Message from the Chair 

Greetings from Earth and Environmental Science!
It has been a tremendously productive year for our department. Here are just a few highlights from 2024:

• In summer, EES hosted the Earth Educator Rendezvous of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers at Temple University;
• Leah Wenhold Parente, CST ’17, who earned a bachelor’s in geology, was recognized as one of Temple University’s 30 Under 30 innovators and leaders for her work helping to secure clean drinking water in North Carolina;
• In partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and Department of Biology, EES launched, under the direction of Associate Professor Alexandra Davatzes, a new Professional Science Master’s and graduate certificate in sustainability
• EES students are now immersed in our new, innovative field camp coursework; and
• Faculty and students continue to explore the connection between food, energy and water; the impact of stormwater management in cities; the potential to improve food security with urban gardens; and the dynamics of our climate.

After helping lead the department since 2017, Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian stepped down from her role as vice chair to focus on teaching and research. Allison has been invaluable to the department’s success, tirelessly working to successfully navigate challenges and seize new opportunities. Associate Professor Atsuhiro Muto is the new vice chair, formally recognizing work he has been doing over the past few years to help the department succeed.

Temple connections, especially among EES alumni, are strong. Our annual holiday party is scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, December 6. Please join us in Beury Hall if you are able! If you can’t attend, please send me an update on your life and career. Let’s continue to keep alumni and students connected; if you become aware of jobs suitable for recent EES graduates, send me details so that we can help students launch their careers.

Thank you to those alumni who generously support our department, whether through donations that support activities, field camp or scholarships, or by connecting with students through the Owl to Owl Mentoring Program. Together, we are making a difference in the lives of our students and an impact in our local communities and the global environment.

Cheers,
Nick Davatzes

Rebecca Beadling receives NOAA grant to improve how climate models simulate the Southern Ocean

Assistant Professor Rebecca Beadling has been awarded a research grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Program Office. This grant will enable her team to advance understanding of how well climate models simulate large-scale ocean circulation patterns in the Southern Ocean, a crucial area for predicting future climate change.

“Dr. Beadling is leading an active and vibrant group of student researchers that use the comparison of climate models and observational data to understand the mechanisms that will determine the future of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic, with broad implications for global changes in climate,” said Nick Davatzes, EES Department chair.

Beadling’s research, to be incorporated into the work of NOAA’s Model Diagnostic Task Force (MDTF), will help develop software that improves climate model accuracy—specifically in how the Southern Ocean is represented. “The goal is to build software that helps identify causes for model errors so that future models can be improved,” explained Beadling. “My role will be to implement code for evaluating how well climate models represent the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the largest ocean current on our planet, which is found in the Southern Ocean.”

The Southern Ocean plays a crucial role in regulating the Earth’s climate. It is responsible for absorbing much of the heat and carbon dioxide produced by human activity, and it sits adjacent to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Changes in the ocean’s circulation patterns can significantly affect heat and carbon storage, as well as influence how much heat is delivered to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. These factors can, in turn, have major implications for sea-level rise and global temperature changes.

“The Southern Ocean is vital to understanding how the Earth is responding to climate change,” said Beadling. “If we can better model the ocean's circulation patterns, we’ll have a clearer picture of how heat and carbon are stored, and how these processes could affect the Antarctic Ice Sheet and, ultimately, global sea level.”

The graduate student involved in the project will play a key role in uncovering the causes behind biases in how climate models represent the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The student will evaluate the strength and structure of the ACC as simulated in roughly 30 different climate models, comparing these simulations with observational data to identify areas where the models diverge from reality. The student’s findings will be incorporated into the MDTF software to further refine future climate models.

Beadling’s previous work has shown that while climate models have improved in simulating the strength of the ACC over the last two decades, they still face challenges in accurately representing Southern Ocean circulation. “It’s still unclear whether the models are ‘right for the right reasons’ or just coincidentally correct,” she said. “Our work will break down the circulation patterns to determine whether current models are truly accurate, or if there are still improvements to be made.”

Better climate models will help scientists and policymakers gain greater confidence in future climate projections, which are essential for developing effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. As Beadling put it, “Accurate models allow us to have more confidence in future climate projections, which policymakers rely on for decision-making. If we can improve how we model the Southern Ocean, we’ll be able to better predict how ocean heat and carbon storage will evolve in a warming climate, which will ultimately shape how much warming we experience on land and in the atmosphere.”

Bojeong Kim earns funding from EPA and NSF

Associate Professor Bojeong Kim recently received funding from both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation. “Dr. Kim brings outstanding insights from geochemistry and toxicology to some of our most important environmental issues,” said Nick Davatzes, department chair.

The EPA-funded project—a necessary step to fulfill the potential urban gardens could offer local communities—will investigate the effects of irrigation water, compost and biosolid qualities on PFAS uptake by edible crops in urban gardens and farms. PFAS are a diverse set of environmentally persistent chemicals introduced into the environment whose adverse health impacts have recently been recognized. Now the challenge is to trace their persistence and route through the environment.

While urban agriculture is different from traditional farming regarding agricultural practices and available resources, there is limited information on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) uptake and bioaccumulation in crops grown under urban conditions and potential risk to the general population. The objective of this study is to examine the baseline of PFAS levels in typical supplies and resources for urban farming and gardening, and determine if potting mixes, compost, and/or biosolid serve as a source or sink of PFAS in edible crops.

At Temple Ambler and through partnerships in Philadelphia, Kim is examining how soil and plants interact with PFAS and may expose gardeners to these dangerous contaminants.

“Urban gardens hold great potential to bring communities together, make our cities more sustainable and climate resilient, and improve food security and nutrition,” explained Davatzes. “But they also pose potential hazards that need to be explored and understood.”

A collaboration with the Meadowlands Environment Center and community partners in the municipalities surrounding the Lower Hackensack Estuary in Northern New Jersey, the NSF-funded research will study the transformation of soil minerals in the Meadowlands, a brackish tidal wetland area, focusing on how estuarine water chemistry (salinity, pH, Eh) controls the rate and end-products of this process.

Rivers carry mineral particles eroded from inland soils and deposit them as sediments in estuarine wetlands on a large scale. Chemical reactions with the brackish water of the estuary cause these mineral particles to gradually transform. These mineralogical alterations affect the filtering of pollutants and the availability of nutrients and therefore have a great impact on estuarine ecosystems, but the underlying geochemical processes are poorly understood.

“At the interface between the land and sea, estuaries face complex challenges from pollution, changing climate and sea level rise,” explained Davatzes. “Dr. Kim and her students are delving into these dynamic systems.”

Geoscience student earns award for agrivoltaics design to help cities prepare for climate change

Caroline Merheb, a geoscience PhD student, won the 2024 student design competition at the AgriVoltaics World Conference, where participants develop concepts that address community sustainability challenges across the food-energy-water nexus. Merheb works with Sujith Ravi, associate professor, at the agrivoltaic test site at the Ambler Campus.

Agrivoltaics is agricultural production, such as crop or livestock production, underneath solar panels or adjacent to solar panels. Merheb’s design focused on three targets: help cities mitigate the effect of urban heat islands, help poor neighborhoods access fresh food produce and improve the aesthetics of artificial surfaces. The design integrated innovative approaches using vertical farming to enhance the cooling effect of panels from plants and hybrid modes of farming to satisfy the needs of urban farmers.

“The Ambler site represents one of the first pilot projects to investigate the success of combining urban agriculture with urban agrivoltaics design layouts in a temperate

climate,” explained Merheb. “If the system proves to be productive, urban agrivoltaics

has the potential to protect urban crops from extreme heat events, produce decentralized and sustainable energy, secure more diverse job opportunities, and generate more revenues.”

Rendezvous brings geoscience educators to Temple

The EES Department hosted the 2024 Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, attracting 250 participants from across the country. This year’s conference—the first held on the East Coast—included opportunities to explore new pedagogical tools, discuss challenges in the field such as recruiting enough geoscience students to meet the demand of jobs in the next decade, and learning more about Temple’s expertise and resources in geoscience and environmental education.

Alexandra Davatzes, associate professor, helped organize the conference, co-led a workshop on understanding the power of feedback loops with regards to environmental challenges and solutions, and co-hosted a field trip for attendees to the Temple Ambler Field Station.

“With the rendezvous on Main Campus, many of our own faculty and students were able to participate and further develop their own teaching practices,” explained Davatzes, who is also CST’s director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging. “By demonstrating the excellent facilities within CST and showing how we are at the forefront of geoscience education practice, I am hopeful that many of these faculty from around the US will encourage their students to come to graduate school at Temple.”

Using robots to explore melting ice sheets

Glaciologist Atsuhiro Muto is part of MOTHERSHIP, a $1.5-million project developing swarms of underwater robots to be sent around the coast of the Antarctic ice sheet to gather vital data.

Ice sheets store roughly two-thirds of the planet’s fresh water. Muto says the Antarctic ice sheet holds enough ice to raise the global sea level by nearly 200 feet if it all were to melt. “It is very unlikely to completely melt,” Muto said. “But if a small portion of the ice sheet melted, say, enough to raise sea level by a foot or two, it would inundate much of earth’s coastal areas and displace many millions of people.”

Muto says most of the current melting of the ice beneath Antarctica is caused by changes in ocean circulation that bring warmer waters to the ice sheet. “Those ocean circulation changes are caused by some human-induced warming in the upper ocean and in the atmosphere, but also by natural climate events such as El Niño,” Muto said.

The three-year, NSF-funded MOTHERSHIP project will help determine if marine robots operating in ocean waters underneath Antarctic ice shelves could answer questions about sea-level rise.

One question regards the shape and size of ice cavities underneath the ice shelves. Caused by ocean currents and rising water temperatures, these cavities are miles away from the open ocean and more than 1,000 meters deep, making them difficult to access.

“If successful,” says Muto of MOTHERSHIP, “it could enhance our understanding about what is occurring at this critical intersection between the ice sheet and ocean—and provide invaluable data to address global sea-level rise concerns.”

More from the department

Geology graduate is one of Temple’s 30 Under 30 for 2024
Leah Wenhold Parente, CST ’17, is a hydrogeologist in North Carolina who works to prevent contamination of groundwater and surface water from non-discharge systems, or wastewater treatment and disposal/refuse systems, including PFAS or “forever” chemicals. 
LEARN MORE

New innovative sustainability programs to help students tackle pressing global issues
With a Professional Science Master’s and a graduate certificate program, faculty in CST and CLA will prepare students for professional careers in sustainability
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Faculty hope to save PennDOT’s plants from deadly road salt
An interdisciplinary team of researchers is investigating the impact of road salt on the plants in bioretention basins along I-95. The project aims to optimize plant health and improve stormwater management.
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Can solar farms and crop farms coexist?
Sujith Ravi, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and ‘Paul’ Chong Seong Choi, CST ’24, were extensively featured in  ScienceNews about agrivoltaics, a growing research field with government investment.
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Do melting ice sheets spell doomsday? CST glaciologist weighs in. 
Images of a polar bear stranded on a dwindling piece of ice are engrained in our mind. But what effect will melting ice sheets truly have on humans and planet Earth? Associate Professor Atsuhiro Muto gives his perspective. 
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