As part of its mandate to promote international cooperation in global change research, USGCRP engages with the Belmont Forum , an international partnership that catalyzes funding for research in support of resilience and sustainability. USGCRP is participating in Round II of the Belmont Forum Climate, Environment and Health Collaboration Research Action (CRA 2), which is co-chaired by NOAA and NSF. USGCRP’s International Activities Interagency Group (IAIWG) and Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health Group (CCHHG) are participating in this effort, with representation...

USACE Rock Island District and USGS collaborated with the Climate Preparedness and Resilience Community of Practice and a team of USACE engineers and hydrologists to develop and implement a framework that can be applied to evaluate the reliability of high-resolution, future-looking hydrology data products, which incorporate the impacts of climate change. The evaluation was applied to assess the reliability of a downscaled hydrology data product ( LOCA-VIC-mizuRoute ) in applications tied to habitat and ecosystem restoration and management in the Upper Mississippi River basin . Findings from...

Carbon sequestration, the process by which carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is removed and stored, can help mitigate climate change. While ecosystems store large amounts of carbon globally, changes in land use and land cover can affect their ability to remove and store carbon. To inform land management decisions, the USGS Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) tracks changes in land use and land cover, management, and disturbance, and their impacts on the amount of carbon ecosystems store and release into the atmosphere. In 2023, USGS completed development and testing of an updated...

Researchers from NOAA, USGS, and Princeton University developed the SPEAR (Seamless System for Prediction and Earth System Research) modeling system for seasonal-to-multidecadal climate predictions and projections at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. SPEAR has been used for innovative studies of climate predictability and change. Two recent studies demonstrate the seamless nature of SPEAR’s prediction and projection capabilities, highlighting its ability to predict both seasonal-to-decadal variations and long-term climate change: A high-resolution version of SPEAR was used to...

Cities in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are at the center of a growing health and climate crisis caused by air pollution and exacerbated by a changing climate, but typically have low capacity to monitor and respond to high-pollution events. The USAID-funded Clean Air Catalyst (Catalyst) partnership is piloting a methodology to build tailored solutions for better air quality in three cities: Indore, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Nairobi, Kenya. USGCRP partners are supporting these efforts to help measure air pollution levels, identify sources and impacts, and act on that data with relevant...

Ecosystem transformations driven by climate and global change are occurring faster than most federal agencies can currently manage and adapt. In 2023, DoD established the Innovation Landscapes Network (ILN) with USGS and other partner research and land management agencies to increase the pace of innovation in conservation management, reduce duplicative efforts, and transfer new technologies across representative DoD landscapes (Alaska, Southeast U.S., and Southwest U.S.). The ILN leverages local, regional, and national partnerships to strengthen and establish collaborative relationships...

In 2023, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate launched a new Earth Systems Science Technology Center to support a more integrated response to threats from climate change, environmental pollution, global diseases, and other interactions between human and Earth systems. The Center offers new and complementary science capabilities and collaborative capacity to DHS and is unique in the federal government, applying Earth systems science directly to national security. Collaboration with other departments and agencies will be a critical part of the Center’s work, so that the research benefits a...

Climate change and human activities threaten coldwater organisms in freshwater ecosystems, including species such as salmon and trout. As the climate continues to warm, coldwater refuges—patches of relatively cool water that provide relief from warm conditions—could become increasingly important. In 2021, USGS and NOAA convened an international group of scientists, environmental regulators, and resource managers in a workshop to discuss how to better integrate science, policy, and management of coldwater refuges and the species that rely on them. The workshop participants, co-led by the...

DOS and NSF led an effort convening a transdisciplinary workshop in Southeast Asia to build capacity for upcoming U.S. research programs. The week-long workshop provided transdisciplinary training for over 150 researchers and helped build networks among 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. This effort is a collaboration between USGCRP’s International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG) and Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health (CCHHG), the Thai Research Science Agency, and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency and included...

NOAA’s airborne science mission SABRE (Stratospheric Aerosol Processes, Budget, and Radiative Effects) completed its first series of research flights in March 2023. Analysis is now underway of this unprecedented dataset detailing the composition and chemistry of the mid-latitude and polar stratosphere. The mission made use of NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude aircraft to collect the most detailed measurements to date in this region of the atmosphere in order to understand the behavior of the tiny aerosol particles in the stratosphere that play a significant role in Earth’s climate. SABRE is the...