State of Knowledge: Climate Change in Puget Sound is a comprehensive report summarizing research on the likely effects of climate change on the lands, water and people of the Puget Sound region. Presented in an easy-to-read format, it is designed to serve as a reference for individuals from a wide range of backgrounds who are interested in the state of the science on climate change and its effects within the Puget Sound region. The report also describes local climate change risk reduction activities and highlights data resources available to support local climate adaptation efforts.

The Puget Sound State of Knowledge Report is part of the Climate Impacts Group’s “State of Knowledge” series. Led by researchers at the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, the report brought together contributions from a wide array of regional specialists.

In addition to the State of Knowledge: Climate Change in Puget Sound report, the Climate Impacts Group and The Nature Conservancy partnered to develop Adapting to Change, a 20-page, accessible booklet on climate change adaptation in Puget Sound.

FULL REPORT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  ADAPTING TO CHANGE

Photo credit: © UW Climate Impacts Group, aerial support provided by LightHawk.  

Fact Sheets

As part of the partnership between the Climate Impacts Group and the Nature Conservancy, we developed three fact sheets to address key issues of broad interest in Puget Sound:

In the News

New report outlines Puget Sound region’s future under climate change | UW Press Release

UW study: Puget Sound area may face more flooding as climate gets warmer | The Seattle Times

5 ways climate change will impact health in Puget Sound | Crosscut

Op-Ed: We Must Take Action Now for a Healthy Puget Sound | The Seattle Times

About the Funders

This work was funded by grants from the Puget Sound Institute (PSI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the state of Washington. The Puget Sound Institute is a cooperative agreement between the U.S. EPA and the University of Washington (Award # PC-00J303-09). The NOAA funding was provided via the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).

Acknowledgements:

We recognize the support from all the organizations represented by the author team. The editors and authors wish to thank the 34 reviewers for their time and effort providing thoughtful comments and suggestions that ultimately improved this report. All of the mapping work for this project was conducted as a collaboration between Robert Norheim at the UW Climate Impacts Group and Roger Fuller and Jonathan Picchi-Wilson at the Western Washington University (WWU) Huxley Spatial Institute. Julie Morse at the Nature Conservancy provided helpful comments on the content and organization of the report. Finally, the authors would like to thank other collaborators at the Puget Sound Partnership, The Nature Conservancy, NOAA, and the Skagit Climate Science Consortium for their thoughtful ideas and comments on the manuscript. Beth Tully at the University of Washington assisted with design and layout.

Individual Chapters and Appendices

Making Sense of Climate Change Projections | Section 1

How Is Puget Sound’s Climate Changing? | Section 2

How will Climate Change Affect the Water Cycle? | Section 3

How will Climate Change Affect Sea Level? | Section 4

How Will Climate Change Affect Landslides, Erosion, and Sediment Transport? | Section 5

How is Circulation in Puget Sound Projected to Change? | Section 6

How is Puget Sound’s Water Quality Changing? | Section 7

How Will Climate Change Affect Agriculture? | Section 8

How Will Climate Change Affect Terrestrial Ecosystems? | Section 9

How Will Climate Change Affect Freshwater Ecosystems? | Section 10

How Will Climate Change Affect Marine Ecosystems? | Section 11

How Will Climate Change Affect the Built Environment? | Section 12

How Will Climate Change Affect Human Health? | Section 13

Alternate Hydrologic Projections | Appendix A

Maps of climate and hydrologic change: Basin average projections | Appendix B

Maps of climate and hydrologic change: Full-resolution projections | Appendix C

Graphs of streamflow change for major Puget Sound watersheds | Appendix D

The report is also available for download from the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

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