The document discusses priorities for climate change research funding, including developing interdisciplinary systems approaches, understanding ocean acidification impacts, and strengthening Arctic and ocean research through cyber-linked sensors and studying topics like carbon cycling, circulation, and coastal ecosystems. Key funding agencies mentioned are NSF and USGCRP.
Climate Research In FY 2010, we will make a major investment in NSF’s new Climate Research effort. NSF proposes an integrated approach that includes: modeling of basic natural and human processes; fundamental research to support paradigm development and predictive understanding; environmental observation; inquiry-based studies of integrated natural and human systems; and research on the environmental significance of adaptation and mitigation strategies. Specific emphases include: • Modeling: Enhance scalability of climate and ecosystem models to move climate modeling from the global to the regional scale; move ecological modeling from the local to the regional scale; and improve predictability at multiple scales to inform decision makers; • Fundamental Research: Support a broad research portfolio in carbon cycling, biodiversity, and ecological systems and expand the Nation’s workforce trained to address complex environmental challenges; • Observation: Improve, upgrade and deploy critical environmental observing platforms and systems (Long Term Ecological Research and the National Ecological Observatory Network) and partner with the USDA to establish a set of Urban Long Term Research Areas. The long-term goal of this program is to assert U.S. leadership in providing and communicating the fundamental knowledge base on climate change.
Image courtesy Stephen Young, Salem State
Image from NSF/OCE image library
Image courtesy NCAR
Image from Lee & Jetz/UCSD, 2008
Image credit: Alejandra Restrepo-Correa/Florida Institute of Technology, 2007
Image credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation Ecological theory predicts that biological systems are influenced by and influence earth system processes at regional to continental scales. These processes constrain the responses of biological systems to drivers of change and cascade through the systems structure and function, often in unexpected ways. To understand the response of the biosphere to climate change, the emergence of infectious diseases, the future of biodiversity, or the services the biosphere provides requires a quantitative understanding of these regional to continental scale dynamics.
Image credit: The Glosten Associates, Inc. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?org=NSF&cntn_id=114796
Image credit: Center for Environmental Visualization, University of Washington http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?org=NSF&cntn_id=115444