WCS 3-Sentence Science

Helping Montanans Plan for Drought

July 11, 2019

Credit: Jeff Burrell/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by WCS’s Molly Cross on drought planning in Montana.

1. As research recognizes the importance of ecological impacts of drought to natural and human communities, drought planning processes need to better incorporate ecological impacts.
2. Researchers incorporated ecological impacts into drought planning in the Upper Missouri Headwaters (UMH) region (Montana, USA), combining ecosystem services elicitation using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (ES) and a vulnerability assessment using semi-structured interviews.
3. The interviews resulted in more discussion about ecological transformation from future droughts, suggesting that some combination of open-ended vulnerability assessment methods and ES elicitation using a structured framework can result in greater understanding of ecological drought vulnerability in a given region.

Study and Journal: “Planning for ecological drought: Integrating ecosystem services and vulnerability assessment” from Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-Water
WCS Co-Author(s): Molly Cross, Director WCS Climate Change Adaptation

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.