Earth and Society Initiative
Project Details
Illinois Program on Nutrient Dynamics
Project Leader
Walt Robinson, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Project Description
Nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, and calcium are essential parts of the global food web supporting human societies and ecological communities. Human influences on nutrient cycling often involve complex social and biophysical interactions, which include undesirable environmental consequences, such as water pollution, global climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Benefits and costs of human alterations of nutrient cycles are unevenly distributed in time and space and have been difficult to quantify in many instances because of poorly understood and highly variable transformation and transport processes. At this point, we do not adequately understand, nor can we intelligently manage there dynamics. The cost of our lack of understanding is that we cannot effectively promote the long-term sustainability of agriculture, global populations, and the ecological health of our landscapes and waters. Nitrogen discharges from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico have been cited as the primary cause of the hypoxic zone that annually develops near the mouth of that river, harming aquatic life in fisheries. Nutrient transport through the water column impairs drinking water, degrades freshwater ecosystems, promotes growth of pathogens in some cases and can change water chemistry. Additionally, nutrient transport through the atmosphere introduces additional ranges of spatial and temporal distribution. At the broadest level, the major questions regarding the management of nutrients on the land surface include: the effects on world food demand; the impacts of different agricultural practices on nutrient loss; the effect of changes in climate, technology and consumer preferences on nutrient balances; and terrestrial effects of atmospheric deposition of nitrogen .
The problem of nutrient runoff from agricultural lands is gaining prominence as a political issue, and pressure on farmers to address this problem is likely to increase. A unique opportunity exists on the University of Illinois campus to contribute to the body of knowledge about nutrient dynamics now and in the future as the University research farms (the South Farms) are being relocated and redeveloped. It is intended that the new South Farms will make use of the latest technologies in precision agriculture, remote sensing, and geographical information systems.
The South Farms provide unlimited and unimpeded access to a region of contiguous agricultural lands, for which there are excellent records of land treatment and management. Moreover, these lands lie at the headwaters of the Embarras River watershed, so there are few upstream sources of nutrients, and these nutrient inflows are readily monitored. Additional advantages of the South Farms site include its proximity to the National Atmospheric Deposition Program field site at Bondville, Illinois, which provides measurements of atmospheric wet and dry deposition of nitrogen, and to the climatic and meteorological observations provided by the Illinois State Water Survey.
The objectives of this project are to address the overarching scientific question: How do natural processes and agriculture practices separately and in interaction with each other control nutrient losses from agricultural lands?
In answering this question, the group is focusing on four specific objectives. Project participants are:
- determining how the timing and quantity of fertilizer application and the type of fertilizer applied affect nutrient runoff under various management scenarios;
- assessing the most cost effective ways to minimize nutrient runoff from agricultural areas;
- measuring and describe the ecological impacts of nutrient runoff in surface waters; and
- modeling the impacts that changes in climate, technology and consumer preferences have on nutrient balances and their environmental effects.
Emerging Infectious Disease & Ecosystem Health
Project Leaders:
Tony L. Goldberg, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, and Thomas R. Gillespie, Departments of Anthropology & Veterinary Pathobiology
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ecohealth
Project Description
The Earth and Society Initiative in Disease Emergence and Ecosystem Health coordinates research, education, and outreach activities of a diverse assemblage of University of Illinois centers, programs, laboratories and individuals whose interests converge at the interface of emerging infectious diseases, anthropogenic environmental change, and biodiversity conservation.
Initiative research projects examine such diverse topics as how and why anthropogenic changes to tropical forests place people, livestock, and wildlife living in such ecosystems at increased risk of pathogen exchange; microbiological and environmental influences on coral black band disease, and cultural and ecological drivers of infectious disease emergence.
Initiative education and outreach programs strive to improve biodiversity and health through international training and capacity building in epidemiology. In addition, the initiative’s EnviroVet Program works to provide professional and graduate students with skills and expertise to identify and solve environmental problems that affect the health and well-being of people, domestic animals, wildlife and ecosystems.
From Field to Farm Programs; Potential of Organic Agriculture to Contribute to Healthy Landscapes
Project Participants
Michelle Wander, NRES; Angela Kent, NRES; Gregory McIssac, NRES; Madhu Khanna, ACE; John Masiunas, NRES; Darin Eastburn, Crop Sciences
Project Description
Midwest agriculture is coping with changing markets, environmental challenges, and increasing public demand for healthy food and a safe environment. The pace of change presents a challenge for educators and researches who need to anticipate trends and client needs well in advance of their manifestation. The organic market is the fastest growing segment of food sales in North America -from $1B in 1990 to almost $8B in 2000. There are, however, currently only about 200 certified organic producers in Illinois. Illinois growers only supply 3% of the local organic market which is estimated to be worth $60-80M in the Chicago market alone. One of the many reasons cited for this is the limited amount of research that has been devoted to this topic. The costs and benefits of production modes, energy security and climate change have also entered the dialogue about agriculture. Renewable technologies could provide nearly 50% of US energy needs but this would require about 17% of US land resources (Pimentel et al. 2002). However, land availability, high investment costs and preferences for food production could restrict development of agriculturally-based clean energy technologies (Vesterby and Krupa, 2001).
Studies on agriculture, food, land use, nutrient dynamics, human dimensions, and economic forecasting, contain a wealth of information that would be valuable for synthetic and multidisciplinary studies relevant to modern agriculture. However, data are often captured within disciplinary bounds and are distributed among various private, government and academic institutions. The distributed nature of these datasets presents a barrier to synthesis and integration as new researchers may be unaware of existing datasets. Moreover, there is no standard data structure employed by these projects. Such barriers effectively mean that results from previous studies are unavailable to future researchers and the investments in this research are lost. While strong in technology focused disciplines, U of I presently lacks the kind of administrative and physical infrastructure required to support the kind of interdisciplinary, system-research needed to tackle contemporary questions in agriculture.
To catch up with and/or evaluate the opportunities that organic agriculture and biomass crops present, the U of I and partners must initiate strategically focused field, market, and econometric research. Rather than focus on the "field to fork" connection that reflects consumer interest in food quality and food security, PIs elected to focus on analysis and optimization of organic production practices and the programs and policies that influence the viability of this sector of agriculture in Illinois.
This Earth and Society project is facilitating the formation of interdisciplinary research teams through the development of informatics resources. The “ecoinformatics” approach promoted by the NSF-funded Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge (http://seek.ecoinformatics.org/) will serve as a model for our informatics activities. Participating scientists will develop concept maps describing the prospects for new land use choices (organic and biomass crops) within Illinois' food and environmental context. Concept mapping may be seen as a type of brainstorming. By its structure, mapping provides opportunity for convergent thinking, fitting ideas together, and thinking up new ideas as they connect to a center- in this instance the sustainability of agriculture in Illinois. In addition to the input of researchers, the ideas and needs of stakeholders including innovators in related business, government, and civic society will be sought. To help accomplish this, symposia and training opportunities will be organized to help the group conceive of and plan, research to move our teaching, research, and outreach programs forward.
Towards Energy Security and Sustainability: Renewable Energy and Land Use in Illinois
Project Participants
Jürgen Scheffran, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security; George Gross, Electrical Engineering; Bruce Hannon, Geography; Geoffrey Hewings, Economics; Atul Jain, Atmospheric Sciences; Madhu Khanna, ACE; Stephanie Long, Plant Biology; Hayri Onal, ACE.
Project Description
The challenge for future energy policy is to achieve a sustainable transition towards energy security with reduced vulnerability of energy supply to risks of future disruptions, disasters and conflicts in the energy sector (Scheffran/Singer 2004). Growing concern about climate change and energy security has led to increasing interest in developing domestically available renewable energy sources for meeting the electricity, heating and fuel needs in the United States. A recent study on the economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy sources in Illinois (Bournakis et al. 2005) analyzes the renewable portfolio standard which requires that, by 2006, at least 2% of the electricity sold to Illinois customers be generated from renewable resources. The amount of electricity from renewable resources is required to increase at least by 1% annually, reaching at least 8% in 2012 and 16% in 2020. Meeting these targets by 2020 would require construction of renewable energy facilities capable of delivering about 12,500,000 Megawatthours in 2012 and about 28,000,000 Megawatthours (MWh) in 2020.
Illinois has considerable potential to use wind energy resources, biomass and biowaste for energy generation to meet these targets. Illinois ranks fifth in the Midwest and 16th in the US for wind power potential. Illinois also has significant potential to grow perennial grasses that can provide bioenergy. Recent research on Miscanthus has shown that this low-input perennial may have biomass yields that are about double those of switchgrass and corn (Heaton et al. 2004b, Khanna et al., 2006). Earlier trials with this crop demonstrated a large decrease in nitrogen loss to drainage water and decreased water use (Beal/Long, 1997, Beale et al. 1999). Biowaste is another relevant source of energy and material that can be used more efficiently than it is now. Recycling and using biowaste in agriculture and energy production can serve to build an infrastructure and support for extended use of biomass and biofuel/biogas as an alternative to fossil oil and gas with lower emissions (Johnke/Scheffran/Soyez 2004). According to Bournakis et al. (2005) landfills provide a substantial opportunity for energy generation in Illinois, estimated to be more than 300 MW of installed generation capacity.
The project participants are developing collaborative research strategies and mapping out directions for future work towards integrated assessment and implementation of renewable energy potentials in Illinois, in support of policy formulation, decision-making and demonstration. Participants are exploring the feasibility, basic research thrusts, associated broader impacts and the importance to bring about a cross-disciplinary approach to the field that is described by the following dimensions:
- Economic and technical aspects include technical alternatives and feasibility, potential costs and prices, the market and job potential, and possible finance mechanisms.
- Geographical and environmental aspects include land-use conflicts, climate and health impacts, sustainable farming and rural development through bioenergy and other resources.
- Making best use of local municipal and agricultural resources will further trigger interest in renewable energy and reduced carbon emissions.
With this project we will prepare the ground and take first steps towards a sustained research effort that focuses on two interrelated cross-cutting issues which are pursued in parallel.
While various research institutions cover individual aspects in detail, this project is unique in terms of interdisciplinary integration of the research subjects, including agriculture, geography, regional economics, biology and crop sciences, atmospheric sciences, engineering and policy aspects. Through workshop and outreach activities, the project offers the potential to transfer project results into decision-making, public debate and demonstration projects. Novel parts include spatial modeling of renewable energy and land use; the integration of biomass, carbon sequestration and integrated assessment of climate change; and a renewable energy initiative for Illinois that involves researchers and stakeholders. Such an approach is significant in the national and international context, and will be strengthened through the international workshop that combines domestic and global issues in a way that facilitates the exchange of results. A focus on the State of Illinois could well serve as an example and offer opportunities to learn from other case studies in different regions of the country and the world.
Institute for Sustainability of Intensively Managed Landscapes
Project Participants
Praveen Kumar, CEE, Don Wuebbles, Atmospheric Sciences; James Wescoat, Landscape Architecture; Bruce Rhoads, Geography; Tom Johnson, Geology; Greg McIsaac, NRES; Murugesu Sivapalan, Geography/CEE.
Project Participants
Intensively managed landscapes (IMLs) refer to extensive modification of the land for agriculture and urban use. While serving as a cradle for economic prosperity of our society, IMLs are also responsible for the unintended deterioration of our environment from the alteration of natural vegetation, modification of rivers for navigation, increased loading of fertilizers and chemicals in water bodies, decline of ground water levels, reclamation of land using levees, etc. These induce significant modification of the water cycle and the environment and as a result all the systems that are linked such as climate, biogeochemistry, and ecology. The adverse effects of these stressors are evident through the degradation of the water quality and ecosystem functions, increased erosion, loss of wetlands and biodiversity, deterioration of recreational opportunities, and ultimately the quality of human life.
With rapid growth of the world population, doubling to over 6 billion in the last 40 years, with an expected increase to 9 billion in another 40 years, the growing demand for food, water, energy, and standard of living is transforming our landscape and environment in unprecedented and unpredictable ways across the globe with local, regional and continental scale impacts. These effects are further exacerbated by the uncertainty of the changing climate. Billions of dollars are already being spent on restoration activities. Will the IMLs continue to provide the productive functions for the growing human needs, and can this be done while still reclaiming the lost environmental functions? What new scientific understandings about the web of intricate relationships in nature are required to support continued economic prosperity without further environmental degradation? Policies and management practices supported by innovations in science, planning, design, engineering, and participatory decision making are necessary to meet the needs of the future with sustainable land and water resources. We sit at the cross roads in time with challenge, necessity, and opportunity to make a careful assessment of our landscape and environment, and advocate sustainable and economically viable solutions and practices for immediate societal benefits and long term security. The recent human tragedy and economic losses brought upon by floods and droughts only serve to illustrate the urgent need for such studies.
This project supports the initial activities for the Institute for Sustainability of Intensively Managed Landscapes (ISIML). ISIML is striving to be a premier center of excellence for the study of environmental sustainability of intensively managed landscapes, with particular focus on the role of the water cycle, to enable more effective adaptive-management of human-dominated environments.
Research Scope of the Institute: The Institute will conduct cross-disciplinary research, application, and public engagement activities in the following areas:
- Sustainability of our environmental landscape
- Preservation, restoration and sustainability of water bodies (rivers, lakes and wetlands)
- Flood and drought prediction and assessment
- Nutrient management for sustainable water quality
- Biotic integrity and ecosystem sustainability
- Terrestrial carbon sequestration, transport and storage
- Sediment transport provenance and storage
- Development and deployment of new and intensive sensing technologies
- Sustainability of our societal and economic landscape
- Sustainable urban/sub-urban environment.
- Climate change, impact, and adaptation.
- Risk assessment and hazard management.
- Sustainable energy resources.
- Water and environmental security.
- Coupled natural and human systems.
- Environmental planning, design, and engineering for sustainability.
- Policy and adaptive management.
- Natural resources management
- Infrastructure for participatory decision making
- Virtual observatory to bring together historical, ongoing, and new data collection from in situ and remote sensing observations.
- Cyberinfrastructure to support research, education, and participatory environmental management through partnerships with stakeholder and citizen groups.
- Modeling and prediction of the integrated environmental systems at unprecedented scales and resolutions for short and long-term decision support.
- Global perspective through engagement of regional, national, and international centers and experts.
- Education, outreach and citizen science
- Novel K-12, undergraduate and graduate student curricula and field experience.
- Data and knowledge modules tailored for targeted communities.
This Institute, unique in its focus on ecosystems in which human presence is intensive, is working to develop a complete and comprehensive picture of environmental processes and functions through the integrated study of rivers and lakes, water cycle, agriculture, intensive human settlement, and climate. It will be a world leader for developing sustainable practices enabled through multi-disciplinary studies, and serve as a magnet for attracting regional, national, and global communities for addressing critical issues in water and environment.
Megacatastrophes and Creeping-megacatastrophes:
Science, Policy, and Human Behavior—Research at Interfaces Critical for a Sustainable Future
Project Participants
Susan Kieffer, Geology; Robert Bauer, ISGS; David Budescu, Phsychology; Max Edelson, History; Amr Elnashai, CEE; Amy Gajda, Journalism/Law; Jerome Haijar, CEE; Youssef Hashash, CEE; Grant Heiken, LANL Geology; Lura Joseph, Library; Edward Keiser, WILL; Edwrad Kolodziej, Center Global Studies; Greg McFarquhar, Atmospheric Sciences; Robert McKim, Religious Studies; Pena Mora Fenioski, Urban and Regional Planning; Don Wuebbles, Atmospheric Sciences
Project Description
Participants in this program conduct research on how the interfaces of science, policy, and human behavior can be optimized to help us attain a sustainable way of living on this planet. They are studying how preparation for, and response to, “megacatastrophes”, can give us ways to prepare for “creeping-megacatastrophes”. Megacatastrophes are defined as natural disasters that are so large they tend to occur only once every hundred to few thousand years but impact civilization at a large scale. They are so large that support systems in place utterly fail. Examples are: large hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis, pandemics, solar flares... “Creeping-megacatastrophes” are those that are looming in the future: water scarcity and pollution, soil erosion and degradation, energy depletion, population explosion, climate change, deforestation, ecosystem degradation, global infectious diseases, and global warming. Unlike the natural disasters, humans have influence over the creeping-megacatastrophes.
Project participants seek to find ways to implement communication and action across our disciplines by using what has been learned from megacatastrophes to help plan for and mediate the creeping-megacatastrophes. A strong group on campus has come together through this project to become involved nationally and internationally in the important issues of global sustainability by addressing these interfaces. The funding requested is for students to work at the interfaces of science, policy and human behavior, and for summer salaries for untenured faculty who would like to work on these issues.
Project activities include:
- Identifying as many professionals as possible from the relevant disciplines who can contribute to analysis of the problems related to sustainability;
- Conducting historical research on what has succeeded and what has failed in such endeavors;
- Defining a few interesting case studies;
- Formalizing a method of communication and finding ways to share different backgrounds; and
- Documenting these experiences and examples in a way that provides a credible product.
