Global Change Research Community Research Articles

Overcoming barriers to enable convergence research by integrating ecological and climate sciences: the NCAR–NEON system Version 1

Abstract. Global change research demands a convergence among academic disciplines to understand complex changes in Earth system function. Limitations related to data usability and computing infrastructure, however, present barriers to effective use of the research tools needed for this cross-disciplinary collaboration. To address these barriers, we created a computational platform that pairs meteorological data and site-level ecosystem characterizations from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) with the Community Terrestrial System Model (CTSM) that is developed with university partners at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This NCAR–NEON system features a simplified user interface that facilitates access to and use of NEON observations and NCAR models. We present preliminary results that compare observed NEON fluxes with CTSM simulations and describe how the collaboration between NCAR and NEON that can be used by the global change research community improves both the data and model. Beyond datasets and computing, the NCAR–NEON system includes tutorials and visualization tools that facilitate interaction with observational and model datasets and further enable opportunities for teaching and research. By expanding access to data, models, and computing, cyberinfrastructure tools like the NCAR–NEON system will accelerate integration across ecology and climate science disciplines to advance understanding in Earth system science and global change.

New land-use change scenarios for Brazil: Refining global SSPs with a regional spatially-explicit allocation model.

The future of land use and cover change in Brazil, particularly due to deforestation and forest restoration processes, is critical for the future of global climate and biodiversity, given the richness of its five biomes. These changes in Brazil depend on the interlink between global factors due to its role as one of the main exporters of commodities globally and the national to local institutional, socioeconomic, and biophysical contexts. Aiming to develop scenarios that consider the balance between global (e.g., GDP growth, population growth, per capita consumption of agricultural products, international trade policies, and climatic conditions) and local factors (e.g., land use, agrarian structure, agricultural suitability, protected areas, distance to roads, and other infrastructure projects), a new set of land-use change scenarios for Brazil were developed that aligned with the global structure Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCPs) developed by the global change research community. The narratives of the new scenarios align with SSP1/RCP 1.9 (Sustainable development scenario), SSP2/RCP 4.5 (Middle of the road scenario), and SSP3/RCP 7.0 (Strong inequality scenario). The scenarios were developed by combining the LuccME spatially explicit land change allocation modeling framework and the INLAND surface model to incorporate the climatic variables in water deficit. Based on detailed biophysical, socioeconomic, and institutional factors for each biome in Brazil, we have created spatially explicit scenarios until 2050, considering the following classes: forest vegetation, grassland vegetation, planted pasture, agriculture, a mosaic of small land uses, and forestry. The results aim to detail global models regionally. They could be used regionally to support decision-making and enrich the global analysis.

Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights.

An increasing number of research programs seek to support adaptation to climate change through the engagement of large‐scale transdisciplinary networks that span countries and continents. While transdisciplinary research processes have been a topic of reflection, practice, and refinement for some time, these trends now mean that the global change research community needs to reflect and learn how to pursue collaborative research on a large scale. This paper shares insights from a seven‐year climate change adaptation research program that supports collaboration between more than 450 researchers and practitioners across four consortia and 17 countries. The experience confirms the importance of attention to careful design for transdisciplinary collaboration, but also highlights that this alone is not enough. The success of well‐designed transdisciplinary research processes is also strongly influenced by relational and systemic features of collaborative relationships. Relational features include interpersonal trust, mutual respect, and leadership styles, while systemic features include legal partnership agreements, power asymmetries between partners, and institutional values and cultures. In the new arena of large‐scale collaborative science efforts, enablers of transdisciplinary collaboration include dedicated project coordinators, leaders at multiple levels, and the availability of small amounts of flexible funds to enable nimble responses to opportunities and unexpected collaborations.

A Review of Methodological Integration in Land-Use Change Models

Global change research communities are paying increasing attention to answering critical questions related to land-use change, questions which are at the root of many pressing socio-economic and environmental issues. In this regard, a huge number of models have been developed to support future land-use planning and environmental impact assessments of land-use change activities. Within land-use change models, methodological integration is recognized as an essential feature for a complete model, which can help to combine the strength of single modelling methods/techniques without inherent weaknesses. Despite the potential and remarkable growth of methodological integration in land-use change models, limited attention has been paid to this aspect of integration. In response to this, the authors' paper summarizes the current major land-use modelling methods/techniques, and explains the co-integration of these methods/techniques. In addition, they summarize the achievements, limitations and future trends in the use of the methodological integration approach in land-use change models.

The international global atmospheric chemistry (IGAC) project: Facilitating atmospheric chemistry research for 25 years

Abstract This paper outlines the scientific achievements and insights gained from the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) project, which has been jointly sponsored by the international Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (iCACGP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) since 1990. A short history of IGAC is followed by representative key scientific achievements. Over 25 years, IGAC has facilitated international scientific collaborations that have deepened the understanding of how atmospheric composition impacts air quality, climate change, and ecosystems from local to global scales. Activities fostered by IGAC show how the field of atmospheric chemistry has evolved from a focus on the atmosphere as a single natural compartment of the Earth system to an emphasis on its interactions with other Earth components, such as oceans, the cryosphere, the biosphere, and the impact of humans on atmospheric composition. Finally, one of IGAC’s significant accomplishments has been building scientific capacity and cooperation in the field of atmospheric chemistry around the globe, especially through its biennial science conferences. As part of IGBP, IGAC has contributed to improving the current state of knowledge of the Earth system and providing the scientific basis to suggest that we have entered the Anthropocene. IGAC will continue to play this role and expand its connections to the larger global change and sustainability research communities, capitalizing on the transition to Future Earth.

Promoting the confluence of tropical cyclone research

Contributions of biologists to tropical cyclone research may improve by integrating concepts from other disciplines. Employing accumulated cyclone energy into protocols may foster greater integration of ecology and meteorology research. Considering experienced ecosystems as antifragile instead of just resilient may improve cross-referencing among ecological and social scientists. Quantifying ecosystem capital as distinct from ecosystem services may improve integration of tropical cyclone ecology research into the expansive global climate change research community.

Ocean Space and the Anthropocene, new notions in geosciences? – An essay

AbstractTwo notions, Ocean Space and the Anthropocene, are discussed. The first is occasionally used in legal and governance literature, and in the media. The Anthropocene, however, is widely applied in the global change research community and the media. The notion of ocean space stands for a holistic, system science approach combined with 4D thinking from the ocean, and the processes within it, towards the land. Ocean space is in fact a social-ecological concept that deals with sustainability challenges which are the consequence of the complex interactions between humans and the marine environment on all scales. Ocean space is, on a human scale, impressively large. On a planetary scale, however, it is insignificant, although it has been an ancient feature of the Earth for the last four billion years or so. Yet, ocean space is a critical player in the Earth System; it is central to climate regulation, the hydrological and carbon cycles and nutrient flows, it balances levels of atmospheric gases, it is a source of raw materials vital for medical and other uses, and a sink for anthropogenic pollutants. The notion also encompasses issues such as exploration, adventure, science, resources, conservation, sustainability, etc., and should be an innovative and attractive outreach instrument for the media. Finally, it marks the fundamental change in ocean exploration in the twenty-first century in which ocean-observing systems, and fleets of robots, are routinely and continuously providing quality controlled data and information on the present and future states of ocean space. Advocates of the notion of the Anthropocene argue that this new epoch in geological time, commenced with the British industrial revolution. To date, the Anthropocene has already been subdivided into three stages. The first of these coincides with the beginning of the British industrial revolution around 1800. This transition quickly transformed a society which used natural energy sources into one that uses fossil fuels. The present high-energy society of more than seven billion people mostly with highly improved living standards and birth rates, and a global economy, is the consequence. The downside of this development comprises intensive resource and land use as well as large-scale pollution of the (marine) environment. The first stage of the Anthropocene ended abruptly after the Second World War when a new technology push occurred, leading to the second stage: ‘the Great Acceleration’ (1945-2015) followed by the third: ‘Stewards of the Earth’. Here it is concluded that the notion of the Anthropocene reflects a hierarchical or individualistic perspective, often leading to a ‘business as usual’ management style, and ‘humanises’ the geological time scale. The use of this notion is not supported. However, it is already very popular in the media. This again might lead to overestimating the role of humans in nature, and might facilitate an even more destructive attitude towards it, through the application of geo-engineering. The latter could be opening another Pandora's box. Instead we should move to a more sustainable future in which human activities are better fine tuned to the environment that we are part of. In this respect, transition management is an interesting new paradigm.

Global environmental change III

There are increasing calls from the global environmental change research community for new strategies for translating knowledge into action. Such calls are not new, yet they are often based on the assumption that more solutions-oriented knowledge about environmental problems will lead to desired outcomes. In this progress report, I argue that it is time to shift attention to the issue of change itself, and to question some of the assumptions that reproduce certain types of knowledge and certain types of action over alternatives. I discuss an approach for challenging big assumptions, which draws greater attention to a broad body of social science research that renders many of the paradigmatic assumptions ambiguous or problematic. Finally, I consider the implications for human geography, including whether some of our own disciplinary assumptions are complicit in perpetuating paradigms that contribute to continued global environmental change.

Understanding the responses of ocean biota to a complex matrix of cumulative anthropogenic change

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 470:125-135 (2012) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10121 INTRODUCTION Understanding the responses of ocean biota to a complex matrix of cumulative anthropogenic change Philip W. Boyd1,*, David A. Hutchins2 1NIWA Centre for Chemical and Physical Oceanography, Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin 9012, New Zealand 3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles California 90089, USA *Email: pboyd@chemistry.otago.ac.nz ABSTRACT: Oceanic conditions are changing at an unprecedented rate, and these anthropogenically driven changes will intensify into the future. The marine biota will encounter a complex shifting matrix of simultaneous environmental changes—including temperature, pH/pCO2, nutrients, light, and oxygen—which will be further compounded by concurrent regional and local anthropogenic impacts, such as altered freshwater runoff regimes or biomass harvesting. We are only beginning to grasp the complexity of these interactive changes on ocean biota. To understand the pronounced and/or nonlinear effects of cumulative environmental stresses on organismal fitness and ecosystem functioning, the marine global-change research community can profit from the large body of existing evidence from freshwater lakes or polluted aquatic systems. We explore how the complex environmental changes will affect the biota from primary producers to higher trophic levels in both nearshore and open ocean waters, and conclude by proposing new approaches to address the formidable challenges of this research field. This Theme Section on ‘Biological responses in an anthropogenically modified ocean’ presents a set of papers that highlights the multiplicity of factors that will alter major biogeochemical and ecological frameworks, and raises awareness of the complexities involved in disentangling the combined effects of global, regional and local anthropogenic change on marine food webs. KEY WORDS: Climate change · Cumulative environmental stress · Biological responses Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Boyd PW, Hutchins DA (2012) Understanding the responses of ocean biota to a complex matrix of cumulative anthropogenic change. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 470:125-135. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10121 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 470. Online publication date: December 06, 2012 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2012 Inter-Research.

The Power of Language in Feedback Metaphors: A Response to Kennedy

Kennedy (2012) makes an impassioned plea that urban metabolism (UM) research makes worthy contributions. Here we can agree: Material and energy flow accounting (MEFA) is a commendable activity. The merit of accounting for the resource consumption of cities—delineating their inflows and outflows—is not being questioned. Rather, precisely because it is a useful tool, it is important to understand what it does—and does not—offer to the interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners interested in understanding socio-ecological systems and finding sustainable solutions to global environmental change. Where we part ways is the extent of its usefulness. The language chosen to convey ideas, and the science and theory underpinning them, matter for both the researchers engaged in the generation of knowledge and those who consume it. The way a community contextualizes its subject affects its investigations and interpretations (Larson 2011). Once adopted, such ideas have staying power, and allegiance to them can interfere with informed understanding. Kennedy illustrates this by dismissing the perceived small contribution natural components make to overall urban accounts. Certainly, the liberal and colloquial use of language has influenced ecology (Craige 2001; Larson 2011). Indeed, it may be beneficial for ecologists to review the pros and cons of “ecosystem metabolism” and other metaphors within the discipline and across interdisciplinary endeavors. Kennedy argues that UM researchers already know how ecological theory and science differ from the ill-fitting comparisons imposed by the UM device. Some may; but others surely do not, as evidenced in the literature where, among other things, can be found the confusion between biological and ecological concepts as well as the use of superorganism (cf. Golubiewski 2012). Importantly, it is not only UM researchers affected by the use of UM but also those outside the UM circle. In practice, this can lead some adherents to argue (vociferously) that they must present an organismal analogy when working with city planners and policy-makers because it makes the connections to the environment more real, and that the ecosystem argument would not be understood. Apparently (according to this logic), it is easier to conceive of a river cutting through the city as flowing blood (in the organismal city’s “circulatory system”) than it is to consider it a waterway with connections to the adjacent riparian vegetation and built environment as well as upland communities and the air above. But in this era of environmental awareness, people increasingly make connections and link the environment to the city. And in this era of global environmental change, people—especially environmental practitioners—most likely understand systems (and should be expected to). If an appropriate exposition of the urban ecosystem cannot be made, then there is little hope for the sustainable city. To be sure, it is the urban research community’s remit to get the message across. Care with language is everyone’s responsibility. Literary devices are not always well thought-out and are created for a variety of reasons: to convey a new insight, to explain a difficult topic, or to gain attention. We should be willing to evaluate and review them, to use them as far as they are productive but to always recognize their limitations. To bequeath the city organismic properties permits obscuring responsibility for and approaches to sustainability. The city is not a cognizant entity making decisions, consuming resources, and growing into the countryside of its own accord. The city is not doing anything to us; we create it. The composition and pace of resource use, as well as the form and size of the city, are the results of many separate decisions and actions. Humans are not external to the urban system, but an integral part. So too the environment: it is not simply a “hinterland” providing resources; rather, the urban system needs to be understood in situ along with its imports and exports. Certainly, scale is an important issue as addressed in Golubiewski (2012); however, scale is not the same thing as levels of organization (e.g., Likens 1992). In sum, the accounting process itself is a tool. But it does not provide the elusive link between ecology and economics, nor does it provide sustainability solutions. In this important respect, the UM model is not interdisciplinary even if a diverse group contributes to accounting. Something more is required. The needs for richer language and a more nuanced understanding have been recognized as pertinent to addressing the challenges faced by the urban global environmental change research community, which include the need to decompose the urban black box and to incorporate spatiality (Seto 2010). It is precisely because material and energy flow accounting has a role to play—cataloging throughput—that we need to scrutinize the language, concepts, and theory underlying it.

Planetary Opportunities: A Social Contract for Global Change Science to Contribute to a Sustainable Future

The global change research community needs to renew its social contract with society by moving beyond a focus on biophysical limits and toward solution-oriented research to provide realistic, context-specific pathways to a sustainable future. A focus on planetary opportunities is based on the premise that societies adapt to change and have historically implemented solutions-for example, to protect watersheds, improve food security, and reduce harmful atmospheric emissions. Daunting social and biophysical challenges for achieving a sustainable future demand that the global change research community work to provide underpinnings for workable solutions at multiple scales of governance. Global change research must reorient itself from a focus on biophysically oriented, global-scale analysis of humanity's negative impact on the Earth system to consider the needs of decisionmakers from household to global scales. © 2012 by American Institute of Biological Sciences.

The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives

The human imprint on the global environment has now become so large and active that it rivals some of the great forces of Nature in its impact on the functioning of the Earth system. Although global-scale human influence on the environment has been recognized since the 1800s, the term Anthropocene, introduced about a decade ago, has only recently become widely, but informally, used in the global change research community. However, the term has yet to be accepted formally as a new geological epoch or era in Earth history. In this paper, we put forward the case for formally recognizing the Anthropocene as a new epoch in Earth history, arguing that the advent of the Industrial Revolution around 1800 provides a logical start date for the new epoch. We then explore recent trends in the evolution of the Anthropocene as humanity proceeds into the twenty-first century, focusing on the profound changes to our relationship with the rest of the living world and on early attempts and proposals for managing our relationship with the large geophysical cycles that drive the Earth's climate system.

Why Permafrost Is Thawing, Not Melting

As global climate change is becoming an increasingly important political and social issue, it is essential for the cryospheric and global change research communities to speak with a single voice when using basic terminology to communicate research results and describe underlying physical processes. Experienced science communicators have highlighted the importance of using the correct terms to communicate research results to the media and general public [e.g., Akasofu, 2008; Hassol, 2008]. The consequences of scientists using improper terminology are at best oversimplification, but they more likely involve misunderstandings of the facts by the public.

Basin-Scale Carbon Monoxide Distributions in the Parallel Ocean Program

Abstract As a primary photochemical constituent in upper-ocean and tropospheric geocycling, carbon monoxide is of interest to a variety of global change research communities. Dynamic three-dimensional simulations of its marine concentration patterns, emphasizing Pacific surface waters, are presented. Calculations were driven by nitrogen/iron ecodynamics within the Parallel Ocean Program (POP) transport framework. Photoproduction was estimated following broadband transfer of ultraviolet A radiation down to and penetrating the mixed layer. Quantum efficiency, absorption, the chromophoric fraction of dissolved organics, and related microchemical parameters were all varied, in some cases collectively. Bacterial uptake was parameterized through stages of refinement ranging from a single global average time constant to the application of steady-state zooplanktonic grazing pressure. Major features of basin-spanning ship track data can be reproduced including tropical to gyre and temperate frontal ratios. Evidence for ecosystem structural influence upon the removal kinetics is reviewed and investigated. Polar waters exhibit unique processing modes and the periphery of the ocean requires specialized handling of organic and bacterial behavior. Large-scale budgets are consistent with recent independent determinations both with respect to internal turnover and flux to the atmosphere. A parsimonious mechanism involving optimized yield is recommended for early system model efforts. Areas awaiting improvement include resolution of UV and the segregation of both light-interacting carbon compounds and microbial populations as tracers.

Analysis of time-series MODIS 250 m vegetation index data for crop classification in the U.S. Central Great Plains

The global environmental change research community requires improved and up-to-date land use/land cover (LULC) datasets at regional to global scales to support a variety of science and policy applications. Considerable strides have been made to improve large-area LULC datasets, but little emphasis has been placed on thematically detailed crop mapping, despite the considerable influence of management activities in the cropland sector on various environmental processes and the economy. Time-series MODIS 250 m Vegetation Index (VI) datasets hold considerable promise for large-area crop mapping in an agriculturally intensive region such as the U.S. Central Great Plains, given their global coverage, intermediate spatial resolution, high temporal resolution (16-day composite period), and cost-free status. However, the specific spectral–temporal information contained in these data has yet to be thoroughly explored and their applicability for large-area crop-related LULC classification is relatively unknown. The objective of this research was to investigate the general applicability of the time-series MODIS 250 m Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) datasets for crop-related LULC classification in this region. A combination of graphical and statistical analyses were performed on a 12-month time-series of MODIS EVI and NDVI data from more than 2000 cropped field sites across the U.S. state of Kansas. Both MODIS VI datasets were found to have sufficient spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions to detect unique multi-temporal signatures for each of the region's major crop types (alfalfa, corn, sorghum, soybeans, and winter wheat) and management practices (double crop, fallow, and irrigation). Each crop's multi-temporal VI signature was consistent with its general phenological characteristics and most crop classes were spectrally separable at some point during the growing season. Regional intra-class VI signature variations were found for some crops across Kansas that reflected the state's climate and planting time differences. The multi-temporal EVI and NDVI data tracked similar seasonal responses for all crops and were highly correlated across the growing season. However, differences between EVI and NDVI responses were most pronounced during the senescence phase of the growing season.

Scaling up evolutionary responses to elevated CO2: lessons from Arabidopsis

AbstractResults from norm of reaction studies and selection experiments indicate that elevated CO2 will act as a selective agent on natural plant populations, especially for C3 species that are most sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Evolutionary responses to CO2 may alter plant physiology, development rate, growth, and reproduction in ways that cannot be predicted from single generation studies. Moreover, ecological and evolutionary changes in plant communities will have a range of consequences at higher spatial scales and may cause substantial deviations from ecosystem level predictions based on short‐term responses to elevated CO2. Therefore, steps need to be taken to identify the plant traits that are most likely to evolve at elevated CO2, and to understand how these changes may affect net primary productivity within ecosystems. These processes may range in scale from molecular and physiological changes that occur among genotypes at the individual and population levels, to changes in community‐ and ecosystem‐level productivity that result from the integrative effects of different plant species evolving simultaneously. In this review, we (1) synthesize recent studies investigating the role of atmospheric CO2 as a selective agent on plants, (2) discuss possible control points during plant development that may change in response to selection at elevated CO2 with an emphasis at the primary molecular level, and (3) provide a quantitative framework for scaling the evolutionary effects of CO2 on plants in order to determine changes in community and ecosystem productivity. Furthermore, this review points out that studies integrating the effects of plant evolution in response to elevated CO2 are lacking, and therefore more attention needs be devoted to this issue among the global change research community.

Cooperative Design, Development, and Management of Interdisciplinary Data to Support the Global Environmental Change Research Community

This article describes the organizational, collaborative, and project management processes of a scientific data center that serves the interdisciplinary global environmental change research community. Collaborating with representatives of the user community, the data center identifies, acquires, ingests, manages, and disseminates research-related information (RRI), such as scientific data and documents. Users and software developers cooperatively design online applications that integrate these resources into a wide variety of information products and services to be disseminated through a digital library to the globally dispersed community. Results from these participatory design and cooperative development activities include Web-based resource catalogs, training, peer education, help desk, and reference services to support scientific communication and decision-making among members of the interdisciplinary community.

Research and communication in the “invisible college” of the Human Dimensions of Global Change

The human dimensions of global change research community includes scholars in the natural and social sciences working in universities and government laboratories who share common interests and who communicate with each other through journals, workshops, and conferences and via the Internet. Information and communication technologies, in particular, e-mail, listservs, and the WWW, where speed and low cost are key features, from the backbone of an “electronic invisible college”. The results of a survey of scientists attending the Laxenburg conference in 1997 illustrates the transdisciplinary and international nature of HDGC research, the local and international scale of research, their commitment to public policy, and their increased use of the Internet for networking, data acquisition and analysis, and publication.

Spanning not-implausible futures to assess relative vulnerability to climate change and climate variability

The global-change research community is beginning to turn its attention to assessing the vulnerability of social, economic, political and/or ecological systems to climate change and climate variability in ways that systematically incorporate their ability to adapt. The Workshop on Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change hosted in Costa Rica (March 29}April 1, 1998) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stands as evidence of this increased interest. Indeed, the `Scoping Meetinga hosted by the IPCC in late June conrmed that vulnerability and adaptation will be unifying themes in the work of Working Groups II and III as they prepare the Third Assessment Report (TAR). It is reasonable, therefore, to expect a #urry of activity in this area over the next several years. As the process begins, though, it must be emphasized that the proceedings of the IPCC Costa Rica Adaptation Workshop reiterated the long held belief that long-term uncertainty and near-term variability are ubiquitous. Participants there agreed that

Developing a Student-Scientist Partnership: Boreal Forest Watch

A student-scientist partnership outreach program was funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) to involve students and teachers in scientific investigations pertinent to global change research occurring within the boreal region of Canada. Boreal Forest Watch was planned, designed and piloted by an interdisciplinary group of education and science professionals from the University of New Hampshire, the Prince Albert National Park, and several schools in central Saskatchewan, Canada. A two goal approach was adopted to 1) ensure the educational significance of the program and 2) introduce scientifically valid methods for collection of research data pertinent to global change scientists. Professional educators and school administrators from Saskatchewan were recruited to assist in project planning to ensure that the proposed activities fit within the existing curriculum framework. This process was essential for successful adoption of the program by participating teachers. The process and approach of initiating Boreal Forest Watch are presented in this paper. This program became fully functional in September, 1996 with the training of several participating teachers. Perspectives of the program and its future are provided by members of the design team. Boreal Forest Watch is a unique opportunity for both Canadian students and their teachers to explore their natural environment, learn scientific methods and principles, and contribute data to the global change research community.