Land Change Science
Land Change Science Program
The Land Change Science (LCS) Program strives to advance the understanding of the rates, causes, and consequences of climate and land use change, and the vulnerability and resilience of the Earth system to such changes.
News
Landsat at Work: Preparing Residents Where Hurricanes Threaten
Landsat at Work: Preparing Residents Where Hurricanes Threaten
Watching the ‘Wood Basket’ of the U.S.
Watching the ‘Wood Basket’ of the U.S.
New Reference and Validation Data Available for Annual NLCD
New Reference and Validation Data Available for Annual NLCD
Publications
Potential 2050 distributions of World Terrestrial Ecosystems from projections of changes in World Climate Regions and Global Land Cover Potential 2050 distributions of World Terrestrial Ecosystems from projections of changes in World Climate Regions and Global Land Cover
The urgency to address ecosystem loss is paramount, as both land use change and climate change will continue to rapidly alter and degrade natural ecosystems and reduce the many services they provide. To support conservation actions that mitigate impacts from these dual threats, we have developed potential World Terrestrial Ecosystem (WTE) distributions for 2050 following IPCC best...
Toward a set of essential biodiversity variables for assessing change in mountains globally Toward a set of essential biodiversity variables for assessing change in mountains globally
Mountain regions harbor unique and rich biodiversity, forming an important part of our global life support system. This rich biodiversity underpins the ecological intactness and functioning of mountain ecosystems, which are imperative for the provision of key ecosystem services. A considerable amount of data are required to assess ecological intactness and ecosystem functioning and...
Increasing seasonal variation in the extent of rivers and lakes from 1984 to 2022 Increasing seasonal variation in the extent of rivers and lakes from 1984 to 2022
Knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution of surface water is important for water resource management, flood risk assessment, monitoring ecosystem health, constraining estimates of biogeochemical cycles and understanding our climate. While global-scale spatiotemporal change detection of surface water has significantly improved in recent years due to planetary-scale remote...
Science
SBSC: Providing Unbiased Actionable Science & Information to Support Natural Resource Management Needs of the U.S. & Department of the Interior Priorities
The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) is uniquely positioned in the Colorado River Basin to provide sound information, specialized expertise, and innovative tools to support the management and sustained use of natural resources on public and Tribal lands in the Southwest U.S.
Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra
Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.
Estimating locally relevant scales of effect for population trends of a species of conservation concern
Wildlife movement and distribution can be influenced by local conditions like topography and landscape features, and the distances within which species respond to their landscape – scales of effect – can vary over space and time. We are estimating scales of effect for wildlife population trends to help land managers determine the distance within which wildlife will respond to landscape change.