An interagency partnership and scientific assessments of the carbon cycle: Celebrating 20 years and a new North American report

Background/Question/Methods In their 2017 report assessing the last 25 years of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences described the accomplishments of an interagency partnership stating, ‘In 1998, the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG) was formally constituted to coordinate efforts that 12 U.S. government agencies and departments now lead as part of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program. Research organized and supported in part by the USGCRP has greatly increased our understanding of the processes involved in, for example, the potential for enhanced decomposition of soil carbon as the climate warms, and the processes influencing carbon dioxide uptake in a warming ocean.’

Results/Conclusions One of the latest accomplishments of this interagency partnership is the 2^nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2), which assesses the last decade of the carbon cycle research advances across North America. A major team effort including over 200 scientists from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, this report, informs the congressionally mandated 4^th U.S. National Climate Assessment. It also follows and updates the 1^st SOCCR (2007) which assessed the previous decade of carbon cycle science. This talk highlights the 20 years of the CCIWG and the research findings, as well as future priorities and directions. It will also provide an overview of SOCCR-2 and its major ecological research findings.