Friday, November 22, 2024

Tufts University joins pioneering collaboration to advance campus decarbonization

Consortium for Climate Solutions expands renewable energy generation and reduces Tufts’ carbon emissions

Tufts University

Tufts Joins Pioneering Collaboration to Advance Campus Decarbonization — image:
Tufts is specifically investing in the Big Elm Solar project in Bell County, Texas, which will deliver electricity to the local electrical grid in Texas. Investing in clean-energy development in Texas has a greater impact on “greening” the grid there than in Massachusetts, which has a much higher renewable-energy saturation.
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Credit: Illustration: Elles Giancostas

Tufts University marked a milestone on its path to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 when it announced today its participation in a project that reduces its Boston health sciences campus energy-related emissions by 40%.

The project is the Consortium for Climate Solutions, a group that includes Tufts and other Boston-based institutions, who together are pioneering a strategy for broadening access to large-scale renewable energy projects.

Aiming to serve as a scalable model for advancing the national energy transition, the consortium is considered an unprecedented collaboration, insofar as it brings together higher-education institutions, healthcare systems, the City of Cambridge, and nonprofit organizations in Greater Boston.

The university is focused on achieving net-zero carbon emissions on all its campuses no later than 2050, according to an expanded commitment by the Tufts Sustainability Council. Solar onsite at Tufts is also part of the equation, including both roof-mounted solar installations and, at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, solar arrays. The addition of a solar VPPA allows Tufts to multiply its use of renewable energy without being constrained by the space limitations of its campuses.

Other investments in shrinking the university’s carbon footprint include the central energy plant‘s use of energy-efficient cogeneration technology, and Tufts’ commitment to the highest energy-efficiency standards in new construction and in modernizing older buildings.

Through the consortium, the university will purchase an estimated 20,000 megawatt-hours of solar power by 2026, enough to power an estimated 1,800 homes a year.

Dano Weisbord, AG01, chief sustainability officer and executive director of campus planning, noted that Tufts’ support for large-scale renewable energy projects makes sense, given the global goal of net zero emissions by 2050 as set by the Paris Agreement.

“Tufts is pursuing strategies that promote global sustainable development,” said Weisbord. “The consortium is a model for using markets to purchase electricity from new zero-carbon sources. It is also a tool to educate and challenge our students to become climate leaders by helping to build and implement our path to decarbonization.”

Other members of the consortium are purchasing energy generated by a wind project in North Dakota. Through both virtual power purchase agreements, in Texas and North Dakota, the consortium’s procurement is spurring the development of 408 MW of new renewable energy. Together, both solar and wind projects will provide new sources of clean electricity to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and generate collective green power equal to the electricity use of 130,000 homes for each year of the 15-year duration of the contracts.

Harvard University, MIT, and Mass General Brigham collectively procured the largest volume of energy (both wind and solar), making it possible for smaller buyers, including Tufts, to join in with access to the same negotiated rates and competitive terms as the larger buyers.

PowerOptions played a critical role in expanding the consortium to include the City of Cambridge, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Mass Convention Center Authority, the Museum of Fine Arts, and WGBH. 3Degrees, a leading global climate solutions provider, facilitated the agreements.

Tufts’ participation builds on university-wide efforts to reduce reliance on carbon-burning fuels and build sustainable operations and infrastructure, as outlined in the most recent Sustainability Report, produced by the Office of Sustainability.

For its participation in the initiative, Tufts receives Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that account for a reduction of about 12% of the university’s carbon emissions, bringing Tufts significantly closer to reaching its own decarbonization goal.

Mike Howard, Tufts’ executive vice president, said the consortium is an opportunity for Tufts and other institutions to amplify their impact while offering the financial advantages of aggregation: better economies of scale, negotiating leverage, and shared expenses.

“Together, the consortium offers a significant impact on the carbon-reduction goals of the City of Boston and surrounding area. This is the scale of collaboration that is necessary to build the nation’s clean energy capacity,” said Howard. “Large-scale renewable projects are critical to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Tufts is a natural ally in making this progress possible, and we hope, collectively, we will inspire others to form similar collaborations.”

Tina Woolston, director of the Office of Sustainability, has led Tufts’ participation in the consortium, which was formed in 2020 to leverage collective purchasing power to invest in renewable energy projects via a procurement model known as virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs). VPPA contracts allow consortium members to expedite the development of new renewable-energy projects in targeted regions across the country to advance large-scale clean-energy development.

Tufts is specifically investing in the Big Elm Solar project in Bell County, Texas, which will deliver electricity to the local electrical grid in Texas. Compared to Massachusetts, Texas has a higher percentage of electricity generated from burning fossil fuels. Investing in clean-energy development in Texas has a greater impact on “greening” the grid there than doing it in a state like Massachusetts, which has a much higher renewable-energy saturation.

OCCAM'S RAZOR

Simplicity is key to understanding and achieving goals

Our minds favour simple explanations and efficient actions, according to a new study

University of Waterloo

People’s preference for simple explanations of any situation is connected to their desire to execute tasks efficiently, finds a new study from the University of Waterloo.

"These findings show that our preference for simpler explanations mirrors how we evaluate actions. Simplicity isn't just valued in explanations—it's part of how we think about achieving results efficiently," said Claudia Sehl, lead author and a PhD candidate in developmental psychology at Waterloo.

Sehl collaborated with Waterloo developmental psychology professors Ori Friedman and Stephanie Denison on this study. They conducted seven experiments involving 2,820 participants who were presented with simple and complex ways to explain an outcome or achieve a goal. Participants consistently favoured the simpler options.

The study found that people are more attracted to explanations that involve common and reliable causes. If a cause seemed rare or unreliable, it was viewed as less helpful. In other words, the simpler and more dependable the cause, the more appealing it was both for understanding an event and for achieving results in the future.

"Essentially, the more common and reliable a cause, the more appealing it became as both an explanation and a method for achieving outcomes,” Sehl said. “Additionally, whether describing causes or seeking outcomes, using fewer causes seems both faster and more effective, pointing to a shared mental process behind both preferences."

Overall, the findings suggest that efficiency is valued both in explanations and when achieving goals.

"Our research suggests that people care a lot about efficiency—the idea of doing more with less—and that this focus on efficiency affects how people think about both explanations and accomplishments," Friedman said.

This study, Doing things efficiently: Testing an account of why simple explanations are satisfying, by Sehl, Friedman, and Denison, is published in Cognitive Psychology.

Journal

Cognitive Psychology

Defense grant funding research on arms market

University of Tennessee at Knoxville

image:
Vasabjit Banerjee, assistant professor in UT’s Department of Political Science
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Credit: University of Tennessee

Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Mississippi State University are collaborating on groundbreaking research to evaluate a key part of the military arms ecosystem, capabilities that are resold, refurbished, discounted, or dated (R2D2).

They will be working with the Defense Security Cooperation University, the Department of Defense’s organization managing the transfer of U.S. military capabilities to other countries, on a two-year project with funding that totals $477,333.

Research often focuses on high-end, expensive systems, but this team has coined the term “value arms” to describe those R2D2 capabilities it will study.

“Value arms can be militarily effective depending on the threat environment and are found in militaries across the globe,” according to the researchers’ description of the project. “As we see in Ukraine, value arms are pieced together in practical applications to achieve mission capabilities. Understanding the values ecosystem is essential for the US because Russia and China are major value market suppliers.”

The research will provide a foundation to further investigate what political and economic benefits and costs participants gain from the value market ecosystem, with the potential to inform defense and foreign policy.

“We will create the first dataset on the value arms market (R2D2 equipment) currently being operated, as well as their suppliers and operators,” explained Vasabjit Banerjee, an assistant professor in UT’s Department of Political Science. “Future research by us and other scholars will use this data to study defense manufacturing and the international arms trade across the world.”

The research also could have implications for economic development in Tennessee and across the Southeastern region. “We think that manufacturing R2D2 equipment—in collaboration with countries like South Korea, Turkey, and India—can bring manufacturing jobs to Tennessee,” he explained.

A graduate assistant and undergraduates will be hired to work on the research at UT, particularly political science majors with prior knowledge and interest in the topic, Banerjee said. The project will give them experience in conducting and presenting research.

“Working on constructing datasets that can be used for statistical testing and creating interactive websites to present the data will provide students with valuable skills for jobs in government and the private sector,” he noted.

The researchers had a tight deadline for submitting the grant proposal and received support from the Office of Research and Creative Activity for the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The team at ORCA, namely Laura Wright, Stacey Wade, and especially Annie Brown, were critical to helping us organize the submission, create the budget, and guide us through the process,” Banerjee said. “It would have been impossible to get it done without their help.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Powering the future: Overcoming key challenges in electric vehicle battery technology

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

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Flowchart for this study
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Credit: Mohammad Waseem， et al

A groundbreaking review article delves into the critical challenges facing electric vehicle (EV) battery technology, offering insights into current research trends and future advancements. The study examines the performance, safety, and environmental impact of various battery types, including lithium-ion and solid-state batteries. It also explores innovative management techniques and highlights the importance of developing cost-effective, sustainable, and safe battery solutions to support the growth of electric mobility.

As cities worldwide choke on pollution and climate change intensifies, the urgency to shift away from fossil fuels has never been clearer. Electric vehicles (EV) promise to revolutionize transportation, but they’re held back by persistent obstacles: batteries prone to overheating, limited energy density, and environmental costs that cast long shadows over green ambitions. Based on these challenges, the need for revolutionary energy storage and management solutions is more urgent than ever.

This comprehensive research was spearheaded by a distinguished team from Jamia Millia Islamia University, CVR College of Engineering, Osmania University, and the University of Tabuk. Published (DOI: 10.1016/j.enss.2024.09.002) on October 15, 2024, in Energy Storage and Saving, the study delves into advancements in battery technology, including Li-ion silicon, solid-state, and lithium-air batteries. It also examines the role of artificial intelligence and wireless power transfer in reshaping the future of electric vehicles.

The review paints a vivid picture of today’s battery landscape, emphasizing the shortcomings of traditional lithium-ion models. Among the most alarming challenges is thermal runaway—a catastrophic chain reaction triggered by overheating. To combat this, researchers are pushing the limits of solid-state and lithium-air battery designs, which promise higher energy densities and greater safety. Additionally, the integration of AI-driven systems offers real-time insights and predictive maintenance, significantly boosting battery longevity and reliability. Meanwhile, the paper takes a critical look at wireless power transfer, a technology brimming with potential but fraught with practical hurdles. By uniting these innovations, the research outlines a future where electric vehicles become smarter, safer, and more efficient.

“Our research emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach to solve persistent challenges in electric vehicle technology,” says Dr. Mohammad Waseem, the lead researcher. “By combining artificial intelligence with advanced battery materials, we can significantly improve energy efficiency and safety, making electric mobility a more viable and sustainable option for future generations.”

The implications of this research ripple far beyond laboratory walls. If implemented, these advancements could drastically extend driving ranges, cut down manufacturing costs, and ease environmental concerns. Furthermore, the seamless blend of AI-powered battery management and wireless charging could reshape urban mobility, creating cleaner and more sustainable cities. As the demand for greener transportation soars, this study offers a crucial roadmap to a cleaner, smarter future.

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Media contact:

Name: Yue Yang

Email: enss@xjtu.edu.cn

Journal

Energy Storage and Saving

DOI

10.1016/j.enss.2024.09.002

Article Title

An electric vehicle battery and management techniques: comprehensive review of important obstacles, new advancements, and recommendations

In Patagonia, more snow could protect glaciers from melt — but only if we curb greenhouse gas emissions soon

University of Colorado at Boulder

Patagonian glacier — image:
The ice front of a glacier in southern Patagonia
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Credit: Henning Åkesson

In an era of dwindling glaciers, Southern Patagonia has managed to hold on to a surprising amount of its ice. But, A new study in Scientific Reports from INSTAAR postdoc Matthias Troch suggests that this protective effect might be pushed up against its limits soon.

Before making predictions, Troch and his collaborators looked back in time. They used an equation that, when plugged into NASA’s ice-sheet and sea-level system model, simulated glacial dynamics for the past six millenia. The results showed that precipitation, not temperature, was the main culprit of glacier fluctuation during around 4,500, of the past 6,000 years, or 76 percent of the time. In more recent years, increased snowfall protected the glaciers from rising global temperatures.

These simulations were hyper-focused. The researchers singled out three connected glaciers on the wetter, ocean-facing side of the Patagonia range in Southern Chile. The region came with a distinct scientific advantage. In 2005, a team aboard the American research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer collected a sediment core from a nearby fjord. Troch and his collaborators got their hands on the sediment core and used it to validate and refine their model. In essence, they had a physical piece of evidence to provide proof that they were on the right track.

Once they had reconciled the numerical model with the sediment core, the researchers began to ask questions about the future. In particular, they were interested in what would happen to the glaciers under different emissions scenarios. If humanity stopped burning fossil fuels today, would the glaciers remain protected? What if we continued to increase our greenhouse gas emissions?

Troch and his colleagues found that increased snowfall would continue to protect the glaciers from melt if regional warming was curbed at 1.5 degrees celsius above turn-of-the-century levels. This benchmark is attainable. Yet, to limit warming to this level, humanity would need to rapidly decarbonize — temperatures are on track to climb to 2.8 degrees celsius in patagonia by the end of the century if current emissions persist.

“The study underscores the need for deep emission cuts to protect glaciers, which is vital to limit global sea-level rise,” Troch said.

The researchers also modeled what would happen if we didn’t cut back, and the outlook was not so sunny. A warmer, wetter climate could lead to rapid melt.

“This could push glaciers into a new regime dominated by rain rather than snowfall,” Troch explained.

Troch hopes that research like his will bolster the global call-to-action for green policies and practices. While news about the climate is often gloomy, there are still many harms that can be prevented if humanity strives for sustainability.

“If we can limit emissions there is hope for protecting maritime glaciers,” Troch said.

Troch also hopes that the study will catalyze further research into maritime glaciers around the world. The conclusions drawn in Southern Patagonia might be replicated in Norway, Alaska, Iceland or New Zealand. The only way to find out is further research.

Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-77486-4

Peaches spread across North America through Indigenous networks

Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Spanish explorers may have brought the first peach pits to North America, but Indigenous communities helped the ubiquitous summer fruit really take root, according to a study led by a researcher at Penn State.

The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that Indigenous political and social networks and land use practices played key roles in the peach’s adoption and dispersal across the continent, according to the researchers.

“Peaches need a lot of care by people to be productive. They need to be planted in appropriate places with a lot of sunlight and the right soil drainage, and they need to be pruned,” said Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, first author and assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State. “For a long time, the narrative was that the Spanish introduced peaches and then peaches spread very quickly. The reality is way more complicated. How quickly peaches spread is very much a product of Indigenous networks and land management.”

The researchers analyzed historical documents that mentioned peaches, such as the travel writings of French missionary explorer Jacques Marquette and English merchant Jonathan Dickinson. They also employed radiocarbon dating — a method that measures the decay of radioactive carbon-14 atoms in organic material — to determine the approximate ages of peach pits and other organic samples, like carbonized tree wood, from 28 archaeological sites and two regional locales where archaeologists previously recovered preserved peach pits. The sites were located in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.

The team found that peaches were likely widespread across Indigenous settlements in the interior southeast as early as the year 1620, roughly 100 years after the earliest Spanish expeditions in Florida and in Georgia’s Oconee Valley. The timing suggests that early Spanish settlements becoming important trade nodes within existing Indigenous networks created the necessary conditions for the spread of peaches, according to Holland-Lulewicz.

“Many narratives talk about the Spanish, or Europeans generally, arriving and then you see instantaneous changes to Indigenous histories and the spread of materials, but those initial interactions didn’t cause major changes,” he said. “It’s not until Spanish networks and Indigenous networks become entangled 100 years later that we have the necessary conditions for the spread of peaches.”

The team also identified what are possibly the earliest peaches in North America at a Muskogean farmstead in the Oconee Valley. In the 1990s, the late Penn State archaeologist James Hatch recovered peach pits from the bottom of post holes that once housed support structures for the farmstead’s house. The researchers radiocarbon dated charcoal, nuts and corn kernels from these post holes and found that occupation at the site began between 1520 and 1550 and ended between 1530 and 1570. This timing suggests that peaches had spread to the interior southeast possibly decades before the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, according to the researchers.

“Understanding the path that the introduction of species, such as peach trees, took through colonization and the role that Indigenous people and their long-term relationship with the environment played in shaping these histories demonstrates the importance of these events, people and processes to what becomes a broader American history,” said co-author Victor Thompson, Distinguished Research Professor of archaeology at the University of Georgia (UGA) and executive director of the Georgia Museum of Natural History. “Further, the fact that all of this work took place on museum specimens underscores the importance of maintaining these collections for future study.”

Indigenous peoples not only adopted the peach but selectively bred new varieties outnumbering the varieties found in Europe even at this early time, Holland-Lulewicz said.

“When Europeans started to move through and into the interior of the continent in the mid- to late 1600s, they noted that there were way more varieties of peaches being grown by Indigenous peoples than there were in Europe,” he said, explaining that the fruit had become an important aspect of Indigenous culture. “At this time, Europeans are noting really dense peach orchards around Indigenous towns, but some of these towns and people had never previously interacted with or even heard of Europeans. In fact, there are records of Indigenous peoples describing peaches as an Indigenous fruit.”

The fruit had become so integral to Indigenous history and culture that when the ancestors of the modern-day Muscogee (Creek) Nation were forcibly removed from Georgia and Alabama during the 1800s, they took peaches with them.

“There are Muscogee (Creek) peoples today who grow peaches as heritage crops,” Holland-Lulewicz said. “The act of growing and caring for those peaches is an important cultural practice. These were the first peaches introduced in the 1500s and 1600s that were then carried halfway across the continent and continue to be grown today.”

In addition to Holland-Lulewicz and Thompson, other collaborators include Amanda Roberts Thompson and Mark Williams at the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology, and Dario J. Chavez, University of Georgia; RaeLynn Butler, the Secretary of Culture and Humanities for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Turner Hunt, Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen; Jay Franklin, Logan Simpson Design; and John Worth, University of West Florida.

The UGA Laboratory of Archaeology and the Institute of Energy and the Environment at Penn State supported this work.

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-52597-8

Article Title

The initial spread of peaches across eastern North America was structured by Indigenous communities and ecologies

Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

Wetland investigations uncover network of pre-Columbian linear channels and ponds in Belize

University of New Hampshire

Excavation in wetlands of Belize — image:
Researchers doing reconnaissance in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary CTWS where they discovered evidence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility.
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Credit: Courtesy Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project

DURHAM, N.H.—(November 22, 2024)—An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire and her team have collected data which indicates the presence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility. Discovered in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary (CTWS), the largest inland wetland in Belize, the team dated the construction of these fisheries to the Late Archaic period (cal. 2000-1900 BCE), pre-dating Amazonian examples by a thousand years or more.

“The network of canals was designed to channel annual flood waters into source ponds for fish trapping and would have yielded enough fish to feed as many as 15,000 people year-round, conservatively,” said Eleanor Harrison-Buck, professor of anthropology and director of the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project. “The dates indicate that the fisheries were initially constructed by Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers and continued to be used by their Formative Maya descendants (approximately 2000 BCE to 200 CE). For Mesoamerica in general, we tend to regard agricultural production as the engine of civilization, but this study tells us that it wasn’t just agriculture—it was also potential mass harvesting of aquatic species.”

Published in the journal Science Advances, the research used 26 radiocarbon dates from test excavation sites in the CTWS, which indicate that such landscape-scale wetland enhancements may have been an adaptive response to long-term climate disturbance recorded in Mesoamerica between 2200 and 1900 BCE.

“The early dates for the canals surprised us initially because we all assumed these massive constructions were built by the ancient Maya living in the nearby city centers,” said Harrison-Buck. “However, after running numerous radiocarbon dates, it became clear they were built much earlier.”

Sediment samples were collected along the walls of the excavation units and sequenced for specific elements, such as nitrogen and carbon, to look for environmental changes over time. The sediment showed a strong tropical forest dominance during that period and no evidence of crop cultivation, specifically maize. Along with a lack of any pollen from domesticated crops, there were not any signs of ditched and drained agricultural fields in the immediate area dating to that time. The multiproxy data gathered suggests the distinctive long linear zigzag channels served primarily as large-scale fish-trapping facilities.

“It seems likely that the canals allowed for annual fish harvests and social gatherings, which would have encouraged people to return to this area year after year and congregate for longer periods of time,” said Marieka Brouwer Burg, professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont and BREA co-director. “Such intensive investments in the landscape may have led ultimately to the development of the complex society characteristic of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, which subsequently occurred in this area by around 1200 BCE.”

“Wetlands have always been a critical ecosystem for humans across the globe,” said Samantha Krause, professor of geography and environmental studies at Texas State University. “Knowing how to manage wetland resources responsibly is essential for the continued resilience of these ecosystems both in the past and today. The Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers knew how to protect their resources and use them in a way that could sustain these habitats, not exhaust them, which explains their long-lasting occupation in this area.”

With the support of the local community, the team plans to return to Crooked Tree to investigate a larger sample of these landscape-scale modifications that they have identified across a broad area of northern Belize, hoping to more fully understand the complexity of human-wetland interactions in the past.

Other co-authors include Mark Willis, department of archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia; Angelina Perrotti, Palynology & Environmental Archaeology Research Lab; Monona, Wisconsin; and Katie Bailey, department of anthropology, University of Vermont.

This research was funded by a grant from the Alphawood Foundation Chicago. Additional support was provided by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation. The Belize Institute of Archaeology provided an archaeological permit, granting permission to excavate in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The Crooked Tree Village Council welcomed the research team and permitted them to map and excavate in the wetlands around their community.

PHOTOS FOR DOWNLOAD

https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/harrisonbuck_wetlandexcavation.jpg

Caption: Eleanor Harrison-Buck, professor of anthropology at the University of New Hampshire and study lead, working on an excavation in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary (CTWS) wetlands in Belize.

Credit: Courtesy Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project

https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/reconnaissance_in_wetlands.jpeg

Caption: Researchers doing reconnaissance in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary CTWS where they discovered evidence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility.

Credit: Courtesy Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project

https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/1_op._46_excavation_in_the_ctws_wetlands_2019.jpg

Caption: Researchers excavating sediment that will be sequenced to help them date the evidence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility.

Credit: Courtesy Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project

https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/fishing_1.jpg

Caption: Modern day fishing continues in the wetland lagoons of the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary (CTWS).

Credit: Courtesy Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project

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About UNH
The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from 50 states and 87 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF, and NIH, and received over $250 million in competitive external funding in FY24 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adq1444

Emergency bulletin from science

Researchers and 14 scientific journals worldwide are calling on governments and industry to take coordinated action to collaboratively counter climate change harnessing microbiological research.

University of Konstanz

Such a paper is highly unusual, even for science: As many as 14 scientific journals published the call to action at the same time. In their paper, the researches call on governments and industry worldwide to promote in-depth microbiological research in six action areas that are particularly promising for tackling the problems of climate change:

"This paper is a call to action. By publishing concurrently across journals like an emergency bulletin, we are not merely making a plea for awareness about climate change. Instead, we are demanding immediate, tangible steps that harness the power of microbiology and the expertise of researchers and policymakers to safeguard the planet for future generations".

Christian Voolstra about the joint initiative: "This call for action is the first of its kind. It’s practically unheard of that journals co-publish a common message to amplify the reach". The coral researcher from Konstanz is one of 18 microbiologists who initiated the call. In his work, he focuses on microbiological methods to make corals more resistant to the warming of the oceans.

What is the call to action about?
Microbiological approaches are promising for developing solutions to central problems of climate change: for example, to bind CO2, to degrade pollutants, or to make living organisms more resilient to the effects of climate change – from corals to humans. In order to study these approaches, however, scientists are dependent on global cooperation, especially on support from politics and industry. They advocate for a coordinated cooperation between science, politics and industry – similar to the rapid development of vaccines at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a joint approach can deliver quick and effective solutions.

The researchers behind the call identified six particularly promising fields of action in the area of microbiological research that could bring about rapid success. These six fields of action are:

Carbon sequestration – using microbes to sequester carbon in soil and the ocean. This reduces the CO2 content in the atmosphere and enriches the soil for better plant growth.
Methane oxidation – using bacteria to reduce methane emissions from waste, for example in landfills, livestock farms and wetlands.
Bioenergy production– using microorganisms such as algae and yeast to produce biofuels to replace fossil fuels.
Bioremediation – using microbes to degrade pollutants from industrial waste, for example in construction sites or to clean up contaminated soil and water.
Microbial therapies – targeted use of microbes to strengthen the health of organisms and ecosystems: Certain bacteria, for example, can help to make corals more resilient to heat.
Nitrogen management – replacing synthetic nitrogen in fertilizers with natural bacteria to improve air and water quality.

Further examples of how microbial strategies can contribute to tackling the problems of climate change are listed in the joint paper. "We must ensure that science is at the forefront of the global response to the climate crisis", the 18 researchers conclude their call. "We are ready and willing to use our expertise, data, time and support for immediate action".

Key facts:

Original publication: Raquel Peixoto, Christian R. Voolstra, Lisa Y. Stein, Philip Hugenholtz, Joana Falcao Salles, Shady A. Amin, Max Häggblom, Ann Gregory, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Fengping Wang, Nadège Adoukè Agbodjato, Yinzhao Wang, Nianzhi Jiao, Jay T. Lennon, Antonio Ventosa, Patrik M. Bavoil, Virginia Miller & Jack A. Gilbert. Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe. Published in 14 scientific journals, November 2024.

Link (Nature Communications): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01861-0

Christian Voolstra is professor of genetics of adaptation in aquatic systems at the University of Konstanz. With his research, he has been working for years to mitigate the impacts on corals from climate change. He is the president of the International Coral Reef Society (ICRS).
To save coral reefs from climate change, Christian Voolstra recently proposed to declare coral protection a human right.

Building climate resilient cocoa farming in West Africa

International research team led by Göttingen University define optimal shade trees in agroforestry

University of Göttingen

image:
Cocoa tree with ripe fruits
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Credit: Issaka Abdulai

Agroforestry systems, which integrate trees and shrubs into farming, are vital to achieving sustainable cocoa production in West Africa where 70 percent of the world cocoa is produced. Climate change induced drought means that it is ever more critical to adapt farming practices and find new approaches. Research led by scientists from the University of Göttingen sheds light on a promising new approach to improve climate resilience in cocoa agroforestry across West Africa; this focuses on the critical role of leaf “phenology” – the seasonal changes in leaf cycles – in trees providing shade in managing climate impacts. The study discovered that the seasonal leaf cycles of shade trees can significantly influence the productivity of cocoa agroforestry systems as well as their resilience to global environmental change. The results were published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

It is known that shade trees can mitigate extreme environmental conditions. They can also compete for water and light resources. To explore the complex dynamics, a two-year field study in Ghana’s northern cocoa belt was carried out by an international team of researchers at the universities of Göttingen, Munich and Tübingen in Germany, as well as Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ghana. They monitored seasonal changes in the leaf cycles of different shade tree species, including canopy height, and light interception during wet and dry seasons. These trees were then assessed for their effects on microclimatic stability, soil moisture, and cocoa yields in their immediate vicinity.

The research team conducted extensive analyses and categorized shade trees into seven functional groups based on their leaf phenological cycles, each having distinct effects on cocoa yields and environmental stability. Among these groups, shade trees that lose their leaves entirely during the dry season proved especially beneficial in maintaining soil moisture; this is critical during drought periods to protect cocoa productivity. In contrast, trees which lose their leaves for a shorter time in the dry season result in high soil water demand; this could be detrimental in regions with longer dry seasons. Evergreen trees proved valuable in moderate climates but posed increased fungal disease risks in wetter conditions. "By using functional groupings based on leaf phenology, rather than focusing on the huge number of individual species, we offer practical guidelines for selecting shade trees that support climate resilient cocoa production," explained Dr Munir Hoffmann from Göttingen University’s Faculty of Agriculture, Tropical Plant Production and Agricultural Systems Modelling.

"This study sheds light on the importance of leaf phenology as a guiding trait for selecting shade trees that will enhance cocoa resilience to climate change," emphasises lead author Dr Issaka Abdulai, postdoctoral researcher at the same research group.

"We have shown that, if chosen judiciously, shade trees can be allies in both sustaining cocoa productivity and enhancing environmental stability," adds Professor Reimund Rötter, head of the research group. "Our results suggest a clear path forward for designing agroforestry systems that deliver higher resilience and sustainability."

This research was made possible thanks to funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Original publication: Abdulai, I. et al. Functional groups of leaf phenology are key to build climate-resilience in cocoa agroforestry systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Doi: 10.1016/j.agee.2024.109363

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