Global climate change is expected to profoundly alter the earth and its physical and ecological processes. The type and amount of energy that is developed and utilized over the next 50 years will likely influence the rate at which climate change occurs. The success of efforts to manage sustainable natural resources and implement sound conservation policy that protects ecosystem resilience depends upon our confidence in future climate projections and impacts of climate change. 
    Under projected climate change conditions, environmental stressors that constitute major challenges to ecosystems include diminished water quantity and quality, invasive species, urban development, sea level rise and coastal subsidence, severe shifts in weather patterns, and changes in species distribution. 
    The CERC in collaboration with the other BRD science centers and USGS disciplines, states, universities, the private sector, and foreign governments provides geological, biological, and hydrological environmental monitoring data, as well as global and geographically down-scaled climate change model information. The information generated is incorporated into an adaptive resource management approach to minimize or mitigate the ecological impacts of global climate change.