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Taking the tide out of tidal marshes
In a study recently published in Environmental Research: Ecology, researchers used vector autoregression and Granger causality testing to uncover how tide influences biogeochemistry in a salt marsh off the coast of Georgia, USA. Combining measurements from a low-cost dissolved CO2 (pCO2) sensor platform with tide gage observations throughout the course of one month allowed scientists…
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Slowing Climate Change with Coastal Enhanced Weathering
Coastal enhanced weathering is a nature-based climate solution in which sand reacts with seawater to store more carbon in the oceans. It works in marine ecosystems by increasing pH and thus pushing the carbonate equilibrium forward. The result is that ocean water becomes less acidic and can absorb more atmospheric CO2. The enhanced weathering reaction…
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How Diverse Canopies Absorb More Carbon
As the climate crisis becomes more dire, planting trees and turning green space into forest is no longer enough to balance carbon emissions. Negative emissions technologies need to be implemented, but also, existing forests and other ecosystems need to be optimized for maximum productivity. Managing forests and other ecosystems will allow them to perform photosynthesis…
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Public Benefit Corps: The Future of “Green” Business?
The first ever public benefit corporation appeared in 2017 with an Initial Public Offering. It was Laureate Education, the largest degree-granting higher education institution in the world. Today there are over three thousand public benefit corporations (PBCs), accounting for .01% of American businesses. However, they aren’t all brand new. Existing companies can become PBCs if…
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Truly Living Well
On Earth Day I had the opportunity to visit and volunteer at the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture in Atlanta, Georgia. The center has three goals: (1) producing natural food, (2) educating others on how to grow food, and (3) creating a welcoming space where people can gather and find harmony with…
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Earth Optimism in Times of Despair
Earth Optimism is a movement focused on the successes of people around the world to tackle a wide variety of environmental issues. It was started in 2017, a few years after the Ocean Optimism twitter campaign, by coral reef biologist Nancy Knowlton. Earth optimism has paved the way for people to be optimistic about other…
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The Science of Depression
The mind is an incredibly powerful tool. Thoughts and beliefs can formulate individual actions, which can motivate people to make significant changes in society and the world. But what happens when peoples’ beliefs, crafted by very powerful minds, are the exact things holding them back? Although help exists for those experiencing clinical depression, a third…
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Picking a Ph.D. Program
In the United States, most graduate schools require that you accept their offer for employment or study by April 15 to begin in the summer or fall. With that deadline just three short weeks away, I thought now would be the prime time to help you make the right choice. I am a second year…
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Dinners of Choice for Outdoor Domestic Cats
Lions, tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, and leopards are the main cats that wildlife researchers are passionately driven to study. Their status as apex predators with enormous toe beans undoubtedly contribute to making them the focus of countless research and conservation efforts. Big cats even appear in ancient folklore. But what about the much smaller, yet fierce,…
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Recovering Carbon on the California Coast
As the world is increasingly impacted by climate change, people are turning to nature-based climate solutions to increase carbon storage and limit emissions from the world’s ecosystems. Restoring degraded wetlands is an especially popular natural climate solution in the state of California, where land is literally sinking due to the removal of groundwater. By measuring…
definearth
an environmental blog.
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