Title: Peromyscus Ecology: A Story of Two Similar yet Different Species.

Deer Mice (Genus Peromyscus) are essential components of forested ecosystems, playing key roles as prey for avian and mammalian predators, and foragers in their own right, consuming and storing tree seeds. Two common Deer Mouse species that co-occur in northern forests are the Woodland Deer Mouse (P. maniculatus gracilis…

Professor Jennifer Tank is the Ludmilla F., Stephen J., and Robert T. Galla Professor of Biological Sciences and the Director of the Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI) at the University of Notre Dame.  Tank has been actively involved at ND-ECI…

The Sustainability Expo (previously titled Undergraduate Sustainability Research & Education Expo) has been expanded to provide all students (undergraduate and graduate) with information and valuable resources about professional development opportunities in the areas of energy, the environment, and sustainability studies.…

Nessa Cronin, Lecturer in Irish Studies and Associate Director of the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, NUI Galway, will speak on "Climate Crisis and Irish Environmentalities in the Capitalocene."

Dr. Cronin will bring the Irish experience to bear on the current climate-change debate. She will focus on the need and implications for a new dialogue, a new vocabulary, and new ways of being in this “age of the 6th extinction.”

Summary

Christopher Thompson

Laudato Si’ called the Catholic community to an ecological conversion, a reorientation of our habits of mind toward a deeper consideration of creation and our responsibilities for its care. Is this a radical innovation? Or can we discern an intellectual patrimony at the heart of the discussion? In this lecture, Christopher Thompson invites us to reflect more deeply on the elements of ecological concern and consider the intellectual tradition inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas as a resource and guide going forward. “Green Thomism,” Thompson proposes, opens a path toward a renewed engagement with the Thomistic tradition as well as its contribution to contemporary ecological concern. Open to the general public.…

Kimberly Van Meter, Assistant Professor Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago

Title: Signatures of Human Impact: Land Use, Legacies and Long-Term Trajectories

Rivers are known to be powerful integrators of the landscape.  Biogeochemical processes in rivers are, at any point in the stream, understood to be the sum effect of not only all inputs and retention mechanisms within the upstream catchment, but also the intertwined geomorphologic and anthropogenic factors that slow or expedite the flow of water and contaminants across the landscape.  In my work, I expand this idea of the river as spatial integrator and suggest that watersheds must also be seen as temporal…

Title: Nothing to Fear: Environmental Change in the Absence of Large Carnivores.

While often treated as more of an aesthetic or ethical issue, widespread reductions or eradications of large carnivores have led to substantial environmental change in many systems.  While we tend to focus on the obvious effects of reduced prey mortality, the reality is the much greater impact may be the loss of fear.…

Welcome to the Anthropocene. For the first time, fossil fuel-burning humans have become the prime drivers of the planetary climate. We have left behind the relatively stable pattern of natural variability that governed the environment in the Holocene epoch, beginning some 11,700 years ago. How do we adapt to our strange new planet? What kinds of ideas and values should we carry with us from the Holocene?…

Title: The Nature Conservancy's Aquatic Invasive Species Program, Science Informing Management.

The Laurentian Great Lakes are one of the most heavily invaded freshwater ecosystems in the world. Food webs are dominated by non-native invasive species, ecosystem services and functions have been altered, and hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to manage and prevent invasive species impacts. The Nature Conservancy’s Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) program is a comprehensive set of science-based strategies that are meant to contribute to the shared regional goal of managing AIS at each phase in the invasion process. We will provide an overview of the portfolio of projects that we are working on to prevent novel species introductions, detect and respond to nascent introductions, and control existing populations of AIS. Particular attention will be given to our projects related to early detection survey design and implementation (including the collection and screening of environmental DNA for AIS surveillance) and control of established invasive species on native fish spawning reefs in northern Lake Michigan.…

The Center for Informatics and Computational Science invites you to attend Jeffrey Shaman’s seminar entitled, “Forecasting the Growth and Spread of Infectious Disease Outbreaks” on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, from 4:00 – 5:00 PM, 102 DeBartolo Hall. Shaman is an Associate Professor at Columbia University.…

Patrick Regan is a professor of Political Science and Peace Studies and the Associate Director of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative for ND-GAIN, a university effort that seeks to understand the effects of climate change through a lens of human social adaptation.…

Title: Household Preferences for Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan in Florida.

Abstract: Accumulating evidence indicates that global sea levels have been rising at an accelerating rate. This trend, linked with global warming, is posing a great risk to the communities living in the low elevation coastal areas. Florida is particularly vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise (SLR) due to its low topography, porous geology, subtropical climate, and densely populated coastal counties. This study aims to understand public preferences and produce estimates of economic value for sea level rise adaptation projects. Specifically, a series of choice experiments embedded in a household survey of Florida’s selected communities were used to: 1) examine the determinants of households’ preferences for short term adaption plans and long term adaptation plans; 2) identify the spatially heterogeneous preferences in household choices, by incorporating detailed spatial information generated by Geographical Information Systems (GIS) into the survey data; 3) investigate the differences and similarities in perceptions and preferences among Florida’s yearlong and seasonal residents. The empirical results can provide important inputs to the design of optimal adaptation plans and mitigation policies to avoid risks posed by climate change-induced sea level rise.…

This workshop will bring together experts and researchers across a set of interdisciplinary fields to discuss the state of the art in assessing interdependent infrastructure networks and environmental assets, with the explicit goal of establishing future research and market needs. Resilient and sustainable assets – in the context of multiple hazards, the environment, society, and economic constraints – require targeted mitigation to lessen the impacts from human activity and future disasters, as well as resiliency to recover quickly from those hazards. Importantly, the move towards more sustainable and resilient communities, both nationally and globally, requires informed leaders to be able to identify and evaluate the best paths forward given the complex interplay between technology, the environment, ethics, law and policy, business, and economics. These leaders must be able to:…

Paul Kempf is the Senior Director of Utilities and Maintenance at the University of Notre Dame, and as part of the University’s comprehensive sustainability strategy, serves on the Sustainability Strategy Standing Committee, the Energy & Emissions, and Water small working groups.…

This workshop will bring together experts and researchers across a set of interdisciplinary fields to discuss the state of the art in assessing interdependent infrastructure networks and environmental assets, with the explicit goal of establishing future research and market needs. Resilient and sustainable assets – in the context of multiple hazards, the environment, society, and economic constraints – require targeted mitigation to lessen the impacts from human activity and future disasters, as well as resiliency to recover quickly from those hazards. Importantly, the move towards more sustainable and resilient communities, both nationally and globally, requires informed leaders to be able to identify and evaluate the best paths forward given the complex interplay between technology, the environment, ethics, law and policy, business, and economics. These leaders must be able to:…

On Monday, April 8, 2019, at 4pm, Dr. Linda Prokopy will give a talk in 312 DeBartolo Hall, as part of the GLOBES Scholar Series of Talks Intersecting Environment and Society.

“Moving the Needle on Adoption of Conservation Practices in Midwestern Agriculture: Land use changes, farm management practices, water pollution, climate change, and other human activities all threaten our natural resources here in Indiana and throughout the Midwest. For 15 years, Dr. Prokopy has performed extensive research on farmers’ adoption of conservation practices that improve water quality and soil health. In this talk, she will synthesize and share how she has used her research to influence both conservation practice and policy discussions on how to best motivate farmers, stakeholders, and citizens of all kinds to participate in more environmentally friendly behaviors and practices.”…

Paul Greenberg is the James Beard award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller and Notable Book Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food and American Catch: The Fight for our Local Seafood. His most recent book, The Omega Principle: Seafood and the Quest for a Long Life and Healthier Planet…

Title: Radar Aero-ecology: Monitoring Aerial Wildlife in a Changing World

Rapid anthropogenic environmental change has ongoing impacts on wildlife, but quantifying these impacts across large temporal and spatial scales is logistically challenging. These challenges are compounded when considering highly mobile animals that inhabit the airspace (i.e., birds, bats, and insects). Aerial remote sensing by radar networks has provided the capacity to monitor animal movements at continental scales across multiple decades, enabling new insights into long-term trends in animal adaptation to environmental change.…

Dr A. Atiq Rahman is a global leader in the fields of sustainable development, environment, poverty and climate change. In 2008 he received the UN ‘Champion of the Earth’ award for his distinguished leadership in global environmental issues. As one of the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC…

 

Title: Weather, Conflict and Crime in India

Title: Temperature Sensitivity of Ecosystem Carbon Flux

Title:  Assured Information Distillation in Social Sensing

 

Join the Environmental Change Initiative on Thursday May 2 for their first Science at Sunset for 2019.  Michael Cramer will be presenting a lecture titled: The Deer Mouse: Portrait of a Misunderstood Mammal

Come join ND-LEEF to learn about the natural history of bald eagles, their recent comeback and how they became one of our national symbols. Following the presentation, spotting scopes and binoculars will be available to view the eagle nest. A light breakfast snack and beverages will be served. Program content will be geared for participants 10 years and older. Registration and $7 payment are required by May 1.  To register, call St. Joseph County Parks at 574-654-3155 or contact via email…

Summary

Lisa Sideris

Discourse on the relationship between science and religion frequently invokes the language of wonder, and Anthropocene discourse is no exception. My presentation will examine the moral imaginary of wonder in current debates about the application of a specific Anthropocene technology: de-extinction strategies and related genetic tools applied to extinct or soon-to-be-extinct species. I argue that wonder, as it is often invoked in discussions of de-extinction, has little to do with express concerns about the justice, rights, or well-being of organisms, and thus bears little obvious connection to conservation and restoration rationales. Instead, these uses of wonder are largely expressions of awe at human power, creativity, and ingenuity. As such, wonder-inspired de-extinction strategies actually disrupt or obviate the need to respond with grief and mourning to human-caused extinctions. Moreover, as I will suggest, these uses of wonder lay claim to a particular and problematic image of the human, a theological anthropology that posits humans as the creative, world-making being par excellence. What other visions of the human might be available to us in a world that is increasingly the product of human activity?…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join the Environmental Change Initiative on Thursday June 13  for their first Science at Sunset for 2019.  Phil Stepanian will be presenting a lecture titled: Cloudy with a chance of migration: Using weather radar to track the incredible flights of birds, bats, and bugs

Title:  Natural hazards and internal migration in Bangladesh:  The role of transient versus permanent shocks.

Abstract:  We examined whether floods and cyclones, which can be considered as transient shocks, affect inter-regional migration differently compared to riverbank erosion that causes loss of lands and thus generates shocks that are permanent in nature. For our investigation, we tracked the 2000 Household Income and Expenditure Survey participants in nine coastal districts in Bangladesh and collected further information in 2015. We model migration on natural disasters and a range of household level variables. Our findings suggest that both transient and permanent shocks induce households to move to nearby cities but the effect is much higher for the latter category. Comparing income and expenditure of migrant- and non-migrant households in a matched difference-in-differences setting, we find that the former group is better-off relative to their counterparts, indicating that welfare can be improved by facilitating migration. Rising exposure to climate change induced natural disasters around the world imply that our findings will be increasingly relevant for designing policies to address vulnerability in disaster-prone countries with weak social safety nets.…

The Sustainability Expo has been moved to the fall!

This new time frame allows us to align the event with Notre Dame’s annual Career Fair, which provides a unique opportunity for employers and other participants to engage with students interested in energy, the environment, climate change, sustainability studies, and more. …

“Research Uncorked” is a monthly speaker series at Ironhand co-hosted with Notre Dame and featuring casual talks by leading scholars and scientists from the university. In September, we’re pleased to welcome Jennifer Tank, Galla Professor of Biological

Sciences and director of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, which includes the globally unique ND-LEEF research facility at St. Patrick’s County Park.
…

Title: Turbulence and hurricanes:  Using simulations to look where experiments can't.

Abstract:  In the environment, air and water transport a wide variety of constituents, including nutrients, pollution, droplets, aerosols, dust, and even bugs. Predicting where these things end up, and in what abundance, is a difficult enterprise; this difficulty impacts a huge range of scientific disciplines, and in some ways limits our ability to predict future environmental conditions. In particular, turbulent motions, where the fluid motion is unsteady, chaotic, and unpredictable, are a highly nonlinear phenomena but form the foundation on which environmental transport is based. Making matters worse, often it is hazardous or simply impossible to observe these motions in nature or recreate them in the laboratory. This talk will provide an overview of recent efforts to use powerful numerical simulations to fill in many of the gaps associated with turbulent transport in the environment, including hurricane dynamics and hyporheic exchange in a river. Setting up and executing carefully designed numerical simulations allows us to better characterize the underlying processes and physics that govern motions in the atmosphere and ocean.…