Project period: 2 13 25-2 12 27PROJECT title: advancing national-scale synthesis collaborations focused on ecosystems and climate changesynthesis is a powerful research tool for gaining the big…

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) provides $730,826 to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to advance national-scale synthesis research on the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity.

The project will leverage UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) to harmonize and analyze large-scale data resources needed for national-scale climate change research. NCEAS will work with researchers from the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) to expand their technical skills in conducting large-scale, integrative analyses required for scientific synthesis. This will include a series of facilitated research workshops to advance data science capabilities. The research will focus on understanding how climate change-driven species range shifts will affect biodiversity, with the goal of informing management decisions at a national scale. The award has a project period from Feb 2025 to Feb 2029.

Project period: 2 13 25-2 12 27PROJECT title: advancing national-scale synthesis collaborations focused on ecosystems and climate changesynthesis is a powerful research tool for gaining the big picture perspective on what we knowfrom past research, pivoting research in novel directions, and identifying key gaps in knowledgethat need priority attention. IT is also one of the few approaches for understanding national-scaleprocesses. This project will leverage the expertise and infrastructure of the national center forecological analysis and synthesis (nceas) to support and accelerate synthesis research onclimate-mediated species range shifts, engaging expertise of climate adaptation science center(casc) early career scientists and collaborating on the environmental data science skills neededto conduct synthesis research.many research questions and management needs require national scale analyses, approaches, andperspectives to understand the significance of what is happening at regional scales. This projectis designed to address this national-scale need and context. Research questions will center onhow biodiversity will be affected by climate change, with the research workshop processdesigned to allow exploration of ideas and opportunities for national-scale research that build onthe data and expertise brought from each region.to advance the science of ecosystems under climate change, and equip the next generation ofscientists with the skills to conduct this research, nceas will harmonize and analyze large-scaledata resources needed to conduct national-scale research. A team of data scientists at nceaswill work with casc researchers to expand and engage their work, and will deliver a series offacilitated research workshops that will advance technical skills required to carry out the largescale, integrative analyses needed for scientific synthesis and then facilitate the development andexecution of those research ideas. The nceas team and casc researchers will produce, at a minimum, several peer-reviewedpublications on their national-scale research, open-access and archived datasets used to supportthe research and derived from IT, and code and workflows deposited into repositories. Willalso expand the community equipped with data science skills and capacity needed to continueand advance research careers. The project will help advance the nceas mission of creating a more inclusive, capablecommunity of environmental data scientists conducting solutions-relevant science that benefitsnature and people. IT will also help expand the growing partnership between nceas andusgss casc program, bringing the tools and practices of synthesis science to additionalfederal agencies.