July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Two leading U.S. scientific agencies that research global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes and endangered species should be combined to cut costs and improve the study of the Earth's environment, past agency officials say.

The merger recommendation from Mark Schaefer and Charles G. Groat, former executives at the U.S. Geological Survey, and D. James Baker, former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is being published in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science. Combining USGS and NOAA would create an Earth Systems Science Agency, the largest federal organization dedicated solely to earth sciences, Schaefer said.

Consolidation would allow the agencies to collaborate on research, achieving unspecified savings, said co-author John H. Gibbons, who was the White House science adviser from 1993-1998 under former President Bill Clinton, in a telephone interview on July 1. A single, merged agency would strengthen the government scientists' efforts to study climate change, declines in the availability of fresh water and the loss of biodiversity, according to the article.

``It doesn't make sense to have scientists working in such similar areas in two different agencies -- they should be working side by side,'' Schaefer, who was interim head of USGS for four months beginning in September 1997, said July 1 in a telephone interview.

Schaefer currently is a consultant to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan study group based in Washington.

Agencies' Missions

NOAA, a 12,000-person organization with a $4 billion annual operating budget, provides weather forecasts, storm warnings and research on oceans and the atmosphere used to support marine commerce and coastal restoration. USGS, with 8,500 employees and a $1 billion budget, studies earthquakes to increase public safety, monitors fresh water availability to prevent droughts and studies wildfires to improve forestry practices.

NOAA, based in Washington, is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. USGS, based in Reston, Virginia, falls under of the Department of the Interior.

Consolidation is ``one of these hopefully many ideas that will come up in the course of thinking about a new administration, which gives you a unique chance to make changes and improvements,'' Gibbons said.

The seven authors, led by Schaefer, urged the next U.S. president, who will be elected in November, to reorganize the two geosciences institutions and increase their funding.

Overall Budget

The budget for federal environmental research and development programs is about $8 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, which includes programs at NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the article. Funds for the programs are expected to decrease with next year's budget, Schaefer said.

``The environmental and economic challenges that we face today call for significant new investment in integrated earth systems science,'' Mark Myers, the director of USGS, said in an e-mailed statement today. ``That said, it is important not to rely on organizational change as a surrogate for providing the necessary strategic investment.''

NOAA spokesman Paul Taylor didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Taddei in New York at jtaddei3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 3, 2008 14:00 EDT