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, 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.
Ecosystems on land store large amounts of the carbon emitted by human activities, and protecting and restoring forests and other vegetation are important tools in slowing climate change. However, there are large uncertainties in global estimates of the balance between how much carbon ecosystems store and how much they release into the atmosphere due to deforestation, wildfire, and other disturbances. To improve estimates of the global carbon balance, NASA, USDA-FS, and other contributors assessed changes in the amount of carbon stored by live woody vegetation (such as trees and shrubs)...