U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2007–3108

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)

FACING TOMORROW’S CHALLENGES: USGS SCIENCE IN THE DECADE 2007–2017

Climate Variability and Change

Printed on recycled paper

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a science strategy outlining 

the major natural science issues facing the Nation in the next decade. The science 

strategy consists of six science directions of critical importance, focusing on areas 

where natural science can make a substantial contribution to the well-being of the 

Nation and the world. This fact sheet focuses on climate variability and change and 

how USGS research can strengthen the Nation with information needed to meet the 

challenges of the 21st century.

Importance of Climate-Change 

Research to the Nation

Climate influences every aspect of 

life on Earth, affecting human health and 

well-being, water and energy resources, 

agriculture, forests and natural landscapes, air quality, and sea levels. The 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment 

Report of 2007 summarizes overwhelming evidence that global warming, due to 

human activities since 1750, is unequivocal. In addition to increases in global 

average air and ocean temperatures, 

observations find widespread melting of 

snow and ice; rising sea levels; widespread changes in precipitation amounts, 

ocean salinity, and wind patterns; and 

increasing occurrences of extreme 

weather, including droughts, heavy 

precipitation, heat waves, and intensity of 

tropical cyclones. Objective and interdisciplinary science is needed to understand 

more clearly the complexity of global 

climate issues. The science will play 

an essential role during the next decade 

in helping communities and land and 

resource managers understand local and 

regional implications, anticipate effects, 

prepare for changes, and reduce the risks 

of decisionmaking in a changing climate.

Why Action Is Needed Now

Climate variability and warming over the past century have already 

had measurable effects on ecosystems, 

societies, economies, and health. Climate 

change contributes to sea-level rise and to 

the frequency and intensity of wildfires, 

floods, crop failures, and outbreaks of 

disease and insect damage. Even though 

average precipitation is increasing as the 

climate warms, changes in the amount, 

timing, and distribution of rain, snow, and 

runoff are challenging the ability to manage the Nation’s water supply. Projected 

changes in temperature and precipitation patterns in response to increasing 

greenhouse gas emissions throughout the 

21st century are expected to intensify the 

effects on species, ecosystems, societies, 

economies, and health in many areas of 

the world.

During the next decade, the United 

States and other nations need to develop 

scientifically rigorous response strategies 

in anticipation of climatic events that are 

directional and increasingly variable.

★ Ecosystems ★ ★ Climate Energy and Minerals Natural Hazards Environment and Human Health Water ★ ★ ★ ★

The Coxe Glacier in Harriman Fjord,

Prince William Sound, Alaska, has been 

retreating for more than 100 years. 

Glaciers are sensitive to changes in 

local and regional climate; USGS data 

show that 98 percent of the glaciers in 

Alaska that terminate at an elevation 

below 1,000 meters are retreating, 

thinning, or stagnating. Changes in the 

cryosphere (Earth’s frozen regions) may 

reduce water supply in mountainous 

areas and ultimately cause an 

increase in global sea level. USGS 

documentation of these processes 

with both remote sensing and surface 

techniques will continue to be essential 

in helping scientists understand and 

forecast the impacts of climate change. 

(Photograph by Steven Schwarzbach, 

U.S. Geological Survey, 2000)
How the USGS Can Help

The USGS occupies a strong and 

unique role in the climate-change science community and contributes directly 

to the U.S. Climate Change Science 

Program (CCSP). USGS is recognized 

for its research and monitoring efforts in 

the fields of hydrology, climate history, 

land-use and land-cover change, wildlife 

health, ecosystem science, and carbon 

and other geochemical and nutrient 

cycles. The USGS contributes directly 

to the CCSP’s intellectual framework of 

whole-system understanding of global 

change, including the interrelationships 

among climate change, ecological systems, and human activities. USGS longterm data sets, together with a breadth of 

multidisciplinary scientific expertise—

spanning geology, biology, hydrology, 

geography, and remote sensing—enable 

the delivery of integrated information, 

predictive scenarios, and technological 

tools for managing the Nation’s water, 

land, plant and animal populations more 

effectively.

With its long-term observational 

networks, extensive databases, and 

diverse scientific expertise, the USGS 

can provide the broad perspective needed 

to expand understanding of current 

climate variability, climate change, and 

their effects on the Nation’s resources 

and economy. The USGS is working 

with local, State, and Federal partners 

to understand past climate variability 

and deliver credible future forecasts of 

climate-change effects on land, water, 

ecological and biological resources. DOI 

partners and other land and resource managers will benefit from its wealth of data, 

predictive models, and decision-support 

capabilities as they face the challenge of 

adapting to, or mitigating the risks of, 

climate change on ecosystems, biota, land 

and water resources, and communities 

across the Nation and around the world.

USGS Science Can Meet the Challenge

The USGS is ready to take action by:

•	 Creating, expanding, and modernizing existing USGS networks for long-term 

observations of physical and biological resources that directly and indirectly 

respond to climate.

•	 Integrating and disseminating information from multiagency monitoring networks that collect information on climate-change effects across public lands.

•	 Evaluating and reporting regularly on the Nation’s environmental and naturalresource condition and response to climate change, emphasizing what is known 

and what is uncertain about effects on the Nation’s land, water, and ecosystems 

and their biota.

•	 Researching interactions between climate and physical, chemical, and biological 

forces that influence the structure and functioning of ecosystems and the goods 

and services they provide.

•	 Continuing and expanding hydroclimatological research to understand how climate and hydrology interact to affect floods and droughts, seasonal snowpacks, 

and water quality and freshwater supplies.

•	 Reconstructing past climate history and climate-related ecological, biological, and physical responses to better understand patterns of natural variability, 

changes currently taking place, and future scenarios.

•	 Studying, interpreting, and communicating the linkages between climate and the 

major biogeochemical cycles in soil, vegetation, freshwater, and oceans.

•	 Refining, applying, and interpreting watershed and ecosystem process models 

to assist the Nation’s natural resource managers to adapt to climate change and 

develop adaptation and mitigation methodologies that can be used by resource 

managers to minimize the effects of climate change on the Nation’s land, water, 

ecosystems, and biological populations.

Tents dot the Greenland landscape at a 

research camp in July 2006. Scientists 

from many organizations, including the 

USGS/NSF National Ice Core Laboratory, 

are working on the National Science 

Foundation’s West Antarctic Ice Sheet 

Divide Project to collect deep ice cores in 

central West Antarctica during 2007–09. 

The cores provide information on past 

temperature, precipitation, atmospheric 

gas composition, and volcanic eruptions 

that helps researchers better understand 

the changing climate. (Photograph by Brian 

Bencivengo, U.S. Geological Survey.)

A Vision For the Future

USGS scientists use long-term 

observational data and records to 

interpret consequences of climate 

variability and change to the 

Nation’s biological populations, 

ecosystems, and land and water 

resources; provide expert, interdisciplinary advice on risks to 

infrastructure, human safety, and 

environment; and make regional 

and national assessments of critical 

resource interdependencies that 

are widely used by policymakers, 

natural resource managers, 

and the public.

For Additional Information

U.S. Geological Survey, 2007, Facing 

Tomorrow’s Challenges—U.S. Geological Survey Science in the Decade 

2007–2017: Available online at http://

pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/cir/cir1309

Also, visit the USGS home page at

http://www.usgs.gov/