Climate change and adaptation projects
Climate instability affects all living things, particularly in an extreme environment such as the desert Southwest. Challenges for urban dwellers in arid regions include long-term drought, crop failures, and the growing impacts of urban heat island effect. ASU's climate researchers currently address issues of how human activities and changing climate affect each other, policies and actions needed to ameliorate unfavorable climatic conditions, and strategies to ensure that human needs are met in conditions of uncertainty.
100 Cities Project: Sensing for Solutions – Bridging Cities and Science »
This project uses remote-sensing technology to detect patterns of urbanization and their environmental consequences in 100 cities across the globe.
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Acquisition of an Imaging Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer »
This award will acquire an imaging secondary ion mass spectrometer instrument to support an extended group of researchers working on diverse topics involving both soft (biological) and hard materials (minerals), and at the interface between the two (biosensors, antibiotic clays, nanoparticle toxicity).
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Assessing Decadal Climate Change Impacts on Urban Populations in the Southwestern USA »
In the cities of the southwestern United States, regional warming combined with increasing urban populations and the resulting urban heat effect are straining limited supplies of electricity and water. Cities can be designed that are more resilient, minimizing human impacts and energy and water stresses, under scenarios of decadal warming trends. The project is to modify existing models to transform the design of urban neighborhoods to be be quantifiably more adaptive and resilient to all types of decadal climate change.
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Atmospheric Processing of Iron — Does Particle Size Influence Iron Stability? »
This project will examine the influence of particle size on atmospheric reactions of iron and, in turn, the influence of particle size on iron solubility.
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Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) »
Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa.
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Climate and Population Change and Thresholds of Peak Ecological Water: Integrated Synthesis for Dryland Rivers »
This project seeks to understand how ecosystem services change in response to extraction or addition of water to ecosystems due to population change and climate change.
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Cloud and Fog Processing of Organic Matter »
This project investigates the fate of organic matter in a cloud/fog system.
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Combining Methods from Geochemistry and Molecular Biology to Predict the Functions of Microbial Communities »
Combining geochemical data with microbial ecological data makes it possible to predict the distribution of microbial populations and the processes that they catalyze in nature. In this research we will focus on the contrasting microbial processes of methane production (e.g., methanogenesis) and methane consumption (e.g., methanotrophy) as a framework for evaluating the linkages between geochemical predictions and the distribution, diversity, and activity of organisms that catalyze these processes.
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Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) »
The Decision Center for a Desert City conducts climate, water, and decision research and develops innovative tools to bridge the boundary between scientists and decision makers and put their work into the hands of those whose concern is for the sustainable future of Greater Phoenix.
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Decision Theater (DT) »
The Decision Theater is an immersive, interactive, 3D-visualization facility for collaborative decision making.
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Determining the Optical Properties of Carbonaceous Nanoparticles in Atmospheric Aerosols by Electron Imaging and Monochromated Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy »
This proposal involves the development of techniques to measure the physical properties of poorly characterized environmental nanomaterials that have important consequences for both climate change and human health.
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Do Microenvironments Govern Macroecology? »
This project couples field studies of local climate, tree establishment and tree growth with regional climate modeling and models that depict spatial processes of plant population and fire dynamics.
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Effective Adaptation Strategies and Risk Reduction towards Economic and Climatic Shocks: Lessons from the Coffee Crisis in Mesoamerica »
There is a growing concern over climatic variability and price volatility in global markets for cash crops produced in developing countries. One of the cutting edge questions in global change research deals with how to reduce risks and increase adaptation capacity of vulnerable farmers in impoverished areas.
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Energize Phoenix »
Energize Phoenix will transform the neighborhoods and commercial districts along a 10-mile stretch of the Phoenix METRO Light Rail line into a Green Rail Corridor that will become a model of energy efficiency and sustainability.
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Environmental Fluid Dynamics, Center for (EFD) »
EFD is a multi-disciplinary research program dedicated to understanding fluid motions in the environment through atmospheric research, industrial and basic fluid dynamics, and physical oceanography. The Center brings together faculty, staff and students to enhance interdisciplinary and individual research efforts, undergraduate and graduate education and service to industry and the state.
Examining the Evolution of Biospheric Oxygenation in Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic Oceans Through High-Resolution Trace Metal Chemostratigraphy »
The project proposes to obtain high-resolution trace metal geochemical profiles from organic-rich sedimentary rocks to examine the evolution of climate and biospheric oxygenation in the Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic.
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Experimental and Computational Studies on CO2 Photoreduction to Fuels by Nanostructured Catalysts »
The overall objective of the proposed research is to use solar radiation to photocatalytically reduce CO2 to fuels (CO, methane, methanol, and other hydrocarbons) at high conversion efficiency through manipulation of catalyst composition and nanostructure.
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Follow the Elements »
The Astrobiology Team at Arizona State University "follows the elements" to help guide the exploration for life beyond Earth, in our Solar System and on planets orbiting other stars.
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Landscape Sensitivity to Changing Climate: Plio-Pleistocene Erosion and Sedimentation in SE Arizona »
This project will establish an absolute timeline for the final stages of when basins in southeastern Arizona were filled with sediments, as well as when the basins were subsequently incised and dissected by regional erosional events.
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Long-Term Dynamics and Resilience of Terrestrial Plant and Animal Communities in the Bahamas »
This project will provide a basis for predicting the responses of Bahamian and other island ecosystems to climatic and human-related perturbations. In particular, the assessment and management of worldwide biodiversity loss depend on an improved understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems at local and regional geographical scales as well as short and long time frames.
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Managing Biodiversity under Climate Change: Enhancing Capacities in Mexico for Conservation Planning, Decision-making and Sustainability Assessment »
The School of Sustainability at the Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México are developing a sustainable academic program to create competency and expertise for policy and planning in the area of biodiversity conservation and climate change.
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Mathematics and Climate Change Network »
The investigators form a "Mathematics and Climate Research Network." This is a framework for an intensive effort aimed at bringing to bear the full power of modern applied mathematics and statistics on the prediction and understanding of the Earth's climate.
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Multi-scale Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Hydrologic Regimes, Ecosystem Function, and Community Structure in a Desert Stream and Its Catchment »
The primary objective of this project is to understand how long-term climate variability and change influence the structure and function of desert streams via effects on short-term responses to hydrologic disturbance.
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Multiscale Modeling of Urban Atmospheres in a Changing Climate »
This project will develop models to simulate the urban atmosphere and its interaction with ambient climate and atmospheric circulation occurring on spatial scales which are much larger than cities.
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Ocean Redox Evolution at the Dawn of Animal Life: An Integrated Geological and Geochemical Study of the Ediacaran Yangtze Platform in South China »
The ultimate goal of the research is to integrate paleontological and geochemical data to test the coupling between redox conditions and spatial/temporal patterns of Ediacaran organisms. Anticipated data would provide important information for our understanding of the environmental forces related to a significant biological innovation in Earth history.
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Phoenix Area Social Survey (PASS) »
This survey studies the relationships between people and the natural environment in the Phoenix metro area.
Plankton Community Composition and Trophic Interactions as Modifiers of Carbon Export in the Sargasso Sea »
The research objectives of this study are: 1) to characterize (qualitatively and quantitatively) trophic interactions between major plankton groups in the euphotic zone and rates of, and contributors to, carbon export and 2) to develop a constrained food web model, based on these data, that will allow us to better understand current and predict near-future patterns in export production in the Sargasso Sea.
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Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Processing by a Fog Cloud - Field and Laboratory Studies »
This project addresses questions regarding the chemical processing in fog of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), some of which are known to be toxic.
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Post-6 Ma Tectonic Evolution of the Bhutan Himalaya »
Atypical high-elevation, but low-relief landscapes are perched above and surrounded by deeply incised canyons in the middle latitudes of Bhutan. This study explores the proposition that these landforms represent a pulse of erosion that is sweeping through Bhutan and progressively changing the relief.
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Precipitation Controls of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles in Arid-Semiarid Ecosystems »
This project puts forward four hypotheses to explain observed lags in ecosystem response to changing precipitation, and tests them by altering patterns of total precipitation and precipitation variability, with and without nitrogen manipulation. These manipulations, together with the model analysis, will help determine the cause and magnitude of lags in the ecosystem response to precipitation.
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Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Collaboration between NABO and LTVTP »
This research will address the impacts of social responses to climate change, an issue central to contemporary policy and relevant to public and private organizations, policy makers, and resource managers interested in promoting resilience to climate change.
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RIDGE: Tipping Points in the Evolution of Submarine Hydrothermal Systems: Habitat Generation, Organic Transformation, and Rock Alteration »
Goals of the project are to use thermodynamic constraints and calculations to predict the supply of chemical energy to microbial communities that inhabit seafloor hydrothermal vents. It will also focus on adding estimates of hundreds of additional organic compounds to thermodynamic databases to allow more complete and realistic calculations of organic transformations and the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds.
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Risk Perception, Institutions, and Water Conservation: Enhancing Agricultural Adaption to Future Water Scarcity in Central Arizona »
The objective of this project is to help farmers maximize opportunities to enhance their flexibility in face of climatic stress while also investing in the resilience of the broader social-ecological system on which farmers depend.
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Robust Theoretical Frameworks for Ecological Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints »
The investigators will extend and generalize existing well-received stoichiometry-based mathematical models to encompass a broader range of ecological situations, including cell quota dynamics, consumer age- or size-structures, variable consumer stoichiometry, and delayed nutrient cycling. Once such a generalized theoretical framework is established, the investigators will construct and evaluate models inspired by recent empirical discoveries in ES, including one considering the effects on consumer dynamics of not only insufficient food nutrient content but also of excess food nutrient content, and another considering the effects of stoichiometric dietary mixing.
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Sinking Rates and Nutritional Quality of Organic Matter Exported from Sea Ice; the Importance of Exopolymeric Substances »
The knowledge resulting from this study will contribute to our understanding of the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle and how it may be modified in response to climate variability.
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Source Apportionment of Iron in the Marine Atmosphere -- Application of Stable Iron Isotopic Measurements »
his project, a collaboration between investigators at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, will explore the use of Fe isotopes as a tracer of natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols to assess their importance as a source of Fe to the open ocean.
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Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet) »
SEINet is a center of biodiversity information, organizing Southwestern natural-history collections into one portal.
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Spatial Refueling Patterns of Drivers of Alternative-Fuel and Conventional Vehicles »
This research project will survey drivers about their refueling patterns and behaviors to better understand the assumptions underlying the deployment of new stations for alternative-fuel vehicles.
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Sustainable Water Resources for Communities under Climate Change: Can State-of-the-Art Forecasting Inform Decision-Making in Data Sparse Regions? »
This project will study decision-making for water resources management in anticipation of climate change in northern Mexico as a case study for the broader arid and semiarid southwestern North America. The goal of the project is to determine whether water resources systems modeling, developed within a participatory framework, can contribute to the building of management strategies in a context of water scarcity, conflicting water uses and highly variable and changing climate conditions.
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The Relative Importance of Generic vs. Specific Capacity in Addressing Drought Vulnerability in NE Brazil »
This research examines how the vulnerability of rainfed farm households to drought has changed through time as a function of both specific and generic government-led interventions. The research also explores how these two categories of interventions are related, both in terms of their relative importance in defining overall adaptive capacity, and in terms of how they may create synergies or be mutually conditioning.
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Transformation and Transport of Organic Carbon in the Colorado River-Reservoir System »
This project will assess the distribution, composition and reactivity of terrestrial and riverine carbon along a sequence of well-characterized reservoirs in a single watershed.
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Urban Form and Energy Use Explored Through Dynamic Networked Infrastructure Model »
Engineering and design of urban form is an important strategy for managing climate change and other environmental impacts of energy, as well as being key to the livability of cities. This project aims to clarify connections between urban form and use and energy use in the built environment and transport.
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Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) »
This collaborative project is building greater knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional interactions between global environmental change and cities, present at local, regional, and global scales, and integrating the work of decision makers, practitioners, and academic researchers.
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When Strengths Can Become Weaknesses: Emerging Vulnerabilities in Coupled Natural Human Systems under Globalization and Climate Change »
Long-lived coupled natural human systems (CNHs) are often distinguished by how they have evolved the right fit between their biophysical and social sub-systems. Researchers have characterized this fit in terms of the close feedbacks that enable a system to function well when faced with a known set of disturbance regimes. This project addresses a key question that naturally arises when these systems are exposed to a new set of disturbance regimes or novel change as is likely to occur with increased globalization and climate change: to what extent do the interdependencies that developed to strengthen the system's capacity to fit to a certain set of disturbances limit or enhance its capacity to refit to new conditions?
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