Climatology

The Climate Land Interaction Project (CLIP)

The intensity and spatial reach of contemporary human alterations of the Earth's land surface are unprecedented. Land use and land cover change (LULCC) are among the most significant of these human influences. Many studies demonstrate the influence of LULCC on local and regional climate which, when aggregated, may significantly alter the global climate. Meanwhile, climate change is expected to significantly affect people and ecosystems due to warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. While significant research has focused on global climate modeling and socioeconomic drivers of land use change, an integrated assessment of coupled human-climatic systems is required to address the question: What is the magnitude and nature of the interaction between land use and climate change at regional and local scales?

An international multi-disciplinary team, including social, ecological, atmospheric and statistical scientists, is addressing this question by exploring the linkages between two foci of global change research, LULCC and climate change, which have had largely independent scientific paths. A major goal of global change science is to obtain a more reliable estimation of future climatic conditions. This goal increasingly requires higher resolution regional scale climate modeling that includes feedbacks between the land and atmosphere. This project is among the first to complete the loop of land use/climate/land use impacts assessment. Its contribution is in analysis of the linkages between components, e.g. how does land use change affect climate, and how will climate change affect land use? These linkages will be examined through characterizing and modeling agricultural systems, land use, the physical properties of land cover, and the regional climate. East Africa, with its variety of ecosystems, wide range of tropical climatic conditions, areas of rapid land use change, and a population vulnerable to climatic variability is the location of the research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity Program.

Further information on the project can be found at: http://clip.msu.edu/.