Center for Regional Climate Studies
Global climate impacts regional weather, extreme weather events, and agricultural productivity. Through computational modeling and simulation, the CRCS aims to understand how global climate impacts North Dakota agriculture in the areas of field hydrology, general land use, biomass production (which affects chemical feedstocks), and human behavior. Though obtaining insight into these impacts and the agricultural economy of our state is particularly challenging, successful adaptation is only possible through a knowledge-based plan of action.
About
Climate fluctuations present new and never before seen challenges for the Northern Great Plains region. To better adapt to climate variations, we need to:
- Understand regional climate variations and their impact on agriculture.
- Study how the human-environmental system responds to climate variations.
- Explore potential socio-economic impacts on regions with an agricultural-based economy.
Outreach, Education, and Collaboration
The Center for Regional Climate Studies (CRCS) participates in a number of outreach and workforce development programs as part of INSPIRE ND in the hopes that its research efforts will benefit as broad a range of people as possible.
Graduate, Undergraduate, and Tribal College Opportunities:
- CRCS works with university and regional groups to offer research opportunities through the ND EPSCoR sponsored Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education (NATURE).
- CRCS takes part in Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Graduate Student Research Assistantship (GSRA) programs that focus on current students or graduates of Dickinson State, Valley City State, Minot State, and Mayville State Universities, as well as Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish University, Sitting Bull College, Turtle Mountain Community College, and United Tribes Technical College.
- CRCS participates in other ND EPSCoR supported programs meant to help UND students further their interests in research, like the Advanced Undergraduate Research Awards (AURA), Doctoral Dissertation Assistantship (DDA), and Directed Mentorship programs.
- No matter which North Dakota college or university students attended, they should be aware that they may be eligible to participate in the Students in Technology Transfer and Research (STTAR) program that builds relationships between UND, NDSU, and businesses in North Dakota.
Citizen Science Grid:
From Tweets to wildlife video to DNA, Citizen Science Grid projects seek volunteers from the general public to devote their time or computer resources to solve real-world problems. They create opportunities for researchers to work with K-12 students. CRCS is also working on projects that will be available through Citizen Science Grid.
External Funding Awards
See a complete list of external awards here.
Emerging Area Seed Awards
See a list of the 2017 ND EPSCoR Emerging Area Seed Awards here.
Student Research Posters
- Application of Macro-scale Hydrologic Model for Drought Identification in Cold Climate Regions
- Air pollution over the Central and Northern Great Plains: A WRF-Chem modeling study
- Evaluation of Organic Matter Decomposition Using Modified Litter Bags in Eastern Montana
- Measuring Threats to Honey Bees in North Dakota from Land Use Change and Pesticide Exposure
- Exploring the Usefulness of Adding Auxiliary Preprocessed Image Layers with Convolutional Neural Networks
- Taking Terrain Analysis to the Big Data Era for Understanding Soil Health in Depressions
- SWAT Modeling to Evaluate the Impacts of Geographically Isolated Wetlands on Hydrologic Processes
- Severe Weather Environments and Trends in the North American Atmospheric Reanalyses (NARR)
- Effects of Varying Temperature on SOA Yields and Partitioning from North Dakota Crop Emissions
- Window Histogram for Characterizing Basins
- Land Management Changes and its Effects on Soil Microbial Communities
- Initial Development for Simulating Land Surface Change Impacts on Climate in the Northern Plains
- Examining the Impact of Devils Lake Outlets on Flood Risk of the Sheyenne River
- Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) of Odonata to Investigate Climatic Habitat
- Adding Dynamic Social-Economic Factors to Crop Simulations to Improve Acreage and Yield Predictions
- Utilizing space-borne remote sensing data to improve model parameter calibration in crop simulations
- Joint Modeling and Cross-calibration of Different Scale Hydrologic Models
- Northern Plains Blizzards in Past and Future Climates
- Grasslands in a changing climate: How do we build resilient ecosystems?
- A Novel Modeling Framework for Simulating Dynamic Water Release from Depressions
- Dragonfly Distribution Changes May Indicate Climate Change in North Dakota
Research-related experiments
Experiments related to ND EPSCoR funded research have been developed by ND EPSCoR researchers and their graduate students for use by selected fifth and eighth grade rural K-12 teachers. The experiments have been taught to the teachers, and the teachers have been provided with some equipment and materials needed to carry out the experiments in their classrooms. The teaching materials are now being made available for anyone to use.
- Fifth Grade Experiments booklet (Download PDF or MS Word)
- Unit One: Weather (CRCS research related)- Hurricane Path- Building Weather Station Measurement- Cloud Particles and Cloud Formation
- Unit One: Weather (CRCS research related)- Hurricane Path- Building Weather Station Measurement- Cloud Particles and Cloud Formation
- Eighth Grade Experiments booklet (Download PDF or MS Word)
- Unit One: Weather (CRCS research related)- Cloud Particles and Formation- Watersheds and the Urban/Rural Inference- Greenhouse Effect- Forecasting the Weather
Contact
Dr. Jianglong Zhang | Dr. Aaron Kennedy | Dr. David Roberts |
Stakeholder Advisory Committee
- Wade Bott, State Soil Scientist, ND Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA
- Gregory Gust, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service, Grand Forks, ND
- Dr. Gary Halvorson, Science Instructor, Sitting Bull College
- Sarah Lovas, CCA, Lovas Consulting, LLC, Lovas Farms – Agronomy
- Grant Mehring Wheat Product Manager, Monsanto
- Mark Watne, President and Mary Jensen, Assistant General Counsel, North Dakota Farmers Insurance
- Mark Schneider, Chief Meteorologist and Darin Langerud, Division Director,North Dakota Atmospheric Resource Board, ND State Water Commission
Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under ND EPSCoR Award #IIA-1355466 and by the State of North Dakota. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the State of North Dakota.