Climate Change and Impacts Laboratory
Director: Lisa C. Sloan
The UCSC Climate Change and Impacts Laboratory (CCIL) is a new computational facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSC via a $700,000 grant.
Initial facilities include a 32-processor SGI Origin300 supercomputer, numerous high-performance workstations, and multi-terabyte data storage and backup facilities.
The goals of CCIL are:
(1) Calculate climate scenarios of likely future climate change for particular
regions, for increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases, and for changing land use characteristics
(2) Investigate the possible impacts of climate change upon the various dimensions
of a given region, for example, biologic (marginal marine ecosystems, marine
algal blooms, terrestrial floral and fauna ecosystems), chemical (water quality,
contaminant dispersal), hydrologic (surface and groundwater flow), sedimentologic
(land slide and glacial hazards), and societal (water management, agriculture,
human health) systems.
As a first focus, we are concentrating on a region centered on California. Because of its complex topography, diverse microclimates and ecosystems, large and growing population, and vulnerability to water, this region makes an excellent test case. In addition, UCSC CCIL members represent a wide range of expertise on aspects of California’s human and natural systems. This project will provide a multidisciplinary and multidimensional view of the possible effects of future climate change at regional scales.
UCSC faculty associated with CCIL include scientists from the departments of Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Environmental Toxicology, and Ocean Sciences.