USGS global change science strategy: A framework for understanding and responding to climate and land-use change

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Global Change Science Strategy expands on the Climate Variability and Change science component of the USGS 2007 Science Strategy, ‘Facing Tomorrow‘s Challenges: USGS Science in the Coming Decade‘ (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007). Here we embrace the broad definition of global change provided in the U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-606, 104 Stat. 3096-3104)-‘Changes in the global environment (including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems) that may alter the capacity of Earth to sustain life‘-with a focus on climate and land-use change. Global change science is a well-defined research field with [...]