In recognition of Earth Day on April 22, 2013, the USGS is highlighting a few aspects of climate change. The effects of climate change have been documented in the United States and around the world. These effects pose challenges and risks to our landscapes, natural and agricultural resources, wildlife, the economy, and the public health and safety of our communities.

USGS scientists seek to measure, document, and understand the changes that have occurred in the Earth’s recent and distant past, and then interpret and communicate the causes and consequences of those changes.

USGS expertise is diverse, for example, seeking to improve our understanding of climate change effects on wildlife and ecosystems; risks to coastal communities associated with sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and storms; how carbon circulates across the globe, including how and where it can be stored in ecosystems and subsurface rocks; and changes in water resource availability, including the effects of droughts and floods.

The USGS makes data free and easily accessible to the public, resource managers, policymakers and other decisionmakers. As the nation’s earth-science agency, the USGS provides unbiased scientific information that serves as a foundation for sound decisions as we face these climate change challenges.

Learn more about USGS climate change science and expertise by visiting the USGS Climate and Land Use Change website.

Slideshow: Faces of Climate Change

The following slideshow highlights examples of climate change impacts to variety of places and people across the globe. This aims to give a glimpse of the many faces of climate change.

Video Series: America’s Climate Change Questions

America has questions about climate change, and the USGS is providing answers through a video series called, Climate Connections.

In these videos, USGS scientists are engaging in conversations and addressing questions from across the nation. The USGS has authoritative and science-based information to address a wide range of topics related to climate change.

There are six episodes from Colorado, the District of Columbia, Glacier National Park, Puerto Rico, and North and South Carolina.

Hyperlinks and details to each episode are provided below.

Watch the Videos

Questions from Colorado include:

• How is Colorado affected by climate change and how can I learn more?
• Were the wildfires this past summer related to climate change?
• Do the bark beetles infesting trees have anything to do with climate change?
• How does the ocean change the climate, and vice versa?

Questions from high school students in D.C. include:

• If you could tell the public one thing about climate change, what would it be?
• Does climate change impact humans or animals more?
• How will climate change affect D.C.?
• When did climate change begin?

Questions from Glacier National Park include:

• When I come back in ten years, what will I see in Glacier National Park?
• How is climate change impacting the glaciers?
• Does all the snow we received this winter help the glaciers?
• How do receding glaciers and climate change affect the local economy in terms of recreation, agriculture, tourism?

Questions from Puerto Rico include:

• Why has the rainy season been so long in Puerto Rico?
• How is global warming impacting the island of Puerto Rico?
• What are solar storms and are they related to climate change?
• Will we see polar bears on the island of Puerto Rico?

Questions from North and South Carolina include:

• How does climate change affect the coast and where can I learn more?
• What are scientists currently doing in regards to rivers and streams?
• Does planting trees impact climate change?
• What do we know now that we didn’t know in the 1970s?

Questions from students in North Carolina include:

• Do all scientists agree that climate change is occurring?
• Could climate change impact fishing?
• Will the climate change abruptly or slowly over time?
• What is geothermal energy and how does it impact the climate?

Forests, grasslands and shrublands in the West sequester nearly 100 million tons of carbon each year, an amount equivalent to counterbalancing the emissions of about 83 million passenger cars a year in the United States, according to a new USGS report.

Carbon that is absorbed or “sequestered” through natural processes reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

While the study showed that western ecosystems are a strong carbon sink now, the region could experience a decline in storage potential between now and 2050, depending on future changes in land-use, climate and wildfires. Future carbon stocks are inextricably linked to these drivers because as ecosystems, forests or agricultural lands are converted for other uses, their ability to capture and store carbon is affected.

From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coastal Waters

The area USGS studied extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coastal waters, and totals just over 1 million square miles. The major ecosystems evaluated were terrestrial — forests, wetlands, agricultural lands, and shrublands and grasslands — and aquatic — rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters. It includes well-known ecosystems, such as the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, the Pacific Northwest forests and the vast grasslands and shrublands of the Great Basin.

Western Forests Stored the Most Carbon

While the western ecosystems varied widely in their potential for storing carbon now and in the future, forests are by far the largest carbon-storing pools, accounting for about 70 percent of the carbon stored recently in the West.

• Forests cover 28 percent of the land areas of West, contain the most carbon per unit area, and have the second-highest rate of sequestration of ecosystem types.
• Wetlands cover less than 1 percent of the West and had the highest rate of sequestration of all ecosystem types, but because they cover only such a small percentage of land, the amount of carbon they sequester is far less significant than other ecosystem types.
• Grasslands and shrublands cover nearly 60 percent of the West and contain 23 percent of the region’s carbon stored recently.
• Agricultural lands cover about 6 percent of the land areas of the West and contain 4.5 percent of the carbon stored recently.

Significant Greenhouse Gas Emission Sources in Western Ecosystems

Wildland fires in western ecosystems generated significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, with such emissions equivalent to 13 percent of the estimated rate of the recent annual carbon sequestration by western terrestrial ecosystems. This amount could increase up to 31 percent in the future.

Water bodies in the West emitted even more CO₂ than fires. Emissions from water bodies are equivalent to more than 30 percent of the recent annual carbon sequestration rate of terrestrial ecosystems in the West.  Basically, the more interaction with the atmosphere, the more CO₂ is released.  So, in fast-moving waters, where the water is churned up, there is a greater loss of CO₂ to the atmosphere.

Land-Use, Land-Cover, and Carbon Stocks

Future changes in the ability of western ecosystems to sequester carbon will depend on future changes in land-use, climate, and wildfires.  Future carbon stocks are tied to these drivers because as ecosystems, forests or agricultural lands are converted for other uses, their ability to capture and store carbon is affected.  Land use by people causes a significant loss of carbon from ecosystems. Specific examples are forest harvesting (nearly 13 million tons of carbon per year) and agricultural harvesting (more than 20 million tons of carbon per year).

To Read More:

Blog on the Report by David Hayes, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior

Department of the Interior News Release on the New Report

The report: Baseline and Projected Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in the Ecosystems of the Western United States.

Learn more about wildfires with GeoMAC

Fire managers and the public can access online maps of current wildfire
locations, thanks to a Web-based mapping application provided by the USGS
and its partners.

Learn more

Burning Wildfires

Fire managers and the public can access online maps of current wildfire locations, thanks to a web-based mapping application provided by the USGS and its partners.

Learn more