Researchers at CU Boulder in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Environmental Science along with other co-authors published in last month's volume of the journal Advanced Science. The an article discussed their recent work on creating a biodegradable soil sensor. The lead author, was Dr. Madhur Atreya, a postdoc at CU, and was joined by Professors Greg Whiting (Mechanical Engineering) and Jason Neff (Environmental Studies), and other co-authors.

The sensor is able to track "soil health by tracking it's own decomposition in real time" and can huge implications for how farmers are able to track and manage their soil health which can aid in reducing fertilizer application and GHG emissions in agriculture.

Check out a , or the full . 
 

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Greening cities has many environmental and social benefits, but it may also price out lower income individuals and bolster gentrification. Last month, two ENVS PhD graduates, Ashby Lavelle Sachs and Angela Boag, along with co-author, Austin Troy, published a study in the Journal of Urban Forestry & Urban Greening investigating this tension. Read the full study here. 

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"Digital-twin" models have been integrated into high-stakes decision making in many sectors; aerospace, climate policy. But they have yet to be developed to track food supply chains in efforts to avoid food shortages. ENVS Assistant Professor, Zia Mehrabi, published a World View piece in Nature this week advocating that it is time to start building out these systems now. It will take time to aggregate data and develop capabilities, but constructing these systems now will help avert famine and food shortages in the future.


 

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ENVS recent PhD graduate, Dr. Urooj Raja and her advisor in ENVS, Professor Amanda Carrico, just published an amazing study in Nature Scientific Reports, linking childhood trauma to civic environmental engagement. The study uses survey data to understand what kind of experiences could predict environmental engagement. The outstanding commonality in addition to experiences in the outdoor was experiences childhood trauma.
 

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ENVS PhD student, Waverly Eichhorst, recently published a discussion of cultivated meat and persisting scientific challenges that could prevent the wide-scale commercialization of cultivated meat products through the Breakthrough Institute. Full piece here.
 

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Recent ENVS PhD graduate, Rayna Benzeev, and ENVS Professor, Peter Newton, published a landmark study in the journal PNAS Nexus today titled, "Formalizing tenure of Indigenous lands improved forest outcomes in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil." The research, which is part of Dr. Benzeev's doctoral work in ENVS shows that granting legal land tenure to indigenous tribes not only reduces deforestation, but aids in reforestation.

The study, which examined tribes and forest loss in the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil can have potentially large implications with the shifting political situation in Brazil and governance of the Amazon Forest, which has seen huge losses over the last several years.

Links to CU Boulder Today article on the piece, , and additional  
 

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Loneliness in the US has skyrocketed, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This recently published study led by ENVS Professor, Jill Litt, and recent ENVS PhD graduate, Ashby Lavelle Sachs, used outdoor spaces to facilitate community showing significant improvement in mental health among pregnant teens and young mothers. Read the full article and study below.

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Just published in the journal, The Lancet Planetary Health, Professor Jill Litt and co-authors showed convincing evidence that community gardens improve multiple areas of physical and mental health. 

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First year ENVS PhD student, Naia Ormaza Zulueta, advised by Assistant Professor, Zia Mehrabi, just published an opinion article in a Spanish independent journal, el Salto Diario, about sacrifice zones. She debates the use of the term "Sacrifice Zones" and how the adjective sacrifice promotes a reductionist and misguided vision of what "sacrifice" could and could not mean.

The article uses the example of the Biosphere of Urdaibai, a wetlands with rich biodiversity. Currently, there are plans to develop these wetlands into a museum, an extension of the Guggenheim Bilbao. Classifying this ecosystem as a sacrifice zone, has an immense drawback: it gives the idea that ecological damage is focused on some areas while others are safe from these threats. We know, though, that the damage is global. Everywhere life is sacrificed for the sake of consumerism and “development” understood as unbridled and infinite economic growth. Sacrifice zones are not insignificant or circumscribed failures within a system that, from a holistic or overall view, would function properly. These areas represent the shocking reality of being the most visible symptoms of a global ongoing crisis.

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As the annual meeting of the Antarctic governance body, CAMMLR, gets underway a perspective published in Science calls to stem fishing in the Southern Ocean. The perspective was led by ENVS Assistant Professor, Cassandra Brooks, and co-authored by ENVS PhD student Vasco Chavez-Molina as well as other scientists from around the world.

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