Imtiaz Rangwala

Imtiaz Rangwala is a Research Scientist in CIRES and the Lead Climate Scientist at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. He is a climate scientist engaged in advancing the understanding of changing water balance and climate extremes driven by anthropogenic climate change, and its relevance to ecosystem response. His work includes understanding, and working with, uncertainty in future climate change and ecological responses, and developing relevant tools and data to inform resource management and climate adaptation. He has extensive experience in working with the natural resource management community in the Intermountain West and Great Plains region in the application and communication of useful and usable climate science and data.

Current Research

Regional climate change, drought and weather extremes
Climate data and science support for natural resource management
Drought monitoring and situational awareness
High elevation climate change

View Publications

Janousek WM; Douglas MR; Cannings S; Clément MA; Delphia CM; Everett JG; Hatfield RG; Keinath DA; Koch JBU; McCabe LM. (Jan 2023). Recent and future declines of a historically widespread pollinator linked to climate, land cover, and pesticides. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA , 120(5). 10.1073/pnas.2211223120
Gude JA; DeCesare NJ; Proffitt KM; Sells SN; Garrott RA; Rangwala I; Biel M; Coltrane J; Cunningham J; Fletcher T. (Sep 2022). Demographic uncertainty and disease risk influence climate-informed management of an alpine species. Journal of Wildlife Management , 86(8). 10.1002/jwmg.22300
Rangwala I; Moss W; Wolken J; Rondeau R; Newlon K; Guinotte J; Travis WR. (Dec 2021). Uncertainty, Complexity and Constraints: How Do We Robustly Assess Biological Responses under a Rapidly Changing Climate?. Climate , 9(12). 10.3390/cli9120177
Esit M; Kumar S; Pandey A; Lawrence DM; Rangwala I; Yeager S. (Mar 2021). Seasonal to multi-year soil moisture drought forecasting. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science , 4(1). 10.1038/s41612-021-00172-z
Barsugli JJ; Ray AJ; Livneh B; Dewes CF; Heldmyer A; Rangwala I; Guinotte JM; Torbit S. (Oct 2020). Projections of Mountain Snowpack Loss for Wolverine Denning Elevations in the Rocky Mountains. Earths Future|0401 Atmospheric Sciences, 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience, 0502 Environmental Science and Management , 8(10). 10.1029/2020EF001537
Crausbay SD; Betancourt J; Bradford J; Cartwright J; Dennison WC; Dunham J; Enquist CAF; Frazier AG; Hall KR; Littell JS. (Sep 2020). Unfamiliar Territory: Emerging Themes for Ecological Drought Research and Management. , 3(3), 337-353. 10.1016/j.oneear.2020.08.019
Clifford KR; Yung L; Travis WR; Rondeau R; Neely B; Rangwala I; Burkardt N; Wyborn C. (Jul 2020). Navigating Climate Adaptation on Public Lands: How Views on Ecosystem Change and Scale Interact with Management Approaches. Environmental Management (New York): an international journal for decision-makers, scientists and environmental auditors , 66(4), 614-628. 10.1007/s00267-020-01336-y
Bradford JB; Weltzin J; Mccormick M; Baron J; Bowen Z; Bristol S; Carlisle D; Crimmins T; Cross P; DeVivo J. (Jan 2020). Ecological forecasting—21st century science for 21st century management. 10.3133/ofr20201073
Sanderson JS; Beutler C; Brown JR; Burke I; Chapman T; Conant RT; Derner JD; Easter M; Fuhlendorf SD; Grissom G. (Jan 2020). Cattle, conservation, and carbon in the western Great Plains. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation , 75(1), 5A-12A. 10.2489/jswc.75.1.5A
Adhikari, A; Mainali, KP; Rangwala, I; Hansen, AJ. (Dec 2019). Various measures of potential evapotranspiration have species-specific impact on species distribution models. ECOLOGICAL MODELLING , 414. 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108836
Adhikari, A; Hansen, AJ; Rangwala, I. (Sep 2019). Ecological Water Stress under Projected Climate Change across Hydroclimate Gradients in the North-Central United States. JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY , 58(9). 10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0149.1
Lyon, NJ; Debinski, DM; Rangwala, I. (Feb 2019). Evaluating the Utility of Species Distribution Models in Informing Climate Change-Resilient Grassland Restoration Strategy. FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION , 7. 10.3389/fevo.2019.00033
Hoell, A., J. Perlwitz, C. Dewes, K. Wolter, I. Rangwala, X.-W. Quan, and J. Eischeid. (Jan 2019). Anthropogenic contributions to the intensity of the 2017 United State Northern Plains drought. , 100(1). 10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0127.1
McNeeley, SM, CF Dewes, CJ Stiles, TA Beeton, I Rangwala, MT Hobbins and CL Knutson. (Jun 2018). Anatomy of an interrupted irrigation season: Micro-drought at the Wind River Indian Reservation. CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT , 19. 10.1016/j.crm.2017.09.004
Dole, RM, JR Spackman, iman, W Otto, O Persson, XW Quan, I RangwalaM Newman, GP Compo, CA Smith, LM Hartten, JJ Barsugli, RS Webb, MP Hoerling, R Cifelli, K Wolter, CD Barnet, M Gehne, R Gelaro, GN Kiladis, S Abbott, E Akish, J Albers, JM Brown, CJ Cox, L Darby, G de Boer, B DeLuisi, J Dias, J Dunion, J Eischeid, C Fairall, A Gambacorta, BK Gorton, A Hoell, J Intrieri, D Jackson, PE Johnston, R Lataitis, KM Mahoney, K McCaffrey, HA McColl, MJ Mueller, D Murrrray, PJ Ne, AJ Ray, D Reynolds, ER Dellaripa, K Rosenlof, N Sakaeda, PD Sardeshmukh, LC Slivinski, L Smith, A Solomon, D Swales, S Tulich, A White, G Wick, MG Winterkorn, DE Wolfe and R Zamora. (May 2018). ADVANCING SCIENCE AND SERVICES DURING THE 2015/16 EL NINO The NOAA El Nino Rapid Response Field Campaign. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY , 99(5). 10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0219.1
Dewes, CF, I Rangwala, JJ Barsugli, MT Hobbins and S Kumar. (Mar 2017). Drought risk assessment under climate change is sensitive to methodological choices for the estimation of evaporative demand. PLOS ONE , 12(3). 10.1371/journal.pone.0174045
Rangwala, I, E Sinsky and JR Miller. (Apr 2016). Variability in projected elevation dependent warming in boreal midlatitude winter in CMIP5 climate models and its potential drivers. CLIMATE DYNAMICS , 46(8-Jul). 10.1007/s00382-015-2692-0
Rangwala, I., C. Dewes, and J. Barsugli. (Mar 2016). High Resolution Climate Modeling for Regional Adaptation. , 97. 10.1029/2016eo048615
Pepin, N, RS Bradley, HF Diaz, M Baraer, EB Caceres, N Forsythe, H Fowler, G Greenwood, MZ Hashmi, XD Liu, JR Miller, L Ning, A Ohmura, E Palazzi, I Rangwala, W Schoner, I Severskiy, M Shahgedanova, MB Wang, SN Williamson and DQ Yang. (May 2015). Elevation-dependent warming in mountain regions of the world. NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE , 5(5). 10.1038/NCLIMATE2563
Naud, CM, I Rangwala, M Xu and JR Miller. (Feb 2015). A Satellite View of the Radiative Impact of Clouds on Surface Downward Fluxes in the Tibetan Plateau. JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY , 54(2). 10.1175/JAMC-D-14-0183.1
Chen, YH, CM Naud, I Rangwala, CC Landry and JR Miller. (Nov 2014). Comparison of the sensitivity of surface downward longwave radiation to changes in water vapor at two high elevation sites. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS , 9(11). 10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114015
Rangwala, I, E Sinsky and JR Miller. (Dec 2013). Amplified warming projections for high altitude regions of the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes from CMIP5 models. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS , 8(2). 10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024040
Naud, CM, YH Chen, I Rangwala and JR Miller. (Sep 2013). Sensitivity of downward longwave surface radiation to moisture and cloud changes in a high-elevation region. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES , 118(17). 10.1002/jgrd.50644
Rangwala, I. (Mar 2013). Amplified water vapour feedback at high altitudes during winter. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY , 33(4). 10.1002/joc.3477
Cayan, DR, M Tyree, KE Kunkel, C Castro, A Gershunov, J Barsugli, AJ Ray, J Overpeck, M Anderson, J Russell, B Rajagopalan, I Rangwala and P Duffy. (Jan 2013). Future Climate: Projected Average. ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SOUTHWEST UNITED STATES: A REPORT PREPARED FOR THE NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT. 10.5822/978-1-61091-484-0_6
Rangwala I; Miller JR. (Oct 2012). Climate change in mountains: a review of elevation-dependent warming and its possible causes. Climatic Change: an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change , 114(3-4), 527-547. 10.1007/s10584-012-0419-3
Rangwala, I, J Barsugli, K Cozzetto, J Neff and J Prairie. (Oct 2012). Mid-21st century projections in temperature extremes in the southern Colorado Rocky Mountains from regional climate models. CLIMATE DYNAMICS , 39(8-Jul). 10.1007/s00382-011-1282-z
Rangwala I; Miller JR. (Feb 2010). Twentieth Century Temperature Trends in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research , 42(1), 89-97. 10.1657/1938-4246-42.1.89
Rangwala I; Keating KI. (Jan 2008). Silver deprivation limits fecundity and survivability in the freshwater crustacean, Daphnia magna. Biological Trace Element Research , 121(1), 44-50. 10.1007/s12011-007-0016-x