Welcome to the USGS Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine Environments Program

Civilization depends on life-support services that natural ecosystems perform, including regulating climate, mitigating floods and drought, protecting shorelines from erosion, purifying air and water, detoxifying and decomposing wastes, and pollinating crops and natural vegetation. Healthy ecosystems provide habitat for diverse fish and wildlife communities. Studies conducted by USGS Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine Environments scientists describe factors that control ecosystem structure, function, condition, and the provision of goods and services. This information is used to predict future changes to ecosystems and to describe the results of management alternatives. Ecosystem science is thus used to restore degraded landscapes and freshwater systems, sustain plants and animals, and find means to adapt management to global change.

Major research components of the program include:

• Wetlands
• Global Change
• Wildland Fire
• Sagebrush/Sage Steppe
• Corals and Outer Continental Shelf

or see all research topics.

	Research Highlights Photo: coral with growth anomaly. Growth Anomalies on the Coral Genera Acropora and Porites Are Strongly Associated with Host Density and Human Population Size across the Indo-Pacific - Coral reefs represent some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, but these important habitats are declining worldwide due to human overexploitation, land-based pollution, global climate change, and disease outbreaks. While the situation is most severe in the Caribbean, coral reefs are also in decline across the Indo-Pacific. Coral diseases contribute to this decline by causing a loss of live coral cover that, under extreme circumstances, can lead to changes from a coral dominated to an alga-dominated community. Article from PlosOne: Growth Anomalies on the Coral Genera Acropora and Porites Are Strongly Associated with Host Density and Human Population Size across the Indo-Pacific