Natural Resource Management

Fellow Story

Vaghela: community-based micro-hydropower is a people empowerment energy solution

Community-based hydropower — such as pico, micro, and mini hydro — has provided socio-economic and environmental benefits to thousands of off-grid communities in the Asia Pacific, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, long before central grids have reached them. Dipti Vaghela was recently interviewed by International Rivers on key aspects of community-scale micro hydropower (MHP).
February 3, 2022
Fellow Story

2021 Switzer Fellows Book List

Check out the books authored, edited or co-authored by Switzer Fellows in 2021 and dive into topics such as Indigenous teachings, the biology of climate change and sustainable urban planning.
January 27, 2022
Fellow Story

Fulweiler TEDx Talk promotes expanding coastal ocean research through sensors

Robinson (Wally) Fulweiler presented Coastal Ocean's bold vision for conducting ocean science in a talk at TEDx Boston.
January 12, 2022
Fellow Story

‘We scientists engage in soft diplomacy’: Mongabay Q&A with Christine Wilkinson

Christine shares why hyenas get such a bad rap, her dream of a solar-powered camera-trap grid, and her work bringing together other African American scientists in mammalogy.
January 6, 2022
Fellow Story

Mulvaney presents Labor, Land, and Waste Across the Life Cycle of Solar Power

Dustin Mulvaney is presenting a webinar on Wednesday, Dec 8, 2021 to the IEEE’s Santa Clara Valley Sustainability Chapter on Labor, Land, and Waste Across the Life Cycle of Solar Power.
December 1, 2021
Fellow Story

Stoddard authors report on impact of Hurricane Florence on animals and farmers in North Carolina

Millions of poultry died and thousands of pigs and their waste was washed into local waterways by the millions of gallons, with negative impacts for the health of environmental justice communities and local ecosystems.
November 16, 2021
Fellow Story

Miner publishes paper on emergent biogeochemical risks from Arctic permafrost degradation

The Arctic cryosphere is collapsing, posing overlapping environmental risks. In particular, thawing permafrost threatens to release biological, chemical and radioactive materials that have been sequestered for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. As these constituents re-enter the environment, they have the potential to disrupt ecosystem function, reduce the populations of unique Arctic wildlife and endanger human health.
October 27, 2021
Fellow Story

Brooks authors paper exploring highly effective management of world's largest Marine Protected Area

As the first large-scale Marine Protected Area (MPA) in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the Ross Sea region MPA sets a precedent for design, adoption, and implementation of other MPAs on the high seas. Together with a team of co-authors, Cassandra Brooks recently published a paper in Marine Policy that highlights the strong management in place within the Ross Sea region MPA, including research and monitoring.
October 27, 2021
Foundation News

Light pollution: an environmental issue that affects us all

Avalon C.S. Owens led a discussion of how light pollution impacts people and the planet, reviewed current recommendations of easy, energy-saving ways to protect the night and shared about her Ph.D. research into effects of light pollution on fireflies. Find a recap of the event and resources here.
September 30, 2021
Fellow Story

Dudney authors paper on the spread of deadly tree disease due to climate change

Evidence of plant disease range expansions due to climate change has remained elusive. Switzer Fellow Joan Dudney combined causal inference with stable isotope analysis in a new study that shows climate change and drought contributed to a nonlinear disease range shift into higher elevations.
September 16, 2021