Highlights

Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments.

In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement.

Improving Predictions of Changing Arctic Ecosystems

A key challenge for Earth System Models is accurately representing land surface and subsurface processes and their complex interactions in a warming climate. This is true for ecosystems across the globe, but particularly critical for Arctic ecosystems, which are projected to warm at a rate twice that of the global average by the end of the 21st century. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments in the Arctic (NGEE-Arctic) project is addressing this challenge by integrating process studies, ecosystem observations, and computational...

The observational campaign in the Amazon Basin measures key environmental variables, including light and temperature, that drive biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds from the canopy. (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

In addition to being hotbeds of biodiversity, tropical forests are important to Earth’s water, energy, and carbon cycles—but they are increasingly impacted by climate change and human activities. Atmospheric chemistry in the once-pristine Amazon Basin, for example, is rapidly changing with deforestation, biomass burning, and pollution related to development in the region.

Like other forests, tropical forests naturally generate and emit volatile organic compounds that can react with other elements to form aerosols, or fine particles suspended in the

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Microbes living in the soil, which play an important part in carbon storage, are affected by farming practices.

The majority of terrestrial (land-based) carbon is stored in soil. With changes in climate and land use, understanding this key player in the carbon cycle is increasingly important. In October 2014, a group of scientists from 13 countries gathered in South Carolina for the Sixth International Workshop on Soil and Sedimentary Organic Matter Stabilization and Destabilization (SOM6). Participants engaged in focused discussions and shared results from

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Case studies in the 2014 Progress Report illustrate how the Strategy is being applied to promote adaptation on multiple scales and in a variety of ecosystems.

Fish, wildlife, and plants are integral parts of ecosystems that provide jobs, food, clean water, storm protection, recreation, and many other services that benefit society. Observed changes in climate are already impacting these valuable living resources, and projected future changes threaten to displace or eliminate some species. In response to a call from Congress to meet this challenge, a partnership of Federal, state, and tribal agencies released the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants

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Monitoring biodiversity in the field. (Credit: C. Körner)

Reducing the rate of biodiversity loss and averting precipitous ecosystem changes are internationally shared goals. Through its funding to DIVERSITAS, USGCRP supports the international Group on Earth Observation’s Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) in building a global, scientifically robust framework for detecting biodiversity change, intended to fill gaps in existing data and create links between globally dispersed observing systems. To meet

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Society derives many benefits from biodiversity and ecosystems, including clean air and water, as well as a host of recreational and culturally valued services. Climate change and nitrogen pollution—or excess nitrogen in the air and water, usually caused by human activities—are two major stressors affecting ecosystems nationwide, leading to shifts in habitat ranges, loss of species, and increased soil acidity. A partnership of researchers from EPA, USDA-FS, USGS, and academia are collaborating to assess the interacting impacts of nitrogen and climate change

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Highlights

Improving Predictions of Changing Arctic Ecosystems

Natural and Human Emissions in the Tropical Canopy

Soil Carbon Storage: A Big Role For Microorganisms

Adaptive Action for Fish, Wildlife, and Plants in a Changing Climate

Strengthening Global Observations of Biodiversity

Climate Change and Nitrogen: Interacting Impacts on Ecosystem Services