Category: Environment/Sustainability Page 1 of 16

Forests and farmland meet in the SAVA region of northern Madagascar. New research suggests that wildlife-human interactions in such areas could spread disease. Credit: James Herrera, Duke Lemur Center

COVID-19 continues to plague us, Mpox is an emerging global threat, and the avian flu is decimating industrial poultry as well as endangered wildlife. What do all these epidemics have in common? They originated in wild animals and spread to domestic animals and people.

This pattern of spread is a trademark of many diseases, termed zoonoses or zoonotic diseases. Our new research shows that in rural settings of Madagascar where forested landscapes were converted to agriculture and settlements, the potential transmission of a deadly virus, Hantavirus, is likely facilitated by invasive rodents, especially the black rat. Also responsible for cyclically occurring plague events in Madagascar, the black rats could be transmitting multiple diseases to people in rural communities, based on our studies.

The work was published April 7 in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

*People can get Hantavirus from the droppings or urine of rodents like rats and mice*. *Credit: Wikimedia Commons*

Hantavirus is mainly spread from rodents to people via exposure to their urine and feces in the environment, and being bitten. It can cause severe and deadly disease of the lungs and kidneys, resulting in fever, fatigue, aches and pains, followed later by coughing, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs, causing death in almost 40% of people who experience later-stage symptoms. In rural settings like in Madagascar, there are no tests available to diagnose Hantavirus, and the generalized symptoms are often confused for influenza or other diseases. With no specific treatment, either, Hantavirus is an important, though neglected, zoonotic pathogen.

This research, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation, as well as Duke University, connects scientists from around the world with diverse specialties, including field biology, infectious disease epidemiology, social sciences, veterinary health, and more. Over the last eight years, our international and interdisciplinary team studied zoonotic pathogens in wildlife, domestic animals, and people. We compare how pathogens vary among different animals and in different landscapes.

*Herrera and Malagasy student Tamby Ranaivoson check local mammals for pathogens.*

There are more than 29 species of small mammals and another 12 species of bats in these wildlife communities, including native rodents and animals that look like hedgehogs and shrews but are a unique group from Madagascar, the tenrecs. There are also ubiquitous introduced mammals, including black rats, the house mouse, and the shrew, which have spread around the world wherever almost everywhere people go. We studied natural, pristine rainforests and compared to different features of the agroecosystem including regenerating forests, agroforests, and rice fields. We captured rodents and shrews in people’s households, as well, to compare how small mammals and zoonotic pathogens change over this gradient of human land use.

Our results show that black rats were the only species in our system that were infected with Hantavirus, with 10% of sampled individuals infected. Rat abundance and infection were higher in agricultural settings, including rice fields and agroforests, where rats were larger. While some rats in people’s homes were infected, no infected individuals were found in the more mature forests. Hantavirus infection was lower in the homes than in the agricultural fields, but exposure to infected rats is likely higher in homes because of the close contact in enclosed settings. The results highlight how infectious disease risk varies across the landscape because of complex impacts of human land use on natural ecosystems.

The Hantavirus results closely mirror those our team have shown for other disease-causing emerging pathogens, including Astroviruses and Leptospira. Rats and the house mouse were the most commonly infected species, and in the case of Astrovirus, only a single individual of a native species was infected. While Astrovirus infection was more common in the regenerating scrubby environments, Leptospira infection was most common in seasonally flooded rice fields. These varying landscapes of disease risk have important implications for the emergence of zoonotic diseases as well as applications to policy for public health.

Preserving natural forest and facilitating the regeneration of transformed forests may decrease disease risk because infected individuals were rarely captured in natural forests. This may be because there are natural predators to keep rodent populations in check, though further research is needed. Calls to eradicate black rat populations have seldom been successful, but through nature-based solutions like restoration to encourage natural predators, it may be possible to decrease abundance of nuisance rodents. Awareness-raising campaigns to teach about the signs and symptoms of common rodent-borne diseases for rural communities will also be rolled out, and encouraging local health care workers to check for these symptoms in the community members they serve.

We share our results with the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and will be organizing more think-tank meetings with relevant actors to co-design intervention strategies that can address these potentially emerging threats to human well-being.

By James Herrera, Ph.D., Duke Lemur Center SAVA Conservation Initiative

Meet the Scientists Conserving Sharks & Sea Turtles in Latin America

By Crystal Han

On April 8, 2025

In Animals, Biology, Climate/Global Change, Data, Environment/Sustainability, Field Research

I had just spent the weekend at the Duke Marine Lab, listening to my classmates discuss solutions to the shrinking population of a critically endangered porpoise species. So when I attended the March 25 Oceans Week panel immediately after, marine megafauna were already at the forefront of my mind.

Organized by Duke’s Working Group for the Environment in Latin America, the panel brought together several experts, comparing and contrasting their challenges across countries and species.

*Image from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0*

The open and interconnected nature of the ocean already presents unique conservation issues compared to terrestrial ecosystems, but it’s even more difficult to work on policies for marine megafauna that regularly traverse oceans. Countries establishing coastal estuaries or coral reefs as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can be effective for inhabitants like reef sharks that have limited ranges. However, protecting highly migratory animals like whale sharks and blue whales often requires international agreements and collaboration between countries.

To better protect these species, Dr. César Peñaherrera launched the nonprofit MigraMar, which researches them through extensive tagging in the Eastern Pacific and partners with a large network to share and aggregate data. They’ve tagged 642 hammerhead sharks so far, according to their website, and this is just one of the migratory species they work with. Peñaherrera, whose background is in quantitative marine science, spends much of his time when he isn’t in the field making sense of the vast sets of data points. One of MigraMar’s main goals is to provide evidence for greater connectivity between Marine Protected Areas. Think wildlife corridors, but underwater. By mapping out the most predictable migration routes for marine megafauna, they can inform the best routes for these “Swimways.”

*Peñaherrera shared an image of a diver approaching hammerhead sharks with a pole spear, which helps them attach an acoustic tag to a shark.*

Conserving sea turtles is a little different than other species–they face different threats throughout life as they go from land to sea and back to land to lay eggs. Carlos Diez, who researches turtles extensively at the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, outlined four “unresolved” main threats within terrestrial ecosystems: coastal development, light pollution, exotic species, and conflicts over habitat use.

Climate change also poses a potential threat, since sex determination in sea turtles is dependent on temperatures. As many parts of their range warm, the sex ratio of turtles in some locations has leaned increasingly female. That’s one area that Diez has conducted research in: determining when, where, and how much the balance of turtle sexes is changing.

While collecting accurate data on wildlife is necessary, the complexity of marine conservation hinges as much on the behavior of people as it does wildlife.

Perhaps that’s why shark researcher, science communicator and Puerto Rican native Melissa Cristina Márquez said one of her focuses is on the “human dimensions of shark conservation.”

Deep connection to the inhabitants of the oceans leads to more active conservation. Indigenous cultures, for example, have fished sustainably for ages. Márquez, who is currently based in Australia, said, “We’ve seen that a lot in Fiji, in Papua, New Guinea, with sharks and their cultural connection to sharks, and how that kind of spurred forward a bit more protection of those animals.”

“The cultural, historic and political contexts in conservation… these factors really shape the value placed on marine biodiversity, the policies that are developed and the resources that are allocated for conservation efforts,” she said.

As a fisheries officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Carlos Fuentevilla has a more specific focus when it comes to the human dimension: reconciling sustainable management with the need to feed people.

“We currently now eat around 20.7 kilograms per capita per day of food,” said Fuentevilla, pointing out that the world would have to ramp up production if this rate is to remain the same at 2050. “So it’s not a question of we have to eat less… It’s a question that we have to produce more–how can we do it sustainably?”

Much of it will have to come down to how we manage our fisheries. While most fish aren’t technically megafauna, Fuentevilla pointed out that marine megafauna regularly interact with, and are affected by, our fishing activities.

Fishery scientists will tell you they don’t manage fish, they manage people.

Scientists like Fuentevilla and those in government use ecosystem based management, which considers the species in an area as well as the stakeholders and competing interests that affect them, including fishermen and coastal developers. “You know, fishery scientists will tell you they don’t manage fish, they manage people, and that’s right,” Fuentevilla said.

The overarching theme is that the ocean is an open system, and nothing in marine conservation occurs in a vacuum. Fulfilling this work means having to go beyond national policy to international frameworks and understanding the other key players in sea and on land.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

So Much More Than Growing Plants: Gardening as a Practice of Reclamation, Identity and Legacy

By Gabrielle Douglas

On April 7, 2025

In Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, History

“The Garden is a healer… that’s just a fact.”

“When people come into my garden they see me.”

“The people in charge are not the ones that look like us.”

These were just a few of the powerful truths shared during the African American Legacy in Gardening and Horticulture Symposium on Saturday, March 29. In a space filled with stories, resistance and regeneration, I witnessed how gardening is much more than cultivation– it’s reclamation, identity and legacy.

Organized by the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, Durham County Library, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, and other community partners, the symposium brought together community members, horticulturalists, scholars, leaders and activists to exchange knowledge and experience. The day featured three rich sessions, each exploring different aspects of African American connections to land history and healing.

The Wisdom of Trees: Urban Forestry and Black Land Ownership in the Subaltern South

The first session explored the deeply rooted issues of Black land ownership, forestry, and land expression in the South. Moderated by Darrell Stover of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University, the panel featured a series of powerful and passionate leaders and practitioners: Alton Perry, Director of the Roanoke Cooperative’s Sustaining Forestry and Land retention Project; Tyrone Williams, a third-generation landowner and nationally recognized tree farmer; and Michael Gibson, an internationally recognized topiary and property artist.

Gibson kicked off the discussion by reflecting on his personal relationship with nature. Beginning with simple yard work at just seven years old, he described how “what [he] thought was just a chore turned into a passion.” His words echoed a common theme among the panelists– many found healing and direction through their connection to forestry and the land.

Perry soon turned the conversation in a structural direction, detailing what it was like to be among the mere 4% of men in forestry who are African American. He explained how it was this disparity that motivated his work to support other Black landowners in managing their forest land and to “give them the empowerment to know their land matters.”

Williams shared similar sentiments as he described his journey towards making a name for himself within the field. He spoke of the significance of being part of the African American Tree Farm System and the importance of awareness within the community. “Everyone deserves to have beautiful stands of trees on their property,” he said, underscoring the need for both visibility and access in environmental spaces.

(From L to R: Darrell Stover, Michael Gibson, Tyrone Williams, and Alton Perry)

Black Roots in Gardening and Horticulture

The second session shifted from land to legacy, highlighting the power of storytelling, passion, and tradition in gardening and horticulture. In this conversation, gardens went beyond physical spaces and served as personal and cultural archives.

This session was moderated by Grammy Award-winning vocalist and founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative, Justin Robinson. The session brought together a group of incredibly talented and dynamic voices including: Wambui Ippolito, founding principal of Wambui designs; Derek Haynes, affectionately known as the “Chocolate Botanist,” a botanist with a vibrant social media presence; and Teri Speight, the author of the “Urban Garden” and “Black Flora.”

The conversation was heavily centered on African American influences in gardening and horticulture. Speight began the conversation, detailing her initial inspiration for gardening. She explained how the hydrangea served as a manifestation of a love for nature and work in the gardens, instilled by her parents. She further explained how the “bloom is endless,” amplifying the ways in which gardening spans across generations.

Following this, the conversation shifted into the inspirations held in gardening. Ippolito said what inspires her is “anything unspoiled by human hands.” She went on to explain how we often forget the ways that we are innately wired to perceive and appreciate natural landscapes—something she believes we must consciously reconnect with.

Haynes shared a key lesson that gardening has taught him: patience. He acknowledged how failure sometimes is inevitable, but clarified that patience allows him to recognize that his efforts “weren’t in vain.” Instead, he views each setback as a chance to “learn and process” making growth–both personal and botanical–possible.

(From L to R Justin Robinson, Wambui Ippolito, Derek Haynes, and Teri Speight)

Reclaiming Our Narratives: Amplifying Black Voices in Environmental Literature and Media

The final session shifted to focus on the deeply rooted relationship between African Americans and the natural world– despite long-standing narratives suggesting otherwise. This session was moderated by Dr. Zelda Lockhart, a writer, musician, and teacher. The session brought together a powerful group of thinkers and creators such as Dr. Jarvis McInnis, an Associate Professor of English at Duke University, and Dr. Chérie Rivers, an Associate Professor of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

The conversation was centered on reclamation—of memory, space, and identity. Professor Rivers offered powerful insight that drew from Ross Gay’s “Inciting Joy” to reflect on the role of stories as seeds carried by our ancestors through every path of life. She described how we each hold stories someone saved for us, meant to nourish and grow our narratives again and again. She emphasized how these narratives are rooted in love and reflected through storytelling and conversation. For Rivers, education expands the repertoire of what we are capable of loving, and it is through education that she sees the most potential for transmitting and sharing these vital stories. “If we believe we are in a garden to sustain life then we will enact truth,” Rivers said.

McInnis challenged the notion that Black communities are disconnected from nature, emphasizing how stories and landscapes serve as bridges between past and present. He described this by pointing to literary traditions that capture Black ecological thought, reminding us that “it’s about beauty.” For McInnis, reclaiming the therapeutic nature of the land is deeply personal. He spoke of the desire to touch soil, to feel deeply connected, and to follow one’s intuition—acts that affirm both presence and belonging in the natural world.

(From L to R: Dr. Zelda Lockhart, Dr. Chérie Rivers, and Dr. Jarvis McInnis)

In tracing the land, legacy and storytelling, these conversations highlight how gardening goes beyond its physical act– it is a cultural practice, a form of resistance, and a path towards healing. For many African Americans, reclaiming connections to the Earth is not simply about growing plants, but nurturing memory, identity and community. Through these narratives, we are able to see that a garden is not only a site of cultivation, but also of restoration, power, and possibility.

*Post by Gabrielle Douglas, Class of 2027*

Food, Health, and Environmental Justice Intertwine in Atlanta

By Crystal Han

On March 26, 2025

In Environment/Sustainability, Lecture, Medicine

Some researchers get hooked into a niche and spend their entire career specializing in it. Others, like Dr. Eri Saikawa, go wherever the research takes them. On February 28, the Emory University professor spoke about her broad experiences in environmental science for Duke’s Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program (ITEHP). Her research journey has hardly been restricted to any one subject–she’s modeled air pollution, investigated plastic burning, and tested alternatives to synthetic fertilizers that release excessive nitrogen. Yet, what I found most interesting was the work that occurred, and subsequent story that unfolded, just a half hour away from Emory in the Westside of Atlanta.

Within the U.S., areas of high food insecurity are predominantly located in the Southeast. By allowing residents to “adopt” vacant properties to create urban farms and gardens, the City of Atlanta has made efforts to increase access to local, fresh food through their AgLanta “Grows-A-Lot” program.

*Food Deserts in the US as defined by the USDA. US Department of Agriculture*

“We thought, that’s a great idea,” Saikawa said. But there was a potential issue. “Are you testing [the soil in] these places before you let people grow?”

As it turns out, the answer was no.

In a very ordinary looking lot, Saikawa found soil containing 430.9 parts per million (ppm) of lead, easily exceeding the EPA screening level of 400 ppm at the time (which has since been lowered to 200 ppm). Immediately concerned, she sought more testing.

In 2018, she and her team at Emory partnered with local organization Historic Westside Gardens to collect samples in both residential areas and community gardens. Most of these were located in Westside Atlanta, which is predominantly Black and low-income. Out of the 19 test sites, three contained lead beyond EPA screening levels and the majority exceeded the state gardening screening level of 75 ppm.

“What was very disheartening for us was that…one of [the three] was a children’s garden,” Saikawa said. While state and federal guidelines are subject to change throughout time, there is no safe level of lead for children.

How much was this impacting the neurological development of local kids? She couldn’t find the answers. “I realized that this is something that I, as a modeler…was not trained to do,” Saikawa said. “I thought that I would be simulating, and then telling the results as it happens in the model. I was not trained to talk to people about the real issue.”

Thus began a sort of pivot into more community-engaged work. Residents began bringing their own samples to be tested, many of which were rock pieces that contained roughly 3000 ppm of lead. They weren’t just rock, but slag–a waste product of smelting.

It was now evident how soil concentrations could’ve reached such levels. “After this…we actually went around the neighborhoods and we saw these everywhere…This was apparently dumped in the 50s or 60s, and they’ve been dealing with it without knowing that that’s what they have,” Saikawa said.

Sam Peters, one of Saikawa’s doctoral students at the time, reported it to the EPA. Now, a portion of Westside Atlanta is a Superfund site on the National Priorities List. Through further testing and investigation from the EPA, the site grew from an initial 60 properties to 2087, most of which exceed the 400 ppm threshold.

*Vine City and English Avenue are the main neighborhoods affected by the Superfund site. Westside Future Fund*

However, it’s not accurate to paint Westside as an environmental success story. Saikawa points out that the EPA cuts down trees on the site during the remediation process, increasing heat exposure to an already vulnerable population.

More importantly, many fear that gentrification will follow remediation, which often pushes out renters as the area opens up to development for the wealthier. As much as 40% of affected residents live below the poverty line. When community members have to weigh health with economic impact, the latter sometimes wins out. “One of the residents told me that the pushback to testing the soil in the Westside is because this happened 25 years ago as well…When that happened, people were displaced,” Saikawa said. For this reason, some have chosen not to have their soil tested.

Hesitance to testing also steps from mistrust build up over the years. Saikawa said, “A lot of research has been done on these underserved communities without providing the results back, and they were definitely being taken advantage of. And so when I say I’m from Emory, some people are like, why would I work with you?” This issue presented a challenge when they collected soil samples initially, and it presented a challenge as the Saikawa Lab and community organizations sought to increase blood testing for lead in children.

Beyond lead and contaminants in general, neighborhoods in Westside Atlanta face a far higher cumulative health risk. While these wicked problems evade easy solutions, it’s clear that addressing such issues will require deliberate engagement and collaboration on those most affected. “[Community partners] have taught me a lot…So if anybody is interested in working in the community, like community-based participatory work, it’s really hard now. But I do encourage you to do that,” Saikawa said.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Nature On the Brain: Green Space, Cities and Depression

By Crystal Han

On March 1, 2025

In Behavior/Psychology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability, Lecture, Neuroscience

Though I’ve yet to explore all of Duke’s nooks and crannies, I feel confident that my favorite corner of campus will always be the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Nature, and green space generally, is good for us as humans. Most of us understand this on an intuitive level, but what’s the underlying reason? How might it be built into our brains?

Psychology professor Marc G. Berman looks for the answers. At the University of Chicago, Berman directs the Environmental Neuroscience Lab, in which he investigates interactions between our brains and our physical surroundings. In a recent virtual Grand Rounds lecture in Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Berman spoke about the broad scope of his research and its implications for a better society.

Attention Restoration Theory

Researchers have proposed various theories for why we love nature. For example, the biophilia hypothesis states that humans have an innate attraction to nature on a genetic and evolutionary basis. However, Berman is focused primarily on the Attention Restoration Theory, a concept he’s contributed to significantly. Under this theory, attention is split into two types: directed and involuntary.

The first type is finite––think about the amount of energy it takes you to deliberately concentrate on something. “The first five minutes of lecture, everybody’s very focused on me,” Berman said, using the example of his own classes. Forty-five minutes later, and people inevitably begin to nod off.

*Mingo Falls, North Carolina. Author photo*

On the other hand, involuntary attention is not really under our control and isn’t as susceptible to becoming drained. Within stimuli that capture our involuntary attention, some are softer or harsher than others, like a stream compared to flashing lights (the stream being a softer attention capture, which we call soft fascination).

The cornerstone of Attention Restoration Theory is that nature provides an ideal environment for the restoration of directed attention; full of “softly fascinating” features, it stimulates involuntary attention without placing demands on directed attention.

A Walk in the Park

Roughly 20 years ago while Berman was a researcher at the University of Michigan, he and his colleagues wanted to test out the Attention Restoration Theory. So, after asking study participants to perform a backwards digit span task (a test for memory that would require directed attention), they told them to take a walk. Participants were directed to either a route through downtown Ann Arbor, or through the Nichols Arboretum. Then another digit span test. A week later, they repeated the whole procedure, this time walking in the other environment. Interestingly, walking through the arboretum proved more beneficial for memory. “We see about a 20% improvement in this task after people go on this brief 50-minute walk in nature versus walking in the urban environment. So that’s pretty impressive,” Berman said.

Many of us wouldn’t be surprised by this–certainly, I know a walk in the Gardens on a pleasant day recharges my ability to focus. Time in green space and warm weather often lifts our moods, but they discovered that this cognitive benefit occurs regardless of how you feel afterwards. Walkers turned cranky from the winter cold demonstrated improvements on par with those who gladly embraced sunny weather in June.

Berman saw even more of a positive effect for the park-goers when repeating the study with participants diagnosed with depression, contrary to a concern that walks alone might induce rumination on negative thoughts.

Cities: Better Than You Think They Are

In the Environmental Neuroscience Lab, Berman and doctoral students look at everything from brief interactions with nature to the long-term effects of living in large cities. Given everything thus far, it would seem logical that the latter would be far worse for our brains than other environments. Yet, Berman found just the opposite.

As it turns out, cities are beneficial for our social connectivity. Since people tend to encounter each other more often in urban areas, an individual will likely develop more social connections on average. Prior neuroscience studies have connected a greater number of social relationships to protection against depression.

*Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, both in terms of population and metropolitan area*.

Based on this, the risk of depression might be aptly represented by an inverse model of the number of people in one’s social network. In other words, the more people you maintain contact with, the lower your risk. To test it, Berman and collaborators enlisted four different data sets regarding depression–including in-person interviews, phone interviews with personal demographics, and over 15 million tweets (converted via machine learning algorithms into a PH-Q depression inventory score). The results confirmed it. “What we see across all of these different data sets is that as cities get larger, you get less depression per capita,” he said.

“Many of us have this impression that in bigger cities like New York, like Chicago, like Los Angeles, people are not as friendly…but these results suggest the opposite,” Berman said. “It must be on average that those social interactions are positive in cities and that more is better.”

Designing Environments for Our Brains

Regarding the main conversation surrounding mental health, Berman said, “We often think about [depression] in terms of this individual scale…your genetic makeup, brain activity patterns, individual psychological patterns. Maybe things about your family. We don’t really think about your neighborhood and your city.”

Knowing what we do about nature and large social networks can ultimately help us improve mental health outcomes on a broad scale. These two factors might seem to work against each other, but they don’t have to. Ultimately, we need more green space everywhere, including in large cities. The benefits are undeniable–urban areas with more greenery consistently see less aggression and crime, even when adjusting for race, ethnicity and income.

In addition, cities tend to have a lot of harsh stimuli, but that doesn’t mean some features of urban environments can’t be potentially restorative. “We believe that certain environmental features can be designed to improve human performance and well-being, like incorporating more natural features or natural patterns in the environment, trying to figure out ways to increase social interactions,” Berman said. By mimicking aspects of nature like curved lines, we might be able to create “soft fascination” closer to home and reduce the different demands pulling on our attention.

Crystal Han, Class of 2028

“Flipping the Bird”: What do Audubon’s Paintings and England’s Crown Jewels Have in Common?

By Sophie Cox

On February 27, 2025

In Animals, Art, Computers/Technology, Environment/Sustainability, Responsible Conduct, Science Communication & Education

On the first Friday of each month, Duke Libraries will hold a “Flipping the Bird” event where members of the public can watch exhibit curators flip the pages of two of Audubon’s original “Birds of America” books.

At 12:15 PM on the first Friday of each month, you can watch Duke Libraries curators crank open a half-ton case made by the same company that designed the storage system for England’s Crown Jewels. Inside, protected by elaborate security features and carefully controlled temperature and light conditions, is a different collection of valuable, colorful items: Audubon’s “Birds of America” paintings.

“People love these birds for lots of different reasons,” said Duke Libraries Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown. The Audubon exhibit preserves and displays the birds while also raising awareness of Audubon’s complicated legacy as both a very talented artist and a deeply flawed man.

John James Audubon is one of ornithology’s most well known and most controversial figures. He painted 489 bird species with precision and accuracy, part of an ambitious and unfinished quest to paint every bird in America.

He also owned enslaved people, stole human skulls from indigenous burial sites, and held staunchly racist and anti-abolitionist beliefs.

Even in his own lifetime, Audubon’s “Birds of America” paintings were very valuable. They were sold in “subscriptions” in which patrons would receive paintings periodically as loose sheets and then have them bound themselves. The frequency ranged from weeks to years depending on the speed of Audubon’s work. Today, more than a century and a half after Audubon’s death, his paintings remain subjects of fascination, value, and beauty. One reason the paintings are so valuable is that each set is unique. Audubon used between 20 and 40 colorists who applied color to each print by hand, meaning different copies of the same painting may have slightly different colors.

Approximately 120 complete “Birds of America” sets survive today. “Typically a ‘set’ is all four volumes,” said Aaron Welborn, Duke Libraries Director of Communications. Duke owns “one complete set of four volumes,” two of which are on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room in Perkins. At the inaugural “Flipping the Bird” event earlier this month, Duke Libraries Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown spoke to visitors about what it takes to preserve and flip these fragile birds.

Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown and Exhibition Intern Grace Zayobi flip the pages of one of the two Audubon books on display in Duke Libraries.

The books are stored in glass and metal cases that weigh more than 1000 pounds according to Brown. The company that made these cases also made the glass under which England’s Crown Jewels are stored. The standard for the glass strength was that it had to be able to withstand 18 minutes of someone actively trying to break through.

The paintings are protected by another unusual security feature as well: “These won’t fit through any of our doors,” Brown said. The cases were brought in during library renovation, and their assembly was completed inside the library.

Duke acquired the collection from Margaret L. Barber, an art and antique collector who loaned items from her private collection for an exhibition in the Women’s College Library in 1931. Duke later purchased the “Birds of America” paintings from her. Originally all four were on display, but for preservation reasons only two are displayed at one time today.

Strips of Mylar—a soft, inert plastic—keep the open pages in place. Curators avoid putting the strips directly on the paintings, instead positioning them closer to the edges of the paper.

Preserving paintings from two centuries ago requires special care. Curators keep sheets of paper between the pages to prevent pigment from transferring to adjacent pages over time. And since watercolor is very sensitive to light exposure, the library uses strategically placed lamps to illuminate the pages without exposing them to bright light. (Specifically, they aim to keep ambient light under 6 foot candles.) UV light is particularly damaging. The exhibit is in an interior room that does not use UV lighting, but there is “one time of day, one time of year” when light streaming through the windows of Saladelia Cafe in Perkins Library can reach the Mary Duke Biddle Room, Brown explains, so the shades on the window facing the cafe are kept below the level that sunlight could reach.

Exhibit curators also monitor temperature and humidity using sensors in the glass cases. The two volumes not on display are kept in the library’s closed stacks, where the temperature is colder to help preserve the paintings. Every couple years the books on display are rotated out with those in the closed stacks.

From left: Yoon Kim, Senior Library Exhibition Technician; Meg Brown, Head of Exhibitions; and Grace Zayobi, Exhibition Intern.

Flipping such old and delicate pages is its own challenge. The display cases have a motorized system to lift the glass, allowing curators to flip the pages before sealing them inside again. The pages of the books on display are flipped once a month. The flipping used to happen when the exhibit was closed, but now any library visitor can witness the process themselves on the first Friday of each month, from 12:15-12:45 PM.

Yoon Kim and Grace Zayobi flipping the book from a page displaying raptors to a page showing the “Bachman’s Finch,” now known as the Bachman’s sparrow.

Though the Audubon exhibit is permanent, other exhibits in the space are temporary. A recent exhibit there has highlighted female scientific illustrators, including Maria Martin Bachman, who painted some of the floral backgrounds for Audubon’s birds. While that exhibit has been up, the library has been focused on “displaying pictures that [Martin] had a part in” rather than just flipping to the next page in order.

Bachman’s husband, Reverend John Bachman, was also a naturalist. He lived in South Carolina and collaborated with Audubon on a later collection of mammal paintings. Like Audubon, Bachman is also a controversial figure with multiple birds named after him. There is a theme here. Also like Audubon, the Bachmans owned enslaved people, some of whom were involved in the production of Audubon’s paintings. A man enslaved by the Bachman family, Thomas Skining, was very skilled at stuffing birds. “He became so good at it that he sort of became the main person who did it,” Brown said.

One of Audubon’s paintings depicts the Carolina parakeet, which he called the Carolina parrot. The species is now extinct.
Image courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing.

Several species in Audubon’s “Birds of America” have since gone extinct: the Carolina parakeet. The Labrador duck. The passenger pigeon. The great auk. In all likelihood the ivory-billed woodpecker and Bachman’s warbler are also extinct. The Eskimo curlew is either critically endangered or extinct as well, and the “pinnated grouse” is an extinct subspecies of the greater prairie-chicken. Many others face threats to their existence, including the Bachman’s sparrow, currently on display in one of the books in the library. (Audubon called it Bachman’s Finch, but the species is not a finch and has since been renamed.)

Light, temperature, and humidity conditions are carefully controlled to help preserve the paintings.

“These are here forever,” Brown said. Audubon’s paintings remain widely loved and influential, and they will remain on display for people to admire, ponder, and learn from. At the same time, the Audubon exhibit seeks to raise awareness of Audubon’s complicated legacy and about the individuals involved in his work who he never fully credited in his lifetime. Context is important, Brown said, and “We never want to shy away from the truth and the history about the important stories that aren’t being told.”

You can view the “Birds of America” books in the Mary Duke Biddle Room, across from the main entrance to Perkins. The species on display this month are the Bachman’s sparrow on the right and mourning, blackburnian, and black-throated green warblers on the left. And at 12:15 on March 7 or the first Friday of any other month, you, too, can watch exhibit curators flip the birds.

Post by Sophie Cox, Class of 2025

Farmers, Crops…and Computers?

By Gabrielle Douglas

On December 2, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Computers/Technology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability

In Hanjie the rules are simple. In this game of logic and creativity, the players, often working on medium-sized grids of 225 squares, use numbers on the rows and columns as clues to determine which boxes to shade. At first, the prospect of seeing a beautiful picture seems almost unfathomable. However, through patience and collaboration from every corner of the page, these small seemingly random squares gradually come together to reveal a masterpiece—one square at a time.

In a sense the efforts of Duke’s Climate Commitment are no different. The issue of climate change has proven to be a multifaceted one. One in which many parties play a role. However, with initiatives such as Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, the probability of tackling these issues becomes much clearer.

*The logo of Duke’s Forever Learning Institute retrieved from their website.*

Recently Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, an interdisciplinary educational program for Duke alumni, hosted Professors Norbert Wilson and Maiken Mikkelson for a compelling session on the impact of climate change on food and agriculture. Wilson, an agricultural economist and the Director of the World Food Policy Center at Duke, specializes in addressing critical issues related to food access, nutrition, and food security. Mikkelsen, a distinguished expert in physics, electrical, and computer engineering, explores the potential of nanomaterials to revolutionize agricultural processes, paving the way for innovative solutions in the field. Together, they explained how advancements in nanomaterials can improve food security and sustainability.

Throughout the session, Wilson emphasized the concept of food security. He began by clarifying the difference between “food loss” and “food waste.” Food loss occurs at the agricultural level. It refers to food that is produced but never reaches consumers, often due to challenges such as poor harvesting seasons, labor shortages for harvesting, or other natural factors. He describes the ways in which loss occurs across the board but disproportionately affects less developed countries. Wilson also explained how food waste occurs at the consumer level. He details how it goes beyond the waste of a product but is also a waste of the resources used to create that product.

Picture of Professor Norbert Wilson. Photo retrieved from Duke Divinity School.

Wilson illustrated the significance of these issues by drawing out the larger issue of food insecurity. Food insecurity describes an inability to access food or concerns about accessing food. In the United States 13.5 percent of citizens struggle with accessing food. This can lead to a number of negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular issues and diabetes. Food insecurity can also lead to behavioral and performance issues, particularly in young children.

*Infographic about food insecurity retrieved from ECOMERGE.*

This is where Mikkelson comes in. She described a term known as Precision Agriculture. In this, researchers observe and measure agriculture fields and extra data to see what resources such as water, and fertilizer is needed at each part. In this, they hope to retrieve good information through wavelengths as a means of getting a spectral fingerprint that supplies information about the crops. Mikkelsen describes her interest in leveraging nanomaterials to create lightweight, cost-effective hyperspectral cameras capable of capturing detailed spectral fingerprints of crops. She hopes that these materials can be employed around the world, and low resource settings to increase crop yields. The greatest roadblock in this would be the price and issues with widespread application. However, once applied it would hold the ability to detect key characteristics such as nutrient deficiencies, water stress, or disease presence.

Duke Researchers working with Nanotechnology. Image retrieved from Duke Pratt School of Engineering.

Our world is wildly affected by climate change. Climate change and agricultural production hold a very dependent relationship and fixing one side holds the ability to correct the other. This is what makes the work and research of those such as Wilson and Mikelson all the more important. Their efforts show how we can utilize technology to not only enact social change but also reverse our climate issues. Their research highlights not only the urgency of addressing food security and agricultural sustainability but also the transformative potential of interdisciplinary approaches.

Just as the game of Hanjie reveals its masterpiece one square at a time, tackling climate change requires collective effort and patience. Each initiative, whether through advanced nanotechnology or policy-driven solutions, brings us closer to a sustainable future. Duke’s Forever Learning Institute serves as a platform to connect these ideas, inspiring action and innovation that can shape a better tomorrow—one step at a time.

‘Design Climate’ Students Pitch Solutions at Energy Week 2024

By Crystal Han

On November 26, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Environment/Sustainability, Students

Amid the constant drumbeat of campus events, much of the conversation turned toward the challenges we face in energy policy, security and transitions during Duke’s annual Energy Week, held Nov. 11-15.

On the second day, the Innovation Showcase featured not only startups making their pitches for clean energy and sustainable tech products, but students doing so as well.

Currently in its second year, Duke Design Climate is a new initiative between the Pratt School of Engineering and the Nicholas School of the Environment. It functions as a two-course sequence, in which students form groups to prototype and promote climate solutions after conducting market research.

As I made my rounds to the teams, I met a mix of graduate students and undergraduates with academic backgrounds ranging from engineering to economics to environmental science. The ideas they have aren’t purely theoretical: all are looking for sponsors or partners to help implement their solutions into real-world use. Here were some of the highlights:

Team ReefCycle is building from plants: Our first stop is named after the company whose product they intend to scale up. Initially, Mary Lempres founded ReefCycle to develop sustainable material for artificial reefs. Regular industrial production for cement requires intensive heating– burning of fossil fuels–releasing tons of carbon dioxide. ReefCycle sought to reduce this climate impact with a different method: their cement is plant-based and enzymatic, meaning it’s essentially grown using enzymes from beans. Testing in the New York Harbor yielded some promise: the cement appeared to resist corrosion, while becoming home for some oysters. The Design Climate team is now trying to bring it to more widespread use on land, while targeting up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions across all scopes.

Team Enfield is uplifting a local community: Design Climate, evidently, is by no means limited to science. Instead, these team members intend to address an environmental justice issue close to home: energy inequality. Around 30-35% of Enfield residents live below the poverty line, and yet suffer from some of the highest energy bills in the larger area. Located a ninety minute drive east of Durham, this rural town is one of the poorest in North Carolina. Historic redlining and unfavorable urban planning are responsible for its lack of development, but now this team aims to bring back commerce to the area through microfinance. Once enough funding is gathered from investors and grants, the team hopes to provide microloans and financial literacy to spur and empower businesses.

Team Methamatic promotes a pragmatic e-methane solution: This team is harnessing the power of sunlight to drive fuel production. Synthetic methane, commonly referred to as e-methane, is produced by reacting green hydrogen and carbon dioxide. “Currently, the power-to-gas process can be carbon neutral,” said team member Eesha Yaqub, a senior. “Sourcing the recycled carbon dioxide from a carbon capture facility essentially cancels out the emissions from burning methane.” However, this power-to-gas (P2G) process is an intensive one requiring high heat, energy, and pressure–hoops that might not have to be jumped through if an alternative process could break through the market. Professor Jie Liu and the Department of Chemistry have been working on developing a reactor that would conduct this same reaction without those obstacles. “[Utilizing] the energy from ultraviolet light, which is absorbed by a catalyst …makes the process less energy intensive,” Yaqub said.

Right now, the team has a small prototype, but one used for commercial generation would appear much larger and cost between $15,000 to $20,000. Their intended customers? Oil and gas companies under pressure to shift away from fossil fuels. If successfully scaled up, they predict this process would produce e-methane at a price of $5 per kilogram.

Analyzing living shorelines through Team Coastal Connect: If “Coastal Connect” sounds more like an app than a project name, that’s because it is one. This group is designing what one member dubbed a “fitbit for shorelines”: a monitoring system that brings data from ocean buoys to the phones of local landowners. While measurements in salinity and water level aren’t always telling for the average person, the app would contextualize these into more useful phrases. Is it currently safe to swim? It’ll let you know.

Moreover, it would also allow for the long-term monitoring of living shorelines. While we know this nature-based solution offers resilience to natural disasters and presents erosion, short-term fixes like seawalls are often built instead to continue allowing development up to the edge of beaches. The team hopes that ideally, providing concrete data on living shorelines would allow us to demonstrate their benefits and promote their implementation.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

The Dukies Cited Most Highly

By Karl Bates

On November 19, 2024

In Behavior/Psychology, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Cardiology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability, Faculty, Genetics/Genomics, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physics, Space

The Web of Science ranking of the world’s most highly-cited scientists was released this morning, telling us who makes up the top 1 percent of the world’s scientists. These are the authors of influential papers that other scientists point to when making their arguments.

EDITOR’S NOTE! — Web of Science shared last year’s data! We apologize. List below is now corrected, changes to copy in bold. We’re so sorry.

Twenty-three of the citation laureates are Duke scholars or had a Duke affiliation when the landmark works were created over the last decade.

*A couple of these Duke people disappeared from this year’s list, but we’re still proud of them.*

Two names on the list belong to Duke’s international powerhouse of developmental psychology, the Genes, Environment, Health and Behavior Lab, led by Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi.

Dan Scolnic of Physics returns as our lone entry in Space Science, which just makes Duke sound cooler all around, don’t you think?

This is a big deal for the named faculty and an impressive line on their CVs. But the selection process weeds out “hyper-authorship, excessive self-citation and anomalous citation patterns,” so don’t even think about gaming it.

Fifty-nine nations are represented by the 6,636 individual researchers on this year’s list. About half of the citation champions are in specific fields and half in ‘cross-field’ — where interdisciplinary Duke typically dominates. The U.S. is still the most-cited nation with 36 percent of the world’s share, but shrinking slightly. Mainland China continues to rise, claiming second place with 20 percent of the cohort, up 2.5 percent from just last year. Then, in order, the UK, Germany and Australia round out the top five.

Tiny Singapore, home of the Duke NUS Graduate Medical School, is the tenth-most-cited with 1.6 percent of the global share.

In fact, five Duke NUS faculty made this year’s list: Antonio Bertoletti, Derek Hausenloy and Jenny Guek-Hong Low for cross-field; Carolyn S. P. Lam for clinical medicine, and the world famous “Bat Man,” Lin-Fa Wang, for microbiology.

Okay, you scrolled this far, let’s go!

Biology and Biochemistry

Charles A. Gersbach

Clinical Medicine

Christopher Bull Granger

Adrian F. Hernandez

Gary Lyman

Cross-Field

Priyamvada Acharya

Chris Beyrer

Stefano Curtarolo

Vance G. Fowler Jr.

Po-Chun Hsu (adjunct, now U. Chicago)

Ru-Rong Ji

William E. Kraus

David B. Mitzi

Christopher B. Newgard

Pratiksha I. Thakore (now with Genentech)

Xiaofei Wang

Mark R. Wiesner

Environment and Ecology

Robert B. Jackson (adjunct, now Stanford U.)

Microbiology

Barton F. Haynes

Neuroscience and Behavior

Quinn T. Ostrom

Plant and Animal Science

Sheng-Yang He

Psychiatry and Psychology

Avshalom Caspi

William E. Copeland

Terrie E. Moffitt

Space Science

Dan Scolnic

Rethinking the Mutual Relationship Between Science and Justice

By Sarah Pusser

On November 16, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, Faculty, Field Research, History, Policy

When you think of environmental science, what comes to mind? Studies? Analyses? Hypotheses?

What about environmental justice? Clean air? Restoring forests?

Ryan Emanuel, an associate professor of Hydrology in the Nicholas School of the Environment, redefines these two concepts of environmental science — or shall I say, combines these two concepts. He appeared in person and on Zoom in the Trent Center for Bioethics series recently, presenting his new-ish book: “On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice.”

Through three compelling anecdotes, Emanuel showed us how environmental science and environmental justice can be viewed as a bidirectional relationship.

Story one:
After earning his degree in hydrology from Duke in the 90s, Emanuel pursued advanced studies in evaporation and carbon cycling. With an education, Emanuel began fieldwork — conducting studies and climbing tall towers (all the fun sciencey stuff). However, as a person from North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe, he noticed the disconnect between his work and his community. He was acutely aware of a cultural emphasis on education –the expectation that you will use your education to give back to your community. He didn’t feel his work in hydrology was serving the Lumbee tribe’s interest, so he decided to change that.

Sean Jones from the Lumbee Tribe (photo by News & Record Final)

During his talk, Emanuel emphasized the significance of “accountability” and “motivation.”

“Examining our motivation can allow us to better understand who we are accountable to in our work… We are all accountable somehow, and we can be accountable in different ways to different groups.”

Understanding that his work had to be accountable for the Lumbee tribe, Emanuel became an ambassador for STEM in higher education. This new path enabled him to mentor youth with tribal backgrounds, prepare them for higher education, and even form strong relationships with them.

Story two:

The EPA says environmental justice is “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental decision-making.”

Emanuel recognized that governments should be accountable for including the voices and opinions of marginalized groups — ‘all people’ — within their environmental decision-making. But Emanuel said there was a dissonance between these promises and reality. One example is the placement of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) where livestock are raised in confinement for agricultural purposes.

CAFOs in North Carolina are disproportionately located in communities of minority groups. Many issues arise from this, such as the pollution produced from CAFOs (air and water).

I was shocked to see the many ways that smaller, marginalized communities are affected. These issues are often relatively hidden — not surprising given that mainstream media usually focuses on large (easily observable) community-based discrimination.

Map of locations of CAFOs in North Carolina (photo by Jiyoung Son)

Emanuel began to look at the interplay between environmental science (observation, analysis, testing) and environmental justice (lived experience, regulations, fairness). He let go of the previous idea that environmental science only seeks to provide data and support to drive change in environmental justice. He began to ask, “How can environmental justice improve environmental science?”

Story 3:
Combining his accountability for the Lumbee tribe with his hypothesis about the bidirectional relationship of environmental science and environmental justice, Ryan Emanuel began looking into the observably negative impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Spanning over 600 miles, this gas pipeline will provide many benefits for North Carolina communities, such as lower costs, new jobs, and less pollution, according to Duke Energy.

Emanuel saw that the pipeline route went right through Lumbee territory, which could mean devastating effects for the community, such as health impacts and declining property values.

Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline route (photo by SAS Blogs)

The crux of the issue lay in the negligence of project developers who failed to connect with the marginalized communities the pipeline would run through (such as the Lumbee). Tribal voices and input were completely ignored.

Emanuel helped prepare tribal leaders for meetings with corporate representatives and wrote a commentary on the need for the federal government to collaborate with the tribes they would be affecting.

Eventually, after years of lawsuits, the companies in charge of the project abandoned the ACP project. When I searched “Why was the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project canceled?” Duke Energy claimed the cancellation was because of “ongoing delays and increasing cost uncertainty, which threaten(ed) the economic viability of the project.” Other sources provide details on the legal challenges and criticism the project faced.

After the companies dropped the plan, they were quick to purchase forest land near the Lumbee tribe and begin the development of natural gas infrastructures that would allow for the storage of gas when the demand was low and the ability to release the gas when prices went up.

I found it quite impressive that Ryan was able to attend many meetings between the Lumbee Tribe and the company, without saying a word. The tribal council had asked him to only observe and not speak. During one meeting, a representative from the company that purchased the forest land said that they wanted to clarify that “pipelines are not disproportionately located in marginalized communities — they are everywhere.”

Emanuel began testing this hypothesis, eventually gathering enough evidence to statistically prove that there is a “spatial correlation between social vulnerability and pipeline density.” His findings gathered significant media attention and have even been expanded on to show the need for change and increased safety within pipeline communities.

Emanuel concluded by explaining that the principles of environmental justice can show us what questions we should be asking, who we should be asking them of, and who we should be keeping in mind when conducting research.

The statement Emanuel made that stuck with me the most was, “If we value examining problems from all angles, we have to pay attention to which perspectives are missing.”

Ryan Emanuel’s book (photo by The Magazine of the Sierra Club)

After Emanuel’s talk, I was surprised that I had never been introduced to this way of thinking before. It seems like common knowledge that focusing on justice and equity can improve how we investigate problems scientifically. However, it is not completely surprising that this information is not common sense, given the systematic issues within our country.

Emanuel’s book, “On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice,” dives deeper into these concepts about the relationship between environmental justice and environmental science. I believe this book would bring nuance to our world today, where there is a clear need for change and the uplifting of voices that have been quieted for so long.

By Sarah Pusser Class of 2028

Following the people and events that make up the research community at Duke

Category: Environment/Sustainability Page 1 of 16

Could Restoring Forests Reduce Disease Risk? A Case Study of Hantavirus in Madagascar

Meet the Scientists Conserving Sharks & Sea Turtles in Latin America

So Much More Than Growing Plants: Gardening as a Practice of Reclamation, Identity and Legacy

Food, Health, and Environmental Justice Intertwine in Atlanta

Nature On the Brain: Green Space, Cities and Depression

“Flipping the Bird”: What do Audubon’s Paintings and England’s Crown Jewels Have in Common?

Farmers, Crops…and Computers?

‘Design Climate’ Students Pitch Solutions at Energy Week 2024

The Dukies Cited Most Highly

Rethinking the Mutual Relationship Between Science and Justice