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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.

Observations, Modeling, Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Carbon Cycle, Arctic

Understanding carbon cycling in Arctic ecosystems

Map shows the average active layer thickness (ALT) at the end of the growing season for the Barrow, Alaska region that contains the NGEE Arctic study site.

Scientists are gaining new understanding of processes that control greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic permafrost, a potential driver of significant future warming.

Rapid warming in the Arctic is causing carbon-rich soils known as permafrost, previously frozen for millennia, to thaw. As thawing soils decompose, the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere in varying proportions depending on the conditions under which decomposition occurs. Permafrost emissions could contribute significantly to future warming...

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Modeling, Carbon Cycle, Arctic

Modeling Permafrost Response to Climate Change

Modeling Permafrost Response to Climate Change

Vast quantities of carbon—twice the size of the current amount in the atmosphere—are stored in frozen permafrost soils in Arctic regions. The Arctic climate is warming much more rapidly than the global average, leaving these carbon pools highly vulnerable to release into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane as soils thaw and decompose, leading to a feedback cycle of further warming and increasing carbon release. The potential for these carbon stocks to increase global-warming rates, and the rapid changes already observed in the permafrost region, have captured the attention of...

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