Fig. 1

The proposed conceptual framework. In the conceptual framework, a complex and interrelated structure of the major climate change factors of temperature and snowpack precipitation are interconnected with life cycle pathways of the water, energy, and food nexus as related to ecosystem processes, including forest, wetlands, watershed and stream flow, and water quality for fish and wildlife species. Sea level rise and fire also affects these complex relationships in coastal and forested watershed environments. Tables 1 and 2 provide the key life cycle pathways and components as well as key points for the interlinkages of this conceptual framework. *Note: Energy includes both renewable and fossil energy from the current practical perspectives in water-energy-food nexus