CRT

Racial equality in US South improved by 'instrumental' 1960s Voting Rights Act, study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 enfranchised a new section of society across the US South, which led to greater racial representation across local governments, a new study has found. 

The VRA eliminated literacy tests and other obstacles to Black voters’ registration, leading to an immediate increase in Black turnout, the study authors explain. 

Professor Giovanni Facchini and Professor Cecilia Testa from the University of Nottingham, and Dr Andrea Bernini from the University of Oxford, explored the effects of the VRA in a new paper published in the Journal of Political Economy. 

In the paper, ‘Race, Representation, and Local Governments in the US South: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act’, the academics explore how the act promoted the election of Black politicians to office in the years that followed. 

Civil rights leaders at the time, like Martin Luther King Jr., hoped the new law would lead to more Black representation in elected office. But the effectiveness of the VRA has been questioned, since the rise in Black lawmakers in state and federal governments was viewed as disappointingly slow, the authors say.  Bernini, Facchini, and Testa studied whether the VRA was effective by assessing its impact on the racial composition of all local governments in the US South over the following two decades.  

Cecilia Testa, Professor of Political Economy, said: “Minorities are often under-represented in politics. This is problematic because the ‘group identity’ of elected politicians affects policies, provides role models, and influences stereotypes.  

“Several countries have put in place strong remedial measures to improve representation of disadvantaged groups, for example seats reserved for minorities and gender quotas. The US - where the issue of minority representation has been and remains central – has followed a different approach, relying on courts to enforce the anti-discriminatory provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

“To understand whether, when and how one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in US history led to gains in Black office holding, we decided to undertake the first systematic assessment of the Voting Rights Act’s impact on racial representation in all local governments in the US South between 1962 and 1980.” 

By collating data on African Americans serving on county governments, school district boards, and municipal governing bodies for the eleven states of the former Confederacy between 1962 and 1980, the study shows that the introduction of the VRA was instrumental in improving racial equality across local governments. 

Professor Testa added: “Race remains one of the most debated issues in American politics. The coverage provisions of the VRA lasted until 2013. Following the removal of coverage, civil rights organisations have reported a surge in potentially discriminatory election practices. 

“This research shows that minority empowerment can lead to important policy changes. Before the passage of the VRA, Black communities in the US South suffered from chronic underinvestment in basic local infrastructure. Spending on public infrastructure grew once African Americans gained representation in local governments. This is just one example of tangible improvement following the election of Black lawmakers.” 

More information is available here.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Political Economy

DOI

10.1086/722092 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Race, Representation, and Local Governments in the US South: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-May-2023

THE COST OF WHITE SUPREMACY

Study: Rising costs of racial and ethnic health inequities in US surpass $450 billion

Study also details costs of racial and education-related health inequities for each state

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TULANE UNIVERSITY

Racial and ethnic health inequities cost the United States economy $451 billion in 2018, a sharp increase from the previous estimate of $320 billion in 2014, according to a new study published in JAMA by Tulane University researchers.  

Researchers also found the total burden of education-related health inequities for persons with less than a college degree in 2018 reached $978 billion, about two times greater than the annual growth rate of the U.S. economy that same year. 

Other key findings include:

• Most of the economic burden for racial and ethnic inequities (69%) was borne by the Black/African American population due to the level of premature mortality. 
• Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander ($23,225) and American Indian/Alaska Native ($12,351) populations had the highest economic burden per person.  
• Five states with the highest burden of racial and ethnic health inequities were among the most populous and diverse states: Texas ($41 billion), California ($40 billion), Illinois ($29 billion), Florida ($27 billion), and Georgia ($21 billion). 
• Black/African American persons had the highest economic burden of racial and ethnic health inequities in most states (33), followed by Hispanic/Latino (9 states), American Indian/Alaska Native (8 states), and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (1 state. 
• The burden of racial and ethnic health inequities relative to each state’s GDP varied from 0.14% (Vermont) to 8.89% (Mississippi); 17 states had a burden higher than the annual growth rate of the U.S. economy in 2018. 

When researchers, looked at the economic burden of health inequalities by education levels, they found that adults with a high school diploma had the highest burden ($9,982), followed closely by adults with less than a high school diploma ($9,467) and then adults with some college ($2,028). 

Although most of the burden of education-related health inequities was borne by adults with a high school diploma/GED (61%), a disproportionate share was borne by adults with less than a high school diploma/GED. This group comprised only 9% of the population but bore 26% of the burden.

Across all educational levels, most of the burden was attributable to premature deaths (66%), followed by lost labor market productivity (18%) and excess medical care costs (16%).

The study was led by Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD, dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, along with researchers from the National Insitute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Uniformed Services University, TALV Corp, and the National Urban League. 

“The results of this study demonstrate that health inequity represents not just unfair and unequal health outcomes, but it also has a financial cost,” said LaVeist. “Investment in achieving health equity would not only help people live longer, healthier lives, it would also pay dividends economically that would benefit community well-being long-term. To be sure, it will take significant resources to address health inequalities, but it is also true that the costs of not addressing health inequalities are substantial.” 

The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the first to estimate the total economic burden of health inequities for five racial and ethnic minority groups — Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations — nationally. It is also the first study to estimate the economic burden of health inequities by educational levels as a marker of socioeconomic status. 

Using four different national databases, researchers used medical care costs, lost labor market productivity, and premature deaths to determine the economic burden placed on different racial and ethnic groups as well as educational attainment. 

For Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, and American Indian, Alaska Native populations, most of the economic burden was attributed to premature deaths. For Asian and Hispanic/Latino populations, that burden was from excess medical care costs and lost labor market productivity, respectively. 

“The exorbitant cost of health disparities is diminishing U.S. economic potential. We have a clear call to action to address social and structural factors that negatively impact not only population health, but also economic growth,” said NIMHD Director Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable.

While the economic burden of racial and ethnic and education-related health inequities is significant, the researchers noted that the burden could be reduced if investments are made to address structural contributors to inequities, including racism and socioeconomic inequalities. They also recommended that federal and state health policymakers and offices of minority health could use these estimates to inform areas where policies and programs are most needed to address health inequities. 

Full details about the study, including data for each state, can be found at costofinequity.org.

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JOURNAL

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2023.5965 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Economic Burden of Racial, Ethnic, and Educational Health Inequities in the US

Quotas alone will not solve the problem

Would you like to see more women on corporate boards and in leadership positions in academia? A new CSH study recommends aligning quotas with an inclusive culture

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COMPLEXITY SCIENCE HUB VIENNA

 

IMAGE: GROUP SIZE AND BEHAVIOURAL INTERVENTIONS WERE INVESTIGATED FOR THEIR IMPACT ON MINORITY NODES' POSITION (RED) IN DEGREE RANKINGS OVER TIME. view more 

CREDIT: COMPLEXITY SCIENCE HUB

[Vienna, May 25, 2023] — What is the impact of affirmative actions, such as quota systems, on minorities’ representation in top ranks of the academic and corporate worlds? Scientists used mathematical models for the first time to quantify how successful quota systems can be for improving women's visibility in science. 

Their findings were published in the latest edition of the journal Communications Physics. 

"The main question we wanted to answer was: the number of women has increased in academia and in the corporate sector over the past 100 years, but why do they not reach the top positions in their network?," points out Fariba Karimi, a scientist at the Complexity Science Hub and co-author of the paper.  

According to the study, quotas alone are not sufficient to make minorities more visible in a network. “In essence, the results show that having even extreme quotas does not necessarily ensure that minorities will be represented in top ranks of the network as we would expect from their size,” says Karimi. 

“In contrast, a very moderate quota would be extremely useful when it is combined with an inclusive environment in which people, especially those in high power positions, are open to bringing minorities into their personal networks,” adds Karimi. “By doing so, they are basically helping minorities grow their social capital through those connections.”

Hypothetical scenarios

In the study, the researchers created a network growth model to analyse how successful interventions can be for improving minorities's visibility in social networks. Two kinds of interventions were tested: group size interventions, such as quotas; and behavioral interventions, such as changing the way groups interact.

“We ran this two hypothetical scenarios, sometimes isolated, sometimes combined, as we wanted to evaluate which combination of interventions would be more effective in pushing minorities to the top of the ranking,” explains Karimi.

The model took into account two key social processes. First, the formation of structural inequalities that emerge within social networks due to certain preexisting societal biases, such as in-group favoritism or homophily – the notion that humans tend to preferentially interact and connect with individuals who are like them in some way. Second, the impact of different interventions on changing those initial structural inequalities. 

The results show, for instance, that even a very strong group size intervention - to have a 90 percent quota - will not improve minorities' representation in the top ranks to a level proportional to their total size if the initial configuration is strongly homophilic. As a result of historical and cumulative structural inequality, minorities are locked in their initial network position.

Multidimensional 

“The study shows that the discussion [of improving minorities’ visibility] should not be one-dimensional”, highlights Leonie Neuhäuser, from RWTH Aachen University and co-autor of the study.

From a network perspective, increasing the size of a group does not necessarily increase the visibility of minorities, according to Leonie Neuhäuser, from RWTH Aachen University and co-autor of the study. “Obviously, this is a necessary step, but we should also consider the social network structure and behavioural aspects when designing interventions.”

The results indicate some behavioural interventions that may affect minority representation in top ranks. A minority group could benefit from increasing networking if they are large enough to gain a cumulative advantage in a growing social network. Alternatively, if quotas are not large enough, the majority group should be encouraged to mix with the minority group, since the latter will not gain visibility without connecting to the former. ​

Hard to change

Despite the difficulty of changing behavior, Karimi emphasizes that increasing diversity depends on it. Leaders and top-level professionals can be educated about this issue and be inclusive when bringing people with diverse backgrounds into important positions on social networks, according to Karimi.  

“We also need some regulation,” adds Karimi. “As humans, we have a tendency to prefer interacting with people who are similar to ourselves, since it is less cognitively demanding – the homophily principle. Evolutionarly speaking, we are rewired to avoid interacting with outgroup members and that is why incentivising and educating people about the benefits of diversity can help overcome those barriers." 

Due to the external regulations, after a certain number of minority people are incorporated into the system, things begin to change. Having more people of diverse backgrounds around us reduces our fear of strangeness. As a result, behavior would follow."

 

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About the Complexity Science Hub

The mission of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) is to host, educate, and inspire complex systems scientists dedicated to making sense of Big Data to boost science and society. Scientists at the Complexity Science Hub develop methods for the scientific, quantitative, and predictive understanding of complex systems.

The CSH is a joint initiative of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Central European University CEU, Danube University Krems, Graz University of Technology, Medical University of Vienna, TU Wien, VetMedUni Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO). https://www.csh.ac.at

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JOURNAL

Communications Physics

DOI

10.1038/s42005-023-01218-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Improving the visibility of minorities through network growth interventions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-May-2023

COI STATEMENT

L.N. and M.T.S. acknowledge funding by the Ministry of Culture and Science (MKW) of the German State of North Rhine- Westphalia ("NRW Rückkehrprogramm") and under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder. J.B. and F.K. were supported by the Austrian research agency (FFG) under project No. 873927 ESSENCSE. L.N. would like to thank the Complexity Science Hub Vienna for hosting her for a research visit.

Mining lags on female C-suite, board representation

Reuters | May 23, 2023 | 

Mural of a female miner. (Image by Jason Paris, Flickr).

Mining firms lag far behind other sectors on female representation in top leadership, data released on Tuesday showed.


S&P Global Commodity Insights’ figures highlight the industry’s struggle to improve gender equity, with women filling just 12.1% of the highest-ranking executive positions across more than 2,000 publicly-listed miners globally as of April, a rise of only 1.6 percentage points from October 2021.

Women currently hold 14% of all mining executive positions and 12.3% of board roles, the data showed. This compares to a female representation of 42.7% in senior and leadership roles globally across sectors, according to the World Economic Forum.

“Change takes time, and progress may vary across different industries and regions,” said Barbara Dischinger, director of London-based International Women in Mining.

Dischinger said barriers slowing the pace of expected improvement include implicit biases in selection and promotion processes and a lack of role models, mentoring and sponsorship.

Executive and boardroom diversity has become a focus for many policymakers and investors who say a broader range of experience improves decision-making and corporate culture.

Despite mining CEOs saying gender diversity is a priority and setting ambitious goals, progress remains slow and patchy.

The share of female senior managers at Anglo American was stable at 29% in 2022 from a year earlier, versus a goal of 33% by 2023, while the proportion of female senior leaders at Rio Tinto was 28.3% last year, a 0.9 percentage point rise from 2021, their annual reports show.

“If we do not address challenges relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), there will be far-reaching implications for the industry’s ability to attract and retain the talent needed,” said Rohitesh Dhawan, CEO of the International Council of Mining and Minerals.

“We have an obligation to eradicate discrimination, harassment, and assault of any kind in our workplaces,” he said.

An independent report commissioned by Rio’s management and published in 2022 found 28.2% of women working in the company reported experiencing sexual harassment at work.

Fund manager abrdn said in February it had engaged with some of the largest mining companies it holds shares in after “incidents of unacceptable workplace behaviours”.

“What we want is for mining companies’ rigorous health and safety standards to be expanded to include employees’ psychological wellbeing and potential risk of harassment,” said Andrew Mason, abrdn head of active ownership.

“Companies need to show they have those measures in place to attract diverse employees.”

(By Clara Denina and Helen Reid; Editing by Alexander Smith)

https://www.mininghalloffame.ca/kathleen-cs-rice

Kathleen C.S. Rice (1882 – 1963) - Canadian Mining Hall of Fame 

She formed Rice Island Nickel Company in 1928 and became a national sensation as “Canada's first woman prospector” and famously said “If women could understand ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_R._MacMillan

Viola R. MacMillan - Wikipedia 

In 1991, Viola MacMillan became the first woman inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. DeathEdit. MacMillan died 26 August 1993. The bulk of her estate ...

Beetles in a bottle: a message from aliens to schools

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: A PLASTIC BOTTLE TRAP FILLED WITH HAND-SANITIZER AS ATTRACTANT view more 

CREDIT: DR FERNANDA COLOMBARI

While invasive alien species (IAS) represent a growing threat to global biodiversity and ecosystems, public awareness of them hasn’t seen a significant increase. Many researchers believe informing people about IAS is an essential long-term investment to counter biological invasions; in particular, “learning by doing” is an extremely effective method for involving new audiences, such as students.

About 500 Italian students aged 11-18 took part in a citizen science project that led to new geographical records of two alien species of ambrosia beetles considered to be quarantine pests by the European Union. Dr. Fernanda Colombari and Prof. Andrea Battisti of the University of Padova have described the results in a paper in the open-access journal NeoBiota.

The project involved schools located in urban areas in north-eastern Italy and aimed to connect environmental education and experiential outdoor learning through lectures, videos, reports, and large-scale surveillance of ambrosia beetles. The students used plastic bottles and hand sanitizer to trap ambrosia beetles in their school grounds. They then assessed their abundance, looking at the different species. Before and after the educational activities, their knowledge and awareness of IAS were tested using simple anonymous questionnaires.

“Our study aimed to both educate students and collect scientific data at sites such as schools where surveillance for potentially invasive ambrosia beetles is not usually conducted, or where it is sometimes misunderstood,” Dr. Colombari and Prof. Battisti write in their paper.

Identifying the specimens collected by the students, the authors found that IAS amounted to 35% of total catches. Remarkably, two out of the four alien species caught, Cnestus mutilatus and Anisandrus maiche, were recorded for the first time in Europe thanks to this study.

Furthermore, questionnaire results showed that the students acquired greater knowledge and increased their awareness and interest in IAS by more than 50%. After the experiment, most of them were interested in learning more about the negative effects of the introduction of IAS and practices to limit their spread.

This study shows that citizen science can successfully involve school students, giving them an opportunity to contribute in an effective early detection of IAS, as most first records occur in cities or suburban areas. The results also point to the primary role of education, which is as a major driver of change in tackling sustainability challenges. Moreover, as students bring home the message and share it with their relatives, the process supports intergenerational learning and enlarges public collaboration.

“People are often unaware of the role they have in the entire invasive process,” the researchers write in their study. Citizen science projects like this one are more than a reliable tool for collecting scientific data; they also help engage the public and spread awareness of biological invasions, eventually contributing to the creation of more efficient management strategies.

The monitoring programme in this study was conducted in the context of the European project HOMED (Holistic management of emerging forest pests and diseases), which has developed a full panel of scientific knowledge and practical solutions for the management of emerging native and non-native pests and pathogens threatening European forests. The main results of HOMED’s research are publically available in a special issue in the open-access scholarly journal NeoBiota.

 

Original source:

Colombari F, Battisti A (2023) Citizen science at school increases awareness of biological invasions and contributes to the detection of exotic ambrosia beetles. In: Jactel H, Orazio C, Robinet C, Douma JC, Santini A, Battisti A, Branco M, Seehausen L, Kenis M (Eds) Conceptual and technical innovations to better manage invasions of alien pests and pathogens in forests. NeoBiota 84: 211-229. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.84.95177

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JOURNAL

NeoBiota

DOI

10.3897/neobiota.84.95177 

ARTICLE TITLE

Citizen science at school increases awareness of biological invasions and contributes to the detection of exotic ambrosia beetles

Decoding the path to digital workplace transformation

Digital technology can transform work and workplaces but in the ever-evolving digital landscape, unlocking the true potential of transformation requires more than just adding new technology.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

New research from Copenhagen Business School, along with Leuphana University and University of Turku sheds light on the importance of subtracting as much as adding in the journey of digital workplace transformation.

The research focused on one of the world’s oldest car manufacturers who employs more than 200,000 employees worldwide and who launched its digital workplace transformation strategy in 2016.

“The subtraction logic, that is, the process of removing obstructive routines and technologies, is often disregarded in digital workplace transformation, despite being equally crucial,” says co-author and Associate Professor Abayomi Baiyere at the department of digitalization, Copenhagen Business School.

The findings highlight two approaches to a successful digital transformation: the addition logic of incorporating new technology and the subtraction logic of eliminating old technology that sustains unwanted practices. By emphasising the need for subtraction logic alongside addition logic, the research unveils a critical aspect often neglected in digital workplace transformation.

“By recognising the value of subtraction logic and not taking a one-sided focus on just the addition logic, organisations can foster innovation, adaptation, and employee empowerment,” adds Associate Professor Abayomi Baiyere.

The paper was recently published in the Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

Subtraction logic

Subtraction logic as deinstitutionalisation refers to the process of removing established practices to make way for new ideas and approaches, enabling innovation and adaptation within an organisation or society. It involves challenging traditional norms, rules, and behaviours to embrace change and new technologies.

“Subtraction in digital transformation requires careful consideration of which established practices need to be abandoned to achieve transformation goals. Organisations like the car company aiming for employee empowerment need to remove practices that oppose or undermine this notion, such as excessive managerial approvals,” adds co-author Dr Markus Zimmer from Leuphana University of Luneburg, Germany.

The paper discusses how the car company rejected existing approval rules that caused delays in decision-making. Besides rejecting existing rules, the company also removed its business travel system, which enforced formal approval for trips. This change was viewed as a way to empower employees rather than restrict them. Initially, some managers resisted the change by insisting on approval via email, but the removal of the system helped establish new approval processes.

Similarly, hierarchy had a significant impact on the allocation of IT equipment, which served as status symbols tied to one's position. However, the car company challenged this norm by eliminating permission rights to the IT ordering system. This change enabled employees to independently order IT equipment that aligned with their actual job needs, rather than their hierarchical position. Although some managers questioned how employees could afford expensive smartphones, the new IT ordering system empowered employees to embrace the revised rules and push the boundaries

“These conflicts occur because some individuals are reluctant to let go of privileges and control associated with the old practices,” adds Zimmer.

The research advocates for embracing the dual process of adding new elements while simultaneously subtracting unwanted ones and urges organisations to contemplate not only their desired future but also the aspects they wish to leave behind from the past.

“Our hope is that organisations use our research to approach digital workplace transformation not only by incorporating new practices and new technologies but also by eliminating those that impede their transformation goals. Taking such a balanced view may help managers avoid frustrations caused by the dominant "addition narrative" logic,” concludes Baiyere. 

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DOI

10.1016/j.jsis.2023.101757 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Digital workplace transformation: Subtraction logic as deinstitutionalising the taken-for-granted

Renewable fuels from green refineries

Consortium of science and industry develops processes and demand scenarios for the mass production of synthetic fuels – federal funding of around EUR 7 million

Business Announcement

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

 

IMAGE: EVEN IN CASE OF INCREASING ELECTRIFICATION, RENEWABLE LIQUID FUELS WILL BE NEEDED FOR HEAVY-DUTY, AIR, AND SHIP TRAFFIC. (PHOTO: MARKUS BREIG, AMADEUS BRAMSIEPE, KIT) view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: MARKUS BREIG, AMADEUS BRAMSIEPE, KIT

“In spite of increasing electric mobility in the transport sector, we will continue to need liquid fuels for a long time,” says Professor Nicolaus Dahmen from KIT’s Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT). He heads the project “Refineries for Future” (REF4FU) and adds: “Only 60 percent of the fuel today is consumed by individual car traffic. When talking about phasing out of combustion engines, it is referred to car engines only.” The REF4FU project is therefore aimed at developing, testing, and standardizing 100 percent renewable fuels for all transport sectors, including water and air traffic.

 

Renewable Resources as a Basis

REF4FU covers the use of sustainable hydrogen, pyrolysis oil based on biological residues, such as straw or waste wood, methanol from renewable feedstocks, and Fischer-Tropsch oil that corresponds to green crude oil. “The advantage of these products is that they can be transported, stored, and handled just like today’s crude oil,” Dahmen explains and points out that green crude oil will also be needed by chemical industry for the production of plastics, for instance.

 

Scenarios for Ramping up Production

Refuels are being produced on a pre-industrial scale: “We already have processes and big, technically mature test facilities to produce tons of synthetic fuel,” Dahmen says. However, it is not yet clear how these fuels will be commercialized and transferred to the customers. “We cannot just sell them from barrels at the roadside,” Dahmen says. To find out when and where which quantities of synthetic gasoline, diesel, or kerosene will be needed, researchers use scenarios that also take into account political goals regarding the electrification of road traffic or the expected developments in the different transport sectors. “According to these scenarios, gasoline will disappear from the market first,” Dahmen points out. This will affect future production capacities.

 

The REF4FU collaboration project coordinated by KIT is funded with around EUR 7 million by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport. Apart from the institutes of KIT (IKFT, IMVT, EBI-ceb, IFKM, IIP), the project partners are DLR – The German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ), Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, and Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz, BASF, EDL Anlagenbau, and Ineratec. The MiRO refinery, Porsche, and ASG are associated project partners.

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

Saving our soil: How to extend US breadbasket fertility for centuries

New research from UMass Amherst shows that the rapid and unsustainable rate of topsoil erosion can be drastically reduced with no-till agricultural methods already in practice

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

IMAGE: UMASS AMHERST GEOSCIENCES PROFESSOR ISAAC LARSEN STANDING ON THE EROSIONAL ESCARPMENT AT STINSON PRAIRIE, IOWA. view more 

CREDIT: UMASS AMHERST

May 25, 2023

 

Saving Our Soil: How to Extend US Breadbasket Fertility for Centuries

New research from UMass Amherst shows that the rapid and unsustainable rate of topsoil erosion can be drastically reduced with no-till agricultural methods already in practice

AMHERST, Mass. – The Midwestern United States has lost 57.6 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices over the past 160 years, and the rate of erosion, even following the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines, is still 25 times higher than the rate at which topsoil forms. Yet, we need not despair: researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently reported in the journal Earth’s Future that no-till farming, which is currently practiced on 40 percent of cropland acres in the Midwest, can extend our current level of soil fertility for the next several centuries. This has implications for everything from food security to climate-change mitigation.

The vast majority of the food we all eat is grown in topsoil, that carbon-rich, black earth that nurtures everything from watermelons to brussels sprouts. What most of us call topsoil, scientists call A-horizon soil, and these A-horizon soils, whose fertility has developed over eons, are susceptible to erosion.

“When most people think of erosion, they think wind or water,” says Jeffrey Kwang, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota who completed this research as part of his postdoctoral studies in Isaac Larsen’s Geomorphology Research Group at UMass Amherst and is lead author of the paper. “It turns out that the far greater driver of soil erosion in the midwestern U.S. has been conventional agriculture.”

But what that current rate of erosion is has been very difficult to pin down precisely, though, as the Geomorphology Research Group has shown over the past few years, soil erosion in the U.S.’s breadbasket is far greater, and occurring at a far faster rate, than had previously been suspected.

 

A brief history of soil loss in the Midwest

Since 2021, members of Larsen’s research group, including Kwang, Evan Thaler, Caroline Quarrier and others, have been breaking new ground in the world of soil science.

The group’s initial study showed that more than one-third of the Corn Belt in the Midwest—nearly 30 million acres—has completely lost its carbon-rich topsoil, that rich A-horizon layer. Furthermore, the team showed that the erosion was likely due to contemporary tillage practices, in which plows are dragged through fields, moving topsoil from higher to lower elevations. Unfortunately, the USDA’s own assessments don’t include erosion due to tillage, and so the agency has missed a major driver of erosion.

A year later, the team discovered that the Midwest has lost 57.6 billion metric tons of soil since Euro-American cultivation of the region began, approximately 160 years ago. This historical rate of loss, which is mostly due to tillage, is nearly double the rate which the USDA considers sustainable.

Finally, the team recently showed that Midwestern soil is eroding between 10 and 1,000 times faster than it did in the pre-agricultural era, and that the USDA’s current upper-limit of sustainable erosion—1 mm per year—is an average of 25 times more than what is actually sustainable.

 

Modelling the future

“We already discovered how the history of erosion in the U.S. has shaped our present reality,” says Isaac Larsen, associate professor of earth, geographic and climate sciences at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author. “But what’s going to happen in the future?”

For this latest research, Kwang, Larsen and the Geomorphology Research Group relied on the insights of their earlier work into historical rates of erosion to predict future scenarios. Their first breakthrough was to finally determine the current rate of tillage-driven soil erosion. It turns out that the Midwest loses 1.1 kilograms of soil and 12 grams of soil organic carbon (SOC) per square meter every year, which far outpaces the rate at which new topsoil is created.

But no one knows what the future will look like. “Since we don’t know how farming practices and policy will change,” Larsen says, “we’ve used the current erosion rate to model a few different future scenarios.”

“We looked at the current business-as-usual method, under which approximately 40% of the midwestern U.S.’s acres are no-till farmed, all the way up to 100% adoption of no-till methods. We then modelled the erosional rates under each scenario for the next century,” says Kwang.

Their initial finding was that, if the U.S.’s current agricultural practices remain largely unchanged, approximately 8.8 billion metric tons of soil and 170 million metric tons of soil organic carbon will be lost over the next century alone.

When the team modelled the impact of a 100% no till scenario, the picture turned rosier. Much rosier.

“Approximately 95% of the erosion we see under the business-as-usual scenario over the next century would be prevented,” Kwang says.

Put another way, the soil savings are so significant that if the U.S. adopts no-till practices now, it would take 10,000 years to see the same level of soil and SOC loss that would occur in only a century if our agricultural practices do not change.

Furthermore, the rate of loss decreases over time: the more soil and SOC there is, the faster we lose it, and the rates of loss taper off as there’s less to lose. “This means there’s real incentive to act now,” says Kwang, “when we’ll see the most long-term benefit.”

 

Soil and climate

It’s no surprise that topsoil is crucial for agriculture; but most forecasts for greenhouse gas emission and plans for climate mitigation also need to account for topsoil loss, because soil is the largest pool of terrestrial carbon. Scientists hypothesize that accelerated soil erosion alters this carbon pool enough to influence the global carbon cycle. However, Kwang says, “most models that look at soil and its effect on climate don’t account for erosion rates slowing down over time. We need to get this right if we’re to prepare effectively for the future—and know we have a rate that can help inform predictions of what the future climate might be.”

 

Cerro Gordo County, Iowa and detail of individual farms (inset) soil loss over next 160 years under a conventional plowing scenario. Dark red areas show soil loss of 32.5 cm (12.8 inches); blue show gain of 32.5 centimeters.

CREDIT

Jeffrey Kwang

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JOURNAL

Earth s Future

DOI

10.1029/2022EF003104 

ARTICLE TITLE

The Future of Soils in the Midwestern United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-May-2023