Jason McLachlan (BIOS) used a highly detailed model based on thousands of years of fossilized pollen in sediment to predict the future of climate change. Published in Science, the group's research shows accumulation of carbon in forests is not stable and is growing continually. Read more

ND researchers aim to bring real-world solutions to communities worldwide, providing perspective on policy issues and facing uncertainty with resilience. This article features work by Joe Fernando (CEEES), Debra Javeline (POLI SCI), Tracy Kijewski-Correa (CEEES), and Jennifer Tank (BIOS). Read more

Graham Peaslee (PHYS) is studying the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water and face masks, as well as school uniforms. Peaslee’s lab has developed a rapid method to effectively measure PFAS levels at low concentrations. The work has been recently featured in USNews, The Guardian, The Hill, and PBS.

This summer, H₂O@ND, launched the ND Graduate Water Fellows Program, awarding fellowships to eleven Ph.D. students to help grow interdisciplinary training in water-related research across campus. Read more 

The most climate-prepared countries in the world are losing ground, according to the latest update of ND-GAIN. Updated annually, ND-GAIN’s Country Index quantifies the climate vulnerability and readiness of more than 180 countries by aggregating 45 core indicators over 20 years. Read more

Marc Muller (CEEES) examined the development of two land deals, simulating the need for surface water irrigation in Western Ethiopia, and found increases in water scarcity downstream. Published in Nature Communications, the study highlights how the globalization of land and food systems can put stress on water resources and access. Read more

This summer, undergraduate researchers from Notre Dame and Dublin City University joined together under the direction of Danielle Wood (ND-GAIN) to analyze a subwatershed in the St. Joseph River Basin to better understand barriers and opportunities to climate adaptation in the region. Read more

ND-ECI welcomes five new postdoctoral scholars:

Advisor: Marc Muller

Research Interests: climate adaptation, water resources & environmental management, risk/decision analysis, human-natural systems, urban hydrology

Advisor: Wade McGillis

Research Interests: environmental change, benthic ecology, biomineralization, coastal restoration, marine biology, evolution

Advisors: Jianxun Wang & Sisi Meng

Research Interests: fluid-solid interactions, renewable energy harvesting & scientific machine learning

Advisors: Jennifer Tank & Diogo Bolster

Research Interests: environmental and natural resources, hydrological modeling, GIS

Advisor: Kyle Doudrick

Research Interests: environmental remediation, waste management, wastewater treatment, emerging contaminants

The goal of the ND-ECI Partial Postdoctoral Fellowship (PPF) program is to support postdoctoral research and scholarship that helps grow collaborative bridges between science, engineering, social sciences and humanities through interdisciplinary training.

Apply Now! Proposals due by Friday, February 18, 2023.

Can you suggest one (or more) names that would make a great speaker for the ND-ECI Spring Virtual Seminar Series? The series is a great opportunity to hear from colleagues on a wide range of topics that fall broadly under the umbrella of environmental change.

In Spring 2022, ND-ECI conducted faculty interviews to gain insights and increase faculty engagement. One key takeaway was an interest in exploring opportunities for new areas of interdisciplinary research. In order to catalyze these collaborations, ND-ECI recently offered funding to facilitate idea generation and extend our research vision through Environmental Research Working Groups.

2022 ND-ECI Working Group awardees include:

Environmental Social Science and Ecological Impacts Working Group, Led by: Festus Amadu (KEOUGH)

Microsensor Profiling System Working Group, Led by: Robert Nerenberg (CEEES) & Emily Clements (CEEES)

ND-PFAS Working Group, Led by: Daniele de Almeida Miranda (BIOS)

ND-ECI looks forward to fostering vertically-integrated collaboration across disciplines through the support of working group engagement! If these topics are of interest, please reach out to coordinators regarding upcoming activities. 

World Fisheries Day highlights the importance of healthy ecosystems and ensuring sustainable fisheries globally. 

Stuart Jones (BIOS) explores the dynamics of freshwater recreational fishery landscapes observing the interactions between fish and human populations.

Read Jones's new article published in Fisheries Research!

Thank you to everyone who came out for this year’s Halloween-themed Science Sunday! We had beautiful weather and were able to share interactive research presentations with 100+ attendees of all ages! Watch our WSBT coverage

Congratulations to ND-ECI affiliated faculty, who have received 15 new grants this year to date, totaling ~3.1M award dollars. Below are some highlights: 

Alan Hamlet (CEEES) - National Science Foundation: Collaborative Research: Interactions of urban systems with storms and heatwaves, and resulting impacts

Marc Muller (CEEES) - National Science Foundation: CAREER: Socio hydrology to link climate change and its societal impacts

Marc Muller (CEEES), Ellis Adams (KEOUGH), et. al. - BHP Group Limited: A Rights-Based Approach for Water Governance in a 21st Century World

Alexander Dowling (CBE), Tracy Kijewski-Correa (CEEES), Jennifer Tank (BIOS) & Danielle Wood (CCI/ECI) - National Science Foundation: EAGER GERMINATION: Immersive Training Studio for Technology-Environment-Energy-Water-Society (TEEWS) Grand Challenges

Jason McLachlan (BIOS), Stefano Castruccio (ACMS) & Paola Crippa (CEEES) - National Science Foundation: Collaborative Research: MRA: Evaluating hypotheses of long-term woody carbon dynamics with empirical data

Kyle Bibby (CEEES) - National Science Foundation: RCN: Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats

David Richter (CEEES) - National Science Foundation: AGS-FIRP Track 2: Untangling the physics of aerosol activation, turbulence, and drizzle formation: Pi Chamber experiments and numerical simulation

Elizabeth Archie (BIOS) - National Institutes of Health: Developing insertable cardiac monitors to assess social and environmental effects on the autonomic stress response in a nonhuman primate model of aging

The ND-ECI Community has been very productive with over 150 publications since our last newsletter. Below are some highlights, please click here to view the full list.

Barker, S., Starr, A., van der Lubbe, J., Doughty, A., Knorr, G., Conn, S., Berke, M. et al.. (2022). Persistent influence of precession on northern ice sheet variability since the early Pleistocene. Science, 376(6596), 961–967. 

Cabon, A., Kannenberg, S. A., Arain, A., Babst, F., Baldocchi, D., Belmecheri, S., Rocha A.V. et al.. (2022). Cross-biome synthesis of source versus sink limits to tree growth. Science, 376(6594), 758–761.

Chaturvedi, S., Gompert, Z., Feder, J. L., Osborne, O. G., Muschick, M., Riesch, R., Nosil, P. et al.. (2022). Climatic similarity and genomic background shape the extent of parallel adaptation in Timema stick insects. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 

Chiarelli, D. D., D’Odorico, P., Müller, M. F., Mueller, N. D., Davis, K. F., Dell’Angelo, J., Rulli, M. C. et al.. (2022). Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture. Nature Communications, 13(1). 

Guerrero-Pineda, C., Iacona, G. D., Mair, L., Hawkins, F., Siikamäki, J., Miller, D., & Gerber, L. R. (2022). An investment strategy to address biodiversity loss from agricultural expansion. Nature Sustainability, 5(7), 610–618. 

Raiho, A. M., Paciorek, C. J., Dawson, A., Jackson, S. T., Mladenoff, D. J., Williams, J. W., & McLachlan, J. S. (2022). 8000-year doubling of Midwestern forest biomass driven by population- and biome-scale processes. Science, 376(6600), 1491–1495. 

Zhang, L., Rohr, J., Cui, R., Xin, Y., Han, L., Yang, X., Liu, X. et al.. (2022). Biological invasions facilitate zoonotic disease emergences. Nature Communications, 13(1). 

Talbot, C. J., Bolster, D., Medvigy, D., & Jones, S. E. (2022). A Terrestrial‐Aquatic Model Reveals Cross‐Scale Interactions Regulate Lateral Dissolved Organic Carbon Transport From Terrestrial Ecosystems. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127(5). 

Vilgalys, T. P., Fogel, A. S., Anderson, J. A., Mututua, R. S., Warutere, J. K., Siodi, I. L., Tung, J., Archie E.A. et al.. (2022). Selection against admixture and gene regulatory divergence in a long-term primate field study. Science, 377(6606), 635–641. 

Willson, A. M., Trugman, A. T., Powers, J. S., Smith-Martin, C. M., & Medvigy, D. (2022). Climate and hydraulic traits interact to set thresholds for liana viability. Nature Communications, 13(1). 

At the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, over 60 faculty across several disciplines are pursuing research solutions for key environmental challenges of our time.

ND-ECI focuses on multidisciplinary research that can translate into solutions to help make the world a better place for humans and the environment upon which people depend.

We call it “Science Serving Society.”

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