NSF Engines: Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE)’s Post

What I have learned over my MSc: Part 1 - The Earth System Almost all of the information you will learn at school, university, or college is available somewhere online or in a book. But, the process of finding it, curating it, and understanding it... that's where institutions can help (certainly for me). This document is a summary of the notes that I wrote up during my revision for an exam on the Earth System as part of my MSc in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford. The idea behind sharing it is the hope that it might be of interest to some as a starting point for exploring the subject themselves. In our first lecture our teacher, Myles Allen, said “don’t listen to the scientists: look at the evidence.” That was the guiding principle behind this module: to give us the skills to understand the evidence for human influence on climate beyond just "trusting scientists". Knowing how models work, what they are good at (and what they are bad at) was a key part of this. Throughout the course, we created both physical and digital models that don't feature in my notes but were a great practical way to solidify some of the concepts. I'd be very happy to send over information about how we did this if it is of interest to anyone. I hope the write-up is useful and I'm very happy to discuss any elements of it. It goes without saying that any mistakes you may spot are my own and not from the teaching! #education #environmentalchangeandmanagement #oxford #geography #climate

Masahiro Suzuki, PhD graduate from CEU’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, received one of the university’s Best Dissertation Awards this year in recognition of his thesis research titled “Political Acceleration in Energy Transitions: Historical Interventions and Their Outcomes in the G7 and the EU, compared to Net-Zero Targets”. 👏 Learn more about the aim of his groundbreaking research and the motivation behind it: https://lnkd.in/d2mRMGHT

The last chapter of my PhD thesis is finally published, so it's time to do the LinkedIn stuff. [writing something as if it was a human-life-changing invention with made-up buzzwords that sound scientific] The so-called 'future changes in climate variables' (a.k.a 'climate change') have little to no impact on basin-scale groundwater availability in many places, including in our test-case basin. Instead, we, humans, as the main users of such resources do. Using CMIP6 climate projections, diverging groundwater abstraction scenarios, and our approach in one-way coupled hydrological (Wflow_sbm) and groundwater flow (MODFLOW) models, we simulated the future groundwater availability and found those conclusions as mentioned earlier. [invitation to read the paper as if the majority of the reader were interested] Check the paper yourself should you are interested at: https://lnkd.in/eDn-UAhY [obligatory special thanks] Special thanks to my supervising teams Albrecht Weerts, Syed Mustafa, and @Victor Bense, all the chapters in my PhD thesis are now published!

Scientists Will Engineer the Ocean to Absorb More Carbon Dioxide A research consortium plans to revive geoengineering trials of the controversial iron fertilization technique to pull carbon dioxide from the air, despite public backlash Scientists plan to seed part of the Pacific Ocean with iron to trigger a surface bloom of phytoplankton that will hopefully suck carbon dioxide out of the air, reviving field trials of a geoengineering technique that has been taboo for more than a decade. On Sept. 9, 23 academics from Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions (ExOIS), a not-for-profit, noncommercial consortium, laid out a program in Frontiers in Climate to assess iron fertilization. The researchers want to better quantify how much CO2 this technique could sequester in the deep sea and what impacts it might have on marine ecosystems. They hope to start trials across as much as 10,000 square kilometers of the northeastern Pacific Ocean as soon as 2026, says consortium member Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the world will likely need to remove billions of metric tons of atmospheric CO2 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), and Buesseler says that fertilization could be “one of those pieces in that puzzle.” The ocean already contains much more carbon than Earth’s plants, crops and soils, he says, and it has the capacity to hold far more. Spreading iron, he adds, can “speed up” the natural biological carbon pump by promoting greater phytoplankton growth. During photosynthesis, phytoplankton consume CO2, sunlight and nutrients, including iron. But in many parts of the ocean, this element is rare. If some is delivered to these areas by windblown dust or volcanic ash—or by a ship deliberately pumping out an iron sulfate solution—a vast number of the microscopic organisms can quickly grow and multiply. When these creatures die or are eaten and excreted by larger ones, some of the carbon that they took up sinks to deep, slow-moving waters as “marine snow,” keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere for decades or centuries. ExOIS is trying to raise $160 million for the entire program. As a start, the scientists have received a $2-million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for computer modeling, and they are in talks with potential donors such as the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance, a philanthropic coalition funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg and others. ExOIS plans to apply to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for permission to conduct trials under the London Protocol, which in 2013 set an international ban on ocean iron fertilization for commercial purposes. The convention allows fertilization for research if it is monitored and doesn’t harm the environment. https://lnkd.in/g5A76tJB

Modeling Talk (9am PT, Tues Sep 17, 2024) The Future of River Water Quality at the Confluence of Physics-Based and Deep Learning Models Li Li, Penn State University https://lnkd.in/gsSRH3_C Talk Details: https://lnkd.in/g-TdHEJN Meet: https://lnkd.in/g4AAWkcK YouTube Stream: https://lnkd.in/g_wVVug3 Join for talk announcements: https://lnkd.in/g5ciuNuX Abstract: How does climate change alter water quality? This question has long been overlooked such that the effects of climate change on water quality have remained ‘invisible’. As an example, the most recent IPCC report discussed extensively climate risks associated with water quantity such as floods and droughts, but barely discusses the risks of inland water quality in the context of global climate risks. In particular, river water quality is often considered as influenced more by human activities such as land use and less by climate change, therefore often overlooked in climate risk assessments. Evidence however has been mounting, on the changing river water quality changes in a warming climate. For example, continental-scale data reconstructed using deep learning approaches have shown widespread river warming and deoxygenation in US and in Central Europe, at an extent more than those observed in rivers. Understanding and predicting river water quality is challenging, especially with intensifying climate extremes expected in the future. Complex processes and costly data collection contribute to data scarcity, making accurate predictions difficult. Traditional physics-based models often fall short in addressing these challenges. Deep learning has emerged as a promising yet underutilized tool for uncovering patterns in high-dimensional water quality data and for filling temporal and spatial data gaps. In this talk I will highlight the strengths and limitations of deep learning and physics-based methods, emphasizing its potential to advance the understanding and forecasting the future of river water-quality. Bio: Dr. Li Li (李黎) is the Barry and Shirley Isett professor in the Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Penn State University. Her group works at the intersections of hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology, and environmental engineering. She asks questions on how climate and human perturbations (e.g., land use) regulate hydrological and biogeochemical processes at earth surface and subsurface, ultimately shaping water quality. Her group uses big data, machine learning tools, and process-based reactive transport models to understand and forecast patterns and processes that drive temporal trends and spatial patterns of water quality from watershed to continental scales. #modeling #simulation #ai #ml #research #hydrology #watercycle #rivers #climatechange #floods #droughts #dataanalytics

📣 We would like to welcome our new PhD student, Ida Huusmann Knøfler, to the section.   Ida’s PhD focuses on the effects of climate change and permafrost thaw impact on freshwater quality in the Arctic, specifically Greenland.   ❄ Permafrost can contain a wide range of contaminants and organic matter accumulated over time. Given that permafrost underlies 22% of the Northern Hemisphere's exposed land surface and thawing is happening at an alarming rate, it is crucial to assess the potential release and transport of these chemical and microbial pollutants.   🌊 The primary objective of this PhD is to investigate their impact on drinking water, which is a subject that remains undocumented. The PhD is supervised by Pernille Erland Jensen.   We are very happy to have Ida join us at Materials and Durability - DTU Sustain!   #climatechange #Greenland #DTUSustain #Sustainability

Ethical framework aims to counter risks of geoengineering research

Environmental Science, Scientists, people with a science point of view are being left behind… Just because certain people do not understand the Science, doesnt mean that your experience is invalidated. The science of how things work, from an ecosystem point of view, to the Global scale of Planetary systems, is the reason we get involved in Environmental science. Understanding industrial processes, their individual aspects and potential impacts, is the crystallization point for which all other branches of the discipline, is created. Green washing, resume washing, background washing, all kinds of washing just to jump on the band wagon and make claims that cannot be discussed and justified, is what we continue to observe as time progresses. I hope the field of Environmental Science can be protected, one of the planets rarest and important resource, the environment that we live in. If you don’t know the science, just appreciate the work and experience and be an advocate for change. #EnvironmentalScience #Planetaryscience #EIA #Transformation #Recovery #Oilandgas #ProjectManagemt #Engineering #ADNOC #ARAMCO Photo: Gudauri Mountains Georgia 🇬🇪

Understanding Earth's past holds the key to unveiling its future. A recent article on Phys.org explores how scientists use sediment samples from peat bogs, lakes, saltmarshes, and deep oceans as time capsules to unlock the history of landscapes and climates. These layers of mud are far from ordinary—they store valuable clues that help researchers reconstruct environments spanning millions of years. By analyzing sediment cores, scientists gain insights into natural processes and human impacts, enriching our understanding of Earth’s intricate story. Curious about how the secrets buried in sediment can shape our perspective on environmental sustainability today? 🌍 Discover the science behind this fascinating work and how it sheds light on our planet’s journey through time in this insightful article. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dF4CAhA7 Source: Earth Sciences News - Earth and Environmental Sciences #Science #EarthSciences #EnvironmentalStudies #ClimateScience

From the Arctic to Alaska ❄️🌎 Doctoral student Ayse Akyildiz recently returned from a transformative research training trip to the Arctic. As part of the International Graduate School on the Emergence of Innovative Blue Economies in the Arctic, Ayse explored how climate change impacts food security and migration, key themes in her research focused on Alaska. The program brought together participants from across Arctic countries to study critical topics like renewable energy, infrastructure, and shifting Inuit life, while learning hands-on techniques like oceanographic sampling and connecting with Indigenous communities. https://ow.ly/Vx7h50UsEA5