USGS global change science strategy: A framework for understanding and responding to climate and land-use change

Abstract

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.

Consequences of land use and land cover change

“…The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate and Land Use Change Mission Area is one of seven USGS mission areas that focuses on making substantial scientific "…contributions to understanding how Earth systems interact, respond to, and cause global change" (Burkett and others, 2011). Using satellite and other remotely sensed data, USGS scientists monitor patterns of land cover change over space and time at regional, national, and global scales.…”