In Cuba, Cleaner Rivers Follow Greener Farming</h1> <article> <h1>In Cuba, Cleaner Rivers Follow Greener Farming</h1> <p>swargo — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 16:46:21 +0000</p> <span>In Cuba, Cleaner Rivers Follow Greener Farming</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-01-31T11:46:21-05:00" title="Friday, January 31, 2020 - 11:46">Fri, 01/31/2020 - 11:46</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990’s, food production on the island of Cuba was reduced—as the supply of Russian fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, and oil dried up. Under the stress of an imminent food crisis, the island quickly rebuilt a new form of diversified farming—including many urban organic gardens—that depended less on imported synthetic chemicals. Over the last two decades, Cuba blossomed into a worldwide model for conservation agriculture, with improved soils and cleaner water. </p> <p>At least that’s been a popular story among journalists.</p> <p>Now—for the first time in more than fifty years—a team of Cuban and U.S. field scientists have worked together to rigorously test a key aspect of this story: the impacts of contemporary agriculture on water quality in Cuba’s rivers. Despite centuries of sugarcane plantations and other intensive farming, the international team discovered that none of the rivers they explored show deep damage. </p> <p>Instead, the scientists measured much lower nutrient concentrations in all the twenty-five Cuban rivers they studied than are found in the U.S.’s Mississippi River. And they think Cuba’s transition toward sustainable agriculture—and its reduced use of fertilizers on cropland—may be a primary cause.</p> <p>“A lot of stories about the value of Cuba’s shift to conservation agriculture have been based on fuzzy, feel-good evidence,” say University of Vermont geologist Paul Bierman, who co-led the new research, “this study provides hard data that a crucial part of this story is true.”</p> <p>Bierman and geoscientist <a href="/amanda-schmidt">Amanda Schmidt from 91ֱ�� College</a> led the American half of the international team, while Rita Yvelice Sibello Hernández, a scientist with CEAC (<a href="https://www.ecured.cu/Centro_de_Estudios_Ambientales_de_Cienfuegos">Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos</a>), an ecological research group, headed up the Cuban effort with CEAC science director Carlos Alonso-Hernández.</p> <p>The new study, “¡<a href="https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/science/G419A/GSATG419A.pdf">Cuba! River Water Chemistry Reveals Rapid Chemical Weathering, the Echo of Uplift, and the Promise of More Sustainable Agriculture</a>,”was published January 30, in the early online edition of the journal GSA Today, the leading publication of the Geological Society of America.</p> <p><strong>Pollution problems</strong></p> <p>The scientists from both countries worked side-by-side as one team doing extensive fieldwork—with <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1719249">support from the U.S. National Science Foundation</a>—and then coordinated lab work and analysis to look at many measures of river water across central Cuba. The team found high levels of E. coli bacteria in the waters—likely the result of large numbers of livestock and Cuba’s intensive use of horses and other draft animals for transportation and farm work.</p> <p>However, the scientists also found much lower levels of phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in Cuban rivers than in the United States where intensive farming and chemical fertilizer use is widespread. The new study shows dissolved nitrogen levels in Cuban rivers running at roughly a quarter to a third of those found in the Mississippi River—where excess nitrogen is a primary engine of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. “Cuban river waters provide evidence that agriculture need not overload rivers, and thus reservoirs and coastal zones, with nutrients,” writes the 15-person research team that included seven Cuban scientists and students and eight U.S. scientists and students from UVM, 91ֱ��, and Williams College.</p> <p>“This research can help us to better understand how land and rivers interact in the context of sustainable organic agriculture,” said the CEAC’s Rita Yvelice Sibello Hernández, “and may give a good example to other people in the Caribbean and all over the world.”</p> <p><strong>Scientific diplomacy</strong></p> <p>Cuba is a motorboat trip from Florida—less than a hundred miles. And the island nation is the most populous in the Caribbean with more than 11 million citizens and a long and tortuous history of complex relations—cooperation and conflict—with the United States. But there has been vanishingly little collaboration between U.S. and Cuban scientists since the 1960s—much less than with other, more-potent geopolitical foes of the United States, from Iran to China. </p> <p>“We have much to learn from each other,” says Cuban scientist Alejandro Garcia Moya, a co-author on the new study. The kind of river data that the team collected “are needed to guide sustainable development in Cuba, and by example, in other tropical and island nations,” the team writes. Not only did the U.S. team provide important technical expertise and verification of results—but the joint research reveals that Cuba also has a lot of opportunity to improve its river water quality. The new study points toward the need for improved management strategies to reduce animal manure and sediment loads going into rivers—such as fencing to keep cattle off river banks—that “could further and rapidly improve central Cuban river water quality,” the scientists note. </p> <p>Conversely, “Cuba has been having a forced experiment in organic agriculture since the late 1980s,” says 91ֱ��’s Amanda Schmidt. “So Cuba is a very interesting place to look at the effects of both conventional agriculture and the effects of organic agriculture at a national scale,”—and may suggest pathways to improve U.S. agriculture. Fertilizer use in Cuba peaked in 1978 and has been lower since, according to World Bank and other data. U.S. fertilizer use spiked after the 1960s and has remained at more than twice the Cuban use rate. </p> <p>“There’s a takeaway we bring back to the U.S.: our river waters do not need to look the way they do,” says Paul Bierman—a professor in <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/cas/geology">UVM’s Geology Department</a>, <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/rsenr">Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources</a>, and <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund">Gund Institute for Environment</a>—“we can manage fertilizer differently.” There are, of course, complex questions about yields, farm policy and more, but this newly reported data on the low levels of nutrient pollution found in twenty-five Cuban rivers, “suggests the benefits of Cuba’s shift to conservation agriculture after 1990,” the US/Cuban team writes, “and provides a model for more sustainable agriculture worldwide.” </p> <p> </p> <p>Media Contacts:</p> <p>(U.S./English) Joshua Brown, University of Vermont, 802-557-7677 (c.), joshua.brown@uvm.edu</p> <p>(Cuba/Spanish) Maikel Hernández Núñez, CEAC, maikel@ceac.cu</p> <p>(U.S./English) Scott Wargo, 91ֱ�� College, 440-309-7132 (c.), Scott.Wargo@oberlin.edu</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Releases</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-01-30T12:00:00Z">Thu, 01/30/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>First joint Cuba-U.S. geology team in half a century discovers Cuban fertilizer pollution far lower than the Mississippi River a—model for global agriculture.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/amanda-schmidt" hreflang="und">Amanda Schmidt</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/geosciences" hreflang="und">Geosciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> </article> <article> <h1>Hope Kassen '15 Receives Fulbright in Malaysia</h1> <p>anagy — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:02:25 +0000</p> <span>Hope Kassen '15 Receives Fulbright in Malaysia</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:02:25-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:02">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:02</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Hope Kassen, a May 2015 graduate with majors in politics and law and society, will embark on her first study abroad experience with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Malaysia.</p> <p>Kassen will spend 10 months living and teaching English in Malaysia. She plans to learn more about the country’s political system. “Having been born in China, I knew I wanted to live in Asia upon graduating from 91ֱ��,” she says. “Applying to the Fulbright program in Malaysia was a bit of a serendipitous impulse, but it has a fascinating cultural and political history, and I knew that my experience there would be like no other. The government has been particularly conscious of Western influences and the prevalence of English being taught in schools.” </p> <p>Kassen points out that Malaysia is a nation of many different ethnic identities and languages. “I look forward to exploring and comparing the intersection of culture and identity. I am hoping to learn more about Malaysia's political system, become conversational in Bahasa Malaysia, and understand the Malaysian perspective of the United States. I am also excited to celebrate the many Malaysian holidays throughout the coming year with my students.”</p> <p>After the Fulbright year, Kassen, who is from Lincolnville, Maine, intends to pursue a career in education or civil rights policy. She also wants to continue her education in law and public policy. </p> <p>“Above all, I am hoping that my experience in Malaysia will make me more aware of the many different ways to live life. And that whatever I end up doing, I will do it with enthusiasm, empathy, and an open mind.”<br></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Releases</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-08-04T12:00:00Z">Tue, 08/04/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25416">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25396">Law and Society</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/politics" hreflang="und">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/law-and-society" hreflang="und">Law and Society</a></div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>World Renowned Geochemist Delivers National Academy of Sciences Lectures at 91ֱ�� College</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:04:25 +0000</p> <span>World Renowned Geochemist Delivers National Academy of Sciences Lectures at 91ֱ�� College</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:04:25-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:04">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:04</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What are the causes of abrupt climate change? What is behind the rapid melting of ice sheets at the end of glacial cycles? What role do humans play in climate change?</p> <p>R. Lawrence Edwards will address these questions when he delivers the National Academy of Sciences’ Day Prize Lecture Series at 91ֱ�� College on November 14, 15, and 21.</p> <p>An isotope geochemist, Edwards champions cave deposits as recorders of historic and prehistoric climate. The Robert D. and Carol C. Gunn Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the University of Minnesota’s earth sciences department, he and his large group of international collaborators are currently working on piecing together hundreds of thousands of years of Asian monsoon history from caves in China. Using innovative strategies, he relates his cave climate histories to those from ocean sediments and from ice cores, thereby establishing patterns of changing climate in time and space. Some of his research assesses the relationship between climate change and cultural history, drawing plausible links between global shifts in rainfall patterns and major cultural changes. His cave records, which cover the last several centuries, contain some of the strongest evidence yet for human-induced climate change.</p> <p>“Modern data show quite clearly that the climate is changing, and there is broad scientific consensus that human activities are responsible for much of the change that is happening right now,” says F. Zeb Page, associate professor of geology at 91ֱ��.</p> <p>“We know that over geologic time the Earth's climate has changed quite a bit without human help. To understand our part in the current climate-change predicament, we must establish a baseline of natural change. Professor Edwards’ work allows us to precisely determine the age of thinly layered limestone found in cave deposits back 700,000 years. These rocks serve as a detailed record of climate and can be tied to other climate-change drivers such as changes in the Earth's orbit.”</p> <p>Edwards will present three lectures at 91ֱ�� under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/arthur-l-day-prize.html" target="_blank">Arthur L. Day Prize Lecture Series</a>. The NAS awards the Day Prize every three years to “a scientist making lasting contributions to the study of the physics of the Earth and whose lectures will provide solid, timely, and useful additions to the knowledge and literature in the field.”</p> <p>Edwards’ says he chose 91ֱ��—rather than a large research university—as the site for his lectures because he “thought the topic of climate history would be of interest to undergraduates and appropriate for presentation at the undergraduate level.</p> <p>“There are several strong geology departments at small liberal arts colleges, including 91ֱ��’s department, and 91ֱ�� was among the schools I considered on the basis of the strength of its program. I also have family ties to 91ֱ��. My mother, who was born and raised in China, was the Dean of Students for the Chengdu campus of the 91ֱ��-in-China program at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949 and early 1950. My daughter attends 91ֱ�� now.”</p> <p>All lectures take place on 91ֱ��’s campus and are free and open to the public.</p> <p><em>Thursday, November 14</em><br> <strong>Deciphering Climate Change from Underground: The Timeline for Cave Climate Records</strong><br> 7:30 pm • Norman C. Craig Lecture Hall • Science Center<br> 119 Woodland Street, 91ֱ��, OH 44074</p> <p><em>Friday, November 15</em><br> <strong>Deciphering Climate Change from Underground: Stalagmites as Scribes of Climate History</strong><br> 12:15 pm • Severance Hall • Room 108<br> 120 West Lorain Street, 91ֱ��, OH 44074</p> <p><em>Thursday, November 21</em><br> <strong>Deciphering Climate Change from Underground: Monsoons, Ice Ages, and Abrupt Climate Change</strong><br> 7:30 pm • Nancy Schrom Dye Lecture Hall • Science Center<br> 119 Woodland Street, 91ֱ��, OH 44074</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Releases</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2013-11-11T12:00:00Z">Mon, 11/11/2013 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25366">Geosciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/geosciences" hreflang="und">Geosciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> </article> <article> <h1>Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium Receives Grant to Enhance Digital Library Collections</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:04:25 +0000</p> <span>Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium Receives Grant to Enhance Digital Library Collections</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:04:25-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:04">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:04</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc., a higher learning consortium consisting of 91ֱ�� College, Denison University, Kenyon College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and The College of Wooster, has been awarded a three-year $775,000 grant by <a href="http://www.mellon.org/">The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation</a> to strengthen the digital capabilities of their libraries and embed the use of digital scholarship practices into the liberal arts curriculum.</p> <p>The grant, titled “Digital Collections: from Projects to Pedagogy and Scholarship,” is a continuation of the three-year “Next Steps in the Next Generation Library” grant, which enabled librarians, faculty, and students to produce more than 50 digitization projects in a wide range of disciplines. Many are showcased in a public <a href="http://www.ohio5.org/portal/">portal</a>.</p> <p>Both faculty and students will be able to take advantage of the grant. Collaboratively developed by the Ohio Five libraries, the initiative focuses on creating digital resources to enhance faculty and student research, teaching, and learning using emerging aspects of media literacy, scholarly communication, information literacy, information management, and digital publishing. An additional priority of the grant is to make the scholarship of Ohio Five faculty and students more visible and accessible.</p> <p>With the grant, the Five Colleges consortium has hired a digital scholar, Jacob Heil, to work with faculty and develop projects. In this role, Heil will connect the right people with the right project, facilitate ideas, and build up the infrastructure of the digital collections. He will meet with library directors or liaisons from the Ohio Five schools to discuss projects—pre-existing or new—that could grow into Mellon grant projects. The calls for proposal will begin later this fall semester. </p> <p>In addition to hiring a digital scholar, the grant is based on several objectives: </p> <ul> <li> <p>To provide the libraries with resources to foster development of curriculum-driven digital collections in partnership with students and faculty while expanding the scope of the projects whenever possible to include digital scholarship practices; </p> </li> <li> <p>To mount additional efforts to capture and provide open access to student and faculty scholarship; </p> </li> <li> <p>To support continued professional staff development and collaboration within and across the Ohio Five library organizations to best address the needs of faculty researchers; </p> </li> <li> <p>To facilitate the creation of new collaborations with similar institutions, particularly those focused on the digital humanities, and broadly disseminate the products and processes developed under the grant.</p> </li> </ul> <p>“The initial Mellon grant significantly accelerated the Ohio Five libraries’ abilities to support digital initiatives and demonstrated the efficiencies realized when five outstanding colleges work together,” said Mark Christel, director of libraries at Wooster and project director for the consortium grant. “Under the new grant, we hope to become even more ambitious in the size and scope of the projects we undertake.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Releases</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2013-10-07T12:00:00Z">Mon, 10/07/2013 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> </article> </main></body></html>