The Earth, Life and Semantic Web (ELSeWeb) project integrates the NASA-funded Earth Data Analysis Center with an analytical Web Service platform, Lifemapper, which models potential future species distributions under scenarios of climate change. The integrated system provides climate change impact scientists streamlined mechanisms for discovering, accessing, understanding, and using Earth observation data to model future species projection scenarios.
In a span of just over a hundred years, large portions of grasslands encompassing what is now the Chihuahuan desert have been replaced with more rugged desert type flora including the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). ELSEWeb aims to provide scientists a means to understand what past factors lead to proliferation of desert flora in the southwest and what future factors may cause the further proliferation of these species. By understanding these factors, scientists may make strongly-backed recommendations regarding land and water use.