skip to content
Home

Conservation Research Institute

 

Feed aggregator Subscribe to Conservation Research Institute aggregator

Tue 21 May 15:00: Epistemic Exclusion in Climate Science: Why We Grow the Wrong Trees in the Wrong Places Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88161587298?pwd=U0I2ejRHTXROQmhiNHo2OTF6NE1kZz09

Conservation at Cambridge - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 20:42
Epistemic Exclusion in Climate Science: Why We Grow the Wrong Trees in the Wrong Places

Why do we grow the wrong trees in the wrong places? This paper investigates this through the REDD + initiatives under the UNFCCC that advocated for planting trees in developing countries to cool down our global temperature. The intuition behind this initiative, that growing trees in the tropics are good for fighting climate change, was naturalized by mainstream climate science in the Global North. Yet, as biologists point out, trees especially in the tropics emit gases known as BVO Cs that can further exacerbate global warming. In other words, planting an enormous number of inappropriate species of trees in the tropics can even hurt rather than help the earth. This is surprising: why, given the espoused scientific commitment to pluralism as well as the interdisciplinary and global nature of climate change, are some scientific perspectives, especially biologists from the Global South, not well integrated into mainstream climate science? I show that rendering the climate as a singular legible entity from a god’s eye view also erects structural barriers to more heterogenous scientific studies of local ecologies from being integrated. Moreover, because models of the climate are based on environmental assumptions and tools of the Global North, they struggle to incorporate knowledge where these assumptions do not hold – especially in the Global South, where trees are more likely to emit gases that can exacerbate climate change – leading to international policies that ironically harms, rather than helps, the planet. I illustrate these challenges to integrating knowledge on BVO Cs into mainstream climate models based on 48 interviews with climate scientists in both the Global North and Global South, as well as fieldwork based in climate science labs in the U.S. and Thailand.

——————————————————————————————

Topic: CAS Seminar: Jittip Mongkolnchaiarunya Time: May 21, 2024 03:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88161587298?pwd=U0I2ejRHTXROQmhiNHo2OTF6NE1kZz09

Meeting ID: 881 6158 7298 Passcode: 174484

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88161587298?pwd=U0I2ejRHTXROQmhiNHo2OTF6NE1kZz09

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Why diversity in nature could be the key to mental wellbeing

Biodiversity News - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 15:51
Protect wildlife to promote better mental health. Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health, King's College London Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Fri 17 May 14:00: PhD students' talks

Conservation at Cambridge - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 09:19
PhD students' talks

Shi-Wei Jian

Theo Lewy

Balazs Nemeth

John Severn

Anand Srinivasan

Jago Strong-Wright

Marco Vona

Airat Kamaletdinov

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

We found pesticides in a third of Australian frogs we tested. Did these cause mass deaths?

Biodiversity News - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 00:39
Among the poisons found in 36% of the frogs tested, rodenticide was detected for the first time. Pesticides are considered a threat to hundreds of amphibian species. Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Damian Lettoof, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Wildlife Ecotoxicology, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

It’s time to strike an environmental grand bargain between businesses, governments and conservationists – and stop doing things the hard way

Biodiversity News - Mon, 29/04/2024 - 21:04
It shouldn’t take sustained public outrage to stop environmentally destructive projects. Nature positive offers us a way forward. Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Fri 31 May 16:00: Enhancing confidence in volcanic ash forecasts

Conservation at Cambridge - Mon, 29/04/2024 - 11:24
Enhancing confidence in volcanic ash forecasts

Forecasting the dispersion of volcanic ash with precision presents a formidable challenge, especially in remote volcanic locations where uncertainties regarding ash emission timing, quantity, and vertical distribution are considerable. This seminar introduces methodologies aimed at quantifying these uncertainties more effectively. By utilising ensemble forecasting techniques that address various sources of uncertainty, forecasts often exhibit low confidence levels, complicating decision-making processes. To enhance forecast reliability, I will demonstrate a method which integrates ensemble volcanic ash predictions with satellite data through data assimilation methods, thereby refining emission estimates and improving forecast confidence. Application of a risk-based approach to these refined simulations enables effective mitigation of high-risk areas, reducing disruptions to aviation operations. These findings provide insights to enable the transition to probabilistic volcanic ash forecasting.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Mon 29 Apr 12:30: Large-scale flow structures in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection: Dynamical origin, formation, and role in material transport

Conservation at Cambridge - Fri, 26/04/2024 - 15:51
Large-scale flow structures in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection: Dynamical origin, formation, and role in material transport

The interplay of gravity with mass density inhomogeneities introduces natural (thermal) convection and represents the essential mechanism by which heat is transported in natural flows. Simultaneously, natural flows are often far more extended in the horizontal direction than in the vertical one. Motivated by these two observations and the various geo- and astrophysical applications (e.g. the solar convection zone), 3-dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard convection as the paradigm of thermal convection has been studied. This talk will cover some recent results from studying the impact of thermal (and mechanical) boundary conditions on large-scale flow structures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection by means of direct numerical simulations. It will be shown that thermal boundary conditions are crucial to the formation of long-living large-scale (turbulent) flow structures. In particular, a slow transient aggregation process — that only stops once the horizontal extent of the domain is reached — can be found once the fluid layer is subjected to Neumann-type constant heat flux boundary conditions. As a result, the temperature field in the domain is separated into one extended hot and another extended cold region. We trace this mechanism of self-organisation of flow structures back to secondary instabilities as well as an inverse cascade in spectral space. The talk will finish with a brief overview of our work on the identification of those large-scale flow structures by the use of unsupervised machine learning based on Lagrangian particle data.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Nature conservation works, and we’re getting better at it – new study

Biodiversity News - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 20:00
Two-thirds of conservation actions studied were found to benefit target ecosystems and species. Joseph William Bull, Associate Professor in Climate Change Biology, University of Oxford Jake E. Bicknell, Senior Lecturer in Biodiversity Conservation, University of Kent Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Tue 07 May 11:30: The role of methane for chemistry-climate interactions: rapid radiative adjustments and climate feedbacks Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89826306833?pwd=cnNHSG9OWHRjVngzMGVMc2F0NnA4dz09

Conservation at Cambridge - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 15:24
The role of methane for chemistry-climate interactions: rapid radiative adjustments and climate feedbacks

Methane (CH4), the second most important greenhouse gas directly emitted by human activity, is removed from the atmosphere via chemical degradation. The chemical sink of CH4 is influenced by temperature and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. It is further an important source of water vapour in the stratosphere and affects the ozone concentration in the troposphere and the stratosphere via secondary feedbacks.

The talk will focus on the role of these chemistry-climate interactions in numerical simulations with the chemistry-climate model EMAC perturbed by either CO2 or CH4 increase. For both forcing agents, CO2 and CH4 , so called rapid radiative adjustments are assessed in simulations with prescribed sea surface temperatures, as well as climate feedbacks in respective simulations using an interactive oceanic mixed layer.

The simulation set-up uses CH4 emission fluxes instead of prescribed CH4 concentrations at the lower boundary so that changes of the chemical sink can feed back on the atmospheric CH4 concentration without constraints.

The results show a shortening of the CH4 lifetime and, accordingly, a reduction of the CH4 mixing ratios in a warming and moistening troposphere. This decrease in CH4 also affects the response of tropospheric ozone.

Furthermore, recently an additional radiation scheme was implemented into the EMAC model, which represents the direct radiative effect of CH4 better and also accounts for the absorption by CH4 in the solar shortwave spectrum. With the new radiation scheme the effective radiative forcing for the same perturbation of CH4 emissions is larger, and individual rapid radiative adjustments, e.g. of clouds, are changed.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89826306833?pwd=cnNHSG9OWHRjVngzMGVMc2F0NnA4dz09

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation-related talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:19
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation Talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:19
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation at Cambridge - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:19
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 22 May 13:00: Title to be confirmed

Conservation-related talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:14
Title to be confirmed

Abstract not available

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 22 May 13:00: Title to be confirmed

Conservation Talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:14
Title to be confirmed

Abstract not available

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 22 May 13:00: Title to be confirmed

Conservation at Cambridge - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 15:14
Title to be confirmed

Abstract not available

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation-related talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 13:00
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation Talks - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 13:00
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Wed 01 May 14:00: Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

Conservation at Cambridge - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 13:00
Ocean, ice, and the spherical cow

“Consider a spherical cow in the vacuum…” – that’s how most physics problems start. A very simplified version of the real world that we can wrap our heads around and find answers using pencil and paper. Numerical models that simulate the components of the climate system are no different: we start simple and build it up as scientific knowledge of the system advances and technology allows us to explore smaller-scale processes. My research focuses on understanding ice-ocean interactions, focusing on the behaviour of icebergs and their impacts in the polar oceans, using said models. Join me as I explain my journey towards drawing a cow that looks less like a balloon and more like a quadruped.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Fri 17 May 14:00: PhD students' talks

Conservation at Cambridge - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 12:19
PhD students' talks

Abstract not available

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Fri 24 May 16:00: Biomedical Fluid Mechanics: applications in urology and regenerative medicine

Conservation at Cambridge - Wed, 24/04/2024 - 10:14
Biomedical Fluid Mechanics: applications in urology and regenerative medicine

In this talk, I will discuss two applications of biomedical fluid mechanics in urology and regenerative medicine, and present new theoretical models developed alongside complementary experimental approaches. Throughout the talk, I will highlight how the derivation and exploitation of reduced models that retain the essential physics, while remaining tractable, can provide mechanistic insights into these biomedical fluid flows, and discuss how the resulting insights can be exploited to drive new healthcare innovations. The first application will show how a detailed understanding of the fluid mechanics associated with medical devices used to treat kidney stones can be exploited to guide innovations in device operation and design with enhanced mass transport properties. The second application in regenerative medicine considers the complex interplay of cells, biomaterials, and bioreactors and microfluidic systems required for tissue growth, repair and regeneration. I will show how insights into the wealth of fluid mechanics challenges encountered in regenerative medicine, including fluid-structure interactions, reactive multiphase flows, and advective transport, can guide the development of new regenerative medicine therapies and protocols.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Contact us

The David Attenborough Building
Pembroke Street
Cambridge
CB2 3QZ

Contact: admin@conservation.cam.ac.uk

Site Privacy & Cookie Policies

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge