Magazine ~ Summer 2021

CLIMATE science for CHANGE

SUMMER 2021

Digging deeper There’s more than meets the eye to the Arctic tundra and its relationship with climate change.

Harnessing passion Woodwell’s newest river monitoring projects are tapping into community energy and expanding.

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From the President

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Digging deeper: Learning to appreciate the complexities of the Arctic tundra

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Cape Cod Rivers Observatory provides vital river health data

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Harnessing passion: The rapid growth of Science on the Fly

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Climate smart agriculture will provide food security and reduce carbon emissions in DRC

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Risk team delivers climate risk analysis to under-resourced communities

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Senator Ed Markey visits Woodwell Climate

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Guiding principles for just, effective natural climate solutions

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Fund for Climate Solutions awards climate research projects

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Early impact in 2021

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Spotlight on student authors

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Momentous retirements

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In memoriam John D. Shade

CLIMATE science for CHANGE

Climate Science for Change is published

by Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Woodwell Climate Research Center is a leading source of climate science that drives the urgent action needed to solve the climate crisis.

President & Executive Director Dr. Philip B. Duffy Chief Communications Officer Dr. Heather M. H. Goldstone Graphic Designer Julianne Waite Copy Editor Elizabeth Bagley Images Natalie Baillargeon, Matti Bartel, Dr. Paulo Brando, Carl Churchill, Greg Fiske, John Land Le Coq, Chris Linder, Alexander Nassikas, Rachael Treharne, Stash Wislocko, Joseph Zambo Woodwell Climate Research Center 149 Woods Hole Road Falmouth, MA 02540 Email: info@woodwellclimate.org Website: woodwellclimate.org Newsletter Subscribe at woodwellclimate.org Copyright All material appearing in Climate Science for Change is copyrighted unless otherwise stated or it may rest with the provider of the supplied material. Climate Science for Change takes care to ensure information is correct at time of printing.

Cover: In the secret world of Arctic tundra. / photo by Rachael Treharne Above: Monitoring methane collection chambers in the DRC. / photo by Joseph Zambo and Matti Barthel

Woodwell Climate Research Center is located on the traditional and sacred land of the Wampanoag people who still occupy this land, and whose history, language, traditional ways of life, and culture continue to influence this vibrant community.

From the President

It didn’t have to be this way I am processing the realization that COVID is not going away, and I don’t like it.

Like climate change, this is an issue we’ll need to manage and live with indefinitely.

Unwillingness to impose and enforce simple public health measures, slow distribution of vaccines in the developing world, together with the reluctance of many here at home to take the vaccine, have let the infection spread widely enough that it appears vaccine developers will be chasing mutations indefinitely—as they do with influenza. The long-term societal consequences of COVID are unknown, but it is increasingly clear that life is not going “back to normal” any time soon, or maybe ever.

Arguably, at least, it did not have to be this way. As with climate change, early warnings by scientists were in some cases overly cautious, and in any case were largely ignored. Basic risk management says that when a threat is potentially severe enough, especially if the potential harms are not fully understood, strong action sooner rather than later is warranted. That applies even more in the case of an infectious disease like COVID, which spreads exponentially, and a problem like climate change, which is effectively irreversible. As a result of tardy and tepid initial responses, the opportunity for early containment was lost.

As with climate change, COVID was needlessly politicized. Instead of calling upon us to unite and sacrifice to meet a common threat, politicians in the US purposely and unnecessarily made COVID into another red-versus-blue issue, in the hope of gaining momentary advantage for themselves. This was imitated in some nations overseas. As with climate change, managing COVID has been falsely framed as a choice between safety and economic prosperity. In both cases, these myths persist, despite clear evidence that nations which aggressively managed COVID felt milder economic impacts, and despite clear lessons from history that a temperate and stable climate is foundational to human prosperity.

As with climate change, the effects of COVID are felt more by the disadvantaged than the rich, and the battle to control the problem will be won or lost in the developing world. As with climate change, richer nations have a clear self-interest in helping developing nations to address the problem. Even so, aid to the developing world continues to be framed as charity, and consequently is not available at close to the scale needed.

For all of these reasons, responses to both crises were delayed and weak. Opportunities for early containment were lost, and life-changing consequences are here to stay.

What do we learn from this, and how is that learning reflected in our work at Woodwell?

First, science-based problems need science-based solutions. This is not news—it’s why Dr. George Woodwell founded the Center in 1985—but COVID provides a vivid reminder.

Second, advising policymakers is about helping them to manage risks. That means they need to know about plausible worst cases, as well as most likely outcomes. (In Russian roulette, the most likely outcome is that you live.) In my opinion, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has consistently failed to meet this need. Indeed, the IPCC process, in which every national government has to approve every sentence in the “Summary for Policymakers” documents, guarantees that those documents contain only cautious, least-common-

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From the President

continued

denominator statements. With this in mind, our Risk work focuses more on how climate change alters the intensity of rare events (the 1-in-100 year flood, for example), than on how it changes averages.

Third, people listen to leaders they trust; achieving impact is as much about the messenger as the message. We have seen this in spades throughout the COVID crisis. Recognizing this, at Woodwell, much of our public communications and work with partners involves “influencing the influencers”—working with leaders in diverse communities (business, finance, faith, social justice, etc.) to spread messages about the urgent need and possibilities for climate action (see page 24).

Fourth, implementing the solutions we have (wearing masks, deploying wind and solar) is as important as developing new ones. At Woodwell, our work on the climate ramifications of ecosystem preservation and restoration (a.k.a. natural climate solutions), for example, is about enabling immediate implementation of these carbon-removal methods (see page 20).

Finally, addressing inequities is not a “nice to have,” but instead is central to solving public health and environmental challenges, whether COVID or climate change. This is reflected, for example, in our work with smallholder farmers in the Amazon and in central Africa (see page 12), with Indigenous groups in the Amazon and in Alaska, and with under-resourced municipalities across the U.S. (see page 16).

I’ll close by pointing out one final, critically-important parallel between climate change and COVID. In both cases, unfortunately, it is too late to prevent terrible and long-lasting consequences. But we still control our destiny—the choices we make today not only matter but will have far-reaching consequences. Our work is to help ensure we make the best choices possible.

Thanks for your interest and support.

Philip B. Duffy President and Executive Director

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Digging deeper LEARNING TO APPRECIATE THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE ARCTIC TUNDRA Anneka Williams Communications Intern

First Encounter As our floatplane glided over the tundra, we stared with rapt attention at the landscape passing beneath us. As a Polaris student, I had no idea what to expect when I first showed up at our field site in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. From my vantage point, the thermokarst lakes amidst the brown, flat tundra expanse created fractal patterns as far as I could see.

Upon landing, these larger landscape features disappeared, replaced by what looked like a relatively homogenous, flat landscape in nearly every direction. As my fellow Polaris students and I took in our surroundings, those of us new to living in tundra landscapes commented on the lack of color: everything around us looked greenish-brown.

It took several days for my eyes to adjust to this new landscape. Removed from a world characterized by big features and a wide-ranging color palette, I had to retrain my eye to find the subtle color variations in the tundra. But once my vision had adjusted, I was struck by just how much diversity there was on a micro-scale: the white tufts of Eriophorum spp. glowed brightly from the sunken ground of tundra wetlands. I became better at noticing the small, bright reddish orange specks of cloudberries on the verge of ripening. I appreciated the different shades of green moss. It seemed like the more time we spent in the tundra, the more layers of complexity we uncovered.

Understanding the ground beneath our feet is important to knowing what scientific questions to ask. “When you first look across [tundra] landscapes, it all seems pretty brown and unforgiving,” described Woodwell scientist Dr. Rachael Treharne, who studies disturbances linked to climate change in northern latitude ecosystems. Overtime, however, scientists’ perspectives shift as they dig in—literally—to learn more about this ecosystem.

The Arctic tundra is a region in the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere characterized by a short growing season and low temperatures. While commonly thought of in terms of the permafrost—ground that remains frozen for the entire year—there are many more components of the tundra system. Layers of soil and vegetation overlying permafrost help control how carbon cycles through the tundra ecosystem and atmosphere. As a Polaris student, I had to learn how to navigate a landscape that is vastly different than most other places I had previously encountered. However, as we dove into our research, we became intimate with this place like no other we had known. Science helps us probe these depths in

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Above: A close-up view reveals the striking diversity of tundra flora. Previous page:

an attempt to better understand the importance of this ecosystem, and the work of science helps us to see more clearly.

Scientists generally work across three different tundra layers when studying this ecosystem: vegetation, the active layer of soil, and the permafrost layer. Plant life dominates the top layer of the tundra ecosystem. Below the vegetation layer is the active layer of soil. Aptly described as “active,” this layer thaws during the summer, freezes during the winter, and supports a variety of biological activity. Underneath the active layer of soil lies permafrost.

Tundra vegetation Woodwell scientist Dr. Jenny Watts studies how climate change and human disturbances impact vegetation, soils, and the carbon cycle in Arctic-Boreal regions. Sometimes her research breaks different layers of soil into numbers but this methodical compartmentation for the sake of research doesn’t

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An aerial view of tundra in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. / photos by Natalie Baillargeon

always match with the actual experience of engaging with the tundra.“When you start digging [into the ground], everything is connected,” Dr. Watts explains. Thus, scientists face the challenge of both breaking the tundra down into smaller systems for the purpose of research while also synthesizing research across layers to understand how elements such as carbon cycle through the entire ecosystem.

Dr. Watts describes how variation in the ground cover becomes apparent as one notices the “subtly distinct hues that blend together like watercolors.” Tundra vegetation is composed of plant species that are well-adapted to endure the cold, harsh winters, as well as the hot summers of this region.

And this layer serves the important role of a carbon sink— absorbing carbon dioxide via photosynthesis. Tundra vegetation also plays an important role in maintaining permafrost and the active layer by sheltering these layers from direct exposure to the sun. Dr. Treharne describes the

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importance of moss coverage, in particular: “When dry, moss can serve as a thick, insulating layer, keeping the soil beneath cool. When wet, moss can conduct heat away from the soil.”

In this way, the overlying vegetation layer and its composition regulates the temperature and moisture of the soil and permafrost layers beneath it.

Woodwell researchers are discovering that the tundra vegetation layer may be impacted by climate change in a number of different ways. In certain areas, warmer temperatures year round may result in Arctic greening. In this scenario, plants may become bigger, greener, more herbaceous, and shrubby. However, warming temperatures may also result in Arctic browning (loss of vegetation cover). Dr. Treharne describes how changes in winter conditions trending toward warming can lead to large swaths of vegetation die-off in Arctic ecosystems. For example, the loss of an insulating, protective snow cover exposes vegetation to cold, dry conditions, often

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resulting in landscape-scale plant death. Because the system does not actually exist in distinct layers, the effects of climate change on plant life can influence the soil and permafrost layers beneath the vegetation layer.

The active layer of soil The interconnection of layers also manifests physically: the vegetation layer extends roots down into the active layer in search of water and nutrients. The active layer of soil houses a diverse community of soil microbes that help break down organic debris. Carbon produced via plant root respiration and decomposition can be stored in the soil, cycled elsewhere, or used to fuel various processes carried out by soil microbial communities. Soil microbial communities in the active layer are also an important part of the tundra carbon cycle. These microbes work to break down organic matter (such as dead plant material) into carbon and other mineral forms of nutrients. The rate at which microbes break down organic materials depends on their environment and their access to material. “As the climate warms, soil microbes in the active layer may be able to decompose organic material faster,” explains Woodwell scientist Dr. Jonathan Sanderman, who studies carbon in soils across the world.

As permafrost beneath the active layer thaws, soil microbes may have access to more sources of organic carbon to break down. Thus the active layer and the activity of the soil microbes that live within this layer are influenced by inputs of organic material from the vegetation layer above it, as well as by exposure to new sources of carbon as permafrost melts beneath it.

Building an understanding of the tundra ecosystem By studying these layers and their connections, Woodwell scientists are helping to decipher the complexities of the tundra. Studying different components of this ecosystem also provides the basis for understanding the system as a whole, allowing Dr. Watts, Dr. Treharne, and Dr. Sanderman to scale up their work to examine the net effect of climate change on tundra plant life, carbon storage, carbon release, and changing water dynamics.

Top above: Collecting surface vegetation samples. Above: A core sample including vegetation and the upper active layer of soil. / photos by Natalie Baillargeon

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Though it is easiest to describe the tundra by its layers, everything is connected and we need to understand these connections to understand the ecosystem. When I think back to the experience of flying into the tundra for the first time, I can barely remember the time at which I saw the landscape as a flat, homogeneous terrain. I, and other scientists who have spent time digging in, only seek the beautiful complexity and enormous opportunity for new learning.

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Cape Cod Rivers Observatory provides vital river health data Combining years of water quality measurements with new information on river flow leads to important insights Anabelle Johnston Communications Intern

After decades of sampling and studying rivers across the globe, Woodwell Climate Research Center Deputy Director and Senior Scientist Dr. Robert Max Holmes turned his attention closer to home in 2016. Using methodology developed through his work with the Arctic Great Rivers Observatory and Global Rivers Observatory, Dr. Holmes established the Cape Cod Rivers Observatory

(CCRO), an initiative that focuses world-class science on the hidden operations of local rivers. The project marks its fifth anniversary this year, and is continuing to expand.

Since the program’s founding, citizenscientist Rob Stenson has collected weekly or biweekly water samples from several Cape Cod rivers, which Woodwell researchers analyze to provide important data about the health and vitality of key local watersheds. “The frequent and ongoing river water sampling being done by the Cape Cod Rivers Observatory allows us to track the health of our local rivers,” Dr. Holmes says, which

is critically important given a host of environmental issues on the Cape including coastal degradation due to excess nitrogen inputs.

Recently, Woodwell Climate scientist and CCRO team member Anya Suslova began combining Quashnet River discharge data, courtesy of the US Geological Survey, with long-standing analyses of nitrogen and carbon levels. By combining concentration and discharge measurements, Suslova calculates the total mass of chemicals deposited in the coastal zone. Known as flux, this calculation provides critical information about the role of rivers in larger marine and wetland ecosystems.

Below: Sampling the Santuit River in Mashpee, MA. / photo by Alexander Nassikas

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By measuring nitrogen flux from rivers, scientists can develop a more complete picture of the local ecosystem and better inform policy makers how to protect Cape Cod’s biodiversity. The analysis of the Quashnet River shows changes in nitrogen flux over the past few years that were not obvious from the water quality data. Suslova and Dr. Holmes say such changes may be related to changes in rainfall and water levels, but it is unclear how long-lasting or widespread that trend is.

“We know that river flow varies over time and in relation to climate change, so to understand how much nitrogen rivers are putting into Cape Cod’s coastal waters, it helps to have both pieces of the puzzle,” explains Dr. Holmes.

Cape Cod Rivers Observatory aims to provide the public with real-time data about the rivers that sustain the region’s beaches, estuaries, and ocean.

In the coming year, CCRO will expand discharge measurement operations to the Childs and Mashpee Rivers. Dr. Holmes and his team hope to install and operate discharge monitoring on additional rivers to create a “river health report card” that summarizes key findings for local decision makers.

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Learn more about and support Cape Cod Rivers Observatory at caperivers.org.

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Alexander Nassikas

“The chemistry alone is incredibly useful, but you can tell a fuller story when you also have discharge data,” Dr. Holmes says. “You can take water from the Mississippi River and the Quashnet River and directly compare the concentrations of nitrogen or other chemicals, even though they are very different sizes. On its own, this can tell us a lot. But if you want to understand how those rivers impact the coastal waters they feed, you have to take into account the different amounts of water they carry.”

From Siberia to the Congo to Cape Cod, just four key nutrients form the basis of our river sampling work Skyla Tomine Science on the Fly Volunteer

Nitrate (NO3) is a form of nitrogen, which is essential for all life. Healthy rivers generally have low nitrate concentrations, but fertilizer and wastewater often lead to elevated concentrations. When this happens, rivers can suffer excessive algal growth, which can lead to low oxygen concentrations when the algae decompose. That, in turn, can kill aquatic organisms, including fish.

If nitrate concentrations in a river increase over time, that would be a red-flag indicating the likelihood of increased pollution inputs. Conversely, decreasing nitrate concentrations over time generally suggest improving river health.

Ammonium (NH4) is another form of nitrogen that is common in fertilizers but is typically found in low concentrations in rivers because it is rapidly taken up by plants and bacteria, or converted by bacteria to nitrate.

Phosphate (PO4) is a form of phosphorus, which–like nitrogen–is essential for all life. In fact, that is why the two main components of most agricultural fertilizers are nitrogen and phosphorus. As with nitrate, wastewater and fertilizer often add excessive amounts of phosphate to rivers, so tracking phosphate concentrations over time provides clues about a river’s health. Phosphate concentrations are generally even lower than nitrate concentrations.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) occurs naturally in all rivers, where it absorbs ultraviolet light and provides energy to the ecosystem. The main source of DOC is decomposing plant and animal material. Wastewater can also contribute DOC to rivers. Climate change can also impact DOC concentrations in rivers. For example, climate driven permafrost thaw in the Arctic can add DOC to rivers. DOC concentrations can also be impacted by forest fire or other changes to a watershed’s vegetation.

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Harnessing Passion The rapid growth of Science on the Fly Anneka Williams Communications Intern

Above: Volunteers Allie Cunningham and Troy Youngfleish, Telluride Angler co-owner, take measurements in Telluride, Colorado. / photo by John Land Le Coq

In 2019, fly fishers with the Telluride Angler Fly Shop in Telluride, Colorado began sampling water when they went out to different fishing spots. Some key introductions followed from this initial group of fly fishing citizen scientists, and Science on the Fly was officially founded by the Woodwell Climate Research Center and Fishpond, a Colorado-based fly fishing and outdoor recreation company. Jumping quickly from 40 to 300 sites in its first year, Science on the Fly has been growing exponentially since its creation in 2019.

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“People just started coming out of the woodwork,” explains Woodwell’s Dr. Max Holmes. “[The volunteer base] comprises engaged and concerned people who can weigh in on issues related to the rivers and climate. And what’s clear is that there’s the capacity to get a lot bigger.”

The goal of Science on the Fly is to create a consistent, long-term monitoring program of river health across the world. This is accomplished by harnessing the enthusiasm and access to rivers of different members of

the fly fishing community. Essentially, Science on the Fly provides the framework to support a vast network of fly fishers eager to help assess the health of the rivers they fish. Scientists at the Woodwell Climate Research Center can then analyze the water samples for different nutrients, such as nitrate, phosphate, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), all of which are important to assessing the health of a river ecosystem.

“It’s unbelievable how many people want to be a part of this thing,”

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describes Dr. Holmes. And what’s special about Science on the Fly is that individual volunteers can have a large impact on the overall work of river health monitoring. Each volunteer is important, providing access to a specific river site and each volunteer serves as a node that connects Science on the Fly to even more volunteers. Currently, Science on the Fly coordinates a group of volunteers sampling more than 300 sites across six countries.

Allie Cunningham currently serves as the volunteer coordinator and social media manager for Science on the Fly. As an avid fly fisher, Cunningham ended up in Telluride, Colorado after college, working at a local fly shop. As her passion for fly fishing continued to grow, so did Cunningham’s desire to do more than simply fishing. After getting involved with Science on the Fly as a volunteer, Cunningham eventually transitioned to serve as volunteer coordinator in order to bring more people into the program. “A lot of our growth happens by word of mouth,” Cunningham explains. “Volunteers share their passion for fly fishing and involvement with Science on the Fly with their local fly fishing communities and that brings us more volunteers.”

“All anglers want to be conservationists but not all of them know how best to do this,” Cunningham describes. Science

on the Fly provides a unique framework for passionate fly fishers to also be watershed stewards. Science on the Fly volunteers take a water sample from a designated site approximately once per month. After freezing the sample for up to three months, the volunteers ship the sample to the Woodwell Climate Research Center laboratory where the samples are analyzed and the data is collected and made available to the public. In this way, Woodwell serves as the central hub where water samples from around the world converge. And Woodwell Climate scientists play a role in processing, collecting, and representing the water sample data to better understand and protect watersheds globally. Cunningham describes the role Woodwell plays in shaping the Science on the Fly community: “Science on the Fly is not a random non-profit, it has Woodwell and Woodwell’s science and team as its backbone, which makes it more credible and impactful.”

When contemplating the rapid growth of Science on the Fly, Cunningham attributes a lot of the interest to the passion of the fly fishing community: “If you know you have the patience and passion for fly fishing, you want to get more involved, and Science on the Fly is the framework for being able to be a better steward.”

The consistent sampling regimen that Science on the Fly volunteers partake in helps illuminate some of the changes watersheds are experiencing in response to climate change. “Fly fishing is a shared passion that relies on a good environment so you’re not too many steps from talking about climate change,” explains Dr. Holmes.

“If volunteers care about the rivers and water quality, they’re going to start hearing about climate change and caring about the impact.” In this way, Science on the Fly is able to build trust around the shared love of fly fishing and then spark conversations addressing issues of climate change and watershed protection. “There may be different political views, but we all care about fish and fishing,” says Dr. Holmes.

Holmes and Cunningham expect that Science on the Fly will continue to grow in order to meet the engagement of the fly fishing community. And this growth will help expand our knowledge of global river health. “We’re already seeing trends in the river data,” explains Dr. Holmes. “And my biggest interest is how things change over time, so we want to keep this going for the long-term.”

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Learn more about and support Science on the Fly at scienceonthefly.org.

Below: Volunteers collecting samples and recording data in Alaska. / photos by John Land Le Coq Left: Map of Science on the Fly river monitoring sites.

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Climate smart agriculture will provide food security and reduce carbon emissions in DRC Anabelle Johnston Communications Intern

Local agricultural practices are the biggest driver of deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the majority of the population depends on slash-and-burn farming techniques to support their families and participate in the rural economy. In the heart of the central wetland congo basin forests, communities in the DRC are located on the small proportion of dry upland islands in the forest landscape— the second largest tropical forest in the world—and rely on seasonal flooding of cleared fields to grow wetland rice. Expansion of wetland rice production is a promising agricultural opportunity, but doing so while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions is a challenging proposition.

Over the past 15 years, the DRC Ministry of Agriculture and international partners have implemented an agricultural development program in the province of Mongala, which expanded wetland rice production using high-yielding varieties requiring high levels of inputs (fertilizer, insecticide and pesticide) to maintain outputs.

However, local availability of these inputs were erratic and inhibited the long term success of this means of production. Furthermore, much

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of the rice produced did not remain in the food system for direct human consumption as intended, but rather, was purchased by brewery companies for beer production. While the program was celebrated as a policy success in some sense, it failed to increase food security and led to an increase in local deforestation that could spell disaster for tropical forests in the region if scaled up.

In the neighboring province of Equateur, Woodwell Climate is collaborating with local farmers to implement rice production technologies that would increase food security while limiting greenhouse gas emissions and local deforestation. The Center has experimented with the system of rice intensification (SRI) first employed in Madagascar, a low input system, which is not dependent on an unpredictable supply of inputs through local markets.

The primary difference in the two approaches lies in field management practices and input use. High-yielding approaches seek to optimize output per individual rice plant by increasing planting density and utilizing mineral fertilizer to promote growth and herbicides to control weeds; without timely and appropriate application of inputs, production declines dramatically. In comparison, SRI uses a lower planting density and relies on hand weeding and increased human labor to maximize the outputs.

Woodwell Climate is running a pilot program in Equateur to test SRI

efficacy in an experimental setting.

Joseph Zambo, Forest and Climate Change Coordinator at Woodwell, has been overseeing this project over the course of the past year throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Woodwell scientists were unable to travel due to pandemic restrictions, Zambo coordinated the implementation of the field trials and executed all of the data collection. With virtual instruction by Research Associate Kathleen Savage, Zambo set up and monitored methane collection chambers, which are crucial to understanding the greenhouse gas ramifications of SRI production.

Zambo worked with a local entrepreneur, Mr. Jean Bangi, to set up six fields of rice—three utilizing traditional production methods and three utilizing SRI methods. To measure GHG fluxes from rice fields, Zambo used static chambers that were sealed from the environment and open to the ground, which allowed Zambo to extract gases with a syringe and send samples back to the Falmouth campus for analysis. This process was repeated weekly to help Woodwell Climate scientists measure changes in GHG fluxes across the growing season between these two methods. At the end of the season, Zambo and his team harvested crops from all six fields.

Currently, Savage is comparing GHG emissions to rice harvest yield rates to determine if SRI yields higher rice for lower GHG emissions. In the next phase of this project, Woodwell

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Above: Aerial view of experimental rice fields in DRC. / photo by Joseph Zambo and Matti Barthel

Climate researchers Dr. Glenn Bush and Kathleen Savage plan to study the economic and social ramifications of this work.

“It takes a lot of labor to expand wetland rice production,” said Zambo.

“But I believe it is manageable. If we utilize SRI productively, we can spare a lot of the Congo from deforestation and improve farmer livelihood.”

If, as the early results suggest, SRI reduces GHG emissions from land cover change, while increasing yield, Dr. Bush believes the next step is to find ways to make the technique viable for all farmers. Although SRI was first implemented in Madagascar, the technology was not widely adopted for socio-cultural reasons. Traditionally, farmers left their land while waiting

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for crops to mature and followed the regional rain cycle to get paid jobs on other farms. However, that period of travel coincided with the time that additional weeding was needed most, so most farmers did not experience significant yield improvements and felt that SRI was a waste of time. Dr. Bush suggests that if SRI in the context of Congo’s wetland forests were to be promoted, it might be possible to employ novel financial incentives to help farmers adopt this technology, supporting them through otherwise difficult bottlenecks, to experience the benefits of SRI in full. In the next six months, Dr. Bush is planning to work with local government officials and farmers to assess attitudes towards SRI and conduct larger field trials.

Dr. Bush will deliver the findings from the first phase of work in the middle of this year, to feed into a provincial and national emissions planning and policy process. This project will improve accuracy of GHG accounting and create a more robust system based on local conditions. Further work on the agricultural economics of SRI will also reveal effective pathways to its adoption allowing farmers and policy makers to make better agricultural management decisions.

“Our ongoing commitment to our field site in Equateur allows us to be involved in these high level policy decisions.

This model allows us to build trust with the people we work with and is what really sets us apart as an institution,” explained Dr. Bush.

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Science on the Fly Science on the Fly’s work in western Alaska began in 2019 with a trip to the Kwethluk River in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Experts from a range of backgrounds and disciplines traveled to the remote Alaskan wilderness for the expedition.

The team collected water samples along 100 miles of the river and placed sensors that record river temperature and depth every hour, as well as sensors that measure the temperature of permafrost alongside the river on the remote and largely undisturbed Kwethluk. / photo by John Land Le Coq

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Risk team delivers climate risk analyses to under-resourced communities Anabelle Johnston Communications Intern

Decorah, Iowa is nestled in a steep river valley, and is prone to flooding despite a robust dike system that was built in the mid 20th century. In the past two decades, the Decorah community has been impacted by two extreme flooding events, both of which caused significant damage to residential areas, parts of the downtown, and Luther College. Cars, homes, and businesses were submerged in murky swamp water, causing many residents and local government officials

to reflect on current approaches to environmental hazards and look towards long-term solutions. At the start of 2020, Woodwell Climate partnered with Decorah to help the municipality develop sustainabilityoriented approaches to managing flood risk, kicking off a series of climate risk analyses intended to provide decision makers in vulnerable municipalities with actionable information about their climate risk profiles.

Close collaboration with the Decorah Center for Sustainable Communities helped Risk team member Dominick Dusseau create comprehensive flood models that incorporated extreme precipitation, stream flow, and storm surge. “Often, local stakeholders are aware that flooding could pose problems in the future but lack the resources to really examine the full extent of potential damage. With this project, we are able to combine technical expertise with local knowledge and create a complete climate risk profile,” said Dusseau.

Jim Martin-Schramm, Director of Luther’s Center for Sustainable Communities and Chair of the Decorah Sustainability Commission, worked closely with Dusseau to obtain information about dike strength, zoning ordinances, and elevation levels. Access to this data helped Dusseau update old Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maps to improve low resolution or outdated areas and account for extreme precipitation due to climate change. Flood prone areas across Decorah were pinpointed, including high traffic points such as the centrally located bridge that spans the Upper Iowa River as well as a low-lying vital electric substation on the eastern side of the town.

Above: Projected flood risk for Decorah, Iowa. / map by Carl Churchill

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Most importantly, Woodwell Climate identified a potential commercial development plot as a high flood risk and recommended against building a superstore on this floodplain. This

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Top above: A view of the Cumberland River on March 28, 2021 in Nashville, TN. / photo by George Walker IV, The Tennessean Above: Projected inundation of Nashville, TN resulting from 100- and 500-year storms. / maps by Carl Churchill

decision was not universally popular, as many felt that it inhibited the town’s economic growth. However, as these decisions become increasingly more difficult in the coming decades due to climate change, accurate assessments of climate risk can protect the municipalities from long-term infrastructure damage and expansion of the floodplains.

“The report provided city council members with the information needed

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to make difficult decisions about zoning laws,” stated Martin-Schramm.

“Woodwell’s expertise will help us better prepare for the challenges climate change will pose.”

Two other reports issued as a part of Woodwell’s pilot program in municipal risk also focused on flooding, as multiple city planners identified it as one of the most relevant extreme weather challenges. By isolating this variable, Woodwell Climate was able

to establish protocols for collaboration that will prove useful in future reports.

The Center plans to engage with local government officials to determine what models would be most relevant for their planning needs. Currently, Woodwell Climate is working with government officials in Homer, Alaska to decide what hazards and disaster scenarios are most relevant to the city. Common risks like drought, wildfire, flooding, extreme wind, and landslides are being

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Yearly Probability of a Severe Drought ≤ 4%

≤ 5%

1951 – 1980

≤ 6%

≤ 7%

≤ 8%

≤ 9%

≤ 10%

≤ 15%

15% +

1981–2010

No Significant Risk of Drought

2021 –2050

Above: Annual likelihood of extreme drought in the past, present and projected future for the St. Louis, Missouri region. / maps by Carl Churchill

considered alongside local issues, such as declining river health and the impact on salmon populations.

“Many scientists have been struggling to connect their work in the ivory tower to the experiences of individual people,” explains Dr. Bretwood Higman, a scientist and environmental nonprofit founder based in Seldovia, Alaska—across the river from Homer. “I think this project is a really interesting example on how to do that right. People at Woodwell are getting in early and talking to local communities to give them real influence over the course of the work.”

Many municipal partnerships have been made possible through collaboration with ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability, a leader in local government technical assistance.

ICLEI connects the Center with underresourced cities and towns with long-term sustainability goals. With ICLEI’s support, Woodwell Climate is able to help partner municipalities incorporate research findings into policy going forward. In the coming years, Woodwell Climate will be working with a cohort of cities, both domestically and internationally, to provide assessments

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of various physical climate hazards.

While the Center will continue to model flood risk, Woodwell plans to increase the scope of future projects to deliver a more complete climate risk analysis, including examination of extreme heat, drought, and sea-level rise risk.

Such comprehensive reports are particularly important for communities experiencing economic hardship, regional strife, and mass changes in population distribution, as decision makers may not otherwise have the resources to study the infrastructural and social impacts of near-term extreme weather events.

“We believe science is a public good,” shared Chief of External Affairs Dave McGlinchey. “Right now, everyone else who is doing this kind of work is selling it for quite a lot of money. We don’t believe that’s fair. Decision makers need to understand how climate change will impact their community, and we want to make this information as widely available as possible.”

Sustained engagement is critical to the success of these projects, as scientists collaborate with local decision makers from research initiation through policy implementation stages. Over the next

three years, the Risk team will pursue between 24 and 36 partnerships with cities and municipalities across the United States and Global South, utilizing connections established by Woodwell scientists living and working abroad and ongoing support from ICLEI. For example, in conjunction with the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Woodwell Climate will provide Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with a full flagship report. Already, the Center is preparing to work with six different communities in Brazil.

“I couldn’t be more excited. Much of our work is conducted with the end goal of making the world a better place, but sometimes, the impact is several steps removed from the research we are doing,” said Risk Program Director Dr. Christopher Schwalm. “Now, we have an opportunity to make a direct impact. Quality of life will improve, communities will become more climate resilient, and these cities will be better off in the next 15–20 years.”

MORE

Learn more about the Risk team and their work at woodwellclimate.org/risk.

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Summer 2021

Senator Ed Markey visits Woodwell Climate

by Heather Goldstone Chief Communications Officer

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) visited Woodwell Climate Research Center’s Falmouth, MA campus on April 6, 2021. The visit came just days before the Senate was set to take up President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal; low-carbon infrastructure and climate risk and resilience are expected to be key components of the debate around the plan.

This was Sen. Markey’s first visit to the Center, although he is a long-time friend and contributed a message of congratulations for the launch of the new name in August 2020. Deputy Director Dr. Max Holmes and David McGlinchey, Chief of External Affairs, led Sen. Markey on a tour of Woodwell’s environmentally-friendly campus.

“Sen. Markey has been a national leader on climate change for more than a decade, so it was a real honor to have him finally visit the Center,” McGlinchey said. “He understands the scope and scale of the challenge we are facing, he understands the urgency. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with him, and finally making substantive progress on climate change.”

Despite relatively low activity on campus due to COVID restrictions, Sen. Markey was able to speak with research assistant Charlotte Rivard about her work on soil carbon and with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Scott Zolkos about permafrost thaw.

“Learned a lot visiting @WoodwellClimate Research Center, which has produced some of the most important climate research in the last 30 years,” Sen. Markey said later on Twitter. “We must listen to the science and have it guide our climate policy.”

Sen. Markey has a long track record of championing climate legislation, from the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (widely known as the WaxmanMarkey Bill) to the Green New Deal. He recently authored an environmental risk mapping bill with Representative Cori Bush (D-MO).

Above from top: Research Assistant Charlotte Rivard and Lab Manager and Research Assistant Lindsay Scott speak with Senator Ed Markey during a building tour stop in the lab; Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Scott Zolkos, holding a tray of permafrost samples, talks with Sen. Markey about work in the Arctic; Sen. Markey captures a selfie with the Woodwell campus turbine.

Left: Chief of External Affairs Dave McGlinchey, Senator Ed Markey, and Deputy Director and Senior Scientist Dr. Max Holmes look over the maps table.

Photos courtesy of Sen. Markey’s staff.

Summer 2021

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Guiding principles for just, effective natural climate solutions On the heels of the Biden Administration’s Leaders Summit on Climate, Woodwell Climate Research Center released a set of five science-based principles to guide the use of natural climate solutions to meet emissions targets associated with the Paris Climate Agreement and limit global warming to less than 2°C. The principles address how both public and private-sector decision-makers at the national and sub-national level can incorporate natural carbon capture and storage into climate plans while protecting the wellbeing of local communities and the many services derived from the land and waters of the U.S., especially biodiversity and food production.

Currently, land, inland waters, and coastal ecosystems remove about 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions each year, and have the potential to do even more. However, maximizing these ecosystems’ capacity to mitigate climate change will require careful analysis of options for deployment over the next few decades, and monitoring of results that may be impacted by climate change.

“Natural climate solutions are an essential component of reaching netzero greenhouse gas emissions,” said Richard Birdsey, Woodwell Climate Senior Scientist and paper co-author.

“Realizing their full potential requires taking into account the many co-benefits of ecosystems as well as the possible unintended effects of these solutions.”

The framework underlying these principles includes considerations of time, space, and community. The time dimension recognizes that natural climate solutions involve changes in ecosystems and ecosystem management

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that have impacts that span decades and centuries. The effectiveness of a particular climate solution will vary over these timeframes—some will be effective in the short term, and some in the long term as climate changes and other factors evolve. Likewise, some will be ineffective at times and so the expected benefits as well as co-benefits need to be evaluated now and for the future.

The spatial dimension reflects that ecosystems are highly variable geographically, as are the various factors that influence ecosystems. For example, natural disturbances such as wildfire are much more common and severe in areas where drought and high temperatures are prevalent. Existing management practices are also highly variable, with some regions dominated by agriculture, some by forest management, and some by protection from human-caused disturbances.

Potential solutions will be different for these categories, as will the effectiveness of each for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

The community, or human, dimension is critical because natural climate solutions are implemented by people within specific social and economic contexts. All solutions have consequences that go beyond the goal of reducing greenhouse gases, and people will be affected in different ways. Impacts may be positive, such as providing jobs or cooling communities by planting trees near buildings, or negative by increasing the costs of goods and services or impacting specific economic sectors, such as agriculture and the forest products industry.

Therefore, it is essential to evaluate how deployment strategies will affect different communities, over different time frames, and in different regions.

The core principles laid out in the paper were created with input from experts in developing and implementing climate mitigation strategies involving ecosystems and management, and include the following:

Climate Science for Change

Summer 2021

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Natural climate solutions are identified and designed with full consideration of risks from climate extremes, natural disturbances, and socioeconomic events.

Many natural climate solutions will take time to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions, exceptions being reducing deforestation and forest degradation, delaying harvest, and reducing emissions from agricultural soils. If benefits are expected to accrue decades into the future, the solutions must consider that climate and other factors will likely be very different and so the expected benefits may not be as great as predicted by current conditions.

2

Avoid degrading ecosystems that have high carbon stocks or biodiversity value, and restore those that have already been degraded.

The carbon stored in high-carbon ecosystems may take decades to centuries to replace if the stocks are lost. Avoiding the fragmentation or degradation of these ecosystems can result in an immediate reduction in emissions and can help protect biodiversity. When possible, restore degraded land to native vegetation which can improve biodiversity while increasing carbon stocks to levels consistent with the potential of the site.

3

Natural climate solutions are implemented with full engagement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and work to mitigate inequalities and injustices.

Natural climate solutions should be implemented with full engagement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in a way that ensures respect for their land, culture, and human rights. The historical legacies and ongoing effects of institutional racism will require particular care to include the knowledge and interests of these communities.

When implementing natural climate solutions consultation, participatory engagement, negotiations, and consent should be received.

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Climate Science for Change

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Enhance human welfare and “do no harm.”

Natural climate solutions should aim to generate a net enhancement to human welfare, while doing no harm to impacted stakeholders. If the tradeoffs between the private and public benefits from policy choices are clearly defined and quantified, negative outcomes can be identified and mitigated to the greatest extent possible. Unless natural climate solutions can be demonstrated to have clear overall benefits to society and impacted stakeholders, and private costs mitigated, they are unlikely to be adopted.

5

Practice full system accounting so that all effects on the carbon cycle are assessed, and the contributions of a given natural climate solution can be evaluated.

Assessing the climate impacts of natural climate solutions requires a systems approach because of the connections between agriculture, forests, land use, food and fiber production, and energy production. It is therefore essential to practice full system carbon accounting including the effects of activities on ecosystems and their ability to maintain or increase carbon stocks, as well as impacts on fossil fuel emissions from related economic sectors. Full system accounting should be linked with effective monitoring and reporting.

Woodwell Climate scientists and team members Dr. Richard Birdsey, Natalie Baillageron, Dr. Glenn Bush, Dr. Richard (Skee) Houghton, Dave McGlinchey, Dr. Sue Natali, and Dr. Wayne Walker, plus five external reviewers participated in the development of this paper.

LEARN MORE

Read the full Principles and Safeguards for Natural Climate Solutions at woodwellclimate.org/ncs-principles.

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Fund for Climate Solutions awards climate research projects

by Dr. Heather Goldstone Chief Communications Officer

boldest ideas more quickly and nimbly than they could through traditional funding routes. This round of grantees features multiple projects leveraging novel technologies to gain important insights into carbon cycling around the globe.

Chris Linder

The Fund for Climate Solutions has awarded six grants in its latest semi-annual funding competition, bringing the total awarded to thirty-three grants, and $3.66 million. Founded in 2018, the Fund enables Woodwell Climate scientists to pursue their

Developing an Indigenous partnership for climate change adaptation in interior Alaska Submitted by: Dr. Sue Natali The Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the globe, setting off dramatic changes with devastating impacts on local communities. Alaska residents know better than anyone how their environment is changing. There is an urgent need for partnerships between Arctic communities and scientists to guide and implement relevant environmental monitoring and climate risk assessment. The project will substantially expand Woodwell’s collaborations with Arctic Indigenous communities by partnering with the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), an Alaska Native nonprofit organization, which is a consortium of 42 Athabascan tribes across interior Alaska.

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Quantifying thermally driven plant stress along forest edges in the Brazilian Amazon Submitted by: Dr. Michael Coe, Dr. Marcia Macedo, and Dr. Paulo Brando The impacts of deforestation— dramatically reduced biodiversity and carbon storage, and increased local surface temperatures—are not limited to cleared areas. Adjacent forests may experience heat stress and degradation that impairs their ability to move water through the system and sequester carbon. One recent study estimated that forest edge degradation could increase the carbon footprint of deforestation by a third. This project will blend onthe-ground measurements with cutting edge drone measurements of the forest canopy and newly available satellite data to delve into the processes and ramifications of forest edge degradation, on scales ranging from individual trees to entire landscapes.

Rapid soil carbon assessment Submitted by: Dr. Jonathan Sanderman Interest in the potential of soil carbon storage as a climate solution has grown exponentially in recent years. But the majority of emerging protocols and markets rely on models—not measurement—of soil carbon, making it difficult to gauge how effective they are.

There is an urgent need for accurate, low-cost soil carbon monitoring technologies that can be deployed widely. This project addresses that need, leveraging newly available handheld scanner technology in conjunction with ongoing work to develop open-source data analysis tools. The goal is to test whether a field-deployable soil carbon measurement system can be accurate enough for carbon market applications.

Climate Science for Change

Summer 2021

Building capacity to monitor and manage climate impacts on nitrogen pollution and carbon cycling in Cape Cod rivers

Submitted by: Dr. Richard Birdsey, Dr. Andrea Castanho, and Kathleen Savage

Submitted by: Dr. Max Holmes and Dr. Marcia Macedo

Carbon absorption and storage by forests is essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving the goal of net zero emissions by mid-century. However, there is controversy centering on whether it is more effective to let forests grow to their full capacity to store carbon in trees and soils, or to manage forests more intensively to store carbon in harvested wood products, such as mass timber. This work will directly address this debate by developing rigorous inventories and projections of carbon storage by different U.S. forest ecosystems under varying management and harvest scenarios. The project promises critical insight into the past and prospective role of forests and the forest sector in our national carbon budget and climate goals.

Climate change is altering the flow of rivers, with potentially profound effects on the coastal waters they feed.

Nowhere is this more true than on Cape Cod, where nitrogen from septic systems and fertilizer run-off have degraded coastal ecosystems. For five years, the Cape Cod Rivers Observatory has monitored water quality in several Cape Cod rivers. This has yielded important insights, but measurements of the amount of water flowing through those rivers is needed to calculate their full impact on coastal waters—and that data currently are available for only one river. This project will initiate long-term discharge monitoring on four additional rivers, significantly expanding our ability to understand the interacting effects of climate change and human activity on coastal ecosystems.

Paulo Brando

Alexander Nassikas

The role of managed forests and wood products in reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Autonomous low-cost automated aquatic methane measurement systems Submitted by: Kathleen Savage, Dr. Marcia Macedo, Dr. Sue Natali, Dr. Glenn Bush, and Paul Lefebvre Lakes, ponds, and wetlands—both natural and human-made—can be significant sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane. But the variability of these emissions over time and across relatively small geographic areas has made it difficult to produce reliable global estimates of these emissions. This project will help address the need for accurate, highresolution data on methane emissions from aquatic systems by developing novel, automated measurement systems. These innovative sensors build on Woodwell’s decades of technical expertise, and promise to advance our understanding of carbon dynamics in aquatic ecosystems in the same way that our work in temperate forests did over 20 years ago.

The Fund for Climate Solutions helps Woodwell scientists tackle top priority climate research needed in the Arctic, the Amazon, Central Africa, and throughout the U.S. Support for the campaign has been generously contributed by a groundswell of donors led by the Board of Directors, President’s Council members and many other generous contributors who want to make a difference now to preserve the future of our planet for generations to come.

To learn more about the projects that the campaign has funded and emerging needs, visit woodwellclimate.org/fcs or contact Leslie Kolterman, Chief Philanthropy Officer, at lkolterman@woodwellclimate.org or 617-939-6284.

Summer 2021

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Early impact in 2021 JANUARY Arctic Program Director Dr. Sue Natali and Dr. Bill Moomaw, a Director and Distinguished Visiting Scientist, took part in a conversation about climate feedback loops with Greta Thunberg and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The event was hosted by Mind & Life Institute and viewed by over one million people.

READ MORE

woodwellclimate.org/woodwell-researchers-kick-off-2021-with-star-power

FEBRUARY Senior Scientist Dr. Jen Francis was quoted in nearly 700 print, online, and broadcast news stories, providing climate context for the record-setting cold spell and resulting water and power crises in Texas.

READ MORE

bit.ly/apnews-weather-polar-vortex-explained

MARCH The Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative launched with thirty founding members, including Woodwell partner Wellington Management. Members of the group manage combined portfolios totaling more than $9 trillion, and have committed to net zero emissions in their managed assets by 2050. In addition, Wellington Management has pledged to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2022.

READ MORE

woodwellclimate.org/woodwell-partner-a-founding-member-of-net-zero-asset-managersinitiative

APRIL Dr. Robert Litterman, Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s ClimateRelated Market Risk Subcommittee and a member of Woodwell Climate’s Board of Directors, provided testimony to the US Senate Committee on the Budget about the socioeconomic risks of inaction on climate change.

READ MORE

woodwellclimate.org/congressional-testimony-the-cost-of-inaction-on-climate-change

MAY Woodwell Climate has partnered with The Converging Risks Lab, an institute of the Council on Strategic Risks, to release the first two of a series of risk case studies: Climate Change and the India-China Rivalry: Melting Mountains, Mounting Tensions and Temperatures and Tensions Rise: Security and Climate Risk in the Arctic.

READ MORE

woodwellclimate.org/temperatures-and-tensions-rise woodwellclimate.org/melting-mountains-mounting-tensions

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Climate Science for Change

Summer 2021

Spotlight on student authors The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed many restrictions on how we work, but has also created new opportunities, including the ability to broaden the reach of our internships and work with students throughout the academic year. The result is evident in the content of this magazine, the vast majority of which was written by two undergraduate interns, Anabelle Johnston and Anneka

Anabelle Johnston Anabelle Johnston joined Woodwell Climate as a summer 2020 intern, and extended her internship through the academic year after deciding to postpone her sophomore year at Brown University. She has written for Woodwell Climate’s monthly newsletters, magazines, and social media channels. Her work is motivated by a desire to tell engaging stories about climate science that open public dialogue and spark change.

Johnston intends to continue work within the field of science communications and allow her experience at Woodwell to inform a career in environmental journalism. She will graduate from Brown University in 2023. When not in the virtual office, she can be found outdoors, hiking, biking, and trail running.

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Williams. It has been a pleasure working with Anabelle and Anneka, both of whom are talented and enthusiastic science communicators. We wish them the best of luck as they continue their educations, and look forward to their future successes!

—Heather Goldstone, CCO

Anneka Williams Anneka Williams is an alum of Woodwell’s Polaris Project and has interned with the Communications team this spring, writing two long-form stories for this magazine. Her work is motivated by her belief in the power of community-oriented science and the ways that science can be communicated to broad audiences through different modes of storytelling.

She particularly enjoys learning about polar and high alpine environments, whose organisms, climate systems, and communities display both incredible fragility and resilience in the face of climate change.

Williams graduated from Bowdoin College in May 2021 and is headed to Denmark to study climate change internationally at the University of Copenhagen. She ultimately hopes to conduct research that can inform environmental policy, engage local stakeholders, and fuel compelling science stories. In her free time, she enjoys long-distance running, woodworking, and backcountry skiing.

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Momentous retirements Woodwell Climate congratulates two of our most long-standing staff members on their recent retirements.

Richard (Skee) Houghton Ph.D.

Camille Romano M.S., C.P.A.

Camille Romano retired as Chief Financial Officer on March 31, 2021, after thirty years with the Center. Romano began working with the Center as an accountant in April of 1991, when the Center had only two dozen employees housed in rented offices in the basement of the Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole.

Over the decades, she rose through the ranks and helped keep the Center on firm financial ground through significant transitions in location, funding, and leadership. She played a pivotal role in the founding of Woodwell Climate’s Brazilian sister organization, IPAM Amazônia, traveling to Brazil annually to assist with financial, legal, and administrative set-up in the institution’s early days. Along with then-CFO Bob Barry, she also was instrumental in the purchase and renovation of the Carriage House.

Romano obtained her B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Massachusetts and her M.S. in Accounting from Northeastern University—a combination of interests that has been a theme in both her personal and professional activities.

She was one of the first members of the Coonamessett River Trust and has been a staunch supporter of local conservation efforts, at one point purchasing a cranberry bog near her home and selling it to The 300 Committee for conservation.

She serves as Treasurer on the Board of the Falmouth Education Foundation.

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At the close of 2020, Dr. Richard (Skee) Houghton retired as Senior Scientist and holder of the George M. Woodwell Chair for Global Ecology, an honor he held since 2011. Dr. Houghton was among the Center’s first employees and has helped shape the organization, serving multiple stints as Acting Director and Acting President.

Dr. Houghton began working with Dr. George Woodwell as a graduate student. He has spent much of his career working to foster greater integration between the fields of ecology and global carbon budgeting. His many seminal publications have been cited thousands of times, and his influence has been evident in recent changes to the Global Carbon Project’s annually-released carbon budget, to which he is a perennial contributor.

He was an author on multiple reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2014, he accepted the International Center for Climate Governance award for the world’s topranked climate change think tank on behalf of Woodwell Climate Research Center (then Woods Hole Research Center).

Dr. Houghton remains an active member of the Woodwell community as Senior Scientist Emeritus. While he continues to participate in Woodwell staff functions and pursue his research, retirement should afford him more opportunities to enjoy spending time on his property at the edge of the woods— reading, brewing beer, and practicing tai chi.

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Summer 2021

IN MEMORIAM

Chris Linder

John D. Schade

Dr. John D. Schade, Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Woodwell Climate, died in his sleep at home on March 26, 2021, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 54 years old.

John’s beautiful spirit, kindness, and enduring sense of humor in the face of challenges will remain and inspire family and friends who knew and loved him throughout his life. Throughout his life he shared this love through music and writing, with friends and family.

John made immeasurable contributions during his distinguished career in environmental research and education. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he completed his Ph.D. at Arizona State University and began his career as a professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. He continued his work in climate research and education at Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, MA, and the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he served as a Program Officer in the Division of Environmental Biology. John’s scientific interests were diverse, ranging from studies of greenhouse gas production in agricultural and Arctic streams, to the impacts of changing snow depth on nutrient cycling in prairie soils.

John was passionate about educating the next generation of scientists, and increasing diversity and inclusivity in the sciences. He was a steadfast student advocate, and the heart of Woodwell’s Polaris Project, which integrates Arctic research and undergraduate education. Undergraduate researchers were frequently co-authors on his scientific publications, and he made sure to note that.

John is survived by the love of his life, Dr. Sue Natali; his mother, Carol Jean Winn (George) of Harbor Springs, MI; his sister, Dr. Lisa Schade Eckert (Greg) of Marquette, MI; his brother, Jeff Schade (Linda VanIngen) of Kearney, NE; two nephews, Jacob Williams (Andriana Puchany) of Lewistown, MT; Elisher Williams (Laurel Wilkey) of Highland Heights, KY; niece Mary Emily Schade of Kearney, NE; and many beloved cousins, aunts, and uncles. Celebrations of John’s beautiful spirit will be held at later dates.

John was one of the kindest, smartest, and most humble people I have ever met. He was the absolute heart and soul of the Polaris Project, and was one of my very best friends.

—Max Holmes, Woodwell Climate

In addition to being a great friend and collaborator, John Schade had the single largest influence on how I mentor students.

—Michael Loranty, Colgate University

John believed in us in a way that most of my Polaris Project peers and I had never experienced. He was simultaneously able to challenge us, inspire us, and gave us endless encouragement to pursue our questions and ideas.

—Anneka Williams, Polaris Project alum

John taught me to ask good questions, that you couldn’t just lump all microbial processing into a simple black box called “biology,” and to love what I do and value the people I do it with. I am an Arctic scientist and better human because of him.

—Megan Behnke, Florida State University

Donations made in Dr. Schade’s honor at woodwellclimate.org/john-schade will be used to establish a fund to honor and recognize his unwavering dedication to student-led learning and scientific advancement.

Donations in his honor to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network at pancan.org/ways-to-give will contribute to pancreatic cancer research.

Summer 2021

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supporting woodwell’s efforts for a sustainable future.

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Climate Science for Change

Summer 2021

Your legacy can be a healthy planet “We have included Woodwell Climate Research Center in our estate plans to ensure that this important work to sustain a stable climate for future generations will continue on through our bequest to the Center.”

Stuart and Joanna Brown / photo by Stash Wislocki

George Woodwell and Sally Brown

As new members of the George Perkins Marsh Society, Joanna and Stuart Brown are part of a multi-generational family dedicated to advocacy for science-based policies that lead the world toward a safer climate and way of life. They channel their passion for climate change activism by volunteering on several national and global nonprofit boards and modeling sustainable principles in business.

Stuart’s grandmother, Sally Brown, was a pioneer for environmental issues in our country and a powerful force for good. She worked closely with Woodwell Climate’s founder, Dr. George Woodwell, in the 1990s and was a transformative supporter and board member. Joanna’s and Stuart’s generous leadership contributions and new legacy gift truly reflect their family’s ongoing commitment to fighting the global climate crisis.

For more information on legacy giving to support climate science for change, please contact Beth Bagley at ebagley@woodwellclimate.org or at 508-444-1517.

149 Woods Hole Road Falmouth, MA, 02540-1644

woodwellclimate.org @woodwellclimate #climatescienceforchange

CLIMATE SCIENCE FOR CHANGE