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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)...
Carbon Cycle Observations Ecosystems & Biodiversity
The Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change ( ASCC ) project is a collaborative effort to help guide forest managers in preparing forest ecosystems for climate change. Scientists, land managers, and a variety of partners have developed seven initial trial sites as part of this multi-region study to research long-term ecosystem responses to a range of climate change adaptation actions. USDA-FS scientists partnered with universities and local, state, and federal agencies (including DOI and USACE) to develop the first ASCC project in an urban national park, the Mississippi National River and...
Adaptation Ecosystems & Biodiversity
A 2021 report from EPA, USDA-FS, DOI, and NIST compared the air quality and health impacts of smoke from prescribed fire, which is used as a land management tool, with smoke from wildfire. The report found that using prescribed fire is not without risk as it can result in smoke-related air quality and public health impacts—but at a much smaller scale compared to wildfire. The assessment could be informative to multiple levels of government as they engage and plan for future land and fire management activities. The report also contributes to the identification of future research efforts to...
Extreme Events Human Health
In 2021, USGCRP’s Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health ( CCHHG ) supported the global GEO Health Community of Practice in holding a global conversation on the use of Earth observations and climate information for decision-making around COVID-19, and in convening regionally focused workshops on the use of observations for health in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The GEO Health Community of Practice is a network of governments, organizations, and observers that seeks to use environmental observations to improve health decision-making, with support from NASA and NOAA...
Human Health International
The impacts of global change, and how effectively people and communities can respond to them, are interconnected with historical and current inequities. Effective responses to global change challenges require diversity of thought, knowledge, and experience, as well as careful evaluation of risks, impacts, and responses from the perspectives and practices of equity and environmental justice. USGCRP and its member agencies are emphasizing diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility throughout their activities, aiming to expand participation in federal global change research and help...
U.S. coastlines are experiencing more frequent and severe coastal flooding, both recurrent tidal flooding events and life-threatening storm surge events. NOAA and DOT have initiated four four-year projects to investigate the effects of coastal flooding on surface transportation infrastructure. The projects are advancing modeling approaches that evaluate how effective different infrastructure designs are at reducing the impacts of repeated coastal flooding events, pairing pavement deterioration modeling with coastal flood and ecosystem modeling. Research teams are engaging with community...
Cities & Infrastructure Coasts
The Caribbean Drought Learning Network (CDLN) is a peer-to-peer network that links climate service providers, climate researchers and resource managers to share knowledge and strengthen collaboration and communication in drought research and management in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where drought constrains agricultural production, impacts the economy, and diminishes quality of life. The goal of this network is to produce and share information, lessons learned, and needs in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from drought affecting farms, forests, and rural communities...
Adaptation Extreme Events
USGCRP’s Social Sciences Coordinating Committee ( SSCC ) fosters integration of the methods, findings, and disciplinary perspectives of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches into USGCRP activities in support of the Program’s goals. In Fall 2021, the SSCC hosted a three-part public webinar series on food, culture, and climate , with the goal of highlighting the ways in which social science research considers climate change in a socio-cultural context. The series, with sessions on terrestrial and marine food systems as well as...
Social Science
USGCRP’s Social Sciences Coordinating Committee ( SSCC ) provides regular input to USGCRP’s assessment reports and serves as a resource for author teams on incorporating social sciences into their chapters. After the release of NCA4, the SSCC developed a white paper outlining findings and recommendations for the further integration of social science topics into future NCAs, based on focus groups conducted with report authors, which was later released as a journal article (Maxwell et al., 2022). These SSCC efforts informed the creation of the new Social Systems and Justice chapter in NCA5. In...
National Climate Assessment Social Science
USGCRP plays a vital coordinating role in international scientific assessments that provide policymakers with regular updates on the state of global change science on a planetary scale. The United States is a substantial contributor to the intellectual content of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports, with well over 100 writing team members serving during the Sixth Assessment Report ( AR6 ) cycle. The U.S. Government routinely provides comprehensive reviews of the draft reports, involving a process open to the public, hundreds of targeted reviewers, and convened expert...
International