Slonecker E.T. author Barnes Christopher A. author Karstensen K.A. author Milheim L.E. author Roig-Silva C.M. author 2013 FY 2013 The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate and Land Use Change Mission Area is one of seven USGS mission areas that focuses on making substantial scientific "...contributions to understanding how Earth systems interact, respond to, and cause global change". Using satellite and other remotely sensed data, USGS scientists monitor patterns of land cover change over space and time at regional, national, and global scales. These data are analyzed to understand the causes and consequences of changing land cover, such as economic impacts, effects on water quality and availability, the spread of invasive species, habitats and biodiversity, carbon fluctuations, and climate variability. USGS scientists are among the leaders in the study of land cover, which is a term that generally refers to the vegetation and artificial structures that cover the land surface. Examples of land cover include forests, grasslands, wetlands, water, crops, and buildings. Land use involves human activities that take place on the land. For example, "grass" is a land cover, whereas pasture and recreational parks are land uses that produce a cover of grass. area biodiversity carbon change climate climate variability crops data Earth Fact Sheets fluctuation forest global global scale grassland habitat human human activity impact invasive species land land-cover land-use land cover land cover change land surface land use land use and land cover land use change parks pasture patterns regional satellite scale structure U.S.Geological Survey Series USGS vegetation water water quality wetland exported from refbase (http://eros.usgs.gov/refbase/show.php?record=25802), last updated on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:51:21 -0500 text http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/fs20133010 http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/fs20133010 Slonecker_etal2013 EROS @ cdeering @ 582 technical report report 4 http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/fs20133010 2013-3010