Current Research Our current program examines the projected consequences that climate change and changing land use practices will have on southern Appalachia. We expect landscapes in the southeastern U.S. to change profoundly in the next five decades as the socioeconomic factors driving the dramatic exurbanization of the past three decades persist, and as climate change intensifies. Climate and land use change will especially impact the rural and semi-rural lands that still characterize much of our region (Gragson and Bolstad 2006). Since the southern Appalachian region is both a ‘ water tower’, supplying freshwater supplies the Southeast and among the most biodiverse temperate regions in the U.S., if not the world, our research will provide crucial within-system knowledge to other scientists, policy makers, and the public.