Nature-based restoration efforts on Swan Island aim to protect coastal communities from erosion and storm surge while restoring ecosystems. Coastal islands and marshes in the Chesapeake Bay provide habitat for many species and protect coastal communities from wave energy. Within the last half century, the effects of shoreline erosion, land subsidence, and sea level rise have accelerated the rate of island submergence and degradation of ecosystems in the region. In one example, the Smith Island complex, of which Swan Island is a part, has eroded at rates of up to 2 meters per year over the past...

The Climate Change Response Framework provides landowners with adaptation options to address climate change risks to forests. Climate change increases uncertainty about future conditions affecting land and natural resources, creating new challenges for land managers working to sustain healthy ecosystems and ecosystem services. In 2020, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) and the USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub worked side-by-side with land managers to advance regionally specific climate change adaptation strategies. The NIACS Climate Change Response Framework was used...

New climate indicators and communications efforts tell the story of climate change through federally supported observations. Climate indicators show trends over time in important aspects of our environment, such as greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere and the start of spring each year. Indicators are based on long-term, consistently collected data and can be used to assess risks and vulnerabilities from a changing climate and to inform response actions. IndIWG developed an interagency web platform for USGCRP to highlight federally supported climate-relevant indicators and is continuing to...

A new resource ensures that Federal health and climate research is accessible to inform the Fifth National Climate Assessment. In 2020, the CCHHG began an effort to identify and organize information on federally funded research activities on climate change and human health since 2016. This group, co-led by EPA and NASA, collated this information into a Federal climate change and health research compendium document to help inform authors of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, as well as agency research planning. Nine Federal agencies contributed to the compendium, which includes sections on...

A next-generation modeling system supports assessment of changing climate risks. NOAA, the USGS, and Princeton University scientists contributed to the development of a new modeling system for seasonal-to-multidecadal climate predictions and projections, SPEAR ( Seamless System for Prediction and Earth System Research ), at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. 1 SPEAR combines a set of newly developed components that simulate the ocean, atmosphere, land, sea ice, and their interactions. The new system is used for real-time seasonal climate predictions as part of the North American...

Surveys of adaptation efforts adopted by businesses highlight opportunities for building resilience to complex climate events and other stressors. Increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate and weather events put U.S. businesses at risk through closures, infrastructure damage, supply chain disruptions, and physical impacts on health and safety. The interaction among extreme events and other social and environmental stressors that affect U.S. businesses can lead to compound, simultaneous risks with impacts across multiple sectors that cause significant disruptions to...

SilvaCarbon leverages state-of-the-art science and technology to advance the generation and use of information in managing forest and terrestrial carbon. Tropical deforestation and forest degradation are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable management of tropical forest resources is an important opportunity for climate change mitigation. Many tropical forested countries have committed to providing accurate, transparent information about landscape changes and changes in forest carbon stocks and emissions, but need technical assistance to accomplish their goals. SilvaCarbon...

Collaboration across modeling, observational, and process research communities aims to improve how models represent and predict precipitation. Many extreme events and related impacts are associated with the intensity, duration, and frequency of precipitation, including drought, flooding, wildfire, and severe storms. Understanding when, where, and how much precipitation will fall can help decision-makers and planners in agriculture, emergency management, energy, and other sectors prepare for and reduce costs from potential impacts. While models are skilled at simulating global and regional...

Interagency efforts ensure that social science expertise helps shape the Fifth National Climate Assessment. USGCRP’s Social Sciences Coordinating Committee (SSCC) provides regular input into USGCRP’s sustained assessment process, including ongoing engagement with the academic social sciences community and recommendations for the further integration of social science topics into National Climate Assessments. Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) Webinar for Social Scientists. In October 2020, the SSCC hosted a public webinar for social scientists that outlined the different mechanisms for...

A new tool makes satellite data on field conditions available to producers. Soil moisture data are used to plan crop planting, forecast yields, track droughts or floods, and improve weather forecasts, and can also be used to track changing conditions for U.S. agriculture over time. A new tool developed by USDA makes soil moisture data from NASA available to farmers, researchers, and other users. The Crop-CASMA (Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics) tool uses high-resolution satellite data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to map soil moisture across the United...