To Cut Global Emissions, Replace Meat and Milk with Plant-Based Alternatives

Replacing 50% of meat and milk products with plant-based alternatives by 2050 can reduce agriculture and land use related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 31% and halt the degradation of forest and natural land, according to new research in Nature Communications journal.

Supporting evidence-based policymaking in The Gambia

A new IIASA policy brief outlines the recommendations, tools, and key findings of the FACE-Africa project, co-developed with Gambian food system stakeholders to help the country adapt to climate change and ensure sufficient healthy food for its people.

Diverse landscapes at the heart of bee conservation

New research from the University of Georgia revealed that mixed land use – such as developments interspersed with forest patches – improves bee diversity and is leading to new solutions for bee conservation. The researchers hypothesized that development would negatively affect bee diversity, but the results of the study were surprising. They found that small amounts of development actually had a positive impact on the number of bee species present in a given area.

Emissions tied to the international trade of agricultural goods are rising

Irvine, Calif., May 6, 2022 – Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have drawn the clearest line yet connecting consumers of agricultural produce in wealthier countries in Asia, Europe and North America with a growth in greenhouse gas emissions in less-developed nations, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.

Improving Georgia land conservation through algorithms

A team of University of Georgia researchers has created a model to help land developers and public officials identify the land that is best suited for conservation. Led by Fabio Jose Benez-Secanho, a former UGA graduate student, and Puneet Dwivedi, associate professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, this first-of-its-kind algorithm considers a variety of factors not included in other models when calculating the value of land for conservation.

Enhancing Land Surface Models to Grow Perennial Bioenergy Crops

To understand the effects of expanding biofuel production, scientists must accurately represent biofuel crops in land surface models. Using observations from biofuel plants in the Midwestern United States, researchers simulated two biofuel perennial plants, miscanthus and switchgrass. The simulations indicate these high-yield perennial crops have several advantages over traditional annual bioenergy crops—they assimilate more carbon dioxide, and they require fewer nutrients and less water.

National Outstanding Researcher of the Year 2021 (Philosophy) and His Research to Solve Social Inequality

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Apiwat Ratanawaraha, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University and National Outstanding Researcher of the Year 2021 (Philosophy) “Land use in Thailand has been a chronic problem and the cause of systemic social inequality and injustice. If we are unable to resolve this issue, it is difficult to reduce inequality and injustice in other areas.”

Land Development in New Jersey Continues to Slow

Land development in New Jersey has slowed dramatically since the 2008 Great Recession, but it’s unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to fight societal and housing inequality will affect future trends, according to a Rutgers co-authored report. Between 2012 and 2015, 10,392 acres in the Garden State became urban land. That’s 3,464 acres a year – far lower than the 16,852 acres per year in the late 1990s and continuing the trend of decreasing urban development that began in the 2008 Great Recession.

Native Americans did not make large-scale changes to environment prior to European contact

Contrary to long-held beliefs, humans did not make major changes to the landscape prior to European colonization, according to new research conducted in New England featuring faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York. These new insights into the past could help to inform how landscapes are managed in the future.