Month: April 2016

Megan O’Rourke is on a $2 million grant to combat agricultural pests in Asia

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 26, 2016

A $2 million grant recently awarded to the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will empower farmers in Asia to grow food in a way that addresses challenges of climate change and uses sustainable farming methods to feed a global population that is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050.

“Investing in agriculture is essential for developing economies to move forward because it allows local populations to increase their incomes through improved agricultural productivity,” said George Norton, professor of agricultural and applied economics and principal investigator on the project. “Typically, an improved agriculture industry will enable other sectors to grow along with it. And other sectors such as transportation play an important role in agricultural development by allowing farmers to bring their increased production to market.”

The grant will allow the research and collaborative outreach — called an innovation lab — to focus on production of tomato, eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, cucurbits, onion, and mango. The focus countries in the region — Cambodia, Nepal, and Bangladesh — are designated as Feed the Future countries by the United States Agency for International Development. Feed the Future countries are determined based on need, opportunity for partnership, potential for agricultural growth, opportunity for regional synergy, and resource availability.

The grant is part of the innovation lab collaborative network funded by USAID and managed by universities across the country. The particular innovation lab managed by Virginia Tech is the Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab. It focuses on developing sustainable pest management systems for each crop in each host country. The venture develops, adapts, and diffuses IPM technologies through close interaction among international scientists in public and private institutions and in conjunction with the U.S. government’s Feed the Future goals.

Integrated Pest Management is a system of sustainable agricultural techniques that manages pests in a way that has minimal impact on the environment, using everything from beneficial insects that attack harmful pests, to trapping crops that attract pests away from food crops, to tunnel systems that protect crops from animals and other insects.

Megan_sm — Assistant Professor of Sustainable Food Systems Megan O’Rourke, at right, and Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics George Norton, at center, talk with a producer in Cambodia.

Assistant Professor of Sustainable Food Systems Megan O’Rourke is another faculty member involved on the project and has extensive experience working with producers in Cambodia.

“Producers in developing countries face many challenges that growers in the United States can’t even imagine, such as not having inputs available to buy or labels not written in their own language. That being said, there is also an opportunity through these types of collaborations to work together to develop more sustainable, and environmentally-friendly production systems right from the start,” said O’Rourke.

Investing in agriculture overseas is beneficial to U.S. farmers, as well as to those in developing countries.

“When we invest in agricultural markets overseas we are potentially opening up markets for U.S. products,” said Norton, recipient of the International Integrated Pest Management Award for Excellence. “Developing countries are growth markets for our agricultural and other products. The more their populations earn, the more they are empowered to buy goods from the United States, bolstering our economy as well.”

The IPM Innovation Lab has already led the way in combatting a pest that has caused severe damage to tomato crops — Tuta absoluta, commonly known as the tomato leafminer.

Now threatening Asia, the moth strikes tomato growers around the world, leaving a destructive path in its wake.

Muni Muniappan, director of the IPM Innovation Lab at Virginia Tech, has worked to quell the effects of the pest. Muniappan noticed Tuta’s arrival in Africa in 2012 and subsequently led several workshops in Senegal, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Tanzania to raise awareness of the pest and give tips on controlling its prolific destruction.

The monies received by the Virginia Tech-led Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab are part of a larger $18 million award that is also managed by the Office of International Research, Education, and Development, part of the Office of Outreach and International Affairs.

Written by Amy Loeffler.

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The first annual Interfaces of Global Change Research Symposium brings campus labs together to solve global problems

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 25, 2016

The first annual Interfaces of Global Change (IGC) Graduate Research Symposium was a great opportunity for IGC Fellows to share their research with the entire global change community at Virginia Tech. The 2-day symposium began on Thursday evening, April 21st, with a special Distinguished Lecture at the Lyric Theatre featuring Dr. Josh Tewksbury, Future Earth. A full slate of events on Friday, April 22nd, provided a forum for students and faculty to interact and explore connections between labs.

During two platform sessions, nine IGC fellows gave oral presentations, and thirteen other students participated in the afternoon poster session. Following a reception for faculty and students attending the symposium, three awards were presented for Best Presentation. First place went to Carl Wepking, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences, who studies how antibiotic use in agricultural livestock affects soil ecosystems. Second place went to Cathy Jachowski, a Ph.D. student in fish and wildlife conservation, who studies the effects of land use and parasitism on hellbender salamanders. Third place was awarded to Ryan McClure, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences, who studies how climate change can impact thermal stratification and oxygenation in reservoirs.

The first place award was named in honor of Dean Karen DePauw, for her role in creating a culture of interdisciplinary graduate education at Virginia Tech. “There’s no more appropriate way to honor the person that has supported the growth and interdisciplinary thinking of our community,” said Bill Hopkins, who is the Director of the Global Change Center and a professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. “Her vision has facilitated new interactions among faculty and students from different colleges and departments, who are working together to solve complicated problems ranging from obesity and infectious diseases, to water pollution and climate change.”

Congratulations, All!

More photos on the GCC Flicker site!

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Distinguished Lecture Series Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Dr. Josh Tewksbury to visit Virginia Tech April 21st

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 15, 2016

From VT News

Ecologist Josh Tewksbury to visit Virginia Tech and Lyric Theatre

Josh Tewksbury, an ecologist and director of the Colorado Global Hub at Future Earth, will visit Virginia Tech next week.

He will give a 4:45 p.m. lecture on April 21 at the Lyric Theatre entitled “Living in the Anthropocene: Science, Sustainability and Society.”

The event, sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, is free and open to the public.

Tewksbury is an ecologist, conservation biologist, and planetary health scientist with experience both in academia and in civil society. In addition to his appointment at Future Earth, Tewksbury is also a research professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a senior scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University.

During his visit, Tewksbury will meet with students in the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program.

“Dr. Tewksbury is leading the charge to advance conservation and sustainability initiatives on a global scale,” said William A. Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center. “As director of the U.S. office of Future Earth, he is working with a broad international coalition of groups like the United Nations to pursue what has been called ‘possibly the largest, most ambitious international research program ever undertaken.’ As Virginia Tech is poised to advance its collective strengths in the environmental sciences, we are thrilled to have such an outstanding leader visit Blacksburg to engage in a community-wide discussion about critical issues facing our planet.”

Tewksbury was previously the Walker Professor of Natural History at the University of Washington, with appointments both in the department of biology and the College of the Environment, where his work focused on major global change issues, including the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, the potential of landscape connectivity to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and the impacts of species loss on ecosystem function.

In addition to more than a decade of academic work, Tewksbury also served as the founding director of the Luc Hoffmann Institute at WWF, a global research center based in Switzerland focused on the co-creation of multi-disciplinary research. As director, Tewksbury launched over a dozen research projects, including work on the Food-Energy-Water nexus in South-East Asia, development corridors in East Africa, global mapping of threats to biodiversity, and the development of regionally-appropriate low-carbon sustainability targets for urban areas.

Tewksbury’s current research interests include studies of direct and indirect effects of climate change on food security at large spatial scales, the potential of large-scale restoration to serve multiple human and biodiversity goals, and the contribution of science to large scale planetary health issues.

“Josh’s work lies at the critical nexus between conserving Earth’s biodiversity and meeting the needs of a growing population,” said David Haak, an assistant professor of plant pathology, physiology and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate. “To do this well requires a distinct capacity for thinking broadly and acting globally, and Josh does both of these exceptionally well. So, it is not surprising that he is emerging as a leader in global sustainable development.”

Chartered in 2015, the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech seeks to generate scholarship that leads to solutions to global problems such as climate change, pollution, and invasive species that threaten the environment and society.

For information on the event, email Gloria Schoenholtz, Global Change Center coordinator.

FUTURE EARTH BROCHURE (PDF)

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Story by Lindsay Key

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Update: Below is the videotape of Dr. Tewksbury’s lecture on April 21, 2016 at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.

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Uncategorized

Virginia Tech researchers say Flint-like water problems also present in Virginia wells

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 12, 2016

From the Roanoke Times

Article by Robby Korth

Flint, Michigan, is hardly the only place Virginia Tech researchers are looking for contaminants in drinking water.

In Virginia, one team that’s part of Virginia Tech’s Cooperative Extension has tested private well samples serving 16,000 people across the state since 2008.

Researchers discovered health-based contaminants above federal standards for municipal systems in almost 60 percent of the well samples — including Flint-like elevated lead levels in almost 20 percent of homes and coliform bacteria in about 40 percent of homes.

“You have failing systems all around you,” said Leigh Anne Krometis, a biological systems engineering assistant professor who has analyzed samples with the program.

The Virginia Household Water Quality Program — a service of Tech’s cooperative extension program — is working to prevent those failing well systems from harming people across the commonwealth.

“These guys are doing a great service,” said Marc Edwards, the leader of Tech’s Flint Water Study group and, in part because of the Flint situation, now a nationally renowned expert on water safety.

According to a 2010 U.S. Geological Survey report, about 1.7 million Virginians rely on private wells — systems that draw water from the ground and aren’t connected to municipal water infrastructure. And because they’re privately owned, there is little to no regulation and they are often misunderstood, said Erin Ling, senior extension associate and program coordinator.

Many Virginia wells supply rural homes, but there are also many wells that are used in subdivisions on the outskirts of towns and cities, Ling said.

The water quality program offers to test people’s private wells for a reduced rate of $52. Agents and volunteers within the program’s network will then help people navigate the results in an information session, Ling said.

“If we can empower people with accurate information we can help them make informed decisions,” she said.

Read the full story at The Roanoke Times

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Invasive Species Research

Jacob Barney receives grant to study invasive Johnsongrass

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 12, 2016

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From VT News | April 12, 2016

A Virginia Tech researcher will spend five years ‘deep in the weeds’ of Johnsongrass research with the help of a $5 million grant from the USDA.

Johnsongrass, native to the Mediterranean region, has snuffed out important native plants in the United States since it was first introduced in the 1800s, costing the agriculture industry millions of dollars each year.

In collaboration with lead researchers at the University of Georgia, Jacob Barney, an assistant professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, will conduct a series of field and greenhouse experiments followed by the use of a computer simulation model.

Jacob_johnsongrass — Dr. Jacob Barney examines the range of variation in how Johnsongrass grows, spreads, and reproduces, and how those differences translate at the local and regional spatial scale.

His first goal is to examine the range of variation in how Johnsongrass grows, spreads, and reproduces, and how those differences translate at the local and regional spatial scale.

Secondly, he will screen hundreds of Johnsongrass accessions for herbicide resistance.

“This is important as herbicide resistance is the primary issue facing weed science currently with many of our most important herbicides losing efficacy as weeds evolve the ability to survive herbicide application,” said Barney, who is also a core faculty member with the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech.

Johnsongrass can rapidly adapt to changes in climate, soil, surrounding organisms, and agriculture in ways not previously observed in other plants, making it an important model system to explore the underpinnings of weediness. A great deal of the perennial plant’s biomass is made of rhizomes, or subterranean stems that grow underground and frequently send out roots and shoots; this makes it particularly difficult to eradicate.

Two graduate students—Alyssa Smith of Ridgeway, South Carolina, a master’s student and Becky Fletcher of Kansas City, Missouri, a doctoral student– both in the department of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science will join Barney on the research project.

“In general, I find Johnsongrass an incredibly interesting species to study. It has been so successful in many different habitats and countries around the world, indicating that it is very good at adapting to different environments,” said Fletcher.

Researchers at other universities working on the project include Andrew Paterson, University of Georgia; Jeff Dahlberg, University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources; C. Michael Smith, Kansas State University; Wesley Everman, North Carolina State University; Marnie Rout, University of Texas, Temple; and Clint Magill and Gary Odvody, Texas A&M University.

Article by Lindsay Key, Fralin Life Science Institute

A university-level Research Institute of Virginia Tech, the Fralin Life Science Institute enables and enhances collaborative efforts in research, education, and outreach within the Virginia Tech life science community through strategic investments that are often allied with colleges, departments, and other institutes.

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Climate Change

Climate change a growing health threat

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 5, 2016

From GlobalChange.gov
Today, the United States Global Change Research Program released a new assessment of a growing public health threat, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Drawing from decades of advances in the physical science of climate change, the report strengthens our understanding of the growing risks that a changing climate poses to human health and welfare, and highlights factors that make some individuals and communities particularly vulnerable.

“This assessment not only provides the latest science on questions like how climate change affects our health and who is most vulnerable – it starts to answer the key questions of how much of an impact climate change will have on different health problems and how many people will be affected,” said Dr. John Balbus, a Senior Advisor for Public Health at the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences.

The climate and health assessment is a product of USGCRP’s sustained National Climate Assessment process, and represents a coordinated effort by eight Federal agencies (with leadership from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and more than 100 experts from across the United States to inform public health officials, urban and disaster response planners, decision makers, and other stakeholders within and outside of the government who are interested in better understanding the risks climate change presents to human health. The effort was overseen by the USGCRP-coordinated Interagency Crosscutting Working Group on Climate Change and Human Health, led by co-chairs Balbus, Juli Trtanj of NOAA, and George Luber of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The assessment was informed by inputs gathered through listening sessions and scientific and technical information contributed through public solicitations. The resulting product provides a comprehensive, evidence-based, and, where possible, quantitative estimation of observed and projected climate change related health impacts in the United States.

It was made possible through “longstanding collaborative efforts across federal agencies, such as investments in climate monitoring, modeling, and operational climate forecasting, that could be leveraged in new ways to make climate data real and relevant for Americans,” said Trtanj.

Mike Kuperberg, USGCRP Executive Director, noted that “these new collaborative capabilities provide a strong basis for ongoing assessment of the state of the science.”

The report is accompanied by an interactive web presence that provides the ability to explore the data and information behind the report, powered by the Global Change Information System.

Report chapters:

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Climate Change Uncategorized

New sea level alarm not to be ignored

Post author By jcoker
Post date April 2, 2016

From National Geographic

There are days when even a born optimist starts to waver in his conviction. The release of a new study projecting that sea level could rise between five and six feet by 2100—when many children born today will still be alive and have been forced to move inland—made Thursday one of those days.

There have been lots of other studies, you might say. True: The last sea-level alarm (in what seems an endless series) came just a month ago. That analysis showed that in the 20th century, sea level rose faster than at any time in the past 2,800 years, and that our fossil-fuel emissions were very likely responsible.

Climate has changed naturally even within human history, that study said, and sea level has changed with it—but not as fast as we’re changing it now.

If you’ve been following climate science for a while, though, that wasn’t terribly surprising. And if you’re an optimist, that study didn’t knock you off your stride.

In fact there was something almost reassuring about it: Extrapolating out to 2100, it projected a sea level rise of just three to four feet—in line with the most recent and reliably conservative report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). What’s more, the paper was co-signed by Stefan Rahmstorf, who until then had been a prominent exponent of higher sea-level-rise forecasts. So it was only slightly perverse to say that things were actually looking up.

The worst wasn’t going to happen. With three feet of sea level rise, the United States would “only” be looking at a loss of a land area the size of Massachusetts.

Or at spending many hundreds of billions of dollars to defend the coasts.

Or, just maybe, at cutting carbon emissions in time to keep things from getting so bad.

The Physics of Ice

Comes now the study published in Nature Thursday by Robert Deconto of the University of Massachusetts and David Pollard of Penn State. It’s different from other alarms, and here’s why.

Deconto and Pollard aren’t projecting the future based only on the experience of the past few millennia. They’re projecting it with a computer model of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and of the Antarctic climate—that is, from the laws of physics.

Just a model, you might say, and translating those laws into an accurate model of an ice sheet is hard. True again: the problem has stumped scientists for decades. They’ve known that ice melts, and that if climate warms enough, the ice sheet will collapse at some point, dumping lot of water into the sea. But they’ve had trouble saying how much warmth is enough and how fast the collapse might proceed. No one has ever watched it happen.

The geologic record offers some test cases. Some 125,000 years ago, for instance, Earth was in an interglacial period, like the one we’re in now, a warm interlude between 100,000-year-long ice ages. The temperature then was about the same as it is today, a degree or two warmer at most. But the best evidence indicates sea level was at least 20 feet higher—which in itself is disconcerting, suggesting as it does that we might be poised on the brink of something big.

Where did 20 feet of water come from? The Greenland ice sheet contains more than enough, but it sits on land and can’t easily fall into the sea.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains enough water to raise sea level 15 feet. And if you could strip away the ice and look at the bedrock, as scientists have done with airborne radar, you’d see how vulnerable it is: Most of the ice sits not on land but on the seabed. It’s a big dome of ice rising out of a seafloor basin, like a soufflé out of a bowl. Beyond the submarine ridges that form the sloping sides of the basin, floating ice shelves extend out to sea. They act like buttresses, propping up the ice dome and keeping it from collapsing and washing away.

Read the full story at National Geographic

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