Integrating federal research on global change and climate change

Global change is among the most challenging and formidable issues confronting our Nation and society. Global change and its collective impacts on natural resources are a key concern for resources managers in the Department of the Interior and for many of Interior's external partners at State, Federal, and local levels.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Department’s major science agency, has made significant scientific contributions to understanding how the Earth’s climate and land surface has changed in the geologic past and how these changes have influenced water resources, land cover, species distribution and other aspects of ecosystems that are important to society. Climate change is one of six major “future directions” of work within the USGS Science Strategy 2007-2017, which was developed to inform long-term program planning and emphasizes how USGS science can make substantial contributions to the well-being of the Nation and the world.

Work within the USGS Climate and Land Use Change Mission Area supports scientific research, monitoring, remote sensing, modeling, synthesis, and forecasting to address the effects of climate and land use change on the Nation’s resources. The resulting research and products are provided as the scientific foundation upon which policymakers, natural resource managers, and the public make informed decisions about the management of natural resources on which they and others depend. Key components of the USGS Climate and Land Use Change science program include:

• Climate Change Research and Development
• The Natural Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center
• National Carbon Sequestration Assessments (geologic and biologic)
• The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center
• Land Remote Sensing
• Geographic Analysis and Monitoring

The Department of the Interior contains bureaus with enormous responsibilities for natural resources and people that are affected by global change processes. These bureaus include the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Department therefore is both a science provider – through USGS and the science capacity in other bureaus – and a user of scientific information on global change.

Eight regional DOI Climate Science Centers provide scientific information, tools and techniques that land, water, wildlife and cultural resource managers can apply to anticipate, monitor and adapt to climate and ecologically-driven responses at regional-to-local scales. A DOI Energy and Climate Change Council – under the leadership of the Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary – coordinates the Department’s response to the impacts of climate change within and among our bureaus.