Mission Areas
Land Resources
Understanding a changing world and how it affects our natural resources, livelihoods, and communities. Science plays an essential role in helping communities and resource managers understand the local to global implications of change, anticipate the effects of change, prepare for change, and reduce the risks associated with decisionmaking in a changing environment.
EROS Center
The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is responsible for satellite operations, including Landsat, and performs image data collection, archiving, processing, and distribution.
Explore EROSLandCarbon
The biologic carbon sequestration assessment program (LandCarbon) studies ecosystem carbon cycle research topics, investigates carbon management science needs, and develops monitoring methods.
Learn MoreData and Tools
Land Resources supports the science community with its long-term observational networks and extensive databases encompassing the fields of climate history, land-use and land-cover change, and carbon and nutrient cycles.
U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
News
Landsat Advisory Group Report Says Charging for Landsat Data Not Worth Economic, Societal Costs
Charging for Landsat data “would not be worth the economic, legal, societal or political costs that would be incurred,” and it makes more sense to investigate emerging proven technologies that could reduce the cost of Landsat missions, according to a report just released by the...
International Cooperators Honored with Permanent EROS Lobby Display
Landsat 9 mission updates and ground station preparation are among the major topics on the agenda for the scientists and engineers from 11 counties visiting Sioux Falls, SD this week for the annual meeting of the Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG).
LCMAP to Lead Workshop at Pecora 21
The USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) team will lead a workshop at the joint meeting of the 21st William T. Pecora Memorial Remote Sensing Symposium (Pecora 21) and the 38th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE-38).
Publications
Arctic vegetation, temperature, and hydrology during Early Eocene transient global warming events
Early Eocene global climate was warmer than much of the Cenozoic and was punctuated by a series of transient warming events or ‘hyperthermals’ associated with carbon isotope excursions when temperature increased by 4–8° C. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55 Ma) and Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2, 53.5 Ma) hyperthermals were of short...
Willard, Debra A.; Donders, Timme H; Reichgelt, Tammo; Greenwood, David R; Peterse, Francien; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Sluijs, Appy; Schouten, Stefan It’s about time: A synthesis of changing phenology in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem
The timing of recurring biological and seasonal environmental events is changing on a global scale relative to temperature and other climate drivers. This study considers the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, a region of high social and ecological importance in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and synthesizes current knowledge of 1) key seasonal processes,...
Staudinger, Michelle; Mills, Katherine E.; Stamieszkin, Karen; Record, Nicholas R.; Hudak, Christine A.; Allyn, Andrew; Diamond, Antony; Friedland, Kevin; Golet, Walt; Henderson, Elisabeth; Hernandez, Christina M.; Huntington, Thomas G.; Ji, Rubao; Johnson, Catherine L.; Johnson, David Samuel; Jordaan, Adrian; Kocik, John; Li, Yun; Liebman, Matthew; Nichols, Owen C.; Pendleton, Daniel; Richards, R. Anne; Robben, Thomas; Thomas, Andrew C.; Walsh, Harvey J.; Yakola, Keenan Implementation of an occupancy-based monitoring protocol for a wide-spread and cryptic species, the New England cottontail Sylvilagus transitionalis
Designing effective long-term monitoring strategies is essential for managing wildlife populations. Implementing a cost-effective, practical monitoring program is especially challenging for widespread but locally rare species. Early successional habitat preferred by the New England cottontail (NEC) has become increasingly rare and fragmented,...
Shea, Colin P.; Eaton, Mitchell; MacKenzie, Darryl I.