#EESpublishes: Aaron Davitt and Kyle McDonald on using Soil Moisture & Freeze-Thaw Data to predict Spring-Melt Flood Conditions

EES PhD student Aaron Davitt has first authored a paper with Prof McDonald as a coauthor in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing entitled: “The Utility of SMAP Soil Moisture and Freeze-Thaw Datasets as Precursors to Spring-Melt Flood Conditions: A Case Study in the Red River of the North Basin”   Abstract: We evaluated NASA soil moisture active–passive (SMAP) soil moisture (SM) and freeze-thaw (FT) datasets for the utility to identify FT and SM conditions as precursors to a 2017 spring-melt flood event in the Red River of the North Basin. SMAP FT and …

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Dr. Celeste Winston’s Disseratation Now Available on CUNY Academic Works: Marronage and Anti Police Struggles

“How to Lose the Hounds”: Tracing the Relevance of Marronage for Contemporary Anti-Police Struggles  by Celeste Winston. Advisor: Ruth Wilson Gilmore Committee Members: Katherine McKittrick, Marianna Pavlovskaya, and Robyn Spencer. Abstract: This dissertation analyzes the interconnected practices of flight from slavery and flight from policing. Focusing on Black communities within Montgomery County, Maryland, I provide evidence for how local legacies of enslavement and flight from slavery have empowered later generations of residents, including people still living there today, to practice safety and security on their own terms, beyond policing. I draw on archival and ethnographic research in seven Black communities …

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#EESpublishes: Profs Cheng, Groffman and Muth, Post Doc Deeb and Prithiviraj, and PhD student Paltseva on Green Infrastructure Design Influences Urban Soil Bacteria Communities

Another publication is forthcoming from our Urban Soils group headquartered at Brooklyn College; “Green Infrastructure Design Influences Urban Soil Bacteria Communities” is the new work by Joyner, Kerwin, Deeb, Lozefski, Paltseva, Prithiviraj, McLaughlin, Cheng, Groffman, and Muth. The importance of natural ecosystem processes is often overlooked in urban areas. Green Infrastructure (GI) features have been constructed in urban areas as elements to capture and treat excess urban runoff while providing a range of ancillary benefits, e.g., ecosystem processes mediated by microorganisms that improve air and water quality, in addition to the associations with plant and tree rhizospheres. The objective of …

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#EESPublishes: Profs. Norouzi and Khanbilvardi on A Global Analysis of Land Surface Temperature Diurnal Cycle Using MODIS Observations

Profs. Norouzi and Khanbilvardi  are coauthors on a new publication entitled ‘A Global Analysis of Land Surface Temperature Diurnal Cycle Using MODIS  Observations‘  published in American Meteorological Society Journal. Abstract: Diurnal variations of land surface temperature (LST) play vital role in a wide range of applications such as climate change assessment, land-atmosphere interactions, and heat-related health issues in urban regions. This study uses fifteen years (2003–2017) of daily observations of LST Collection 6 from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard the Aqua and the Terra satellites. A spline interpolation method is used to estimate half-hourly global LST from the …

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#EESPublishes: Prof. Peter Groffman on Roots Mediate the Effects of Snowpack Decline on Soil Bacteria, Fungi, and Nitrogen Cycling in a Northern Hardwood Forest

Check out this new article co-authored by Prof Groffman in Frontiers in Microbiology | Terrestrial Microbiology ! Roots Mediate the Effects of Snowpack Decline on Soil Bacteria, Fungi, and Nitrogen Cycling in a Northern Hardwood Forest, Abstract: Rising winter air temperature will reduce snow depth and duration over the next century in northern hardwood forests. Reductions in snow depth may affect soil bacteria and fungi directly, but also affect soil microbes indirectly through effects of snowpack loss on plant roots. We incubated root exclusion and root ingrowth cores across a winter climate-elevation gradient in a northern hardwood forest for 29 …

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Peter Groffman

#EESpublishes: Prof PeterGroffman on Contribution of non-native plants to the phylogenetic homogenization of U.S. yard floras

Contribution of non-native plants to the phylogenetic homogenization of U.S. yard floras Abstract. Cultivation and spread of non-native plant species may result in either phylogenetic homoge- nization (increasing similarity) or differentiation (decreasing similarity) of urban floras. However, it is unknown how non-native species influence homogenization of cultivated versus spontaneously occurring species in cities, and which traits are associated with species that promote homogenization versus differentia- tion. In this study, we compared homogenization effects of cultivated and spontaneous non-native species in yard floras across and within seven widely distributed U.S. cities. Additionally, we explored which traits explained their particular contribution to …

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New book edited by Prof Setha Low: The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and the City

Professor Setha Low has edited a new book entitled The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and the City. The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and the City provides a comprehensive study of current and future urban issues on a global and local scale. Premised on an ‘engaged’ approach to urban anthropology, the volume adopts a thematic approach that covers a wide range of modern urban issues, with a particular focus on those of high public interest. Topics covered include security, displacement, social justice, privatization, sustainability, and preservation. Offering valuable insight into how anthropologists investigate, make sense of, and then address a variety of urban …

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#EESpublishes: Proff Peter Groffman on Nitrogen oligotrophication in northern hardwood forests

Professor Peter Groffman of ASRC, Brooklyn College, and EES has first-authored a paper in Biogeochemistry entitled “ Nitrogen oligotrophication in northern hardwood forests”.   Abstract: While much research over the past 30 years has focused on the deleterious effects of excess N on forests and associated aquatic ecosystems, recent declines in atmospheric N deposition and unexplained declines in N export from these ecosystems have raised new concerns about N oligotrophication, limitations of forest productivity, and the capacity for forests to respond dynamically to disturbance and environmental change. Here we show multiple data streams from long-term ecological research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest …

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#EESPublishes: EES teams up with City agencies to find long term affordable solution to urban garden soil pollution

PhD student Sara Perl Egendorf and research Advisor Professor Zhongqi (Joshua) Cheng from the Brooklyn College Urban Soils Lab, the New York City Urban Soils Institute and the CUNY Graduate Center PhD Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences were lead authors of an article just published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, along with Dr. Peter Groffman from Brooklyn College and the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, PhD candidate Anna Paltseva, post-doctoral researcher Maha Deeb, undergraduate student Victor Flores, Dr. Daniel Walsh from the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, and Dr. Howard Mielke from Tulane University . Egendorf and Cheng were also co-authors of a related article just published in the Journal of Environmental …

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