A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (now the U.S. Global Change Research Program) concluded, with very high confidence, that “terrestrial and marine systems are already being demonstrably affected by climate change” (Janetos et al. 2008). Observable impacts, such as glacier retreat (Watson et al. 2008), changes in growing season length, phenology, and species distributions, have been documented in U.S. ecosystems (e.g., Inouye 2008), including national parks. In order to improve the quality of science-based resource management information available to National Park Service (NPS) resource managers, and to increase the understanding of park resources, the National Park Service established the George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship in 2010. This program supports new and innovative research by graduate students on impacts of climate change on protected areas.

The George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship … supports new and innovative research by graduate students on impacts of climate change on protected areas.