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Ecosystems Land Change Science Program

The Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area strives to advance the understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological components of the Earth system, the causes and consequences of climate and land use change, and the vulnerability and resilience of the Earth system to such changes.

News

Earth Science Matters - Volume 19, Winter 2024

Earth Science Matters - Volume 19, Winter 2024

2024 Year in Review

2024 Year in Review

Introducing the Earth in Flux Chart Gallery

Introducing the Earth in Flux Chart Gallery

Publications

Pollen records, postglacial: Southeastern North America

Pollen records from the unglaciated southeastern region of North America provide an overview of biogeographic changes associated with vegetational migration northward following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Changing insolation during the Holocene affected forest composition on the Coastal Plain, and rising sea level controlled the distribution of marsh and forested wetlands...
Authors
Debra A. Willard

Effects of recent wildfires on giant sequoia groves were anomalous at millennial timescales: a response to Hanson et al.

BackgroundThe giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum [Lindley] Buchholz) of California’s Sierra Nevada recently suffered historically unprecedented wildfires that killed an estimated 13–19% of seed-bearing sequoias across their native range. Hanson et al. recently sought to characterize post-fire reproduction in two severely burned sequoia groves, but their two papers (1) inaccurately...
Authors
Nathan L. Stephenson, David Nicolas Bertil Soderberg, Joshua A. Flickinger, Anthony C. Caprio, Adrian Das

Microplastic and associated black particles from road-tire wear: Implications for radiative effects across the cryosphere and in the atmosphere

The environmental effects of airborne micro- and nano-size plastic particles are poorly understood. Microscopy and chemical analyses of atmospherically deposited particles on snow surfaces at high elevation (2,865–3,690 m) in the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB; Colorado Rocky Mountains) revealed the presence of black substances intimately associated with microplastic fibers, particles...
Authors
Richard L. Reynolds, Heather A. Lowers, George N. Breit, Harland L. Goldstein, Elizabeth Kellisha Williams, Corey Lawrence, Raymond F. Kokaly, Jeff Derry

Science

Impacts of changing climate and disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem resilience in the Southern Rocky Mountains

Climate-driven forest disturbances, particularly drought-induced tree mortality and large high-severity fires from increasingly warm and dry conditions, are altering forest ecosystems and the ecosystem services society depends on (e.g., water supplies) in the Southern Rockies and across the Western U.S. We will combine unique, long-term place-based ecological data, diverse methods (e.g., paleo...
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Impacts of changing climate and disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem resilience in the Southern Rocky Mountains

Climate-driven forest disturbances, particularly drought-induced tree mortality and large high-severity fires from increasingly warm and dry conditions, are altering forest ecosystems and the ecosystem services society depends on (e.g., water supplies) in the Southern Rockies and across the Western U.S. We will combine unique, long-term place-based ecological data, diverse methods (e.g., paleo...
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Glaciers and Climate Project

Mountain glaciers are dynamic reservoirs of frozen water closely coupled to ecosystems and climate. Glacier change in North America has major socioeconomic impacts, including global sea level change, tourism disruption, natural hazard risk, fishery effects, and water resource alteration. Understanding and quantifying precise connections between glaciers and climate is critical to decision makers...
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Glaciers and Climate Project

Mountain glaciers are dynamic reservoirs of frozen water closely coupled to ecosystems and climate. Glacier change in North America has major socioeconomic impacts, including global sea level change, tourism disruption, natural hazard risk, fishery effects, and water resource alteration. Understanding and quantifying precise connections between glaciers and climate is critical to decision makers...
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Paleoclimate Research: Integrating Systems and Models (PRISM5)

PRISM5 addresses how the world, and particularly the US east coast, is affected by climate change. We study past warm climates from the Pliocene, Middle Miocene and early Eocene because these periods provide a suite of natural climate experiments in which marine ecosystems responded to rapidly changing temperature, sea-level and atmospheric CO2 for comparison to modern and future climate change...
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Paleoclimate Research: Integrating Systems and Models (PRISM5)

PRISM5 addresses how the world, and particularly the US east coast, is affected by climate change. We study past warm climates from the Pliocene, Middle Miocene and early Eocene because these periods provide a suite of natural climate experiments in which marine ecosystems responded to rapidly changing temperature, sea-level and atmospheric CO2 for comparison to modern and future climate change...
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