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. Highlights describe the state of science at the time of publication of each yearly report, and may not reflect more recent advances in understanding. The date of publication of the source report is noted on each highlight page.

USGCRP efforts support building global change research capacity in developing countries.

USGCRP provides support to help sustain the core operations of three international science organizations: the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), which is the primary coordination mechanism for international research on the climate system; System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), which provides opportunities for research, education, and training to scientists, policymakers, and practitioners in developing countries; and Future Earth...

A participant using the GLOBE Observer app on their mobile device examines a magnified mosquito larva to determine if it is a disease-carrying species.

Interagency efforts are engaging citizens in forecasting and observation of mosquito threats.

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is an international science and education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. In 2017, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) partnered with NASA to leverage GLOBE in engaging hard-to-reach populations in...

Spatial distribution of A, annual carbon loss and gain across upland Alaska 1950–2009 and B, historical fire scars from 2000–2009 among the five Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) regions.

An assessment of carbon stocks in Alaska’s soils and vegetation helped set a baseline for monitoring future change.

Alaska’s soils and vegetation store vast quantities of carbon. Increases in temperature throughout the 21^st century may increasingly expose these stores to loss from increased wildfire, permafrost thaw, and other changes that could turn Alaska’s ecosystems into a net source of carbon to the atmosphere. However, much of Alaska has previously not been considered in any major national...

As of 2010, urban areas are home to more than half of the world's population, produce at least 70% of carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, and emit a significant amount of anthropogenic methane, but represent a small fraction of the Earth’s land surface. Currently, greenhouse gas emissions estimates for many cities are either unavailable or are generated using self-reported data from particular sectors, and contain significant uncertainties. Although methods for comprehensive measurement of urban emissions have been tested in smaller cities with stable emissions, these techniques...

Scenarios are plausible alternative futures, each describing what might happen under a range of possible assumptions about policy decisions and the behavior of the Earth system. By illustrating possible future conditions, scenarios provide a basis for analyzing the potential impacts of and responses to global change. USGCRP is working to develop scenarios of change for the United States that can feed into the sustained-assessment process and support the needs of both scientists and stakeholders, focused on population, demographics, land-use change, sea-level rise and coastal flood risk,...

The oceans have absorbed almost all of the excess heat generated by increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and a large fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, with profound implications for ecosystems and the climate system. Ship-based hydrographic surveys are the only current means for simultaneously measuring physical, biological, and biogeochemical properties of the global oceans from the surface to the seafloor and are a crucial resource for understanding ocean change and its role in the climate system. Building on global hydrographic surveys underway since the...

Recent evidence has revealed that the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are not as static as once thought. Accelerated ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet, disintegrating ice shelves around Antarctica, and signs that several marine-terminating glaciers in Antarctica have begun an irreversible retreat all signal that changes are taking place faster than was thought possible. Ice sheets are projected to contribute significantly to global sea-level rise, which poses dramatic risks for coastal communities and island nations worldwide. In response to these rapid changes, several USGCRP...

Recognizing the value of a wide range of expertise and experience in building its decision-support capacity, USGCRP has built engagement into the sustained-assessment process at multiple levels. Public comment periods, town-hall events, and calls for technical contributions encourage input from state, local, and tribal governments; academic institutions; the private sector; and the interested public. NCAnet, a network of organizations involved in the National Climate Assessment (NCA) and its communication, has grown to include more...

Protecting Fish, Wildlife, Plants, and Ecosystems in a Changing Climate

As climate change and other stressors increasingly threaten ecosystem health, natural-resource agencies and their partners and stakeholders are wrestling with similar management challenges and seeking common, coordinated solutions. Called for by both Congress and the Executive Branch, the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy (NFWPCAS or Strategy) was developed collectively by diverse teams of experts from Federal, state, and tribal conservation agencies and through an extensive national...

START (global change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training) promotes research-driven capacity-building to advance knowledge on global environmental change in Africa and Asia-Pacific, through research grants and fellowships, knowledge assessments and syntheses, curricula development, advanced-training institutes, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and place-based strategic planning. In 2015, with support from USGCRP, START enhanced the ability of over 300 researchers selected as fellows and their partners to incorporate climate information...

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Highlights

Promoting international research on global change

Supporting responses to climate-sensitive diseases

Assessing Alaska’s carbon resources

Monitoring Urban Emissions Hotspots

Developing Scenarios of Change

Measuring Change at Sea

Modeling Ice Sheets and Sea-Level Rise

Expanding Engagement with USGCRP

Protecting Fish, Wildlife, Plants, and Ecosystems in a Changing Climate

Advancing Knowledge on Global Environmental Change in Africa and Asia-Pacific