The comprehensive and coordinated study of these complex changes in the global environment is known as global change research. This research has a direct and critical role to play in helping nations respond to the far-reaching challenges of global change. Research in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities can help

• improve our basic understanding of the interconnected processes that govern the earth's environmental systems and climate
• observe and predict changes in the global environment
• determine the extent to which human activities are a source of these changes
• develop appropriate policy actions in support of sustainable development
• monitor the results of these policy actions to determine if further policy steps are needed.

By meeting these needs, global change research can contribute directly and significantly to the resolution of society's immediate economic, social and environmental problems. What are the likely impacts of changes in ocean temperature on the Atlantic fishery? What policy changes are needed to protect Canadian jobs in the forestry and agricultural industries in the face of global climate change? What are the most effective opportunities for reducing levels of greenhouse gas emissions? These are the kinds of questions that global change research is addressing questions about jobs, competitiveness, the environment and the quality of life of Canadians.

Global change research has already proven its value to policy development in Canada and internationally. In Canada, for example, scientific research was behind the policy actions on acid rain and the clean-up of the Great Lakes. Internationally, research identified the risks arising from stratospheric ozone depletion and the loss of biodiversity, leading to path-breaking international agreements in those areas. Future scientific advances will also be critical in the implementation and on-going evaluation of these agreements.

Although there is no precise definition, global change research tends to reflect the following characteristics:

interdisciplinary
Global change research begins with a holistic approach to the study of global processes, bringing together the methodologies, data and analyses of many disciplines. The disciplines are not confined to the physical, chemical and biological sciences. As researchers turn more and more to the impact of global change on people's lives and the role that humans play in contributing to global change, global change research must turn more to the social sciences and humanities.

collaborative
All nations must share the task of caring for our planet. Climate changes, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss and other global changes recognize no national boundaries. Understanding global change, therefore, requires global participation and cooperation to effectively link researchers around the world and thus maximize the returns on research investments, avoid duplicated efforts and ensure that each researcher can learn from others.

international scale and scope
Global change research is big science it involves large-scale, expensive capital investments for advanced computers, ground-based observation networks and satellites. It requires comparable observations and data collection on a global scale so that researchers can better understand fundamental global processes affecting our atmosphere, oceans and land covers.

data profusion
Global change is characterized by a profusion of data from global observation networks on land, in the oceans and in the sky. Making sense of this overwhelming volume storing the data sets, sharing them and using them in predictive models means that effective data management must be built into global change research from the outset.