Woodwell Climate Research Center

Understanding the Arctic is critical to understanding our climate. As permafrost continues to thaw due to rising temperatures, it is releasing vast amounts of ancient carbon, as well as newly produced greenhouse gases—methane and nitrous oxide. Woodwell Climate researchers are working to measure, track, and reduce these risks for the global population. They also provide vital data to help Indigenous communities better understand how permafrost regions are changing, and how they can prepare, adapt, and respond to these changes. Permafrost emissions have not yet been included in the models and reports that inform international climate policy by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To get these critical data integrated into international climate policy, the Arctic Program has developed and deployed first-of-their-kind monitoring networks and is partnering with Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center Arctic Initiative to collect the best data on Arctic carbon.

Woodwell’s Carbon Program researchers have produced seminal analyses of the global potential of natural climate solutions, historic depletion and potential restoration of soil carbon, the importance of Indigenous land rights, and the impact of warming on the land carbon sink. By harnessing these data, Woodwell’s research contributes to the fundamental understanding of the carbon cycle and its impacts on climate. Carbon Program researchers are creating important new knowledge about the Earth’s temperate, tropical and boreal forests and vegetation—and using it to protect them from deforestation, degradation and disturbance. Their work is foundational in the search for natural solutions to climate change, with the power to inform science, guide policy and education, and help reshape agricultural and business practices around the world. Their collaborative approach and deep knowledge of land carbon dynamics are fundamental to realizing these solutions.

Woodwell’s Risk Program translates far-reaching climate impacts into concrete socioeconomic terms—risk assessments, economic valuations, and cost-benefit analyses—that resonate at the highest levels of government and industry. This approach has the power to help shift public perception, improve corporate decision-making, and motivate large-scale public policy to build green, sustainable, and just economies. Our scientists work with public- and private-sector partners to better understand the physical, economic and societal risks associated with climate change, and to develop evidence-based strategies to address them. Research, data, and mapping are used as vital tools to change perceptions and business practices at organizations around the world. Researchers also work with community-based organizations around the world—as well as local communities, using powerful risk assessment tools to educate and empower citizens to address climate change, justly and equitably, in their local areas.

Tropical forests are one of the only large-scale tools available to combat global warming. There is no solution for climate change without tropical forests. Tropics Program researchers focus on quantifying and communicating the ecological, climatic and economic risks of deforestation—and how to reduce these risks by implementing innovative economic and policy incentives to conserve forests on public and private lands. Our scientists work with a diverse set of actors in the tropics—from Indigenous peoples to small landowners and multinational corporations—to help them achieve sustainability by reducing deforestation and degradation while increasing agricultural production and wellbeing. Woodwell is also involved in a wide range of policy and governance work with local partners to engage policy makers, develop relationships with Indigenous peoples and agribusinesses, and conduct empirical studies of land policies to help determine how to implement solutions on the largest possible scale.

Woodwell’s Water Program scientists track rainfall, river discharge, and water chemistry to see what changes are taking place and to gain insights into how climate change, human development, and other disturbances affect surrounding ecosystems. Joining together with partners from around the world, Woodwell researchers investigate water chemistry in Earth’s most significant river systems to create an integrated picture of the effects of climate change and other disturbances on their watersheds. Our scientists also work with residents of communities to monitor the health of local waterways and wetlands, which are often the lifeblood of rural communities. Citizen scientists help collect and test the water samples that build a robust data network. Understanding the water cycle is critical because not only does it cut across virtually every area of climate research at Woodwell, it’s absolutely vital to supporting ecosystem adaptation and improving resilience in a time of global change.