Global change in the geosphere-biosphere: Initial priorities for an IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Program: Final report)

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6765362

This report outlines the elements of a program that is focused sharply on fundamental problems that have urgent practical implications. These elements define a program that would attempt to understand the workings of the Earth and the living organisms on it as a coupled system - a challenge in science that holds the promise of elucidating many of the global concerns of the present day. It would require the participation of many nations and draw upon the efforts of many fields of science. It would be made up of an array of planned, cooperative programs of observation, modeling, and process studies with organized opportunities for joint discussion and interpretation. It would lean on spaceborne observations for global perspective, but it is not a ''space program,'' for the preponderance of needed science would deal with processes of change, and vast majority of necessary measurements would need be made on the ground and on the oceans, from within the habitat of life. As an international program it would stand as a separate, focused endeavor that interacts with related, disciplinary programs to increase their effectiveness but without attempting to subsume them or to dictate their goals.

• Research Organization: United States Committee for an International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, Washington, DC
• DOE Contract Number: FG05-84ER60277
• OSTI ID: 6765362
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60277-T1; ON: DE87005034
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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