It provided a view of the future, establishing science goals that reflected the USGS's fundamental mission in areas of societal impact such as energy and minerals, climate and land use change, ecosystems, natural hazards, environmental health, and water. Intended to inform long-term program planning, the strategy emphasizes how USGS science can make substantial contributions to the well-being of the Nation and the world. In 2010, I realigned the USGS management and budget structure, changing it from a structure associated with scientific disciplines-Geography, Geology, Biology and Hydrology-to an issue-based organization along the lines of the Science Strategy. My aim was to align our management structure with our mission, our science priorities, our metrics for success, and our budget. An added benefit was that the USGS immediately appeared relevant to more Americans, and it became easier for those outside the agency to navigate our organizational structure to find where within the USGS they would find the solution to their problem. External partners rarely approached us with a problem in "geology," but they might need help with an issue in climate change or energy research. The new organization is focused on seven science mission areas: • Climate and Land Use Change • Core Science Systems • Ecosystems • Energy and Minerals • Environmental Health • Natural Hazards • Water The scope of each of these new mission areas is broader than the science directions outlined in the USGS Science Strategy and together cover the scope of USGS science activities. In 2010, I also commissioned seven Science Strategy Planning Teams (SSPTs) to draft science strategies for each USGS mission area. Although the existing Bureau Science Strategy could be a starting point for this exercise, the SSPTs had to go well beyond the scope of the existing document. What is of value and enduring from the work of the programs that existed under the former science disciplines needed to be reframed and reinterpreted under the new organization of the science mission areas. In addition, new opportunities for research directions have emerged in the five years since the Bureau Science Strategy was drafted, and exciting possibilities for cooperating and collaborating in new ways are enabled by the new mission focus of the organization. Scientists from across the Bureau were selected for these SSPTs for their experience in strategic planning, broad range of experience and expertise, and knowledge of stakeholder needs and relationships. Each SSPT was charged with developing a long-term (10-year) science strategy that encompasses the portfolio of USGS science in the respective mission area. Each science strategy will reinforce others because scientific knowledge inherently has significance to multiple issues. Leadership of the USGS and the Department of the Interior will use the science vision and priorities developed in these strategies for program guidance, implementation planning, accountability reporting, and resource allocation. These strategies will g...

Coastal response to sea-level rise, climatic hazards, and human development. 6. Biological responses to global change. Next, we discuss the central role of monitoring in accordance with the USGS Science Strategy recommendation that global change research should rely on existing "decades of observational data and long-term records to interpret consequences of climate variability and change to the Nation's biological populations, ecosystems, and land and water resources" (2007, p. 19). Finally, we address the need for a comprehensive and sustained communications strategy.

No abstract