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disciplinary programs are a necessary next step to improve the knowledge base and to obtain better predictive capability. Through these interdisciplinary studies, we have recognized the need for an even broader, more integrated view of the global earth system.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program is the national effort to meet that need. It must simultaneously maintain and strengthen the foundation of single-discipline and multi-discipline science, the building blocks of an integrated understanding of the total earth system.

To facilitate this integration process the Program focuses on the following seven interdisciplinary science elements:

• Biogeochemical Dynamics
• Ecological Systems and Dynamics
• Climate and Hydrologic System
• Human Interactions
• Earth System History
• Solid Earth Processes
• Solar Influences

A more detailed discussion of these scientific elements is contained in Appendix B.

The seven science elements were developed in close collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Global Change, which is developing the U.S. component of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. They are designed to maintain a broad and robust research capability, while focusing on those earth system processes and interactions most likely to lead to a practical predictive capability. As a result of this integrating process, each of the agency programs has become increasingly important to the overall success of the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

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