Harvard Forest Director Jonathan Thompson is a co-author of an important new synthesis, “Research priorities for robust climate assessments in the U.S.,” published jointly in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society as part of the AGU/AMS U.S. Climate Collection.
The work draws on contributions from a large national team of scientists, including many formerly tasked with producing the Sixth National Climate Assessment. In April 2025, the White House dismissed roughly 400 volunteer scientists, economists, and experts who had already begun drafting that report.
The paper identifies research advances made since the 2023 Fifth National Climate Assessment and lays out priorities for future assessments. The authors argue that as climate impacts accelerate, scientific assessment must accelerate too, and call for a connected network of U.S. climate assessment efforts.
Thompson contributed to the paper’s forests section, which highlights how intensifying wildfires, insect outbreaks, and drought are driving tree mortality and could push forests from carbon sink to source. They identify research into forest resilience and the dynamics of compound disturbances as key priorities.
- Read the full paper in Earth’s Future.
- Read news stories about the study in NBC and via the Harvard Salata Institute.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Climate Collection of the American Geophysical Union.
