Director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon, United States
The coastal Pacific Northwest tends to be cool and wet, with extensive rain forests, estuaries, and stream networks. Yet as the climate warms and the hydrologic cycle changes, the Pacific Northwest is becoming more arid, and the process and effects of aridification are intensifying. As distinct from drought, aridification refers to gradual, long-term drying within a given component of the climate system. Aridification often is reflected by trends in drying of soils and decreases in streamflow. Marine heat waves and responses of marine-layer clouds to climate change interact with aridification and shorter-term water deficits to affect natural, agricultural, and social communities within the coastal Pacific Northwest. This presentation addresses some of the novel stressors and challenges emerging in these coastal systems as a result of aridification, from changes in the likelihood of wildfires to negative health outcomes for humans and other species.
