Interfaces of Global Change Fellow, Tony Timpano, successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on Tuesday, August 29, 2017, in Fralin Hall Auditorium.
His seminar was titled: “Toward Improved Assessment of Freshwater Salinization as a Benthic Macroinvertebrate Stressor.”
Tony is pictured above with committee members Dr. Stephen Schoenholtz, Dr. Dave Soucek, and Dr. Carl Zipper. (Not pictured: Dr. Bryan Brown)
Congratulations, Dr. Tony Timpano!
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[/karma_builder_content_box][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]The Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program will begin its fifth year with a banner recruitment class of twelve new Ph.D. students! The new IGC Fellows hail from six departments across campus, including: Biological Systems Engineering, Geosciences, Horticulture, Plant Pathology, Physiology & Weed Science, Fisheries & Wildlife Conservation, and Biology.
A private reception to welcome the incoming class of 2017-18 was held on Wednesday, August 30th, at the Hahn Garden Pavilion at Virginia Tech.
Welcome aboard, Everyone!
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A few photos from the Welcome Reception can be seen in the gallery below.
The first event of our fall speaker series is this Wednesday, August 30, 2017 at 1:25 – 2:15 p.m. in Burruss Hall 120A.
Please see the flyer below. You are welcome to attend and participate in the discussion.
Please note there will be speakers every Wednesday throughout the semester, same time, same place!
IGC Fellow, Tony Timpano will defend his Ph.D. dissertation on Tuesday morning, August 29, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. in Fralin Hall Auditorium.
His seminar title is: “Toward Improved Assessment of Freshwater Salinization as a Benthic Macroinvertebrate Stressor.”
Please join us! Coffee and refreshments will be served beginning at 8:30 a.m.
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Tony Timpano’s work in water quality research is at the intersection of science and policy
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The Virginia Tech Paleobiology Research Group had a busy summer in Africa and the western United States, and now they’re inviting the public to a party to unpack their specimens, which include dinosaurs, phytosaurs, and other reptiles.
The unpacking party will be be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Aug. 31, at the Museum of Geosciences in 2062 Derring Hall. Derring Hall is located at 926 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg.
“This is a unique opportunity to become a citizen-scientist and participate in scientific research, potentially handling a new species unseen by anyone else,” said Sterling Nesbitt, an assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science.
He and Michelle Stocker, also an assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science, will be on hand to answer questions.
This program is appropriate for teachers from pre-K through 12th grade, Master Naturalists, Virginia Tech students, interested community members, and children older than 7 (must be accompanied by an adult).
Pre-registration is appreciated. Please email llyn@vt.edu with name, email contact, number of people, and ages of children.
Campus parking permits are not required after 5 p.m., but please allow enough time to park and get to the lecture on time. There is a class change at 7 p.m. that can cause traffic in nearby lots.
Stocker and Nesbitt are affiliated with Virginia Tech’s Global Change Center, an arm of the Fralin Life Science Institute. In April, they made national news with the discovery of the carnivorous dinosaur relative Teleocrater rhadinus and the reclassification of the small, short-snouted phytosaur Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis, which had previously been labeled as a poposauroid.
Dr. Anamaria Bukvic provided this important update to her plans for GEOG 4984: Climate Change and Societal Impacts:
NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND RESEARCH with local partners in Hampton Roads on the issues of sea level rise and resilience!
Please note that the Resilience Research & Design Tidewater Collaboratory will be integrated into a special studies course on Climate Change and Societal Impacts (Course 5984/4984, fall 2017) as a project-based component focused on experiential learning. In addition to the baseline information, the course content will refer to coastal Virginia to illustrate the complexity of emerging coastal challenges and possible solutions to improve the community resilience. This interdisciplinary opportunity represents a partnership with Wetlands Watch, Virginia Sea Grant, and the United States Green Building Council, Hampton Roads, and is supported by Adiuvans foundation.
The graduate students in this class will have an opportunity to participate in the field experience project on coastal vulnerability and resilience and help develop innovative adaptation tools and strategies that will advance the environmental and socioeconomic resilience of Hampton Roads communities. Moreover, the students will have an opportunity to explore how local contextual sociodemographic and cultural differences influence decision-making on adaptation policy and planning in urban locations affected by nuisance flooding.
As a part of this course component, graduate students will have an opportunity to:
Related Story in VT News, January 2018
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Climate Change and Societal Impacts is a new course that will be offered by Dr. Anamaria Bukvic (GEOG) in Fall 2017.
Department of Geography
Course Number: 4984
Course Title: Climate change and societal impacts
Semester: Fall 2017
Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10-11:15am
Anticipated Student Enrollment: 40
Instructor: Dr. Anamaria Bukvic, Research Assistant Professor, Geography, ana.bukvic@vt.edu
DOWNLOAD THE FLYER
Course Description: Accelerated climate change has been permanently changing the natural, built, and social systems around the globe over the last few decades. Many of these impacts are gradual but permanent and tend to exacerbate many preexisting issues in populated communities – shifting from sporadic to frequent occurrence, from minor to major event, from slight societal disruption to a radical one. With sea level rise, more frequent and intense storms, increased precipitation, prolonged and persistent droughts, and many other more subtle environmental changes, societies are facing major challenges in how to respond to these issues given a number of other challenges they are facing, such as political instability, failed economies, environmental degradation, mass migrations, and resource stress.
Therefore, this class will focus on the multidimensional aspects of climate change and adaptation, as well as on the interactions, complexity, uncertainty, and possible outcomes for different societies. It will explore dynamic trends of climate change-induced population movement, conflicts, socioeconomic shifts, geopolitics, and equity issues, as well as their impact on vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity of different societies. The course will utilize contemporary digital tools to facilitate students’ comprehension and engagement with this issue and explore connections across spatiotemporal scales and different systems. In addition, it will apply innovative approaches to understand uncertainty and explore alternative futures via scenarios and foresight analysis. This strategy will empower students to actively participate in discussion, analysis, and interpretation of emerging changes on different social systems, as well as in proposing contextual, robust, and realistic adaptation strategies.
Course Objectives: Upon the successful completion of this course, students will achieve the following objectives/be able to:
While popular with conservation groups, coastal easements that prevent development in order to protect marshland are not favored by property owners, according to researchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment and the University of Connecticut.
Findings from a study published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offer broad implications for how to best design programs to mitigate climate change effects. The study recognizes that private landowners will be critical partners in efforts to save coastal marshes in the face of climate change and rising sea levels.
Based on the results of a survey of more than 1,000 owners of Connecticut coastal properties, landowners harbor skeptical attitudes about granting easements, based on concerns that they will not be offered a fair price in exchange for keeping land as open space where marshes can migrate as sea levels rise. They also worry that environmental organizations that obtain the easements “might not act fairly or transparently in their efforts to encourage tidal marsh migration,” the researchers write.
“The findings strongly suggest that relying on education about sea-level rise and the ecosystem benefits of marshes alone will not protect land from changes brought on by storms and climate change,” said Ashley Dayer, assistant professor of human dimensions in the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “Instead, conservation strategies for marsh migration inland in the face of sea-level rise will need to be attractive to private landowners and encourage their voluntary participation.”
In the study area — the Connecticut coast — there are an estimated 30,000 landowners in the zone projected to become tidal marsh by 2100, and millions of people globally live near tidal marshes. Whether landowners decide to leave room on their land for marshes to move inland or instead build seawalls that harden shorelines means either protecting tidal wetlands and their many ecological, economic, and recreational benefits, or losing them altogether.
“As both coastal communities and tidal marshes deal with increased flooding, the responses of landowners will likely constrain marsh migration across large swaths of coastline,” said lead author Christopher Field, a post-doctoral fellow in the University of Connecticut’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “This finding hints at big challenges ahead for a variety of coastal ecosystems that may not have many places left to go to escape accelerating sea-level rise.”
The survey was conducted following two major storms — Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 — so the results are a valid measure of whether that experience influences attitudes about taking action to lessen future risks, according to researchers.
While landowners whose properties flooded during Hurricane Sandy were 1.4 times more likely to say they may be willing to sell their vulnerable land outright, this result may overstate what people would actually do. For example, although the study did not investigate past landowner behavior, the researchers note that fewer than 100 properties in the study area were acquired during federal buyout programs implemented after the recent hurricanes, though many more were eligible.
If land protection agreements with nonprofits and government agencies aren’t the answer, what offers more promise for the future of marshes?
Surveyed landowners responded favorably to the idea of restrictive covenants, even though they typically do not include financial incentives. Under restrictive covenants, an entire neighborhood agrees to forgo building seawalls and other shoreline armoring structures. These armoring strategies can be damaging in the long run, because they can divert erosion and flooding to adjoining properties and natural habitats.
Coastal landowners also liked the notion of future interest agreements. Under these programs, private landowners agree to accept fair market value of their property at the time of signing if future flooding reduces the value by more than half. That future flooding would allow dry upland to turn into coastal marsh.
“Coastal flooding is increasing in many places along the U.S. east coast, with repercussions not only for the people who live there, but for the natural resources that many people value,” said Chris Elphick, professor with the University of Connecticut’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “Several species of birds that live in coastal marshes, for example, have declined dramatically in recent years, and extinctions are likely if we don’t find ways to protect their habitat.”
“In sum, our findings indicate that current conservation strategies may not interest enough landowners to allow marsh migration at the scales needed to mitigate losses from sea-level rise,” concluded Dayer, who is affiliated with the Global Change Center, housed in Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Science Institute. “Less common strategies that have more support from landowners will need to be considered. This is yet another example that incorporating information about human interests and behaviors into conservation planning is essential to securing conservation outcomes.”
This study was funded by Connecticut Sea Grant, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.
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Story by Heidi Ketler
An extreme weather event can drastically change the structure of an ecosystem for many years to come, according to a team of ecologists working in Antarctica that includes a researcher with Virginia Tech’s Global Change Center.
In the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a warm summer in January 2002 contributed to record melt and re-arranged the composition of invertebrate communities, such as nematodes and tardigrades, or “water bears” that live there, establishing dominance among water-thriving creatures.
The findings, based on more than 30 years of collected data through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-term Ecological Research Program(MDVLTER), were published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution on Aug. 7. NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.
“Our study shows that, while gradual warming or cooling trends certainly drive changes in an ecosystem, an extreme event can have a much more observable effect on the environment, essentially hitting the ‘re-set’ button,” said Jeb Barrett, a professor of biological sciences in the College of Science and Global Change Center affiliate. “The effects of that warm month 15 years ago can still be seen today.”
The McMurdo Dry Valleys is a Delaware-sized polar desert that makes up approximately 2 percent of the Antarctic continent. It is comprised of soils, glaciers, melt-water streams, and ice-covered lakes. Due to harsh conditions, it is home only to microorganisms, mosses, lichens, and a few species of invertebrates, which researchers study to better understand the limits of life. The area has also been used to test space vehicles intended for Mars, due to the planet’s comparable conditions.
Prior to the 2002 melt event, scientists had observed a cooling pattern in the region, said Barrett. At that time, the cooling temperature resulted in decreased metabolic activity and reproduction among invertebrates. The trend was inconsistent with warming in other regions across the world, Barrett said, and may have been associated with ozone loss in the Antarctic.
But in 2002, the unforeseen warmth caused glaciers and ice to melt, resulting in gushing streams and lake levels to rise more than two meters in two weeks. Invertebrate species responded differently to the event, with some benefitting and others not.
“It is hard to predict these types of events, and they can change an ecosystem forever,” Barrett said.
“This flood year was the pivot point,” said Michael Gooseff, a fellow in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and the lead investigator for the MDV LTER project. “Prior to that, all physical and biological indicators had been moving in the same direction.”
Established in 1993, the goal of the MDV LTER project is to better understand the unique dry valley ecosystem structure and function. Barrett has been part of the program since 1997.
“The natural world operates in nonlinear ways and on many different time scales, from daily cycles to processes that take centuries,” said Paul Cutler, the NSF program officer for the project. “The LTERs are instrumental in measuring and deciphering these complexities in order to inform basic understanding of ecosystem functioning and to refine predictions of the future of critical ecosystems, particularly in areas like the Dry Valleys, which maintain an ancient, but potentially delicate ecological balance.”
A MDV LTER project funded by NSF this year will test the hypothesis that increased hydrological connections will result from enhanced melt conditions, as observed in the 2002 flood event. This enhanced connectivity is expected to amplify exchange of biota, energy, and matter across these polar desert landscapes, resulting in a homogenizing of ecosystem structure and functioning in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
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Story by Lindsay Key, Communications Director, Fralin Life Science Institute
A record-breaking, New Jersey-sized dead zone was measured by scientists in the Gulf of Mexico this week—a sign that water quality in U.S. waterways is worse than expected.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that this summer’s dead zone is the largest ever recorded, measuring 8,776 miles. This is more expansive than the nearly 8,200 square-mile area that was forecast in July. Since monitoring began 32 years ago, the average size of the Gulf’s dead zone measured in at 5,309 square miles.
The Gulf of Mexico hypoxic or low-oxygen zone, also called a dead zone, is an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life. It’s primarily caused by an excess of agricultural nutrients that flow downstream and into surface waters, stimulating harmful algae.
To record the new measurements and assess the severity of low oxygen levels in the Gulf, scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) embarked on their 31st mid-summer hypoxia research cruise in July. Even with reported numbers as large as they are, the team of scientists said the entire area of the dead zone couldn’t be mapped due to an insufficient number of workable days on the ship. There was more hypoxia to the west, and the measured size would have been larger if there was more time for researchers to work.
“The results from this year reflect the nitrate flux into the Gulf, which was high,” says Nancy Rabalais, a research professor at LUMCON who helped lead the cruise. “It’s a matter of addressing the sources of the nitrate—where they first start—which is in a field of agricultural crops.”
This year’s large size is mainly due to heavy stream flows in May, Rabalais continued, which were about 34 percent above the long-term average and carried higher-than-average amounts of nutrients through Midwest waterways and into the Gulf. (Read “Heavier Rainfall Will Increase Water Pollution in the Future”)
Preliminary reports from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) align with the observation, estimating that 165,000 metric tons of nitrate–about 2,800 train cars of fertilizer—and 22,600 metric tons of phosphorus flowed down the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers into the Gulf of Mexico in May.
There are many alternative ways to farm using sustainable agriculture, Rabalais added. Those types of practices can reduce the flux of nitrogen, and they can be economical and beneficial to farming communities.
“It’s a small-scale effort right now that needs to be addressed more formally by the agricultural community,” she says. “I don’t want to see the dead zone get any larger—it’s large enough, and it’s way higher than the target size we want to see.”
The Gulf’s hypoxic zones are caused by excess nutrient pollution, primarily from human activities such as agriculture and wastewater treatment.
Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste is the main source of the nitrogen and phosphorus, which stimulate an overgrowth of algae that sinks and decomposes in the water. The resulting low oxygen levels are insufficient to support most marine life and habitats in near-bottom waters, posing a serious threat to the Gulf’s fisheries.
The Gulf dead zone can slow shrimp growth, leading to fewer large shrimp, according to a study led by Duke University. Additionally, the total catch of shrimp could suffer, meaning higher costs at the marketplace and loss of jobs for fishermen, equating to an economic ripple effect on fisheries.
Research team (from left): Emily Satterwhite, Susan West Marmagas, Leigh-Anne Krometis, Linsey Marr, Korine Kolivras, and Julia Gohlke.
AUG 2 2017 | Spend enough time driving through Central Appalachia, and you’ll see lush green mountain ranges brimming with diverse plant and animal species. Within those mountains, though, you can also find some of the most dramatic human health disparities in the nation.
Past studies going back to the 1970s indicate heightened incidences of chronic disease and early death in the region. Rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory problems are elevated compared to other regions of the United States, according to an interdisciplinary Virginia Tech research team that spans the sciences and humanities.
In a literature review published in the journal Reviews on Environmental Health, the team argues that more research needs to be conducted to determine how the unique topography and industries of the region, including coal and natural gas, impact the health of people living in the region.
So far, a great deal of research has looked at how resource extraction affects biodiversity. Other research has examined the prevalence of lifestyle-related human health issues, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in the Appalachian region. But relatively little research has examined the connection between resource extraction and human health, the authors write.
The team, which includes researchers from biological systems engineering, civil and environmental engineering, Appalachian studies, geography, and population health sciences, originally assembled in 2014, and then in 2015, received support from a $20,000 seed grant from the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE).
“Given the complexity of issues affecting people and places in Virginia and beyond, the partnership between the Global Change Center and ISCE is a strategic effort to support and encourage faculty with expertise in the social sciences, biophysical sciences, and engineering to strategically address social aspects of major global change,” said Karen Roberto, director of the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.
This support helped them to conduct preliminary research, such as interviews with Appalachian residents and preliminary water and air testing. Their findings during these trips — mostly to Virginia’s Tazewell County — drove them to complete a comprehensive literature review to determine gaps in research thus far.
“Our early site visits and interviews in Appalachia convinced us that there is a connection between the environment and human health that is worth looking into,” said Leigh-Anne Krometis, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and lead author of the study. “We are grateful to the Global Change Center and ISCE for this early exploratory funding, which has identified a great need and led to a much larger project.”
In June, the team was awarded $75,000 to expand and continue their project for another year under the Global Systems Science Destination Area. Their project, entitled “Ecological and Human Health in Rural Communities,” will initially focus on Central Appalachia, but may eventually grow to include rural communities worldwide, including portions of India, China, Malawi, and Ecuador, where they could build on existing investments by the university.
The project’s concept paper states, “We are motivated by the [university’s] motto Ut Prosim to serve the surrounding region and fulfill Virginia Tech’s mission as a land grant university with global reach, going ‘beyond boundaries’.” Ut Prosim translates to “That I May Serve.”
“We are supporting this effort because it is in line with the university’s goal of aggressively merging multiple areas of academic excellence — including experimentation, analytics, modeling, and policy — in ways that could result in practical social and environmental benefit while also providing our students opportunities for relevant and meaningful research experiences,” said Dennis Dean, director of the Fralin Life Science Institute.
Globally, more than 3.4 billion people live in rural areas, and these areas remain critical for energy and food production. Published estimates suggest that even under predictions of high natural gas production and low coal demand, almost 1,000 square kilometers of new mine development is expected in the next 20 years in the Central Appalachia region.
“For years, community residents in Central Appalachia have expressed uncertainty and concern regarding the cumulative effects of a variety of factors on human health,” said study coauthor Emily Satterwhite, an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Culture in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. “Virginia Tech has an important role to play in partnering with local communities to examine and address issues of environmental justice.”
Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and coauthor, studies air pollution and will continue to research links between air quality and human health in the region for the project.
“Rural areas are often neglected in the national discussion about air pollution,” said Marr. “We usually assume that air quality in rural areas is good, but there are different sources of pollution and patterns of human exposure that deserve further study.”
Other authors include Julia Gohlke, an assistant professor of population health sciences in the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine; Korine Kolivras, an associate professor of geography in the College of Natural Resources and Environment; and Susan West Marmagas, an associate professor of population health sciences in the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.
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Story by Lindsay Key, Communications Director, Fralin Life Science Institute