Sustainable Pathways: Different Strategies (for Different Global Regions)

Karim Ahmed, University of Connecticut

Dr. Ahmed will discuss the state of Planet Earth in January 2022. At present, climate change, global water scarcity and biodiversity loss present both scientists and policy makers with an existential challenge in the near term that is unprecedented in human history. In addition, economic inequality between rich and poor countries continues to impede any progress being made in a socially-just context. Failure to address these globally looming issues in an integrated manner poses a crippling inability to address them with any sense of urgency. Although many “green” solutions and technological means are available to tackle these issues, it is our lack of moral vision and impoverished understanding of the human-nature linkage that has hindered us in moving in the right direction.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Witnessing climate change: What I have learned from my expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet

Åsa Rennermalm, Rutgers University

Greenland ice sheet and the Arctic region are experiencing some of the largest impacts of climate change on Earth. Since the 1990s, Greenland ice sheet surface melting has increased and is now one of the leading drivers of global sea‐level rise. For over a decade, my team and I have traveled to Greenland to study how climate change transforms the surface melting of the ice sheet. In this talk, I will share what we have learned from observing rivers on the ice sheet and tundra, and from extracting shallow ice cores high up on the ice sheet. Our ice cores show dramatically increased surface melting since the 1990s, but also a temporary melting slow‐down between 2013‐2018. In the rarely studies ice sheet surface rivers, we found surprising amounts of sediment deposited, increasing the absorption of solar radiation and melting. In this talk, I will take you on a virtual journey to one of the most remote places on earth and explore the footprints of climate change.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Sustainable land system transformations in shifting cultivation landscapes

Dominic Martin, University of Zurich

During my talk, I will give a broad introduction on shifting cultivation, associated sustainability challenges, and the case of north‐eastern Madagascar. Thereafter I will focus on land system transformations in shifting cultivation landscapes – both in Madagascar and elsewhere – showing that their drivers and consequences are highly diverse and context‐dependent. This is calling for a critical and contextualized appraisal of the continuation of, as well as the transition away from shifting cultivation when designing land system

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

America's Urban Sustainability Agenda: Advancing a Climate of Hope

H. James Quigley Jr., University of California Irvine

The 20th century in the USA was characterized, among other things, by historic national movements: feminism and women's suffrage; the labor movement; civil rights; the peace movement; and the environment. Indeed, the highly pronounced trends today in urban areas of all sizes around the country of a commitment to green our architecture while expanding public housing, conserve energy, further develop renewable energy resources, green public and private transportation, recover recyclable materials from the waste stream, expand parks and open space, advance public transportation, democratize food security, make public education and health care more comprehensive, improve urban air quality, and more wisely manage water resources demonstrate that the social justice and environmental movements have morphed into something that is institutionalized on a once unimagined scale. Urban governments now have a "sustainability agenda." That took collective action. Where is this movement going today? What are the lessons we can learn from it? What are the challenges it faces? What are some of the metrics we might use to measure progress? What are some of the established and emerging best practices being adopted by urban governments? Surely there are many worthy manifestations of these trends beyond our borders but due to time limitations this discussion will remain focused on our domestic scene as it attempts to address these questions.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

The Search For Earth's Oldest Ice

John Higgins, Princeton University

Over the past eight hundred thousand years, glacial–interglacial cycles oscillated with a period of one hundred thousand years (‘100k world’1). Ice core and ocean sediment data have shown that atmospheric carbon dioxide, Antarctic temperature, deep ocean temperature, and global ice volume correlated strongly with each other in the 100k world2–6. Between about 2.8 and 1.2 million years ago, glacial cycles were smaller in magnitude and shorter in duration (‘40k world’7). Proxy data from deep-sea sediments suggest that the variability of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the 40k world was also lower than in the 100k world8–10, but we do not have direct observations of atmospheric greenhouse gases from this period. Here we report the recovery of stratigraphically discontinuous ice more than two million years old from the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area, East Antarctica. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in ice core samples older than two million years have been altered by respiration, but some younger samples are pristine. The recovered ice cores extend direct observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and Antarctic temperature (based on the deuterium/hydrogen isotope ratio dDice, a proxy for regional temperature) into the 40k world. All climate properties before eight hundred thousand years ago fall within the envelope of observations from continuous deep Antarctic ice cores that characterize the 100k world. However, the lowest measured carbon dioxide and methane concentrations and Antarctic temperature in the 40k world are well above glacial values from the past eight hundred thousand years. Our results confirm that the amplitudes of glacial–interglacial variations in atmospheric greenhouse gases and Antarctic climate were reduced in the 40k world, and that the transition from the 40k to the 100k world was accompanied by a decline in minimum carbon dioxide concentrations during glacial maxima.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Bioinorganic Chemistry of Mineralized Titanium

Ann Valentine, Temple University

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust, and titanium minerals are widespread, yet conventional wisdom holds that biology has very little to do with titanium. The element has a reputation for extreme inertness that is belied by data from several experimental systems. This talk will address interactions between titanium minerals and biology at the molecular level, and will examine cases in which organisms and/or biomolecules induce the formation of, bind to, or dissolve titanium minerals.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Limits to Growth: Models and Theory

Gaya Herrington

Gaya will talk to us about her research on the Limits to Growth, based on the first system dynamics model of the world. Gaya will discuss what her research, covered extensively last year in the media, means for how we view economics, society, and ourselves.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Sustainable Manufacturing and Recycling Approaches for Lithium ion Battery

Amrita Sarkar, Montclair State University

Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are known to be one of the primary power sources for energy storage andconversion devices, including portable electronics and electric vehicles. State-of-the-art LIBsmanufacturing process is largely seeking advanced electrode production method with minimumenvironmental concern. Current manufacturing method is based on slurry casting process where atoxic solvent N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) is used. NMP is declared as a priority substance in USAunder the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) for having “unreasonable risk” and requires immediateregulatory action. Thus, sustainable fabrication of slurry-based electrode involving greener alternativeof NMP is needed urgently to mitigate risks to both environment and workers. Likewise, wide range ofLIBs use increases the risk of large number accumulation of spent LIBs. There is a serious environmentpollution threat, if the end-of-life batteries are disposed without proper recycling. Till today efforts torecycle LIBs have primarily focused on energy intensive pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy processesalong with use of toxic NMP. Sarkar Research Group recently developed an advanced cathodemanufacturing method and direct cathode recycling design using two green organic solvents,alternatives of toxic NMP. In this presentation, I will elaborate our research finding.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Thinking creatively about functional diversity and functional traits (BEF)

Shahid Naeem, Columbia University

Understanding the impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functions and services represents a major focus of contemporary environmental biology, but its progress hinges on advances in the study of functional diversity. Traditional approaches to functional diversity, however, have centered on taking virtually any measure of an organism’s biology, or an organism’s functional traits (OFTs), often assuming that variation in OFTs among species reflects ecological and evolutionary tradeoffs. Contemporary issues, however, require more creative approaches to the quantification and analysis of OFTs. Here, I present results from four of our group’s research that illustrate the value of more creative approaches to OFTs; (1) nutritional traits of fish, (2) vulnerability traits of birds, (3) thermal traits of plants, and (4) correlated traits in island biogeographic systems. This wide array of studies provides a more nuanced framework for linking the loss of functional diversity to changes in ecosystems and their functions and services.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Environmental consequences of depleted stratospheric ozone layer and the biology of skin cancer

Carlos Molina, Montclair State University

The stratospheric ozone layer is Earth's “sunscreen” – protecting living things from too much ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The emission of ozone depleting substances has been damaging the ozone layer. Due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which has limited, and is now probably reversing, the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, only modest increases in solar UV-B radiation at the surface of the Earth have occurred. For many fair-skinned populations, changing behavior with regard to exposure to the sun has also contributed to lower the exposure to UV-B radiation. The skin and eyes are the organs exposed to solar UV radiation. Excessive solar irradiation causes skin cancer.

Melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer that begins in melanocytes, the pigment-producing cells responsible for skin color. While melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases, its numbers are rising, and it carries a poor prognosis when diagnosed late. The most commonly mutated genes in human melanoma, BRAF is mutated in 50-70% of all tumors. Dr. Molina’s laboratory uses a zebrafish model for the development of melanoma. This animals were engineered using transgenic molecular biology tools to express the human BRAF oncogene specifically in the melanocytes of the fish. Recapitulating human skin cancer, these transgenic zebrafish developed melanomas. Dr. Molina’s lab uses these animals to study novel genetics and non-genetics events leading to melanoma. Data will be discussed on how this melanoma animal model can be used to develop novel approaches to study melanoma genesis and possible treatments modalities.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Paleo-perspectives on marine and terrestrial ice sheets

Lauren Simkins, University of Virginia

The geological record of deglaciated landscapes extends spatial and temporal perspectives on ice-sheet processes and behavior that transcend the timeframe of modern instrumental observations. Based on geophysical, remote sensing, and sedimentological data from Antarctica and North America, I will discuss my group’s work on reconstructions of past ice-sheet changes and understanding processes and conditions that contribute to those changes, including subglacial meltwater drainage, grounding line retreat, and influence of topography on ice flow. The work that I will present highlights the importance of understanding past ice-sheet changes in assessing the stability of contemporary glacial systems – and what the multi-faceted term of stability means in this context.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Global Climate Change Driven by Marine Methane Hydrate Dissociation: Reality or Fiction?

Yige Zhang, Texas A&M University

Methane hydrate dissociation has long been considered as a mechanism for global carbon cycle perturbations, climate change and even mass extinctions in Earth’s history. However, direct evidence of hydrate destabilization and methane release that coincides with such events is scarce. We use diagnostic lipid biomarkers directly linked to methanotrophic microorganisms to track the dissociation of gas hydrates in Earth’s Cenozoic history. We show biomarker and compound-specific isotope evidence of methane release and oxidation at several climate change events, suggesting that aerobic oxidation of methane in seawater which consumes oxygen and acidifies the ocean is a key process that drives climate and biogeochemistry changes.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

The Ecology and Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity: Insights from Amphibians

Rick Relyea, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Nearly every species on the planet exhibits traits that are the product of the genes they possess and the environments in which they live. Dr. Relyea will examine the ecological and evolutionary insights from more than two decades of studying amphibians as a model system, including the many different predator, competitor, and contaminant environments that induce changes in behavior, morphology, and life history. He will also explore the phylogenetic patterns in how plastic traits have evolved, including how traits and trait plasticities can exhibit dramatically different evolutionary patterns.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

More crops, less drops? Agriculture and climate interactions via soils

Sonali Shukla McDermid, New York University

There is an increasing focus on reducing agricultural GHG emissions, while also facilitating cropping systems’ adaptation to climate change. Much of this combined agriculture mitigation and adaptation work centers on managed soils’ carbon and nutrient processes, and interactions with water. I will present two on-going projects evaluating agricultural soil-water-crop interactions and discuss implications for climate mitigation and/or adaptation. I will first describe new, on-going work using an integrated climate-crop modeling framework to Asia. Preliminary results suggest that while specific combinations of management options, including conservation water and soil management, can provide mitigation and adaptation benefits, several trade-offs may exist between yield, GHG reductions, water use efficiency and other key biophysical dimensions.

Furthermore, some socio-economic dimensions, e.g. on-farm labor availability, are still largely under-explored but may serve as important constraints on the adoption and scaling of alternative management. I will then zoom out to the global scale to briefly overview recent work quantifying how large-scale soil degradation on managed lands may impact climate adaptation in major agricultural areas via changes in soil water holding capacity. In doing so, I will highlight why new approaches to soil and water management are critical to agricultural mitigation and adaptation goals, and consider major research needs, uncertainties, and ways forward to address them from a modeling perspective.

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM