Sustainability Commons^™

At The Intersection Of Science And Sustainability: A Qualitative Study Of Food Scientists' Personal And Professional Perspectives, Srushti Parikh

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sustainable food systems require not only technological innovation but a more profound understanding of the professionals involved in the field. Even though the topic of sustainability is currently gaining importance throughout the food industry, the real expertise of food scientists is under-researched. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to explore food scientists' perspectives on sustainability, how these perceptions influence the way they pursue their careers, and how they view their impact in the larger sustainability agenda of the food industry. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This study captured detailed insights of 22 food scientists’ perspectives through qualitative methods. Food scientists in …

Application Of Organic Geochemistry To The Characterization Of Hydrochar And Biochar: Insights Into Composition And Optimization, Michael A. Kruge, Teresa A. Centeno, Alvaro Amado-Fierro, José Manuel González-Lafuente, Rubén Forján, José Luis Gallego

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hydrothermal carbonization has garnered significant attention in recent studies due to potential applications of the hydrochar produced, which overlap with those of torrefied biochar, including soil improvement, carbon sequestration, and energy production. However, unlike the relatively uniform properties of biochar, hydrochar characteristics can vary greatly depending on the feedstock used. Advanced characterization techniques are essential to better understand these materials and enhance their practical applications. Research on hydrochar requires a multi-faceted approach, including molecular-level studies, to optimize production processes and identify specific applications.

In this regard, analytical methods commonly used in organic geochemistry could play a crucial role in deepening …

The Effect Of Group Counseling On Hope With Diverse Undergraduates During Sustainability-Focused Internship, Hailey Spinks, Michael D. Hannon, Matthew Murray, Nina M. Goodey, Lora Billings, Amy Tuininga

PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies Publications

Many adolescents report feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, and hopeless in the face of global climate change. These feelings are both valid and antithetical to the necessary hope and courage it takes to address real-world environmental crises and contribute to meaningful societal impact. The Green Teams Program, an internship-based experiential learning initiative, prepares young professionals with skills and knowledge needed to address these challenges and provides an intentionally inclusive and safe environment for students from all backgrounds to do so. This structured environment includes psychoeducational group counseling among other supports. Intern self-assessments revealed significant gains in measures of Hope, Agency, …

Artificial Turf Versus Natural Grass: A Case Study Of Environmental Effects, Health Risks, Safety, And Cost, Iman S. Cumberbatch, Leonard Richardson, Emma Grant-Bier, Mustafa Kayali, Mutanu Mbithi, Roberto F. Riviere, Eline Xia, Hailey Spinks, Gabrielle Mills, Amy R. Tuininga

PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies Publications

While natural grass has been a reliable recreational surface for decades, artificial turf has gained popularity due to its durability, supposed ability to save water, and lower associated costs for municipalities and schools. Growing environmental and health concerns associated with artificial turf have prompted a necessary comparison of the environmental impact, chemical exposure, injury rates, surface heat, and costs of turf with natural grass. The township of Verona, New Jersey, engaged the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies’ Green Teams Program interns to perform an environmental impact assessment, literature review, and cost–benefit analysis to determine if the township should restore an …

Should We Stay Or Should We Leave? Multi-Objective Tradeoffs In Identifying Robust Beach Nourishment And Managed Retreat, Prabhat Hegde

Sustainability Seminar Series

In some low-lying coastal areas around the world, decision-makers are beginning to consider “managed retreat” of human populations to adapt to sea-level rise. One of the main challenges in designing a managed retreat strategy is determining when to trigger retreat. Decision-makers lack tools and scientific understanding to evaluate whether the benefits of interim response strategies, like beach nourishment, outweigh the costs of waiting longer to trigger retreat.

In this talk, I will contextualize the coastal beach nourishment problem within the umbrella of decision analyses frameworks for climate change adaptation. I will demonstrate how considerations of uncertainty and multiple objectives improve …

Incorporating Ecosystem Information Into The Federal Fisheries Management Process, Adelle Molina

Sustainability Seminar Series

The goal of fisheries management is to maintain sustainable fisheries and preserve their value. Fisheries management councils set fishing rules and regulations based on scientific advice in the form of a stock assessment. Stock assessments collect and analyze data, produce reports on the condition or status of an exploited stock, and estimate sustainable yield. Stock assessment scientists use analytical approaches and quantitative methods to develop stock assessment models that describe the population dynamics of a stock. Traditionally, stock assessments have not accounted for either ecological interactions, such as predation, or the environment. In this presentation, I will briefly describe the …

Tropical Hydrology And Critical Infrastructure In The Caribbean: The Impact Of The Prwreri, Walter F. Silva

Sustainability Seminar Series

The Caribbean region is prone to natural hazards including hurricanes, floods, landslides and droughts. These natural phenomena carries impacts in the society, the infrastructure and the economy of this region. Puerto Rico was impacted by two major destructive hurricanes in 2017 (Hurricane Maria) and in 2022 (Hurricane Fiona). The consequences are still seen, and recovery is undergoing Rural communities struggle to maintain essential services operating 24/7; however, there is much to be done to have robust and resilient communities in Puerto Rico. Efforts to increase resilience and reduce risk are performed by several groups, including a collaborative project between Montclair …

Anthropogenic Impacts On Aquatic Organisms, Alexis Khursigara

Sustainability Seminar Series

Aquatic environments are often dynamic, experiencing shifts in a multitude of anthropogenic stressors related to climate change and contaminant loads. Aquatic organisms, such as fish and invertebrates, must cope with these changes that can be rapid or gradual, acute or chronic, and often co-occurring. Understanding how well aquatic organisms tolerate these shifts is imperative for management practices. In this presentation, Dr. Khursigara will discuss how different anthropogenic stressors alter the physiology and behavior of multiple fish and aquatic invertebrate species.

Operation And Management Of A Modern Park And Recreation System, Christopher Sullivan

Sustainability Seminar Series

The talk will focus on the various operational divisions which comprise most park and recreation agencies and how they work together to provide a modern park and recreation system to visitors, along with the common management challenges which face park and recreation agencies. On average, the Passaic County Department of Parks and Recreation employs 75 permanent employees and 113 seasonal. The department provides various recreation and environmental education activities throughout the year for all age levels, including a comprehensive K-5 elementary school based environmental education program which educates approximately 1,200 children per year and is available to all public and …

Assessing Millennial, Centennial, And Decadal Sea-Level Changes In China: Is It Unprecedented Now?, Yucheng Lin

Sustainability Seminar Series

The coastline of China, home to over 300 million residents, is among the most densely populated regions in the world. Understanding the mechanisms driving sea-level evolution from the geological past to the modern era is essential for evaluating sea-level variability, quantifying the potential human impact on sea-level changes, and informing future coastal infrastructure planning. In this talk, I will discuss the use of geological records to reconstruct the drivers of past sea-level changes. These reconstructions will be compared with modern instrumental records to determine whether recent sea-level changes fall within the bounds of natural variability or are indeed unprecedented.

Coastal Wetland Hydrology Under Climate Change: Dynamics, Consequences, And Eco-Geomorphologic Feedbacks, Yu Zhang

Sustainability Seminar Series

Coastal wetlands, some of the Earth's most valuable ecosystems, face unprecedented threats due to the accelerating impacts of climate change—sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, hurricanes, and storm surges. These forces are fundamentally altering the ecosystem functions, threatening their survival. Will these ecosystems adapt and persist, or are they doomed to disappear? In this talk, Dr. Yu Zhang explores this critical question through an integrated hydrologic and eco-geomorphologic lens. By examining the dynamic interactions between water, vegetation, and landforms, Dr. Zhang's research offers new insights into the potential futures of coastal wetlands and the intricate feedbacks that may shape their resilience in …

What Does The 100-Year Flood Hazard Map Mean? Uncertainties With The Approach And Temporal Evolution Of Events, Sara Santamaria-Aguilar

Sustainability Seminar Series

Flood hazard maps are an essential tool for cities and communities worldwide and are used for a variety of purposes such as city planning, insurance and emergency management. Flooding rarely occurs from a single water source (e.g. storm surge, tides, rain and river discharge) and commonly arise from a combination of them, the so-called compound events. Thus, assessing flooding from compound events has become essential to inform decision-makers as these events can exacerbate flood impacts compared to single-driver events and may require different adaptation strategies. There is no standard approach to assess compound flood hazard and uncertainties and differences between …

Digital Models Of The Crust To Understand The Earth’S Past And Present, Daven Quinn

Sustainability Seminar Series

Macrostrat is a geological data platform that integrates stratigraphic columns and geologic maps into a digital description of the crustal rock record. It comprises thousands of stratigraphic columns and 300+ geologic maps, correlated into an integrated, web-accessible dataset. Combined, map and column information create a spatial and temporal “scaffold” that can organize and contextualize information about the rock record. Macrostrat columns can represent stratigraphy at any scale, from regional summaries to single core logs, and can translate between physical and time-stratigraphic representations of the rock record. This capability is particularly powerful when combined with proxy data (e.g., geochemistry, fossils, and …

Boron Isotopes In Plants And The Environment Of Growth, Troy Rasbury

Sustainability Seminar Series

Work to be presented is a synthesis of a number of studies examining boron in waters, soils and plants. Our work demonstrates a preference for borate in aquatic plants and a high enrichment factor particularly in plants from fresh lakes. Additionally we will look at boron uptake in common garden plants such as tomatoes, spinach and carrots using natural fertilizers such as seaweed compared to more traditional fertilizers such as Miracle Grow. Boron is an essential nutrient and plants have been shown to have boron transport genes. Bioimaging data from Brookhaven National Laboratory shows that the amount of boron in …

Cash For Conservation: Payments For Ecosystem Service Programs And Forest Loss, John Shandra

Sustainability Seminar Series

According to the World Bank, 1.1 million square miles of tree cover were cleared from 2001 to 2020. Approximately 90% of forests were cleared in low- and middle-income nations. This loss is equivalent to a 7% reduction in tree cover and corresponds with 107 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions being released into the atmosphere. To limit forest loss, low and middle-income nations often implement payment for ecosystem service programs. By 2020, over 550 programs were active globally, accounting for an estimated $36–42 billion in annual transactions between users and providers. However, we not aware of any cross-national research …

Forest Biomass With The Nasa, Jpl Misr: Validation With Nasa Lidar-Derived Estimates, Mark Chopping

Sustainability Seminar Series

As our planet heats up, tracking changes in forest aboveground biomass density (AGB, Mg ha-1) at large scales is an increasingly pressing concern and one addressed primarily using space-based remote sensing. The European Space Agency hosted its 4th Carbon from Space Workshop in October 2022; NASA launched the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar to the International Space Station in 2018; and the NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) and ESA BIOMASS radar missions will launch in 2024. However, the record from SAR and lidar is limited and sporadic. Here, AGB estimates obtained using 672 nm (red) band reflectance data from the Multiangle …

Climate Change, Migration, And Health: (Near-) Global Evidence, Brian Thiede

Sustainability Seminar Series

Climate change is expected to have widespread impacts on social and environmental systems, with implications for human health and wellbeing. The expansion of georeferenced data on population health and mobility provides new opportunities to measure these impacts. In this seminar, I will discuss new findings from analyses of climate effects on health and migration using “big microdata” from censuses and surveys around the world. I will also discuss the non- trivial limitations to these data and outline how they can be integrated with mixed-methods approaches to better-understand the social costs of climate change.

Downstream Leakage Of Enhanced Rock Weathering, Shuang Zhang

Sustainability Seminar Series

ERW has garnered increasing interest as a promising technique for durable carbon dioxide removal, offering a range of potential co-benefits including increased soil pH and nutrient release. However, the impacts of ERW on river chemistry and the potential loss of initially captured CO2 during river transport remain poorly constrained. The current lack of tools for robustly predicting the effect of riverine degassing on the ERW life cycle undermines the use of this practice as a carbon mitigation strategy. I will present results from a dynamic river network model designed to quantify the downstream carbon leakage of ERW in the North …

Combining Paleorecords And Climate Models To Better Understand Past And Future Climate, Elizabeth Patterson

Sustainability Seminar Series

Climate models and paleoclimate records are both essential tools for understanding climate variability of the past, present and future. However, both have their sources of uncertainty. Here I discuss how using climate models and paleorecords together can improve our understanding of climate. I first demonstrate how climate model simulations aid our interpretation of a complex speleothem record. Then, I discuss how large paleodata networks can refine climate models and projections of future climate change.

Coastal Flooding Under Climate Change: Can Machine Learning Help?, Giovanni Coco

Sustainability Seminar Series

Sea-level rise is a consequence of climate change and the main driver of increasing coastal flooding over the twenty-first century. This presentation describes recent developments in downscaled wave climate, storm surge and sea-level rise modelling for Aotearoa New Zealand to project extreme total water. We assume that future total water levels can be calculated through the summation of tides, storm surge, wave runup and sea-level rise, allowing to investigate future overwash potential. Additionally, the presentation will explore how 'machine learning' techniques can enhance our studies, leading to better predictions and reduced uncertainty in understanding coastal flooding.

Cool Genomics, Melody Clark

Sustainability Seminar Series

Remarkably, the marine life in the Southern Ocean is incredibly biodiverse and clearly thriving, although the organisms (fish and invertebrates) live for most of the year below 0°C. These freezing conditions have been present in the Antarctic for 10-15 Million Years and have resulted in the evolution of some bizarre adaptations to the cold. In this talk, I will discuss some of the adaptations to life below 0°C and how these animals respond to climate change. In particular, I will highlight the use of molecular tools to understand marine organisms responses to change.

Fluorine Beyond Pfas: Tracking Fluorine During Photolysis Of Fluorinated Pesticides And Pharmaceuticals, William Arnold

Sustainability Seminar Series

Fluorine incorporation into organic chemicals is ubiquitous. There are many mass produced chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and medical contrast agents, containing one or more fluorine atoms that are released into the environment. Upon photolysis or oxidative treatment in aquatic systems, persistent fluorinated byproducts or fluoride from pesticides and pharmaceuticals are formed depending on the type and stability of the fluorine-containing functional group. Byproduct quantification was performed using 19F-NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Some motifs are persistent, generating new PFAS, while others degrade to fluoride. These results will assist in the future optimization of water treatment methods and development of pharmaceutical/pesticide …

Women And Urban Flooding Vulnerability, Ravina Aggarwal, Ly Quoc Dang, Neeraj Vedwan

Sustainability Seminar Series

This research talk is bringing together several experts on climate change issues to discuss the impacts of environmental risks on vulnerable communities and society from a cross-regional perspective. Based on a research study by Ly Quoc Dang, the discussion centers on Can Tho City (Vietnam), identifying how women in Can Tho City experience the impacts of flooding on their health, income, household and personal finances. Participants discuss limitations to women's participation in flood-related planning activities. Drawing on a feminist framing, participants not only offer insight into the unique harms that women experience from floods, but also demonstrate that women have …

More Than Just A Funky Smell: Fungal Volatiles Have Physiological Consequences, Joan Bennett

Sustainability Seminar Series

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are low molecular weight molecules that easily evaporate at room temperature. Fungal VOCs are responsible for the musty odors we associate with damp indoor environments. It has been hypothesized that they contribute to “sick building syndrome.” The Bennett lab has developed several genetic model systems to test the toxicity of fungal VOCs and found that VOCs have a range of unexpected biological functions.

Taking Science To The Streets: Participatory Research Approaches To Improve Environment, Health, And Quality Of Life In Urban Areas, Na'taki Osborne Jelks

Sustainability Seminar Series

Environmental justice communities, those disproportionately affected by pollutants, are simultaneously exposed to multiple environmental stressors and also experience social and cultural factors that may heighten their health risks in comparison to other communities. Availability of fine-grained, community-level data is limited to support said communities’ appeals for public health practice, planning, and policy changes. In Northwest Atlanta, Georgia’s Proctor Creek Watershed community residents (watershed researchers), academics, and non-profit organizations have leveraged local, community knowledge; community science methods; and participatory approaches to identify, document, and analyze the impacts of local environmental hazards and quality of life stressors. This highly collaborative and interdisciplinary …

Forests As Social Safety Nets During The Covid-19 Lockdowns: Evidence From India, Alder Keleman Saxena

Sustainability Seminar Series

This presentation reports on research assessing the social-ecological dynamics of the Covid-19 lockdowns in India in 2020 and 2021. Preliminary findings of research in forest- adjacent communities in three states (Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh) suggest that while forest resources did serve as a buffer for some of the most vulnerable households, they did not stand in as a full substitute for the market-derived goods and income opportunities curtailed by the lockdowns. Findings from the research to-date suggest two major conclusions: first, the ecological context (including the seasonal timing) of the lockdowns influenced the extent to which forest communities …

Water Quality And Road Salt In New Jersey, Deborah Kratzer

Sustainability Seminar Series

Water quality monitoring data show a long-term trend of increasing chloride and total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations in NJ surface waters and increasing exceedances of standards for aquatic life and drinking water. In this presentation, Debbie Kratzer will review the data linking road salt use with these trends, sustainability of winter deicing practices, and approaches to reverse these negative water quality trends.

Human-Robot Collaboration For Smart Manufacturing: A Sustainable Solution To The Future Of Manufacturing, Weitian Wang

Sustainability Seminar Series

Robotics technology has served humans in numerous application fields, especially product assembly in manufacturing contexts. Global competitors and technological advancements result in great challenges and much more complicated working environments for the manufacturing. Human-robot collaboration (HRC) has numerous vital and outstanding advantages to substantially lessen the amount of fixed production costs in comparison to variable costs. HRC provides a great solution to the complex hybrid manufacturing tasks. The cooperation of humans and robots in collaborative tasks can take advantage of the differing strengths from both sides. In this talk, I will give a broad introduction of robotics research and education …

Climate Change Adaptations Across The Global South, Arnaud Kurze, Tanzin Naher

Sustainability Seminar Series

This research talk provides a preliminary project overview drawing from archival work on Guinea at the Library of Congress and fieldwork carried out in Summer 2023 in Bangladesh. Drawing on the 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation objectives, the project focuses on coastal and rural populations in Bangladesh and Guinea, who are not only physically exposed to the heightened risks for climate change, including floods, but also socioeconomically vulnerable, due to limited resources to respond to increased rainfall and the impact on agricultural production. The project design is based on an integral collaboration between …

Science And Solutions For A Warming World, Kim Cobb

Sustainability Seminar Series

Kim Cobb, Director, Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and Professor, Dept of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences & Environment and Society, Brown University, presents this week's seminar.