Interactions among the LTER, Landscape Conservation Cooperative, and the USDA Climate Hub networks

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Water resources, habitats, wildlife, food, forest products, and other ecosystem services are intricately connected to climate and interconnected among resources and services. The availability and sustainability of many of these resources are governed by climate and human management decisions, and the challenges of adapting to climate change are being addressed by many agencies and organizations working collaboratively. Emerging networks operating at different scales have emphases, strengths, failures, and successes in distinct areas. Collaborative science development and delivery organizations such as the USDA Regional Climate Hubs, the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, and the National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research Network are developing mechanisms to better understand the kinds of modeled climate-related information that can help understand ecosystem structure and function - and also deliver information that managers and decision makers need. In a cascade of research modeling, global climate projections can yield downscaled climate data and a wide range of secondary and tertiary modeled responses to climate. The success of many of these networks are dependent on good integration of science development and delivery, including reality checks with observational and experimental data, targeting information users and monitoring the effectiveness and impact of science information delivery.