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.

Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of cyanobacteria grow to a much greater size and density than normal, resulting in negative effects on water quality, ecosystem health, and the health of humans and animals. Climate-related factors contribute to HABs, including water temperatures and the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as intense storms, both of which are affected by climate change. The impacts of climate change are expected to further increase risks from HABs in recreational and drinking water sources in the coming decades....

Most regions of the United States are projected to experience a higher frequency of severe droughts and longer dry periods as a result of a warming climate.[1] In 2016, USDA Forest Service (USDA-FS) scientists and partners prepared a state-of-the-science synthesis of drought effects on the nation’s forests designed to inform drought resilience and adaptation efforts. A new volume released in 2019 builds on that work, linking recent scientific...

USGCRP’s International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG) convened its first international and interagency workshop in December 2018, bringing together representatives from System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), Future Earth, and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). These three international programs receive funding through USGCRP to support their activities and to advance USGCRP’s international mandate. USGCRP was represented by ten Federal agencies as well as USGCRP staff. The workshop’s goals were to enhance awareness of mutual priorities, investments, and...

Methane emitted from thawing permafrost below an Arctic thermokarst lake is trapped in bubbles of many different sizes and shapes as the ice grows during the winter.

Long-frozen northern soils known as permafrost contain one of the world’s largest stores of organic carbon. This reservoir is stable while soils are frozen, but as permafrost thaws, decomposition of biomass by microbes produces the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane, returning soil carbon to the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change. Permafrost carbon stores are expected to be increasingly vulnerable to decomposition as the climate continues to change, leading to a feedback cycle of further warming and permafrost thaw.^[1]...

A researcher launches a radiosonde instrument attached to a weather balloon to capture detailed atmospheric data.

The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is the stormiest place on Earth, marked by heavy cloud cover that helps determine how much of the sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface. Due in part to the scarcity of field data from the region, current climate models have difficulty reproducing the behavior of clouds over the Southern Ocean, which in turn affects how well they can simulate current and future climate. Motivated by these data limitations, an international multi-agency effort collected atmospheric and oceanographic data via ship-, aircraft-, and island-based instrumentation in a...

Globally, average sea level has risen over the past several decades as ocean waters have warmed. While the ocean as a whole has absorbed a huge amount of heat from the warming atmosphere, ocean currents transport that heat differently across regions, contributing to significant regional variations in the amount of sea level change. Understanding changes in ocean heat content and the role of currents in shaping patterns of warming is critical to assessing current and future global and regional climate change, sea level rise, and coastal flooding risk.^[1]...

The ability to archive and share datasets generated by field, experimental, and modeling activities is a critical component of Earth system and global change research. Several recent interagency efforts aim to support advances in global change data access, synthesis, and use.

DOE recently launched the Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE), a publicly accessible archive of Earth and environmental science data generated by DOE-supported ecosystems research...

Through its Social Science Coordinating Committee (SSCC), USGCRP works to integrate social science methods, findings, and disciplinary perspectives into federal global change research programs. The social, behavioral, and economic sciences provide critical insights on the drivers and impacts of global change and inform mitigation, adaptation, and resilience decisions.

In February 2019, in collaboration with the National Academies’ Board on Environmental Change and Society, the SSCC convened a seminar entitled “Climate Resilience Pathways and Social Science...

This image of Pee Dee River in South Carolina was captured by NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument aboard a September 17, 2018 science flight.

Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas on September 14, 2018, causing widespread flooding and damage. In the aftermath of the storm, NASA deployed airborne radar to map floodwaters threatening the region, supplying federal, state, and local agencies with information critical to disaster response efforts.

Airborne radar is able to “see” through cloud cover to image the ground below during day and night and can map flooding occurring under...

A natural-color image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite on August 27, 2017, shows dozens of wildfires burning in the western United States.

Wildfires affect communities throughout the United States each year, threatening lives, property and infrastructure, and ecosystems.^[1] Understanding the climatic conditions that influence wildfire patterns can improve our ability to predict the occurrence and severity of future wildfires, and ultimately support the development of effective adaptation strategies.

In response to this need, multiple programs within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Department of the Interior’s...

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Highlights

Research and decision tools support management of harmful algal blooms

A new assessment links the latest drought science with management responses

USGCRP enhances cooperation among international global change science organizations

Scientists investigate the effects of carbon emissions from thawing permafrost soils

Unprecedented observations in the Southern Ocean help improve global climate models

Researchers reconstruct a new history of ocean warming

New data infrastructure helps build a virtual ecosystem of Earth science information

A collaboration identifies pathways to enhance social science integration in federal global change research

Interagency data products and research inform hurricane response and recovery in the Carolinas

Drought and wildfire research supports adaptation planning in the western United States