Planners in suburban and rural communities should focus more on promoting recreational programs, expanding transportation options and creating safer environments to help an aging population get more exercise, according to the researchers’ analysis of more than 1,300 U.S. counties and cities.

“These are things we can think about doing in any community,” said Mildred Warner, professor of global development and of city and regional planning. “If your community is investing in recreation and social activity, they’re more likely to address obesity and other problems linked to physical inactivity.”

Warner and Xue Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar at Syracuse University, are co-authors of “Linking Urban Planning, Community Environment and Physical Activity: A Socio-ecological Approach,” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The scholars’ recommendations emerged from models they developed to identify the most important factors — individual, community and policy — influencing physical activity.

Demographic factors mattered most, the models showed. For example, communities with higher minority populations exercised less, likely due to lower incomes and longer commutes, Zhang said. Rural communities, whose populations on average are older and less affluent, similarly report less physical activity.

To better support rural and under-resourced communities, the researchers said, planners should work to broaden transportation options and promote recreation services, emphasizing the importance of collaboration across public health, planning, transportation and parks and recreation agencies. They should also give more attention to concerns about traffic safety and crime, in addition to policies promoting complete streets or mixed-use neighborhoods.

“Our models show safety is as important as transportation and more important than the built environment,” the scholars wrote.

Examples of planning and policy changes that Warner and Zhang have explored in related research could include lowering the speed limit on rural roads to make them safer for walking or biking. Partnerships enabling schools, libraries and fire departments to share facilities for recreation programs, transportation or food distribution could also help overcome limitations in the built environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic, Warner said, demonstrated many local governments’ ability to pivot overnight to alternative ways of doing business, and that spirit of collaboration and creativity will be needed as the U.S. population grays.

“As more of us get older, we’ve got to start designing our communities for everybody,” Warner said. “We can’t just have urban-based recommendations; we also need to think about what you would do in other places.”

The research was supported by a grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Sea level rise due to melting glaciers on Greenland and in the Arctic and Antarctic could force the relocation of 267 million people and entire cities located less than 2 meters — 6.5 feet — from today’s waterline by 2100. Oceanographer John Englander has raised the alarm about sea level rise in his books, High Tide on Main Street and Moving to Higher Ground. John runs the Rising Seas Institute and leads regular visits to Greenland to spur awareness of the accelerating loss of its glaciers. We talked with him in 2021, when Moving to Higher Ground was released, and he returns to the show to share an update on the pace of warming, the Thwaites Glacier and Ice Shelf in Antarctica, Greenland’s rapid loss of ice, and the preparations necessary for adaptation to a world of constantly rising seas.

NASA warns that continuing warming could raise sea levels by 5 meters (more than 16 feet) by 2300. The early damage will be felt across more than twice the expected coastal land than previously expected, according to a January 2023 Dutch research study published in the journal Earth’s Future, because previous satellite analysis misestimated the altitude of heavily forested land. The potential cost of protecting seaside cities and raising port facilities will run into the trillions of dollars. Perhaps that spending can be an opportunity to rethink our infrastructure comprehensively, but in the midst of a crisis people are not prone to be very forward-looking.

John Englander’s books are available online. Look for “Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Seal Level and the Path Forward” at Amazon and Powell’s Books and “High Tide on Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis” (Amazon; Powell’s Books). You can learn more about John and his work at johnenglander.net.

This magnetic sense, or ‘magnetoreception’, was first noticed in birds, and particularly in migratory songbirds. It has now been observed in many other species including mammals, fish and insects. However, the exact relationship between the magnetic field and the behaviour is difficult to pin down because it can be masked by other environmental factors. Experiments must be very carefully designed if their results are to be statistically sound.

“We aim to provide a balanced overview for researchers who wish to enter this exciting area of sensory biology,” explains Schneider. He and his co-authors outlined a range of methods that are used to deduce whether an animal’s behaviour is affected by a magnetic field. These include using GPS to mark animals’ alignment with the Earth’s field during normal activities, such as cows grazing; observing behaviour after tissues thought to be responsible for magnetoreception have been removed, or genes knocked out; and attaching small magnets on or near the animals’ bodies to disrupt the mechanism. Further work by animal physiologists, neuroscientists, geneticists and others will also be necessary to truly understand this phenomenon.

And this research is not only of academic interest. “Understanding animal magnetoreception will help us to protect animals released into unknown environments in the wild,” adds Lindecke.

Now, a study published in the journal Trends in Plant Science presents a set of techniques that enable researchers to detect and monitor drought stress in plants in a cheap, easy and quick way. The authors of the study are the experts Sergi Munné-Bosch and Sabina Villadangos, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

Fighting the impact of drought on plants

The techniques available to detect and monitor the effects of drought stress in plants range from very simple and inexpensive measures (growth or relative water content analysis) to more complex and expensive approaches (omics technologies).

UB professor Sergi Munné-Bosch, professor in the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, explains that these innovative technologies “have provided new opportunities to detect and monitor drought stress, but their cost generates inequalities around the world.”

“Unfortunately — he continues — today the whole world is affected by the lack of water resources, especially in the context of the current climate change we are experiencing. And, unfortunately, countries with fewer economic resources are no exception. It should be borne in mind that most of the poorest countries are in Africa, which is also home to the world’s largest arid and sub-arid regions.”

Laboratories with basic equipment

The study aims to respond to the need to establish effective and low-cost protocols to easily detect and study how droughts affect plants. Specifically, the authors present a battery of very accessible techniques that can be applied with basic laboratory equipment: precision balance, microscope, centrifuge, spectrophotometer, oven, camera and computer.

These laboratories could analyse different parameters on growth rates, leaf water content, pigments and leaf viability using the tetrazolium test, an organic heterocyclic compound that has traditionally been used in plant physiology studies.

“With these indicators, we can get a complete picture of which species are best adapted to a particular climate, or how a given crop responds to changing conditions in a given region in the current context of climate change,” says Munné-Bosch.

“All these measures are easy to conduct. In addition, a specialised team can be assembled in a very short time to develop measures quickly and efficiently. And they can be implemented at a very low cost, so they are viable approaches worldwide,” says the researcher.

The tetrazolium test: getting a classic back

In a second study (Trends in Plant Science, 2023), the team highlights the use of the tetrazolium test as a useful and easy-to-apply method for evaluating the effects of drought stress on plants. “This test not only allows us to detect whether a cell, tissue or organ is alive or dead, but it is also an excellent indicator of its longevity; in other words, it is a scientific tool that allows us to predict how long a plant will live. This can be especially useful for biodiversity management and conservation programmes, especially in the current context of climate change,” says the researcher.

The impact of climate change is stimulating research into how plants adapt to new environmental conditions. “More than a stimulus, this is a necessity. Humans need to adapt to climate change, and they will always do so better hand in hand with nature, integrating with it. And to do so, it is essential to know the ecosystems and all the organisms that form part of them, including plants,” says Munné-Bosch.

Designing and implementing quality scientific tools is determining to create management plans and to conserve the biodiversity worldwide. “This study contributes to a better understanding of the plants’ response to drought in a context of climate change, and, in addition, it can be useful for biodiversity management programmes,” notes the UB researcher Sabina Villadangos.

The study also makes it easier for these measures to be implemented worldwide. “It is necessary to bear in mind that if all countries do not coordinate in the face of foreseeable changes, the effects of global change will be devastating,” concludes Sergi Munné-Bosch.

We talk a lot about the importance of sustainability and making sure the products we purchase are sustainable. But what is it, exactly, that makes a product sustainable?

As you might suspect, “sustainable” can mean different things to different companies and individuals. If you want to be an informed consumer, you may find it helpful to consider the different aspects of sustainability.

What “Sustainability” Means

A simple definition of sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. For a product to be sustainable, it must be possible to produce and/or consume it in a way that doesn’t result in harm or destruction. If the production of a product requires nonrenewable resources, damages the environment, or results in harm to individuals or society, it is unlikely to be considered sustainable.

A product is usually considered sustainable if it:

• Doesn’t deplete natural, nonrenewable resources: A sustainable product is made from renewable resources; in other words, resources that can’t be fully depleted.
• Doesn’t directly harm the environment: The production, distribution, and/or consumption of the product uses as little energy as possible, and minimizes and responsibly disposes of waste. Almost no action is completely free from environmental impact, so most environmentally conscious companies strive to minimize negative impact.
• Wasn’t made in a socially irresponsible way (for example, using forced or child labor or causing health or safety concerns): A socially sustainable business is one that practices fair and equal hiring, hiring a diverse range of people and ensuring they have a voice in the organization. Socially sustainable businesses also care about the health, wellbeing, and success of their employees — as well as the residents of the cities and countries in which they operate.

A more complex aspect of sustainability is economic sustainability, which can refer to how a business operates. Economically sustainable businesses allow other businesses to compete and flourish. Broader economic sustainability allows a country’s growth to remain consistent for many years, rather than accelerating and declining in volatile or destructive patterns.

Sustainability Through Processes vs. Actions

Some companies optimize their processes and resources for sustainability, while others improve sustainability through actions; some companies strive for both.

Through process and resource optimization, some companies choose vendors, materials, production methods, hiring options, and make other business decisions specifically because they lend themselves to sustainability. This often requires extensive due diligence and may result in higher initial production costs.

Companies may also strive to improve their sustainability through actions that are separate from the manufacture of their product or the delivery of their service. For example, Water Watch Company provides clean water to an individual in need for a lifetime with each purchase; to date, they’ve donated more than 120 million gallons of clean water.

Other industries take action to offset an otherwise unsustainable model. For example, some airlines participate in carbon offset programs that plant trees or take other actions to help compensate for the negative environmental impact of travel.

Is This Product Sustainable?

First, check the label. Often, labels on a product will convey how the product is made and what it’s environmental impact might be. For example, you can look for labels that indicate that the product:

• Was made from recycled materials;
• Was made using renewable resources;
• Is 100% biodegradable, or;
• Was manufactured using ethically sourced labor.

You may also see marks of approval from formal standards and organizations, like the EPA or the World Fair Trade Organization. Several organizations around the world identify, analyze, and label the relative sustainability of different products. For example,

• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides standard reporting guidelines that organizations can voluntarily follow. The guidelines outline economic, environmental, and social impact for individual products and the organization overall.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provides international standards for environmental impact.
• Many countries have national standards for sustainability that local companies may be legally required to follow.
• You can also check CSRHub.com, a private database that ranks corporate sustainability and social goals.

Other factors that help determine a product’s sustainability are more difficult to measure. For example, is this product potentially contributing to the development of a pseudo-monopoly? Was this product developed by the hands of a mistreated workforce?

You’ll need to research the company to know for sure since you won’t find that information on a label. So, it’s a good time to check the GRI, UNEP, or CSRHub sites.

Is This Business Sustainable?

You can think of sustainability in terms of individual products and overall organizations. For example, a company may produce a single product that is not sustainable due to its environmental impact, but the organization’s broader efforts improve the company’s sustainability. Conversely, a single product may be environmentally friendly, but the organization’s hiring practices,  economic activities, or overall environmental impact may be destructive.

It’s important to acknowledge both product and organizational sustainability in your research. One way to determine organizational sustainability is to review the company’s most recent sustainability report, which you may be able to find on their website. Among U.S. publicly traded companies, 96% of S&P 500 and 81% of Russell 1000 are now publishing sustainability reports. In these sustainability reports, you’ll learn about the company’s environmental impact, hiring practices, and steps they’re taking to improve their sustainability as an organization.

As consumers increasingly demand sustainable products and services, more companies will focus on their business’ sustainability. With a better perspective on the definition of sustainability, you can make better choices as a consumer.

This article was originally published on July 7, 2020. We updated some links in February 8, 2023.

“This research helps us quantify the energetic requirements of the southern residents,” said Jacob Lerner, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the Pelagic Ecosystems Lab at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “For example, if the southern residents ate just low-lipid salmon, they would have to eat around 80,000 more Chinook salmon every year than if they just ate high-lipid salmon.”

Southern resident killer whales are an iconic species in British Columbia’s Salish Sea and down the northeastern Pacific coast. With black and white markings, these marine mammals can weigh up to 12,000 pounds and be up to 26 feet long. They are fierce, social creatures that live and hunt in family group pods. And, sadly, there are only 73 left in the world.

Critically endangered by a number of anthropogenic factors, including noise pollution and high levels of water contaminants, their decline is mostly based on the limited availability of their preferred prey — Chinook salmon. However, there are many distinct populations of Chinook salmon available throughout the year, some with stock-specific differences in energy density, and not all in decline.

“We began with an initial hypothesis that these salmon were all created equal, that they all have the same value to resident killer whales. And we quickly realized that this is not true at all,” said Lerner. “They all have different levels of lipid content.”

Quantifying that lipid content is important as it directly relates to the caloric value of a salmon, assigning its value as prey. Specific estimates of lipid content for Chinook populations with different distributions, or run-timings, could be used to inform trends in killer whale populations, properly time fisheries closures, or even decide which hatcheries to augment to increase high quality food availability for southern residents, Lerner said.

This is particularly important as southern resident killer whales are a migratory species and often spend their winter months elsewhere. When they return to the Salish Sea for the spring and summer, their arrival often coincides with the arrival of the spring-run Fraser River Chinook salmon.

“Southern resident killer whales used to come here earlier in the spring season when they could eat early migrating Chinook salmon,” said Brian Hunt, associate professor in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “Those early Chinook were very energy dense as they need to fuel their long freshwater migration back to their spawning grounds, but those stocks have been declining. With the whales coming later, they mainly have access to Chinook from the lower Fraser. These fish don’t migrate very far, and have lower energy density.”

As a major source of prey for southern residents, estimates of lipid content from Fraser bound Chinook salmon may be one of the keys to helping both threatened species. “We identified a spectrum of high, medium and low-lipid Chinook populations from the Fraser that can be used to better inform energetics models and manage both species,” Lerner stated, “We also identified life history parameters for the salmon to predict where on this spectrum they may fall.”

Though the study has quantified lipid content in Fraser River Chinook, and shown new light on its life history drivers, there is still little information on how ocean conditions influence this energy accumulation.

“We plan to keep monitoring Fraser Chinook salmon fat content,” said Hunt. “And one of questions we want to answer is how changing ocean conditions might be affecting their energy accumulation. Our concern is that ocean warming and food web shifts in the North Pacific Ocean are leading to lower energy accumulation in Chinook salmon. This will have implications for both the Chinook themselves — will they have enough energy for return migration and spawning? — and the killers whales that depend on them.”

They note that the findings, published today in the journal One Earth, add urgency to the need to respond to the climate crisis and provide a roadmap for policymakers aiming to avert the most severe consequences of a warming planet.

In climate science, amplifying feedback loops are situations where a climate-caused alteration can trigger a process that causes even more warming, which in turn intensifies the alteration. An example would be warming in the Arctic, leading to melting sea ice, which results in further warming because sea water absorbs rather than reflects solar radiation.

OSU College of Forestry postdoctoral scholar Christopher Wolf and distinguished professor William Ripple led the study, which in all looked at 41 climate change feedbacks.

“Many of the feedback loops we examined significantly increase warming because of their connection to greenhouse gas emissions,” Wolf said. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the most extensive list available of climate feedback loops, and not all of them are fully considered in climate models. What’s urgently needed is more research and modeling and an accelerated cutback of emissions.”

The paper makes two calls to action for “immediate and massive” emissions reductions:

• Minimize short-term warming given that “climate disasters” in the form of wildfires, coastal flooding, permafrost thaw, intense storms and other extreme weather are already occurring.
• Mitigate the possible major threats looming from climate tipping points that are drawing ever-closer due to the prevalence of the many amplifying feedback loops. A tipping point is a threshold after which a change in a component of the climate system becomes self-perpetuating.

“Transformative, socially just changes in global energy and transportation, short-lived air pollution, food production, nature preservation and the international economy, together with population policies based on education and equality, are needed to meet these challenges in both the short and long term,” Ripple said. “It’s too late to fully prevent the pain of climate change, but if we take meaningful steps soon while prioritizing human basic needs and social justice, it could still be possible to limit the harm.”

Ripple, Wolf and co-authors from the University of Exeter, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Woodwell Climate Research Center and Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates considered both biological and physical feedbacks. Biological feedbacks include forest dieback, soil carbon loss and wildfire; physical feedbacks involve changes such as reduced snow cover, increased Antarctic rainfall and shrinking arctic sea ice.

Even comparatively modest warming is expected to heighten the likelihood that the Earth will cross various tipping points, the researchers say, causing big changes in the planet’s climate system and potentially strengthening the amplifying feedbacks.

“Climate models may be underestimating the acceleration in global temperature change because they aren’t fully considering this large and related set of amplifying feedback loops,” Wolf said. “The accuracy of climate models is crucial as they help guide mitigation efforts by telling policymakers about the expected effects of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. While recent climate models do a much better job of incorporating diverse feedback loops, more progress is needed.”

Emissions have risen substantially over the last century, the researchers note, despite several decades of warnings that they should be significantly curbed. The scientists say interactions among feedback loops could cause a permanent shift away from the Earth’s current climate state to one that threatens the survival of many humans and other life forms.

“In the worst case, if amplifying feedbacks are strong enough, the result is likely tragic climate change that’s moved beyond anything humans can control,” Ripple said. “We need a rapid transition toward integrated Earth system science because the climate can only be fully understood by considering the functioning and state of all Earth systems together. This will require large-scale collaboration, and the result would provide better information for policymakers.”

In addition to the 27 amplifying climate feedbacks the scientists studied were seven that are characterized as dampening — they act to stabilize the climate system. An example is carbon dioxide fertilization, where rising concentrations of atmospheric CO₂ lead to increasing carbon uptake by vegetation.

The effects of the remaining seven feedbacks, including increased atmospheric dust and reduced ocean stability, are not yet known.

The paper in One Earth has a corresponding website (https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/climate_feedbacks) that features more about climate feedback loops, including infographics and interactive animations.

Mangroves are a crucial protector against climate change’s effects in Guyana’s low-lying coastal regions. In addition to being rich habitats for wildlife in this northern South American country, these swampy forests help block floods and pounding surf as sea levels rise and storms intensify due to climate change. Mangroves also help stop erosion, prevent saltwater from seeping into agricultural soils, and act as a carbon sink, absorbing more carbon than most inland rainforests.

To ensure that these habitats stay healthy, the Mangrove Monitoring Service was launched in July 2022 by SERVIR, a joint program of NASA and the U.S. Agency of International Development. This new monitoring effort is in collaboration with Guyana’s National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute and the University of Guyana. It measures the height and density of mangrove forests by using NASA satellites that bounce radar signals off the planet’s surface.

When these lasers hit mangroves’ leaves and branches, the radar signals come backscattered. When the radar signals bounce back more smoothly, it can warn local experts that a section of forest might be sick, or even deforested entirely. The Mangrove Monitoring Service also uses imagery from other NASA satellites, and this bird’s eye view of the forests further helps spot places where forest is being lost.

Coordinators at the SERVIR-Amazonia regional hub hope lessons learned in Guyana might be the first steps toward building the goal of protecting biodiversity and climate resilience across the Caribbean.

More information about this work can be found in the NASA Applied Sciences site story Protecting Guyana’s Mangroves and Communities with NASA Satellites.