How do changes in climate and land use relate to one another?
The link between land use and the climate is complex. First, land cover--as shaped by land use practices--affects the global concentration of greenhouse gases. Second, while land use change is an important driver of climate change, a changing climate can lead to changes in land use and land cover. For example, farmers might shift from their customary crops to crops that will have higher economic return under changing climatic conditions. Higher temperatures affect mountain snowpack and vegetation cover as well as water needed for irrigation. The understanding of the interactions between climate and land use change is improving but continued scientific investigation is needed.
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Monitoring and assessing urban heat island variations and effects in the United States
Landsat surface temperature and land cover products have been used to estimate surface temperatures in urban and surrounding nonurban areas and to quantify urban heat island intensity. Understanding the intensity and long-term temporal trends of urban heat islands enables the heat-related health challenges associated with heat waves to be...
Xian, George Z.
Using information from global climate models to inform policymaking—The role of the U.S. Geological Survey
This report provides an overview of model-based climate science in a risk management context. In addition, it summarizes how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will continue to follow best scientific practices and when and how the results of this research will be delivered to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other stakeholders to...
Terando, Adam; Reidmiller, David; Hostetler, Steven W.; Littell, Jeremy S.; Beard, T. Douglas; Weiskopf, Sarah R.; Belnap, Jayne; Plumlee, Geoffrey S.
Simulation of water availability in the Southeastern United States for historical and potential future climate and land-cover conditions
A study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCPO LCC) and the Department of the Interior Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, to evaluate the hydrologic response of a daily time step hydrologic model to historical observations and...
LaFontaine, Jacob H.; Hart, Rheannon M.; Hay, Lauren E.; Farmer, William H.; Bock, Andy R.; Viger, Roland J.; Markstrom, Steven L.; Regan, R. Steven; Driscoll, Jessica M.
A record of change - Science and elder observations on the Navajo Nation
A Record of Change - Science and Elder Observations on the Navajo Nation is a 25-minute documentary about combining observations from Navajo elders with conventional science to determine how tribal lands and culture are affected by climate change. On the Navajo Nation, there is a shortage of historical climate data, making it difficult to assess...
Hiza-Redsteer, Margaret M.; Wessells, Stephen M.
Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States
Two recent investigations of climate-change vulnerability for 19 terrestrial, aquatic, riparian, and coastal ecosystems of the southeastern United States have identified a number of important considerations, including potential for changes in hydrology, disturbance regimes, and interspecies interactions. Complementary approaches using geospatial...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Costanza, Jennifer
Climate Change Science Activities of the U.S. Geological Survey in New England
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has actively pursued research in the effects of climate change on the hydrology of New England. Ongoing focus areas of climate change science activities of the USGS in New England include the following: • Hydrologic climate-response data (initiating or expanding long-term hydrologic climate-response data...
Lent, Robert M.
Desert wetlands—Archives of a wetter past
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are finding evidence of a much wetter past in the deserts of the American Southwest using a most unlikely source—wetlands. Wetlands form in arid environments where water tables approach or breach the ground surface. Often thought of as stagnant and unchanging, new evidence suggests that...
Pigati, Jeffery S.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Manker, Craig R.
USGS Arctic Science Strategy
The United States is one of eight Arctic nations responsible for the stewardship of a polar region undergoing dramatic environmental, social, and economic changes. Although warming and cooling cycles have occurred over millennia in the Arctic region, the current warming trend is unlike anything recorded previously and is affecting the region...
Shasby, Mark; Smith, Durelle
Climate change: evaluating your local and regional water resources
The BCM is a fine-scale hydrologic model that uses detailed maps of soils, geology, topography, and transient monthly or daily maps of potential evapotranspiration, air temperature, and precipitation to generate maps of recharge, runoff, snow pack, actual evapotranspiration, and climatic water deficit. With these comprehensive environmental inputs...
Flint, Lorraine E.; Flint, Alan L.; Thorne, James H.
Remote sensing of land surface phenology
Remote sensing of land-surface phenology is an important method for studying the patterns of plant and animal growth cycles. Phenological events are sensitive to climate variation; therefore phenology data provide important baseline information documenting trends in ecology and detecting the impacts of climate change on multiple scales. The USGS...
Meier, G.A.; Brown, Jesslyn F.
Delivering climate science about the Nation's fish, wildlife, and ecosystems: the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center
Changes to the Earth’s climate—temperature, precipitation, and other climate variables—pose significant challenges to our Nation’s natural resources. Managers of land, water, and living resources require an understanding of the impacts of climate change—which exacerbate ongoing stresses such as habitat alteration and invasive species—in order to...
Varela-Acevedo, Elda
U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a nonregulatory Federal science agency with national scope and responsibilities, is uniquely positioned to serve the Nation’s needs in understanding and responding to global change, including changes in climate, water availability, sea level, land use and land cover, ecosystems, and global...
Burkett, Virginia R.; Kirtland, David A.; Taylor, Ione L.; Belnap, Jayne; Cronin, Thomas M.; Dettinger, Michael D.; Frazier, Eldrich L.; Haines, John W.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Milly, Paul C.D.; O'Malley, Robin; Thompson, Robert S.; Maule, Alec G.; McMahon, Gerard; Striegl, Robert G.
New US Geological Survey-led Research Helps California Coastal Managers Prioritize Planning and Mitigation Efforts Due to Rising Seas and Storms
New U.S. Geological Survey-led coastal modeling research presents state, federal, and commercial entities with varying storm and sea level-rise scenarios to assist with planning for future infrastructure and mitigation needs along the California coast.
Increased Sea Ice Drift Puts Polar Bears on Faster Moving Treadmill
A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Wyoming found that increased westward ice drift in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas requires polar bears to expend more energy walking eastward on a faster moving “treadmill” of sea ice.
Mapping Chesapeake's Future From Today's Land Use
USGS’ pixel-by-pixel land use forecasts offer essential road maps for restoration.
Walrus Sea-Ice Habitats Melting Away
Habitat for the Pacific walrus in the Chukchi Sea is disappearing from beneath them as the warming climate melts away Arctic sea ice in the spring, forcing the large mammals to “haul out” of the ocean and temporarily live on land.
Changing Times, Changing Stories: Climate Change Perspectives Vary Notably Among Generations in Subarctic Alaska
New research from the U.S. Geological Survey and partners illustrates how climate change is perceived among different generations of indigenous residents in subarctic Alaska. While all subjects agreed climate change is occurring, the older participants observed more overall changes than the younger demographic.
How Climate Change Will Transform the National Parks' Iconic Animals and Plants (Smithsonian)
WERC Ecologist Nate Stephenson talks about how climate change could affect trees in National Parks in this article from Smithsonian.com.
New Model Improves Predictions for How Climate Change Will Affect Fish Habitat
A new approach by U.S. Geological Survey scientists to modeling water temperatures resulted in more realistic predictions of how climate change will affect fish habitat by taking into account effects of cold groundwater sources.
Boom and Bust in the Boreal Forest: Climate Signals Seen in Bird Populations
Weaving concepts of ecology and climatology, recent interdisciplinary research by USGS and several university partners reveals how large-scale climate variability appears to connect boom-and-bust cycles in the seed production of the boreal (northern conifer) forests of Canada to massive, irregular movements of boreal birds.
Home on the California Range, Year 2100: Land Use and Climate Change Could Impact Wildlife, Water Supplies
Grassland habitats on rangelands in California’s Central Valley and surrounding foothills could decline by as much as 37 percent by 2100 due to changes in land use and climate, according to new scientific projections by the U.S. Geological Survey.
New National Program to Study Seasonal Changes in Wildlife Begins
A new Wildlife Phenology Program will enlist professional and citizen scientists across the country to monitor and record seasonal wildlife events to help managers understand and respond to climatic and other environmental changes.
As Population Grows, So Do Urban Areas — New Perspectives on Urban Land Use Change
Over 300 million Americans have to live somewhere. And, of course, we do. Nearly 80 percent of the growing U.S. population resides in urban areas while the land area dedicated to urban use continues to expand.
Landsat in Action - Land Cover and Land Cover Change with Tom Loveland
Tom Loveland talks about using Landsat's data for land use and land cover change research.
Find this video and thousands more at https://usgs.gov/gallery.
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A Record of Change: Science and Elder Observations on the Navajo N.
A Record of Change—Science and Elder Observations on the Navajo Nation is a 25-minute documentary about collaborative studies using conventional physical sciences, combined with tribal elder observations to show that local knowledge and conventional science partnerships can effectively document ecosystem change and determine the resulting challenges to livelihoods.
Wilted wheat in Arsi Negele, south-central Ethiopia
Wilted wheat in Arsi Negele, south-central Ethiopia, Sept. 2, 2015. Photo credit: Getachew Abate (FEWS NET) and Kelbessa Beyene (World Food Programme), public domain.
PubTalk 10/2015 — Fire-climate Relationships in the Sierra Nevada
Surprises relevant to future fire regime forecasts
by Jon E. Keeley, USGS Research Scientist
- Historical variation in annual fire activity is tied to climate only in the montane forests.
- Fires are largely insensitive to winter temperatures but significantly affected by spring and summer temperatures.
- Future
PubTalk 3/2012 — Projected Climate Change Impacts in California
--the consequences of increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases
Tom Suchanek, USGS Western Ecological Research Center Lead Scientist and Climate Change Coordinator
- How will decisions that the global community makes about emissions likely affect the future of the western U.S.?
- How will rising sea level likely affect