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Department of Agriculture
Principal Areas of Focus
Research conducted and sponsored by USDA supports long-term studies
to improve our understanding of the roles that terrestrial systems play
in influencing climate change and the potential effects of global change
(including climate variability and change, atmospheric composition, and
UV-B radiation) on food, fiber, and forestry production in agricultural,
forest, and range ecosystems, and developing management systems to maintain
and enhance agriculture and forest productivity and function in changing
environments.
USDA's research program is strengthening efforts to determine the significance
of terrestrial systems in the global carbon cycle, to identify agricultural
and forestry activities that can contribute to a reduction in greenhouse
gas concentrations, to quantify risks and benefits arising from environmental
changes to agricultural lands and forests, and to develop management
practices that can take advantage of beneficial effects of global change
and mitigate or adapt to adverse effects. USDA's research agencies support
the Department in responding to the President's directive to develop
accounting rules and guidelines for carbon sequestration projects. Contributions
from the USDA's research programs include new tools for accurately measuring
greenhouse gases, methods for measuring and estimating carbon in ecosystems
at different scales, and effective ways to sustain productivity in a
changing environment.
Program Highlights for FY 2004 and FY 2005
ARS's national
program on global change research addresses carbon cycle
and carbon storage, trace gas emissions and sinks, impacts of environmental
changes on agricultural systems, and feedbacks among agricultural systems,
weather systems, and the water cycle. The program being implemented in
FY 2004 and proposed for FY 2005 will: 1) serve to develop technologies,
management practices, and decision support systems for storing carbon
in natural soil and plants; 2) develop management strategies for natural
resource decisionmakers to address the many diverse demands on U.S. rural
water resources that may be caused by climate and other global changes;
3) develop environmentally compatible and economically feasible alternatives
to the use of methyl bromide as a treatment to control pests; 4) continue
to focus on developing information to assess possible impacts of climate
and other global changes on agricultural ecosystems; and 5) improve the
measurement of carbon fluxes from soils and vegetation in different land
management systems at local, regional and national scales.
CSREES will continue to support the USDA
UV-B Monitoring Network. Information
from this research network is combined with satellite-based measurements
to provide an accurate climatological UV-B irradiance database. This
database documents long-term trends and supports research and assessment
of the potential for damage to ecosystems. CSREES will continue to support
global change research through the National
Research Initiative (NRI) Competitive Grants Program and formula-funded programs. The NRI initiative
includes programs for carbon and water cycles, land use and cover change,
and managed ecosystem research. CSREES will use the recently developed
CCSP
Strategic Plan in formulating priorities under the NRI program and
in shaping specific grant announcements.
The Economic Research Service will contribute applied economics research
on greenhouse gas mitigation options in the context of USDA conservation
policies.
The Forest Service has identified the following key issues for future
program emphasis: (1) improve observations of forest carbon stocks and
flows based on development and deployment of improved field measurement
techniques and measurements integration, and initiate a forest carbon-monitoring
program based on the Forest Service experimental forest network as a
component of the interagency research effort on the North American Carbon
Program; (2) integrate observations with process-level studies to better
understand, forecast, and manage the relationships between forest and
rangeland systems and climate; (3) develop and deploy forest management
technologies that increase carbon sequestration, provide fossil fuel
offsets, enhance productivity, and maintain environmental quality; (4)
provide integrated prediction models of forest carbon dynamics; and (5)
provide and improve greenhouse gas accounting rules and guidelines for
forest systems. In FY 2005, the Forest Service will invest an additional
$1.5 million to provide improved estimation and projection systems for
carbon stocks and fluxes from forested systems and develop science-based
carbon management systems. The Forest Service will compile estimates
of carbon fluxes from forestlands, including trees, understory, forest
soils, and wood products.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service will develop new measurement
technologies, analytical techniques and information management systems
to measure the benefits of conservation practices on carbon fluxes and
the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Related Research.
USDA maintains an active program directed at
improving the measurement and accounting of greenhouse gases from agriculture
and forestry systems and developing technologies and practices to improve
the utilization of biomass energy and bio-based products. The Forest Service,
NRCS, ARS, CSREES, and the Rural Development mission area support biofuels
and biomass-related research and development. These research and development
activities are reported under the Climate
Change Technology Program.
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