The U.S. Climate Change Science Program report “Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States ” integrates the Federal research efforts of 13 agencies on climate and global change. This was released 5/28/08.
The report has 38 authors from the universities, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, and Federal service. SAP 4.3 has undergone expert peer review by 14 scientists through a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the USDA, and includes over 1,000 references. USDA was the lead agency for this report as part of its commitment to CCSP.
The report focuses on the next 25 to 50 years, and finds that climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources, and biodiversity, and will continue to do so.
If you would like to receive the printed final report when it becomes available please send your request to ClimateReport@oce.usda.gov.
Extracted from the Executive Summary:
The CCSP agencies agreed on the following set of topics for this assessment. Descriptions of the major findings in each of these sectors can be found in Section 4 of this Executive Summary.
• Agriculture: (a) cropping systems, (b) pasture and grazing lands, and (c) animal management
• Land Resources: (a) forests and (b) arid lands
• Water Resources: (a) quantity, availability, and accessibility and (b) quality
• Biodiversity: (a) species diversity and (b) rare and sensitive ecosystems
The CCSP also agreed on a set of questions to guide the assessment process. Answers to these questions can be found in Section 3 of this summary:
• What factors influencing agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States are sensitive to climate and climate change?
• How could changes in climate exacerbate or ameliorate stresses on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity? What are the indicators of these stresses?
• What current and potential observation systems could be used to monitor these indicators?
• Can observation systems detect changes in agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity that are caused by climate change, as opposed to being driven by other causes?
For a download of sections of this report, please visit the website.