Ecosystems We Research
Ecosystems We Research
USGS conducts ecosystem research across the Nation to provide scientific information to improve their management, restoration, and conservation. Ecosystems are used for competing demands such as energy development, recreation, biodiversity, water, agriculture, extractive industries and urban development.
Explore the Ecosystems We Research
Explore the Ecosystems We Research
From the coasts to the Arctic, the Nation’s ecosystems are complex, dynamic, and exposed to a rapidly changing climate among other threats. USGS scientists study how ecosystems function, the impacts of stressors, and make predictions about their future to improve restoration and management outcomes.
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Ecosystems We Study: Grasslands
America’s grasslands are in the middle of the country where there is insufficient rain to support forests but too much to be a desert.
Ecosystems We Study: Freshwater Systems
Managing the world’s freshwater ecosystems including lakes, rivers, and springs, and the water they supply to meet environmental and societal needs in a changing climate is one of the biggest challenges for the 21st century.
Ecosystems We Study: Deserts
In the United States, three “hot deserts” receive precipitation in the summer months (Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan) and one “cold desert” receives precipitation in the winter (Great Basin).
Ecosystems We Study: Alaska Bioregions and Arctic
Alaska is simultaneously a landscape of extremes requiring specialized adaptations by plants and animals to survive the winters and a landscape of abundance that supports breeding birds each summer from as far away as Africa. Terrestrial Alaska also supports iconic species such as caribou and muskoxen whose population dynamics, predator/prey relationships and habitat ecology are researched by USGS...
Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative (SECI)
The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative (SECI) is to develop and enhance science and research on ecosystem services in support of improving natural resource management. This effort is in response to the fourth recommendation of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) July 2011 report: "Federal agencies with...