Research and projects

Core projects

IGBP has 12 major international projects (including 4 joint projects coordinated by the Earth System Science Partnership). Each project has an international project office (IPO). Several projects also have satellite offices - "nodal offices" -  throughout the world.

• Analysis, Integration and Modelling of the Earth System (AIMES)
• Global Land Project (GLP)
• International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC)
• Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS)
• Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER)
• Land-Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ)
• Past Global Changes (PAGES)
• Surface Ocean—Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS)

Joint projects and studies

• Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
• Global Carbon Project (GCP)
• Global Environmental Change and Human Health (GECHH)
• Global Water System Project (GWSP)
• Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) http://start.org/
• Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS)

Synthesis

In 2009, IGBP decided to synthesise knowledge about a series of policy-relevant topics.

• Earth-system impacts from changes in the cryosphere (Lead: Ray Bradley)
• Impacts from changes in the cryosphere on the biota and societies in the arid Central Asia (Lead: Qin Dahe)
• Megacities in the coastal zone (Lead: Mark Pelling)
• Global environmental change and sustainable development: needs of least developed countries
• Geoengineering impacts (Lead: Pauline Dube)
• Nitrogen and climate (Lead: Jan Willem Erisman)
• Impacts of land-use-induced land-cover changes on the functioning of the Earth System (Nathalie de Noblet and Peter Verburg)
• Air pollution and climate (Paul Monks and Kathy Law)

Major endorsed projects

• African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA)
• International Nitrogen Initiative (INI)
• Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI)
  
  

Recent Fast-Track Initiatives

We have run several Fast-Track Initiatives over the years. These were designed to reduce uncertainty in key areas of the Earth system or to develop new ideas or concepts. The most recent ones were:

• Upper-Ocean Nutrient Limitation: processes, patterns and potential for change (2009-2011) in collaboration with Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR)
• Regionalisation of the Nitrogen Visualisation Tool (2009-2011)
• Megacities and the Coastal Zone: air-sea interactions (2009-2011)