This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Great Lakes: Inspiring the Next Generation’s Environmental Sustainability Leaders

Panelists: Clint Jacobs (Walpole Island/Bkejwanong), Dr. Valoree Gagnon (Great Lakes Research Center, Michigan Technological University), Dr. Myrle Ballard (Univ of Manitoba), Dilber Yunus (International Institute for Sustainable Development – Experimental Lakes Area)

When: Friday, January 29, 10-11:30am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration one day before the seminar.

Our inaugural seminar for 2021 will be a panel consisting of four indigenous leaders in ecology and the Great Lakes region. We will have an open discussion on topics surrounding place-based knowledge through generations with connection to climate change (invasive species, partnerships, language).

Hope to see you there!

We are proud to announce the preprint of our latest paper, Designing and implementing a novel graduate program to develop transdisciplinary leaders in urban sustainability, available to read and comment for free on Preprint:

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202012.0088/v1

The coauthors include Dr. Megan Wallen (T-RUST Program Manager, WSU), Dr. Ingrid Guerra-Lopez (Professor of Learning Design and Technology, WSU), Louay Meroueh (Program Consultant, WSU), Dr. Rayman Mohamed (Chair and Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, WSU), Dr. Andrea Sankar (Chair and Professor of Anthropology, WSU), Dr. Pradeep Sopory (Associate Professor of Communication, WSU), Dr. Ryan Watkins (Professor of Educational Leadership, George Washington University), & Dr. Donna Kashian (Professor of Biological Sciences, WSU).

Check it out and let us know what you think!

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Good Geoscience in Dire Places: Searching for Water in Humanitarian Crises

Speaker: Paul Bauman, Advisian (a division of Worley Canada)

When: Friday, December 18, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

In this talk, I lead you on the geophysical search and then the discovery of water in a few of the refugee camps and conflict zones in East Africa. In each of these settings, the cause of human displacement is distinct, the geology and hydrogeology vary, the landscapes are strikingly different, but the need for water is equally desperate.

In one of the largest refugee camps in the world, in the Turkana desert of Kenya, seismic and resistivity surveys helped to increase the water supply to the camp and, simultaneously, a previously unrecognized public health crisis was addressed. In Northern Uganda, in the devastation left behind by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, village water supplies were restored following geophysical surveys and hydrochemical testing. More importantly, the local Ugandan crews were trained to carry on with this technical work. Finally, in the midst of a civil war in the world’s newest country, South Sudan, an emergency mission relying on resistivity surveys took advantage of a cessation of hostilities to find water in villages stranded by the conflict.

Paul Bauman has a BScE in Geological Engineering from Princeton (1981), and an MSc in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo (1990). For 31 years he has been the founding director of the Near Surface Geophysics Group at Advisian in Calgary. He and his group have carried out projects in water exploration, contaminant mapping, archaeology, and engineering geophysics on all seven continents. Some of their project work has appeared in documentaries and network series on NOVA, National Geographic, the History Channel, and the Discovery Network.

You can learn more about Mr. Bauman’s work on his website, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn.

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Alkanes for UV screening? Ask Antarctic algae and mosses

Speaker: Dr. Supriyo Kumar Das, Department of Geology, Presidency University in Kolkata, India

When: Friday, December 4, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Change in moss leaf colour from green to grey and grey to black (moribund), and lake benthic algal mat pigments from green to red-green, red-green to red and red to grey are observed in Larsemann Hills of East Antarctica. A systematic change in the distribution of short-chain (n-C17 to n-C20) versus long-chain (n-C21 to n-C30) n-alkanes in accordance with the changes in moss and algal mat pigment is also noted. The research links the relatively higher synthesis of short-chain n-alkanes with respect to the long-chain n-alkanes in algal mats and mosses to increasing exposure to ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation and propose that short-chain n-alkanes functions as UV screening compounds (UVSC) for protection against harmful UV-B radiation in Antarctic moss and lake benthic algal mat.

Supriyo Das was awarded PhD in Biogeochemistry by Stockholm University in 2007. After finishing PhD, Dr Das continued his research as a postdoctoral researcher at NIOZ, University of Glasgow, Örebro University and Linnaeus University. During his research, he received prestigious EAOG scholarship, British Council and Swedish Research Council fellowships. He is presently working as an Assistant Professor at Presidency University in Kolkata. His research applies elemental, molecular and stable isotope geochemistry to understand the interaction between continually changing climate, environment and human activities. He was a member of IODP expedition 354 and 38th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica.

You can find Dr. Das on Twitter (@Dr_Supriyo_Das) or on his research page here.

Congratulations to the 8 students (7 from the T-RUST family!) who were recently awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) P3 student design competition: People, Prosperity, and the Planet.

The project, entitled GIS-informed urban groundwater monitoring networks, will understand how green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) affects urban groundwater quality and flow by piloting a network of community-based groundwater monitoring stations surrounding GSI sites in Detroit, MI. The technical challenge is to develop a scalable model of relatively low-cost groundwater monitoring stations to measure groundwater flow and quality at the neighborhood scale.

The project will benefit residents of the city of Detroit and surrounding communities by piloting a groundwater monitoring network that can elucidate connections between GSSI and groundwater, identify potential exposure pathways for contaminants, and provide community education and engagement around the importance of groundwater resources in the Great Lakes region.

This was truly an interdisciplinary effort, involving graduate students from Civil & Environmental Engineering, Biology, Anthropology, and Urban Studies and Planning. The T-RUST faculty leads are Dr. Carol Miller (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Dr. Rahul Mitra (Communication).

Amazing work; congrats to you all: Brittanie Dabney, Kate Ekhator, Darrin Hunt, Colleen Linn, Natalie Lyon, Brendan O’Leary, Adam Pruett, and Sadaf Teimoori.

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Eco-evolutionary dynamics in Great Lakes fish stocks and why they matter for management

Speaker: Dr. Erin Dunlop, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

When: Friday, November 20, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Evolution can occur in animal populations on short enough time scales to interact with ecological processes, with selection from human activities causing more rapid responses than natural sources of selection. There are many anthropogenic sources of selection in the Great Lakes that can alter the eco-evolutionary dynamics of fish stocks in ways that critically impact ecosystem services. The most studied example is fisheries-induced evolution, where harvesting leads to genetic changes in a population’s traits. Common evolutionary responses to fishing include smaller body size, earlier maturity, and shy behaviour. These evolutionary responses can have undesirable consequences from a management perspective, including reduced yield, lower catch rates by anglers, and slow rates of recovery in depleted populations. Furthermore, such responses can affect the accuracy of stock assessment models that are used to guide quota management decisions, leading to over or under harvesting depending on the direction of changes. Another relevant example of evolution in the Great Lakes is the possibility that sea lamprey may evolve resistance to the pesticide used to control their population. These examples indicate that eco-evolutionary dynamics need to be accounted for when providing information on stock status, defining sustainable harvest levels, controlling invasive species, and developing recovery strategies.

Dr. Erin Dunlop is a Research Scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and is based out of Trent University in Peterborough Ontario Canada. Erin leads a research program that focuses on fish population dynamics in the Great Lakes, with a focus on providing applied science to inform management and policy decisions. Follow Dr. Dunlop on Twitter: @airydunlop

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: A clearer view through murky waters? Eutrophication risk, resilience and recovery

Speaker: Dr. Helen Jarvie, University of Waterloo

When: Friday, November 6, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are limiting nutrients for food production, yet we face an overabundance of P and N entering our rivers and lakes, from agricultural production and from wastewater discharges. This impairs water quality, undermines the health of aquatic ecosystems, and threatens water security. This seminar explores the challenges we face in eutrophication management. Changing patterns in nutrient use and management have led to a conundrum of simultaneous nutrient excesses and deficiencies, and the build-up of nutrient legacies in our watersheds, with varying residence times. The chronic release of P and N from these legacy stores may continue to impair river water quality for decades. Using the U.S. Western Lake Erie river tributaries as an example, we show how conservation measures designed to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural land may have inadvertently accelerated the accumulation of labile P at the soil surface and the losses of dissolved P, contributing to the ‘re-eutrophication’ of the western Lake Erie basin. In seeking solutions to eutrophication, there is a pressing need to better quantify nutrient sinks and sources in watersheds, and to ensure realistic expectations for mitigation strategies and timescales for recovery.

Helen Jarvie joined the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo, in January 2020, as Professor of Water and Global Environmental Change. Before relocating to Canada, Helen worked for the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology for 25 years. Helen’s research explores the drivers of eutrophication and water-quality impairment, from UK to global scales. She has particular interest in the sources and biogeochemical cycling of nutrients in rivers, and how safeguarding the functional integrity of rivers and watersheds can help build resilience in water-quality and water-resource security, within the context of climate variability and land-use change.

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Re-shaping our thinking about urban forests as public health infrastructure

Speaker: Dr. Janani Sivarajah, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

When: Friday, October 23, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Urban trees provide many ecosystem services along with psycho-socio-cultural, health, and economic benefits to humans. Given the increases in urban development and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is timely to consider urban planning issues and equitable access to these greenspaces and the benefits they provide. Now more than ever, we are more dependent on urban trees and greenspaces for our well-being. The growing trend in current thinking about urban forests as public health infrastructure has elevated the importance of trees in public health and urban greening policies and standards. In this talk, I will draw upon my previous research, highlighting the importance of urban trees as a critical public health infrastructure that impacts academic performance to cancer prevention. I will give some insight on the transdisciplinary nature of my work, conveying it towards different audiences and how it is being applied in the real-world. I will touch upon some of my ongoing work building ecological and community resilience within urban and sub-urban developments. Overall, I will elaborate on how we can work with the health, social, and education sectors to incorporate landscape ecology approaches to aim for greater connectivity between people and nature.

Dr. Janani Sivarajah is an urban forestry and greening researcher, educator, and consultant. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. She has a Master of Forest Conservation and Ph.D. in Forestry from the University of Toronto. Her transdisciplinary research explores the ecosystem services of urban trees and public greenspaces, and finds greening solutions to improve the socio-ecological resilience of cities. She is the President of the Ontario Urban Forest Council, Research Associate at the Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson University, and member of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association and the City of Toronto’s Shade Policy Steering Committee. She also lectures at Daniel’s Institute of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Toronto.

Please join us for the second installment of the Green Street virtual seminar series, hosted by the Wayne State University Office of Campus Sustainability. This week, Dr. Donna Kashian (Director of Environmental Science and T-RUST) will present an introduction to arctic amplification, and participate in a discussion with Sierra Club activist Justin Onwenu on climate change and environmental justice.

Register here: https://linktr.ee/sustainability_wsu

To learn more about Green Street and for information regarding other upcoming seminars, please visit the Green Street homepage: https://sustainability.wayne.edu/engagement/green-street.

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Centering Public Scholarship for Transformative Environmental Studies Research: Ongoing Lessons from the Detroit Water Stories Project

Speaker: Dr. Rahul Mitra, Wayne State University

When: Friday, October 9, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Abstract: Perhaps in no other field of study is it more vital for scholars to engage and partner with local communities and lay audiences than in Environmental Studies. Nevertheless, public scholarship remains devalued or grossly misunderstood, or practiced as an after-thought to the “serious” work of research. Yet, research, I argue, can only be truly transformative and consequential when it takes into account the concerns and lived experiences of impacted stakeholders. In this talk, I draw from ongoing lessons from a multi-year collaborative ethnography and oral history project, to outline new ways of approaching public scholarship. The Detroit Water Stories project gathers, shares, and analyzes stories of water insecurity and resilience from key stakeholders involved in the city’s ongoing water affordability crisis. In this talk, I review three critical communicative principles—listen, collaborate and amplify—to actualize what Monica Lewis Patrick of We The People of Detroit terms “deputization.” The model of deputized scholarship I advance in this talk is especially geared toward “wicked problems” that demand our attention to complex and overlapping social, structural and environmental issues. It is a grassroots centered approach to scholarship that blends research, service learning and community engagement, blurring boundaries between public and “basic” scholarship.

Rahul Mitra (PhD, Purdue University) is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University, whose research is at the intersection of organizational and environmental communication, focusing on environmental organizing, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, and meaningful work discourses. He is a critical-interpretive scholar, and uses primarily qualitative methods, such as ethnography, interviews, focus groups, discourse analysis, and arts-based research. At WSU, he directs the Resilient Institutions & Sustainable Environments (RISE) Lab, and his research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed publications such as Environmental Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Human Relations, Communication Theory, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. Learn more about Dr. Mitra and his work on his website www.rahulmitraphd.com and at www.detroitwaterstories.com