surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface.
Tropospheric or ground-level ozone – what we breathe – is formed primarily from photochemical reactions between two major classes of air pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These reactions have traditionally been viewed as depending upon the presence of heat and sunlight, resulting in higher ambient ozone concentrations in summer months.
Ground level ozone is a secondary byproduct of a chemical relation between human-made nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. Humans are producing an extra 24 million tons of NOX annually through combustion processes from vehicles, power plants, cement factories (which are located adjacent to many communities of color in the Potomac River region), and other industry.
Nutrients—primarily nitrogen and phosphorus—are essential for the growth of all living organisms in aquatic ecosystems. However, excessive nitrogen and phosphorus degrade water quality.
Both nitrogen and phosphorus feed algal blooms that block sunlight to underwater grasses and suck up life supporting oxygen when they die and decompose. These resulting "dead zones" of low or no oxygen can stress and even kill fish and shellfish. Algal blooms can also trigger spikes in pH levels, stressing fish, and create conditions that spur the growth of parasites.
The incubation period is the number of days between when you're infected with something and when you might see symptoms. Health care professionals and government officials use this number to decide how long people need to stay away from others during an outbreak.
Coal ash, also referred to as coal combustion residuals or CCRs, is produced primarily from the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants.
Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Without proper management, these contaminants can pollute waterways, ground water, drinking water, and the air.
A Superfund site is an abandoned toxic waste site (usually that once supported an oil refinery or smelting or mining activities). In response to attention on sites like these in the late 1970s, Congress established the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980.
CERCLA is informally called Superfund. It allows EPA to clean up contaminated sites. It also forces the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work.
When there is no viable responsible party, Superfund gives EPA the funds and authority to clean up contaminated sites.
Frontline communities are those that experience “first and worst” the consequences of climate change. These are communities of color and low-income, whose neighborhoods will be increasingly vulnerable as our climate deteriorates.
Adaptive capacity is the ability of a habitat to support its species and ecosystem functioning as the climate changes. Plants and animals respond to changing climate by adapting, shifting their range, or fleeing completely.
Species that reproduce quickly are able to adapt or migrate more readily than slower growing, long-lived. species – like Maryland’s bald cypress that regularly lives up to 600 years.
Agriculture, development, and past logging operations played a large role in the large-scale loss of eastern hemlock throughout the Appalachian region.
Indigenous to East Asia, the fast-spreading hemlock woolly adelgid insect attaches to the soft, woody plant tissue and sucks nutrients from the sap of eastern hemlocks. Once the insect establishes a population on a hemlock, it can kill the tree within four years. Click on the link to read more about the pesky adelgid.
Coldwater streams make up approximately 2,750 miles of Maryland’s freshwater streams, spanning across Allegany, Garrett, Frederick, Carroll, Washington, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties. In West Virginia, coldwater streams are found chiefly in the eastern panhandle. In Virginia, coldwater streams meander through the mountains and valleys of the Interstate 81 corridor, stretching across Augusta, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Warren, and Frederick counties up through Berkeley County in West Virginia.
Rainbow trout from the western U.S. and brown trout from Europe were introduced to the region in the late 1800s. They have slightly higher temperature tolerances and, once temperatures reach 68°F, they can out-compete indigenous brook trout. Elimination by competition is already occurring in some streams.
Fun fact: Salamanders are ectotherms, meaning they regulate their body temperatures through their environment. They sun themselves on rocks to warm up and cool off in streams or shaded areas.
Salamanders prefer temperatures between 33°F and 60°F. Their metabolism and heart rate slows when temperatures reach 50°F to survive more extreme conditions.
The opportunity to roam for resources is an important need for animals’ adaptive capacity in the fight against environmental changes.
NatureServe based its research on data from a weather station in Rock Creek Park and then used an ensemble of global climate models from the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report to project near-future climate conditions in the Park.
In slightly salty oligohaline marshlands, salinity ranges from 0.5- 5 parts per thousand (ppt).
Visit Dyke Marsh or Mattawoman Creek to venture through two of our region’s freshwater marshes, areas of the Potomac River with salinity ranging from 0-0.5 parts per thousand (ppt).
According to a 2016 study in PLoS One, this edge might only be pushed up as far as Indian Head by the end of the century due to the region’s topography and the potential for water to spill out cross-sectionally (widening the river), rather than being pushed far upstream (Cadol et al., 2016).
Visit The American Scientist’s “Spring Budburst in a Changing Climate” for more information on how a warming climate is throwing off the timing of spring. The authors use Henry David Thoreau’s 160-year-old field notes to compare the timing of spring activities between then and now.
Roosevelt Island was transformed back into a “real forest” in the 1930s to mimic the natural ecosystems that covered the landscape before settler-colonial interference. Learn how this island has been transformed time and again – including how it was used as a place of refuge by people who were enslaved.
Source: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 2015; Ding & Elmore, 2015.
www.umces.edu
The Maryland Commission on Climate Change, the Department of the Environment’s Scientific and Technical Working Group (STWG).
Source: “Understanding Virginia’s Vulnerability,” 2015
Every community produces polluted runoff – a type of pollution caused when excess rainwater carries toxins, debris, and litter into nearby streams – but the issue is particularly problematic on farmland. In fact, agricultural runoff is the greatest source of pollution to our region’s waterways. Poor land-use practices on farmland pollute streams with excess nutrients from fertilizers, pest treatments, and animal feces.
In 2018, the United States’ agricultural activity alone emitted approximately 698 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere: 12.3% as carbon dioxide, 36.2% as methane, and 51% as nitrous oxide (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2020).
Nitrous oxide is 298 times more potent than carbon dioxide over one hundred years, and is produced as microbes in the soil break down fossil-fuel based synthetic fertilizers and manure that hasn’t been aged or composted before being applied to fields.
Best management practices (BMPs) are conservation measures that improve land health and prevent or mitigate pollution through natural means. BMPs are critically important to restoring water quality in the Potomac River region. Potomac Conservancy helps connect area landowners to available resources to implement BMPs on residential properties with a focus on family-owned farms in the headwaters region.
Learn more at www.potomac.org/lands.
TEK refers to the ever-evolving wisdom gained by indigenous and locally rooted peoples over hundreds of years by means of direct contact with their environment. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explains that, “this knowledge is specific to a location and includes the relationships between plants, animals, natural phenomena, landscapes, human beings, and timing of events that are used for lifeways,” like agriculture or hunting and trapping (Rinkevich et al., 2011).
Source (Aman & Pratt, 2014).
Industrial farming that relies on growing expansive fields of one crop – corn, wheat, soy, as examples – planted year after year, drain the soil of essential nutrients and lack the genetic diversity to fight diseases and pests. Consequently, they require the help of artificial additives.
The Lacandon are the last of the Mayans who escaped the Conquistadors’ forced Christianity by hiding in the heart of the jungle. For the last five hundred years, the Lacandon lived very simply and have kept their borders closed to outsiders. Their population consists of about six or seven hundred people now.
Earthaven Ecovillage is a permaculture community outside of Black Mountain, North Carolina that applies Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
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