Benjamin Sleeter
My research activities focus on characterizing changes in land use and disturbance – past, present and future - and how they impact ecosystem carbon dynamics.
I lead two large projects which have shared goals of further developing USGS capabilities in land change science and ecosystem carbon cycling. I lead the development of the LUCAS modeling framework (Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator).
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 18
National land use projections
A major scientific challenge in global change research is connecting coarse-scale global assessments, particularly those involving the projection of land use, to scales relevant and useful for analysis and management. We have downscaled land use projections from two global scenario frameworks, the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES), and the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)...
Land Use and Climate Change Team
We are a research team focusing on understanding the rates, causes, and consequences of land change across a range of geographic and temporal scales. Our emphasis is on developing alternative future projections and quantifying the impact on environmental systems, in particular, the role of land-use change on ecosystem carbon dynamics. We are interested in how land-use and climate systems will...
Land Cover Trends
Land Cover Trends was a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land use and land cover change. The project spanned from 1999 to 2011. The research was supported by the Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was a collaborative effort with the U.S. Environmental...
A web-based application for the management and visualization of land-use scenario data
Land-use researchers need the ability to rapidly compare multiple land-use scenarios over a range of spatial and temporal scales, and to visualize spatial and nonspatial data; however, land-use datasets are often distributed in the form of large tabular files and spatial files. These formats are not ideal for the way land-use researchers interact with and share these datasets. The size of these la
Integration of Land Cover Trends Field Photography with an Online Map Service
The USGS National Land Cover Trends Project has the largest repository of field photos at the USGS (over 33,000 photos). Prior to CDI funding, Land Cover Trends had limited funding to make the national collection of photos available online for researchers, land managers, and citizens. The goal of this CDI project was to add geotags and keywords to the digital copies of each field photo and make th
Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.
In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
Filter Total Items: 52
Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change
With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit f
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
Climate impacts on agricultural land use in the USA: the role of socio-economic scenarios
We examine the impacts of climate on net returns from crop and livestock production and the resulting impact on land-use change across the contiguous USA. We first estimate an econometric model to project effects of weather fluctuations on crop and livestock net returns and then use a semi-reduced form land-use share model to study agricultural land-use changes under future climate and socio-econo
Authors
Jianhong E. Mu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, John T. Abatzoglou, John M. Antle
Projecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residents
Authors
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nathan J. Wood, Christopher E. Soulard, Tamara Wilson
Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report
The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working groups, virtual training series, and other CDI-sponso
Authors
Madison L. Langseth, Leslie Hsu, Jon Amberg, Norman Bliss, Andrew R. Bock, Rachel T. Bolus, R. Sky Bristol, Katherine J. Chase, Theresa M. Crimmins, Paul S. Earle, Richard Erickson, A. Lance Everette, Jeff T. Falgout, John Faundeen, Michael N. Fienen, Rusty Griffin, Michelle R. Guy, Kevin D. Henry, Nancy J. Hoebelheinrich, Randall J. Hunt, Vivian B. Hutchison, Drew A. Ignizio, Dana M. Infante, Catherine Jarnevich, Jeanne M. Jones, Tim Kern, Scott Leibowitz, Francis L. Lightsom, R. Lee Marsh, S. Grace McCalla, Marcia McNiff, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John C. Nelson, Tamar Norkin, Todd M. Preston, Alyssa Rosemartin, Roy Sando, Jason T. Sherba, Richard P. Signell, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Eric T. Sundquist, Colin B. Talbert, Roland J. Viger, Jake F. Weltzin, Sharon Waltman, Marc Weber, Daniel J. Wieferich, Brad Williams, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
A carbon balance model for the great dismal swamp ecosystem
BackgroundCarbon storage potential has become an important consideration for land management and planning in the United States. The ability to assess ecosystem carbon balance can help land managers understand the benefits and tradeoffs between different management strategies. This paper demonstrates an application of the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) model developed for local-scal
Authors
Rachel Sleeter, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Brianna Williams, Dianna M. Hogan, Todd Hawbaker, Zhiliang Zhu
Human footprint affects US carbon balance more than climate change
The MC2 model projects an overall increase in carbon capture in conterminous United States during the 21st century while also simulating a rise in fire causing much carbon loss. Carbon sequestration in soils is critical to prevent carbon losses from future disturbances, and we show that natural ecosystems store more carbon belowground than managed systems do. Natural and human-caused disturbances
Authors
Dominique Bachelet, Ken Ferschweiler, Tim Sheehan, Barry Baker, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu
Divergent projections of future land use in the United States arising from different models and scenarios
A variety of land-use and land-cover (LULC) models operating at scales from local to global have been developed in recent years, including a number of models that provide spatially explicit, multi-class LULC projections for the conterminous United States. This diversity of modeling approaches raises the question: how consistent are their projections of future land use? We compared projections from
Authors
Terry L. Sohl, Michael Wimberly, Volker C. Radeloff, David M. Theobald, Benjamin M. Sleeter
Estimating carbon sequestration in the piedmont ecoregion of the United States from 1971 to 2010
Background: Human activities have diverse and profound impacts on ecosystem carbon cycles. The Piedmont ecoregion in the eastern United States has undergone significant land use and land cover change in the past few decades. The purpose of this study was to use newly available land use and land cover change data to quantify carbon changes within the ecoregion. Land use and land cover change data (
Authors
Jinxun Liu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu, Linda S. Heath, Zhengxi Tan, Tamara Wilson, Jason T. Sherba, Decheng Zhou
State-and-transition simulation models: a framework for forecasting landscape change
SummaryA wide range of spatially explicit simulation models have been developed to forecast landscape dynamics, including models for projecting changes in both vegetation and land use. While these models have generally been developed as separate applications, each with a separate purpose and audience, they share many common features.We present a general framework, called a state-and-transition sim
Authors
Colin Daniel, Leonardo Frid, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Marie-Josée Fortin
Future land-use related water demand in California
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to project future changes in developed
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
The potential carbon benefit of reforesting Hawai‘i Island non-native grasslands with endemic Acacia koa trees
Large areas of forest in the tropics have been cleared and converted to pastureland. Hawai‘i Island is no exception, with over 100,000 ha of historically forested land now dominated by non-native grasses. Passive forest restoration has been unsuccessful because these grasslands tend to persist even after grazers have been removed, yet active outplanting of native tree species can be cost-prohibiti
Authors
Paul Selmants, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nicholas Koch, James B. Friday
Downscaling global land-use/land-cover projections for use in region-level state-and-transition simulation modeling
Global land-use/land-cover (LULC) change projections and historical datasets are typically available at coarse grid resolutions and are often incompatible with modeling applications at local to regional scales. The difficulty of downscaling and reapportioning global gridded LULC change projections to regional boundaries is a barrier to the use of these datasets in a state-and-transition simulation
Authors
Jason T. Sherba, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Adam W. Davis, Owen P. Parker
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 18
National land use projections
A major scientific challenge in global change research is connecting coarse-scale global assessments, particularly those involving the projection of land use, to scales relevant and useful for analysis and management. We have downscaled land use projections from two global scenario frameworks, the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES), and the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)...
Land Use and Climate Change Team
We are a research team focusing on understanding the rates, causes, and consequences of land change across a range of geographic and temporal scales. Our emphasis is on developing alternative future projections and quantifying the impact on environmental systems, in particular, the role of land-use change on ecosystem carbon dynamics. We are interested in how land-use and climate systems will...
Land Cover Trends
Land Cover Trends was a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land use and land cover change. The project spanned from 1999 to 2011. The research was supported by the Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was a collaborative effort with the U.S. Environmental...
A web-based application for the management and visualization of land-use scenario data
Land-use researchers need the ability to rapidly compare multiple land-use scenarios over a range of spatial and temporal scales, and to visualize spatial and nonspatial data; however, land-use datasets are often distributed in the form of large tabular files and spatial files. These formats are not ideal for the way land-use researchers interact with and share these datasets. The size of these la
Integration of Land Cover Trends Field Photography with an Online Map Service
The USGS National Land Cover Trends Project has the largest repository of field photos at the USGS (over 33,000 photos). Prior to CDI funding, Land Cover Trends had limited funding to make the national collection of photos available online for researchers, land managers, and citizens. The goal of this CDI project was to add geotags and keywords to the digital copies of each field photo and make th
Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.
In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
Filter Total Items: 52
Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change
With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit f
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
Climate impacts on agricultural land use in the USA: the role of socio-economic scenarios
We examine the impacts of climate on net returns from crop and livestock production and the resulting impact on land-use change across the contiguous USA. We first estimate an econometric model to project effects of weather fluctuations on crop and livestock net returns and then use a semi-reduced form land-use share model to study agricultural land-use changes under future climate and socio-econo
Authors
Jianhong E. Mu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, John T. Abatzoglou, John M. Antle
Projecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residents
Authors
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nathan J. Wood, Christopher E. Soulard, Tamara Wilson
Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report
The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working groups, virtual training series, and other CDI-sponso
Authors
Madison L. Langseth, Leslie Hsu, Jon Amberg, Norman Bliss, Andrew R. Bock, Rachel T. Bolus, R. Sky Bristol, Katherine J. Chase, Theresa M. Crimmins, Paul S. Earle, Richard Erickson, A. Lance Everette, Jeff T. Falgout, John Faundeen, Michael N. Fienen, Rusty Griffin, Michelle R. Guy, Kevin D. Henry, Nancy J. Hoebelheinrich, Randall J. Hunt, Vivian B. Hutchison, Drew A. Ignizio, Dana M. Infante, Catherine Jarnevich, Jeanne M. Jones, Tim Kern, Scott Leibowitz, Francis L. Lightsom, R. Lee Marsh, S. Grace McCalla, Marcia McNiff, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John C. Nelson, Tamar Norkin, Todd M. Preston, Alyssa Rosemartin, Roy Sando, Jason T. Sherba, Richard P. Signell, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Eric T. Sundquist, Colin B. Talbert, Roland J. Viger, Jake F. Weltzin, Sharon Waltman, Marc Weber, Daniel J. Wieferich, Brad Williams, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
A carbon balance model for the great dismal swamp ecosystem
BackgroundCarbon storage potential has become an important consideration for land management and planning in the United States. The ability to assess ecosystem carbon balance can help land managers understand the benefits and tradeoffs between different management strategies. This paper demonstrates an application of the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) model developed for local-scal
Authors
Rachel Sleeter, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Brianna Williams, Dianna M. Hogan, Todd Hawbaker, Zhiliang Zhu
Human footprint affects US carbon balance more than climate change
The MC2 model projects an overall increase in carbon capture in conterminous United States during the 21st century while also simulating a rise in fire causing much carbon loss. Carbon sequestration in soils is critical to prevent carbon losses from future disturbances, and we show that natural ecosystems store more carbon belowground than managed systems do. Natural and human-caused disturbances
Authors
Dominique Bachelet, Ken Ferschweiler, Tim Sheehan, Barry Baker, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu
Divergent projections of future land use in the United States arising from different models and scenarios
A variety of land-use and land-cover (LULC) models operating at scales from local to global have been developed in recent years, including a number of models that provide spatially explicit, multi-class LULC projections for the conterminous United States. This diversity of modeling approaches raises the question: how consistent are their projections of future land use? We compared projections from
Authors
Terry L. Sohl, Michael Wimberly, Volker C. Radeloff, David M. Theobald, Benjamin M. Sleeter
Estimating carbon sequestration in the piedmont ecoregion of the United States from 1971 to 2010
Background: Human activities have diverse and profound impacts on ecosystem carbon cycles. The Piedmont ecoregion in the eastern United States has undergone significant land use and land cover change in the past few decades. The purpose of this study was to use newly available land use and land cover change data to quantify carbon changes within the ecoregion. Land use and land cover change data (
Authors
Jinxun Liu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu, Linda S. Heath, Zhengxi Tan, Tamara Wilson, Jason T. Sherba, Decheng Zhou
State-and-transition simulation models: a framework for forecasting landscape change
SummaryA wide range of spatially explicit simulation models have been developed to forecast landscape dynamics, including models for projecting changes in both vegetation and land use. While these models have generally been developed as separate applications, each with a separate purpose and audience, they share many common features.We present a general framework, called a state-and-transition sim
Authors
Colin Daniel, Leonardo Frid, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Marie-Josée Fortin
Future land-use related water demand in California
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to project future changes in developed
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
The potential carbon benefit of reforesting Hawai‘i Island non-native grasslands with endemic Acacia koa trees
Large areas of forest in the tropics have been cleared and converted to pastureland. Hawai‘i Island is no exception, with over 100,000 ha of historically forested land now dominated by non-native grasses. Passive forest restoration has been unsuccessful because these grasslands tend to persist even after grazers have been removed, yet active outplanting of native tree species can be cost-prohibiti
Authors
Paul Selmants, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nicholas Koch, James B. Friday
Downscaling global land-use/land-cover projections for use in region-level state-and-transition simulation modeling
Global land-use/land-cover (LULC) change projections and historical datasets are typically available at coarse grid resolutions and are often incompatible with modeling applications at local to regional scales. The difficulty of downscaling and reapportioning global gridded LULC change projections to regional boundaries is a barrier to the use of these datasets in a state-and-transition simulation
Authors
Jason T. Sherba, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Adam W. Davis, Owen P. Parker