tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2009-11-19:/ione/eyeonearth//11186 2013-05-14T13:15:20Z Offering a window on the everyday activities of Institute on the Environment staff and fellows who are working to solve some of the the world’s biggest problems. From providing food to a growing human population to reducing loss of biodiversity and tackling emerging diseases, read what we're up to and join the conversation about how small steps lead to big solutions to Earth's most pressing environmental challenges. Movable Type Enterprise 4.31-en tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.395396 2013-05-10T21:41:05Z 2013-05-14T13:15:20Z

Living things that lurk beneath the surface of the soil have huge impacts on living things above, influencing everything from individual plants' ability to obtain nutrients to the integrity of the elaborate food webs that keep animals of all shapes...

Mary Hoff Living things that lurk beneath the surface of the soil have huge impacts on living things above, influencing everything from individual plants' ability to obtain nutrients to the integrity of the elaborate food webs that keep animals of all shapes and sizes alive. Now, thanks to research by IonE resident fellows Peter Reich (College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences), Sarah Hobbie (College of Biological Sciences) and colleagues, it's clear that what's happening above the surface has a huge impact on the living things below as well.
]]> In a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Reich, Hobbie, postdoctoral fellow Nico Eisenhauer and colleagues reported that in the BioCON experiment at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, as the number of prairie plant species was reduced experimentally, the abundance of a variety of soil organisms, including microorganisms, nematodes and mites, declined as well.

The researchers suspect the declines likely are caused by decreased overall plant growth and plant inputs to soils when plant species richness is lowered, leading to reduced soil organic matter and associated resources to support soil food webs.

In contrast, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen had few effects on the soil community. The researchers' conclusion: losses in plant diversity are a major driver of losses in soil biodiversity.

To learn more, check out Plant Diversity Effects on Soil Food Webs are Stronger Than Those of Elevated CO2 and N Deposition in a Long-Term Grassland Experiment.

A version of this post originally appeared in the College of Biological Sciences' CBS News. Used with permission. Photo of Cedar Creek experimental plots by Tim Rummelhoff]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.395067 2013-05-07T15:35:13Z 2013-05-07T17:10:02Z

BY CHERYL REITANTom Johnson, a University of Minnesota Duluth Regents professor and Institute on the Environment resident fellow, knew his work on Lake Malawi in 2005 would yield significant scientific discoveries. Now, eight years later, he and his colleagues have...

Mary Hoff BY CHERYL REITAN

Tom Johnson, a University of Minnesota Duluth Regents professor and Institute on the Environment resident fellow, knew his work on Lake Malawi in 2005 would yield significant scientific discoveries. Now, eight years later, he and his colleagues have announced research that impacts our knowledge of the near extinction of the human race. They have determined that 75,000 years ago, the Toba volcanic eruption in Sumatra did not cause a volcanic winter or the dramatic drop in human population in Africa, as some anthropologists had proposed.
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In October 2010, Johnson arranged for UMD graduate student Ben Chorn to take a two-week course with Christine Lane, a geographer at the University of Oxford, to examine Lake Malawi sediment samples from 75,000 years ago, looking for the Toba ash. Following this training, Chorn returned to UMD to carry on the search, with frequent communication with Lane.  

After more than a year of analyzing a number of volcanic ash layers derived from volcanoes in nearby Tanzania, they found a specific volcanic ash from the Toba explosions on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.  This was the largest volcanic eruption of the past 2.5 million years, thousands of times greater than Krakatoa (1883) or Pinatubo (1991). Evidence of Toba's giant plume of ash was previously found from the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea, but never before in Africa.

About the same time as the Toba eruption took place, genetic evidence points to a drop in the number of our species, Homo sapiens, in Africa. Lake Malawi is located in the East African Rift Valley, where our ancestors emerged about 200,000 years ago. "Something created a population 'bottleneck' around 75,000 years ago, at the time of the Toba eruption," said Johnson. The human population dropped cataclysmically to near-extinction levels, some estimating the remaining population consisted of only 1,000-10,000 individuals. For decades, many scientists have embraced the theory that most of the people in Africa were killed when Toba's eruption caused a global volcanic winter where sunlight was obstructed, plants died, and the planet cooled.

Lane, Chorn and Johnson have disproved that theory. They published the paper, "Ash from the Toba super eruption in Lake Malawi shows no volcanic winter at 75 ka," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences April 29, 2013.

Through examination of the sediment cores taken from Lake Malawi, Chorn found a thin layer of the distinctive glass-like shards of Toba ash. "Ben had to conduct an elaborate search, one centimeter at a time, to find the tiny shards, smaller than the diameter of a human hair," said Lane. The chemical analysis by Lane definitively ties the fragments to the Toba eruption. Now it is proven that the volcanic ash traveled 4,350 miles from its source in Sumatra, about twice the distance as previously thought.
   
In addition, Johnson examined the algae and other organic matter in the layer that contained the ash from Toba. The organic matter showed no evidence of a significant temperature drop in East Africa, indicating the environment recovered quickly from the atmospheric disturbance from Toba.

"There may have been effects from the Toba eruption for a few seasons, but no prolonged, substantial impact on the climate," said Johnson. If the area had seen dramatic cooling because of all the ash and sulfur spewed into the atmosphere, the lake's ecosystem would have changed measurably, significantly altering the composition of the lake's mud.

The results of this study at UMD's Large Lakes Observatory indicate that the Toba volcanic eruption did not sway the course of human history as much as some previously thought. "We can now rule out the widely touted theory that humans nearly became extinct 75,000 ago as a result of the Toba super-volcano eruption," said Johnson. "The data don't support it." Johnson said it may have been another catastrophe, such as a disease, that caused the drop in human population at about that time.

Cheryl Reitan is interim director of public relations and marketing for the University of Minnesota Duluth. Photos courtesy of Tom Johnson. A version of this article originally appeared on the UMD website. Reprinted with permission.]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.394384 2013-04-30T20:10:02Z 2013-05-07T16:22:50Z

BY MONIQUE DUBOSHow can we build long-term capacity to produce sustainable solutions and resilient institutions? How can we foster innovation in engagement and cross-disciplinary collaboration in universities? Carissa Schively Slotterback, IonE resident fellow and associate professor at the Humphrey School...

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

How can we build long-term capacity to produce sustainable solutions and resilient institutions? How can we foster innovation in engagement and cross-disciplinary collaboration in universities? Carissa Schively Slotterback, IonE resident fellow and associate professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, addressed these questions during the April 24 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "University-Community Collaboration to Advance Sustainability."
]]> Resilient Communities Project, "a direct response to the growing need to find sustainability solutions to issues facing our communities, by connecting the wide-ranging expertise of U of M faculty and students with cities, businesses and organizations in Minnesota," according to the RCP website.  

RCP works with a community for one year on planning, policy and infrastructure projects identified by the community, Slotterback said. "RCP works as facilitator, matchmaker, trouble-shooter, quality controller and promoter," she said.

For the 2012-2013 academic year, RCP matched 23 U of M courses to 14 sustainability projects for the City of Minnetonka. Students in the courses got real-time experience working in real-world situations. For example, students from the School of Architecture and the Law School worked on a stormwater management project, and course participants in the Department of Geography and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs tackled Minnetonka's parking and land use project.

The overall focus of RCP is to respond to "multiple intersecting opportunities and trends, with the potential to make significant progress and infuse energy in a city's move toward sustainability and resilience," said Slotterback.

Like to learn more? You can watch a video of Slotterback's Frontiers presentation here. And please join us for the final Frontiers talk of the semester Wednesday, May 1, when Laura Musacchio, IonE resident fellow and associate professor of landscape architecture in the College of Design, speaks on "Knowledge Systems for Ecosystem Services: Where does the Cultural Dimension Fit In?"

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.393706 2013-04-25T13:29:10Z 2013-04-25T17:39:31Z

Mary Hoff

The warnings about the negative health impacts of consuming food grown using pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals echo across the food movement landscape, with research to back up those claims.
 
But insufficient studies exist to explain the effects of food nutrients on toxicity.  For example, what effect does dietary folate have on arsenic elimination?
]]> Kim Robien, IonE resident fellow and associate professor of epidemiology and community health in the School of Public Health, and colleagues are working to improve the tools used to conduct such research.
 
In the April 17 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "Are All Tomatoes Created Equal? Maybe It's Not Just What We Eat but How Our Food Gets to the Table That Matters for Health," Robien explained the limitations of current research.

Data come primarily from cell culture and animal models, not live humans, she said, and there aren't data on combined toxicity and nutrient interactions. Most studies focus on acute toxicity as a result of high-dose exposure, but they need to be  looking at chronic low-dose exposure as well.
 
Large studies are needed to evaluate interactions between diet and environmental exposure. But such studies can be cost-prohibitive -- and with participants self-reporting using multiple-choice surveys, results are broad and imprecise. For example, with current tools, the participants' responses can capture nutrient content of the food they consume, but not whether it was cooked, raw, canned or organic, said Robien.
 
Robien and her colleagues are developing data collection tools that better capture data on both nutrient and environmental exposures.
 
Like to learn more? You can view a video of Robien's talk here. And please join us for future Frontiers in the Environment talks, or view past presentations on topics from biodiversity to watersheds.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota.
]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.392666 2013-04-17T18:12:01Z 2013-04-17T21:30:36Z

BY PAUL C. WEST Many of the increases in food production during the Green Revolution can be attributed to a single element in the periodic table -- nitrogen. Begun in the early 1900s as an effort to convert nitrogen gas...

Mary Hoff BY PAUL C. WEST

Many of the increases in food production during the Green Revolution can be attributed to a single element in the periodic table -- nitrogen. Begun in the early 1900s as an effort to convert nitrogen gas from the air we breathe into a solid form that could propel ammunition farther, the Haber-Bosch process later became the key mechanism for boosting crop yields through mass production of nitrogen fertilizer. Unfortunately, excess nitrogen degrades our drinking water quality, causes many coastal areas to be oxygen-depleted "dead zones," and adds a very powerful greenhouse gas to our atmosphere. How can we manage our farmlands more effectively?
]]> National Geographic to create an infographic on excess nitrogen in croplands based on our research.

Two points should be obvious from the map. First, China, India and the United States have the bulk of the world's nitrogen that remains in the soil instead of being taken up by crops. This excess is generally a short-term resident in the soil and quickly leaches to steams, lakes, and eventually coastal areas. Second, most of Africa and much of Asia have a deficit of nitrogen. In these areas, more nitrogen is used to grow the crops than is replaced by manure and synthetic fertilizer. This process essentially mines the soil, depleting nutrients and lowering future crop yields.

However, a third point may not be immediately obvious. Farms with the highest excess nitrogen per area of cropland are not necessarily the biggest source of nitrogen reaching the coast. Think of it like vehicle fuel efficiency. Yes, gas-guzzling monster trucks use a lot of fuel for each mile they're driven, but the total fuel used in a few trucks is small compared to millions of higher efficiency cars driven during long daily commutes. The same is true for agriculture. For example, crop production is more nitrogen efficient in the central than southeastern USA, but is a much larger source of nitrogen pollution because so much of the landscape is farmed.

The map below post presents the same data as excess nitrogen across the entire landscape (not just croplands). This alternate version of the map highlights the main source of excess nitrogen more effectively than does the version in National Geographic, but is less effective at depicting nitrogen use efficiency on croplands.

An alternate version of the excess nitrogen data, which highlights the major sources of excess nitrogen rather than the efficiency for each cropland area. This map was presented in a similar form in Foley et al. 2011, Nature.


Our team is currently working to identify places to target action for increasing food production while decreasing the negative effects of fertilizer and other management practices. Please check out the interactive map online at National Geographic and let us know what you think!

Special thanks to my colleagues James Gerber, Peder Engstrom, Nathan Mueller and Jon Foley, who helped me on this project.

Paul West is chief collaboration officer for the Institute on the Environment's Global Landscapes Initiative at the University of Minnesota. Follow him on Twitter: @coolfireconserv 

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Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS
More than 2 million people die each year from the health complications of air pollution, such as heart disease, lung cancer, asthma and acute lower respiratory infections, according to the World Health Organization.
 
Julian Marshall, IonE resident fellow and assistant professor of environmental engineering in the College of Science and Engineering, addresses the problem of air pollution by asking three questions.
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Marshall offered insights into all three at his Frontiers in the Environment presentation April 10, "Air Pollution Kills! So What?"

In one project he presented at the talk, Marshall and his research team looked at satellite photos of cities of similar population but different shape, measuring compactness, contiguity (what percentage of buildings are immediately adjacent to one another) and air quality.
 
In a second project, the team worked with a non-governmental organization to distribute high-efficiency cooking stoves to a village in rural India, where 500,000 people die each year from indoor air pollution.
 
For the third project, they measured pollution and distribution of electricity (from coal, wind and solar), diesel, compact natural gas, ethanol and gasoline levels across the U.S.
 
There were some unexpected results. To learn what Marshall and his team discovered to be the best solutions to reduce air pollution and save lives, watch the April 10 Frontiers seminar, "Air Pollution Kills! So What?"

And join us at noon CT April 17 in St. Paul or live online for the next Frontiers talk: "Are All Tomatoes Created Equal? Maybe It's Not Just What We Eat, but How Our Food Gets to the Table That Matters for Health" by Kim Robien, IonE resident fellow and associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.390813 2013-04-03T20:12:15Z 2013-04-04T19:56:46Z

BY FRED ROSEOver spring break, it's not unusual to go south to get some sun, but I took it to an extreme. I spent the week a few miles north of the equator, in Kampala, Uganda, teaching Makerere University students...

Mary Hoff BY FRED ROSE

Over spring break, it's not unusual to go south to get some sun, but I took it to an extreme. I spent the week a few miles north of the equator, in Kampala, Uganda, teaching Makerere University students about social entrepreneurship.

This course at Makerere University is part of the USAID-sponsored RESPOND program, in which the University of Minnesota is playing a major role. RESPOND is creating capacity to strengthen outbreak response for emerging infectious diseases from humans, domestic animals and wildlife.
]]> One Health. The integrated field experience alone makes this program at Makerere innovative, but adding the social entrepreneurship slant really pushes the boundary. The RESPOND program has done a terrific job in working with Makerere and several other universities in Africa to get these field experiences in place. They have done all the hard work; I just came in to teach this course.

The course consisted of about 60 students, a mix of veterinary medicine, public health and nursing majors. We met three hours a day for five days. Even though the course was held 4-7 p.m., at the tail end of a long day of classes, the students were all engaged all week. This was a shorter version of the five-day course I have taught several times both in Minnesota and India. The objectives for the student outcomes included:

* to learn how to think about the problems they see in terms of entrepreneurship (which they already are very familiar with from daily life in Uganda)

* to be exposed to, and understand, an existing range of social ventures in India and Africa

* to understand customer interaction and assessment (design thinking), value propositions and social impact and how to use that in their upcoming field experience

* to practice these on a problem they identify.
 
The students' understanding of problems and context was very high, and that showed in complete empathy and context maps (in other words, very good customer understanding), but the terminology used in business models was new to them. The concepts of value and making money are not, but we had to spend some time creating "translations" from public health lingo to business venture lingo. And for the students to sort out my American accent. As I learned while teaching in India, English is a little different in every English-speaking country.

Next steps include a follow-on with these students, probably in early July, to work on ideas they developed during their field experience; and then repeating the process for a university in Tanzania in August and September.

I had the opportunity to meet with a local social entrepreneur on the last day I was there. Vincent is founder of Green Bio Energy and Briketi, in Kampala. His venture is a few years old, seeking funding, and running into many of the same challenges we have seen in India ventures.

I really had little chance to see much of the city, let alone the country. Overall, my two visits to sub-Saharan Africa (I was in Ghana a few years ago) remind me a lot of India when I started working there about 10 years ago. The one difference is the preponderance of aid organizations and non-governmental organizations in Africa. It was really astonishing to see so many trucks with NGO names on them, and it's easy to see why there is such a flourishing debate about the effectiveness of aid (see Dead Aid, Enough, The End of Poverty, and the book we require in our Acara courses, Poor Economics). This is an important discussion but a topic for a longer blog entry in the future.

Overall, I am pretty excited by the results and potential with collaboration of One Health initiatives and Acara. The goals and strategies are very well aligned, and the structure in the field experiences being developed in Uganda and Tanzania are the kind of institutionalizing that is needed to make an long-term impact.

Fred Rose is director of Acara, an IonE program that gives university students a chance to envision and launch successful social businesses. Photo courtesy of the author. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.390458 2013-04-01T12:53:50Z 2013-04-01T13:20:02Z

BY LAUREN WERNER-FOLEYIt always seems that the more extreme the seasons, the more extreme the opinions about them tend to be. Here in Minnesota, as spring arrives and the cold snowy winter says goodbye, we hear a multitude of opinions,...

Mary Hoff BY LAUREN WERNER-FOLEY

It always seems that the more extreme the seasons, the more extreme the opinions about them tend to be. Here in Minnesota, as spring arrives and the cold snowy winter says goodbye, we hear a multitude of opinions, ranging from "I love winter!" to "Finally!" to "I wish it were summer all year long."

Then we see changes occurring around us, such as the beginning of mosquito season, flowers blooming, the return of the geese, the end of cold and flu season.

These events and ones like them are part of phenology, or the timing of biological events. People can do more than casually observe phenology when it affects us. Observing phenology in a scientific way is important, because phenology is driven by climate and our climate is changing.

IonE resident fellow Rebecca Montgomery is working to make tracking phenology more accessible to the public through the Minnesota Phenology Network  (MnPN). With support from the Institute on the Environment, she and her colleagues are developing a statewide observing program for scientists, educators and citizens alike. Using observation protocols from the USA National Phenology Network, network participants record observations in phenology of key Minnesota species, such as the common loon and red maple. Those observations then go to scientists who explore how phenology changes in response to climate change.

The MnPN holds a conference in southeastern Minnesota each spring. Anyone interested in phenology (or spending quality time outside in the warmer weather) is invited to come and share in events, such as speakers, discussions, guided nature walks and demonstrations. This year's conference is April 5-7 at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro.

You can be a part of the event! Sign up here or contact Chris Buyarski at buyar002@umn.edu with any questions.

Lauren Werner-Foley is an editorial intern at the Institute on the Environment. Photo courtesy of stpaulgirl via Flickr | Creative Commons ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.389704 2013-03-26T15:03:13Z 2013-03-26T15:21:28Z

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

Imagine living in a region where your livelihood depended on the frequent flooding of your property.  David Lipset has lived with and chronicled the lives of people who make such a location their home. He shared how a population of roughly 3,000 in the Murik Lakes region of Papua New Guinea is being effected by rising sea levels at the March 6 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "A Mangrove Lagoon in the Time of Climate Change: The Politics, Science and Culture of an Intertidal Environment in Papua New Guinea."
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Mangroves provide important ecosystem services, such as protection from storm surges and carbon sequestration in sediment or in the forest biomass in which they grow, said Lipset. With increasingly violent storm surges and more frequent inundation, the mangrove environment is deteriorating, making it harder for the Murik to survive, according to Lipset.
 
The United Nations has established a program for financing mangrove conservation in other parts of the world, which has been found to be an effective intervention for mitigating climate change. The Murik hope the program will expand to Papua New Guinea, when they would be paid as "mangrove tenders," according to Lipset.

To learn more about the role mangroves and climate change play in the lives of the Murik people, check out the video recording of Lipset's Frontiers talk.

And join us at noon CT April 10 in St. Paul or live online for the next Frontiers in the Environment talk: "Air Pollution Kills! So What?" by IonE resident fellow Julian Marshall, an assistant professor of environmental engineering in the College of Science and Engineering.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota.

]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.389205 2013-03-18T13:56:09Z 2013-03-20T20:04:07Z

BY SIMONE ANZIONIonE resident fellow Randel Hanson, a faculty member in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is working to create institutional change around food systems. He has developed a 10-acre organic farm to grow produce...

Mary Hoff
IonE resident fellow Randel Hanson, a faculty member in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is working to create institutional change around food systems. He has developed a 10-acre organic farm to grow produce for UMD dining services. The farm provides dining services with an opportunity to reintegrate minimally processed foods and move toward procuring more produce from area farmers. It also provides students with experiential learning opportunities around food and agricultural systems.

In effort to institutionalize sustainability around food, Hanson has spent a lot of time bringing together the different parts of the University to build a more collaborative, sustainable system. Hanson says, "These entities - administrative, academic, operations, etc. - have evolved rationally to do their job, but they often work irrationally in relation to one another from the viewpoint of sustainability, at cross purposes in carrying out their respective missions, and most often in ways that make each other's work less fluid." He says there remain significant challenges to move from symbolic to more substantive changes as well to institutionalize the project.
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"In the case of food and agriculture, cheap food is bankrupting us from the health costs it is creating, not to mention borrowing from future generations by living off of and degrading the natural capital of soil, fresh water systems and biodiversity in general," he says. With UMD's dining service the only self-operated one in the University of Minnesota system, remaining economically viable plays a large role in the transformation toward healthier and more sustainable food.

In two years UMD has seen significant progress in the evolution of its dining service toward greater local procurement and scratch cooking. Hanson hopes UMD can lead the way in establishing sustainable practices among other institutions.   

Hanson says food and agriculture provide a great medium to learn how to harmonize natural and human systems. "We're all part of nature and we all eat," he says. "If we can model sustainable institutions, we can make a giant contribution to the world."

Hanson says he's inspired by area sustainable farmers, both old and young, as well as by students for whom food has become one of the big issues of the current generation. His heroes include leaders in the sustainable agriculture movement, such as Wes Jackson and Michael Pollan.

Simone Anzion is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. When not studying, she's wandering around the Twin Cities on her bicycle and always on the search for a new adventure. Photo of Randel Hanson courtesy of Christiana Kapsner. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.388474 2013-03-12T14:17:22Z 2013-03-14T09:47:37Z

BY MONIQUE DUBOSSolar power in Minnesota is inevitable. That was the message delivered by Fresh Energy executive director Michael Noble at the March 6 Frontiers in the Environment talk, "Unleashing Minnesota's Solar Power Potential." Fresh Energy is leading a campaign...

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

Solar power in Minnesota is inevitable. That was the message delivered by Fresh Energy executive director Michael Noble at the March 6 Frontiers in the Environment talk, "Unleashing Minnesota's Solar Power Potential." Fresh Energy is leading a campaign to bolster the state's clean energy future. 
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Noble acknowledged the many barriers to switching from fossil fuel-based energy to solar, comparing it to rebuilding an airplane midflight. He listed financing obstacles, the current energy industry structure and the varying business models needed to accommodate solar generation in homes, stadiums and commercial buildings as some of the barriers. Fresh Energy has identified solutions to each of these barriers, including passage of the pending legislation.

Like to learn more? You can watch Noble's Frontiers talk here. 

And join us at noon CT March 13 in St. Paul or live online for the fifth Frontiers in the Environment talk of the season - A Mangrove Lagoon in the Time of Climate Change: The Politics, Science and Culture of an Intertidal Environment in Papua New Guinea by David Lipset, a professor of anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts. Almost like a tropical vacation!

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.387468 2013-03-04T22:28:18Z 2013-03-14T09:48:31Z

BY MONIQUE DUBOSWhat is noise, and how does it affect the natural world? These are among the questions Mark Pedelty, IonE resident fellow and College of Liberal Arts associate professor, posed at his February 27 Frontiers in the Environment seminar,...

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

What is noise, and how does it affect the natural world? These are among the questions Mark Pedelty, IonE resident fellow and College of Liberal Arts associate professor, posed at his February 27 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "Sound Ecology: The Environmental Effects of Mechanical Noise and Human Music."

Pedelty is hoping to influence land development policy to take the effects of mechanical and human noise into account. For example, he noted that some songbirds sing louder and at a higher pitch in urban landscapes, and industrial noise has been shown to inhibit foraging and reproduction in certain frog species.
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"It's not just a matter of how sound affects us, but a matter of not being able to hear certain environments, which can affect how we preserve them," he said.

Pedelty is planning a prospective study to get a sense of the relationships between human noise and animal noise. He will compare a relatively untouched area of Orcas Island, part of the San Juan archipelago in Washington state, to another, more highly developed area of the island. He hopes to learn how development choices in the latter can shape - or limit - development choices in the former.

Development policy looks at factors like scoping and environmental impact, but has left out sound as a consideration, said Pedelty.

Like to learn more? You can watch Pedelty's Frontiers talk here. You are also invited to stop by the IonE Commons, Room 350 Learning & Environmental Sciences, to view an interactive exhibit of Pedelty's work, Ecomusicology Listening Room. 

And join us at noon CT March 6 in St. Paul or live online for the fourth Frontiers in the Environment talk of the season - Unleashing Minnesota's Solar Power Potential by Michael Noble, executive director of Fresh Energy.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.386860 2013-02-27T21:19:12Z 2013-02-27T22:15:49Z

Mary Hoff

Hamburger or hummus? Organic or conventional? Mediterranean diet or McDonald's?

If you're puzzled by which dietary choices are truly the most sustainable when you consider that what we eat affects not just our health but also the environment and the well-being of others, check out Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective, a new MOOC (massive open online course) developed and taught by IonE resident fellow Jason Hill, McKnight Land-Grant Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

The eight-week course, which begins in May and is offered online at no charge through Coursera, will provide an overview of our global food system and its many impacts, from the individual to the global scale. Participants will gain appreciation of the complex implications of choices that are made along the food supply chain and be challenged to think critically about how the global food system may need to change to adapt to future economic and environmental conditions.

No special background is required for the course. Participants will investigate current topics in food sustainability and have the opportunity to participate in discussions with other participants from all over the world. Case studies, readings and other resources will emphasize that responsible decisions about what to eat require that we consider the entire global food supply chain and its full set of economic, environmental and social consequences.

Like to learn more? Check out Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective for details and registration information. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.386390 2013-02-23T12:26:44Z 2013-02-25T13:52:19Z

BY MONIQUE DUBOSTim Bristol is playing offense. That's how the Trout Unlimited Alaska director described his group's efforts to protect Alaska's vital watersheds at the Feb. 20 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "Watersheds: Clean Water, Wild Places, Healthy Communities." Trout...

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

Tim Bristol is playing offense. That's how the Trout Unlimited Alaska director described his group's efforts to protect Alaska's vital watersheds at the Feb. 20 Frontiers in the Environment seminar, "Watersheds: Clean Water, Wild Places, Healthy Communities."

Trout Unlimited Alaska is fighting to protect two critical habitats and communities that rely on them: Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska and the Tongass National Forest in the southeastern panhandle. Both areas boast productive salmon fisheries that have vital economic benefit to the communities that rely on them, said Bristol. Both are at risk from development projects that threaten the health of their watersheds.
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Advocating for protection of Bristol Bay, Trout Unlimited has reached out to a broad constituency of fishermen, Native Alaskans, sports enthusiasts and business owners from across the country. It hopes to make Bristol Bay a national conservation icon by rallying opposition to Pebble Mine. Bristol said he hopes individuals and groups will convince the Obama administration to invoke a section of the Clean Water Act that would deny the mine on the basis that it would have "unacceptable adverse impact on one or more of various resources, including fisheries, wildlife, municipal water supplies, or recreational areas."

Like to learn more? Watch the archived video of Bristol's talk here. And join us at noon Feb. 27 in St. Paul or live online for the third Frontiers in the Environment talk of the season - "Sound Ecology: The Environmental Effects of Mechanical Noise and Human Music" by IonE resident fellow Mark Pedelty, associate professor of mass communication, media studies and anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2013:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.385700 2013-02-18T01:24:22Z 2013-02-18T14:58:05Z

BY MONIQUE DUBOSWhat do prehistoric cave dwellers and today's humans have in common? The ongoing quest for fuel sources. Humans have always had an energy crisis, said Larry Wackett, IonE resident fellow and professor at the BioTechnology Institute, at the...

Mary Hoff BY MONIQUE DUBOS

What do prehistoric cave dwellers and today's humans have in common? The ongoing quest for fuel sources. Humans have always had an energy crisis, said Larry Wackett, IonE resident fellow and professor at the BioTechnology Institute, at the first Frontiers seminar of the spring semester: Is Frac(k) A Four-Letter Word?
]]> 2-generating fossils fuels, such as oil. But burning natural gas produces less CO2 than burning oil does, so the spike in natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as "fracking," promises to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, according to Wackett. Proponents of fracking also point to its economic benefits, such as reducing the price of natural gas for consumers and providing jobs.
 
Fracking carries environmental and health threats as well, however. It requires the use of fracking fluid, a slurry of millions of gallons of water and petrochemicals. The fluid is pumped underground to crack the shale that's holding the gas, releasing it for extraction.  The by-product is a toxic sludge of frack water that can't be reused or safely discarded.
 
 "There is a pressing need to solve these water issues," Wackett said. The challenge, he said, is to clean up the water so it can be reused in other fracking projects. He and his team thinks bacteria can meet that challenge.  They took a lesson from the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, where endemic bacteria "ate" oily particles and cleaned up the water in the Gulf of Mexico faster than experts anticipated.
 
The idea is to intentionally introduce carefully chosen bacteria to the frack water. According to Wackett, different bacteria target different groups of chemicals. "We can test thousands of frack water chemicals in a day, and know theoretically what compounds can be degraded by which bacteria," he said. The chosen bacteria are encapsulated in silica beads to prevent them from escaping into the water. Frack water is then infused into the beads, where enzymes in the bacteria would degrade the pollutants.
 
Like to learn more? Watch the archived video of Wackett's lively talk here. And join us at noon next Wednesday in St. Paul or live online for the second Frontiers in the Environment talk of the season - "Watersheds: Clean Water, Wild Places and Healthy Communities" by Trout Unlimited Alaska Office director Tim Bristol.

Monique Dubos is a freelance writer and photographer. She currently works at the University of Minnesota. Photo by Skytruth vis Flickr (Creative Commons).]]>