Field researchers with the Columbia Climate School and its affiliated centers are studying the dynamics of the planet on every continent and every ocean. Projects range from climate to basic geology, natural hazards, pollution and sustainable technologies. Dependent on logistics and safety factors, journalists are invited to join expeditions or otherwise cover them.
Expeditions below are in rough chronological order, divided into NEW YORK CITY/U.S. NORTHEAST; WIDER UNITED STATES; and INTERNATIONAL. Unless otherwise stated, projects originate with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. This list will be kept updated; check back periodically. For further information, contact: press@climate.columbia.edu.
NEW YORK CITY/U.S. NORTHEAST
WATERSHED MOMENT | Studies of past climate, Catskill Mountains | SPRING 2025
The New York/New Jersey watershed, comprising the region that drains into New York harbor, includes wide swaths of the Catskill Mountains, whose reservoirs serve nine million people. As part of an investigation into factors that expose some populations to poor quality drinking water, dendrochronologist Nicole Davi will take cores from old Catskills trees to study past climate swings and their potential effects on water quality.
FIGHTING FLOATING PLASTICS WITH AI | Tests of river traps | ONGOING 2025-2027
Some 80% of plastic waste in the oceans originates from rivers and coastlines. Attempts have been made to trap plastic, but most devices clog rapidly with natural materials like leaves, branches and dead fish, a mixture nearly impossible to recycle or dispose of on land. Now, a team of scientists and engineers, headed by geochemist Beizhan Yan, has designed a solar-powered system to segregate plastics and collect them. The floating apparatus will use specialized cameras and artificial intelligence to identify different kinds of plastic. Prototypes will be tested in the Hudson, Bronx and Delaware rivers.
CARBON-HUNGRY ROCKS | Geologic surveys, suburban New Jersey and offshore New York/New Jersey | ONGOING
Much of northern New Jersey and parts of southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania are underlain by vast deposits of basalt, a volcanic rock believed highly reactive with carbon dioxide. These deposits also extend offshore. A team led by geophysicist David Goldberg is investigating whether emissions from power plants and other sources in the region could be pumped into seabed basalts and stored there in solid form. Students have sampled and mapped outcrops in the New Jersey suburbs as analogs to the seabed deposits, and aerial magnetic and gravity surveys off the coast have imaged basalts under the seabed. Article on the project
SUDDEN WAVE | Studies of flash-flooding risk, New York City | ONGOING
Scientists have intensively studied New York’s flood risk from rising seas, but paid less attention to flash flooding from increasingly intense rainfalls that fail to drain fast enough. Researchers including economist Malgosia Madajewicz are working to better understand the risks around Jamaica Bay by assembling newly detailed maps of potential flood areas, and assessing residents’ vulnerability based on socioeconomic factors. Part of the work involves door-to-door surveys of residents, and focus groups on households’ ability to recover. Neighborhoods will include Edgemere, Arverne, Belle Harbor, Hamilton Beach, Old Howard Beach and Rosedale.
CLIMATE JUSTICE | Coastal resilience studies, New York/New Jersey | ONGOING
By 2050, sea levels around New York may rise by as much as two feet, and may especially affect low-income communities that are clustered in low-lying areas. Researchers with the Resilient Coastal Communities Project are working with a range of partners to assure that the region’s premier coastal resilience project, run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will cover such communities. Among other things, they are encouraging nature-based solutions such as street-level green spaces and wetland restoration. Leaders: environmental attorney and educator Paul Gallay and international development expert Jacqueline Klopp. Resilient Coastal Communities Project pages | Story on the project
POISONED PONDS | Fighting toxic algae in New York parks | SUMMER 2025/ONGOING
A onetime pleasant pond in Manhattan’s Morningside Park has been overtaken by thick mats of toxic algae. A group led by biological oceanographer Joaquim Goes and colleagues at Columbia Engineering are restoring the site. With help from local high-school students and a small autonomous boat, Goes will introduce a natural mineral substrate designed to counteract the algae. He will also install instruments to monitor water quality. If this works, the project will extend to Central Park’s nearby Harlem Meer and other ponds suffering similar problems. Article on the project
SEASIDE METHUSELAHS | Studying ancient trees, coastal NY/NJ | SPRING/SUMMER 2025
Only a few tree species can withstand the wind and water along the U.S. East Coast shoreline, and with centuries of intense development, there are just a few old growth stands of these trees left. With the stands under threat from rising seas and more powerful storms, paleoclimatologist Nicole Davi is sampling tree rings dating back as far as the mid-1700s to understand their long-term responses to shifting climate. She is also installing instruments on individual trees to record their reactions to weather in real time. This year she will work at New York’s Fire Island National Park, and New Jersey’s Sandy Hook peninsula and Bear Swamp Natural Area. Story and slideshow on Sandy Hook’s forest
WILD CITY | Surveys of urban wildlife, New York City | SUMMER 2025 and ONGOING
Although it is the most densely populated U.S. city, New York is home to many wild animals including foxes, racoons, coyotes and beavers. With expanding green spaces, populations are growing. Eco-epidemiologist Maria Diuk-Wasser and students have been censusing animals and investigating patterns of movement and dispersal by deploying camera traps. They are also studying bird species. In some cases, the researchers are setting out harmless traps to temporarily capture animals for disease testing. Many creatures play roles in spreading vector-borne diseases. Part of the study is aimed at understanding and minimizing the potential for harmful animal-human interactions. Related to Diuk-Wasser’s investigations of Lyme-carrying ticks (below). Story on the project
LYME THREAT | Studies of human/tick contacts, New York City | SUMMER 2025
Researchers are developing a comprehensive map of where people are most at risk of contracting tick-borne diseases in New York City. This includes quantifying tick presence in various landscapes, along with that of small mammals and birds, who play roles in spreading Lyme and other vector-borne diseases. The team is also studying human behavior and travel through parks, backyards and other green spaces where people may be exposed. A cohort of citizen volunteers is using a smartphone app to track their own movements. Led by eco-epidemiologist Maria Diuk-Wasser. Project webpages
ANCIENT MARSHES, DEEP CARBON STORAGE | Wetland coring, New York, Massachusetts | SPRING-SUMMER-FALL-WINTER 2025 and 2026
Drilling cores as deep as 25 feet into ancient muck, ecologist Dorothy Peteet studies the scant remnants of the U.S. East Coast’s once vast wetlands. In one NASA project, she and colleagues seek to understand how much carbon is stored in coastal marshes, how much is endangered by sea-level rise and development, and which should be prioritized for preservation. Sites this year include marshlands in Rye, N.Y., and on the south shore of Long Island at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, Captree Island and Gilgo Island. In a separate study, she is studying the long climate records held in deep inland bogs and lake sediments, including sites near Kingston, N.Y., on the north shore of Long Island, in Rhode Island and on Martha’s Vineyard. Article on post-glacial wetlands | Article on carbon-storage work around New York City
SHELL GAME | Experimental oyster cultivation, Piermont, N.Y. | ONGOING
Braddock Linsley is closely monitoring the physiology and growth of eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, next to a pier along the Hudson River in Piermont, N.Y. The oysters are contained in custom-built instrumented chambers, allowing the researchers to track their minute-by-minute responses to changes in oxygen and chemical conditions in terms of shell building, feeding and water filtration. The species is the focus of intensive restoration efforts in numerous estuaries, including New York Harbor, so understanding their doings is important, especially as the climate changes.
PRECARIOUS BOULDERS | Geological fieldwork to detect past earthquakes | Harriman State Park, N.Y. | SUMMER 2025
Recent research suggests that earthquakes in and around the New York metro area are more common than previously thought, but no one knows how big they could get. To extend the quake record into prehistoric time, geologist William Menke is focusing on huge boulders that have been precariously perched on the bedrock surface of exurban New York’s Harriman State Park in the same positions since the end of the last ice age. According to the hypothesis, if a magnitude 7 quake should be powerful enough tip over such a boulder, but the boulder is still in place, no such quake has taken place in the past 15,000 to 20,000 years. Story on the project | Earthquake Risk to NY Greater Than Thought
HITTING BOTTOM | Mapping threatened habitats, Long Island Sound | MAY, JULY, AUGUST 2025
Oceanographers Frank Nitsche, Joaquim Goes and Cecilia McHugh are part of a long-term project to finely map the bathymetry and sub-bottom of Long Island Sound, and the habitats the sound provides for many creatures. This area is under intense pressure from pollutants, excess nutrients, harmful algal blooms and low oxygen levels. Cruises from May 12-23 will map the physical qualities of mud and sediment layers below the bottom. The researchers will pull up cores of sediment from the sub-bottom July 21-26 and August 25-29. (Exact dates may vary depending on weather.) Habitat mapping web pages
GOTHAM GREENHOUSE | Tracking New York’s emissions | ONGOING
To better understand the exact sources of air pollutants, atmospheric scientist Róisín Commane and colleagues are measuring carbon dioxide, methane and other gases on fine scales in and around New York City, to determine where they are coming from. Among other things, they will sample air from a car containing a mobile lab to quantify emissions from landfills, wastewater plants and natural-gas leaks. They have also been working inside buildings to investigate methane emissions from gas-powered boilers and stoves. Article on the portable lab | Article on the NYC project | Article on NYC greenery and CO2
EXTRATERRESTRIAL VOLCANOES AND EARTHLY ICE | High-pressure lab experiments, Palisades, N.Y. | ONGOING
Geophysicist Christine McCarthy studies conditions within and under Earth’s glaciers, and the subsurfaces of other bodies including the icy moons of Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter. In one set of experiments, McCarthy and team are studying the conditions under which volcanoes erupt on these moons by recreating the brines and slurries thought to be driving such events. In another, they are recreating the conditions at the rocky beds of glaciers, to understand how glaciers move and how climate change may affect them. McCarthy on her background and the physics of ice | McCarthy’s TED-style talk on icy moons
TURNING CO2 TO STONE| High-pressure lab experiments, Palisades, N.Y. | ONGOING
Jacob Tielke, Christine McCarthy and Peter Kelemen are performing lab experiments to assess the feasibility of injecting atmospheric carbon underground and turning it into a solid mineral. The experiments focus on peridotite, a type of rock that reacts rapidly with carbon in nature. Some of the largest deposits of peridotite are in Oman, but they are also present in U.S. states including Washington, Oregon, California and Vermont. Video, photo essay, story on the Oman project | Story on the experiments | Geologists Map U.S. Rocks to Soak CO2 From Air
TINY PLASTICS | Studies of nanoplastics, New York area, Antarctica, Oman | ONGOING
Using newly developed technology, oceanographer Joaquim Goes and geochemist Beizhan Yan have been mapping the abundance and sources of nanoplastics—plastic bits even tinier than microplastics—in both bottled water and far-flung natural environments. The team is quantifying nanoplastics found in New York City tap water, and a volunteer team of British adventurers has returned samples from the snows of Antarctica and the sands of Oman. They may soon sample other remote places. Article on the New York project | Nanoplastics in water | Antarctica expedition
COMING CLEAN | Technology to filter microplastics from washing machines, New York City | ONGOING thru 2025
Recent research shows that a major source of micro- and nanoplastic pollution in water is washing of clothes; a single three-pound load of laundry sends hundreds of thousands of particles into sewers, and municipal waste-treatment systems are not set up to filter them out. Geochemist Beizhan Yan and colleagues are now developing systems to remove them directly from the wastewater of home and commercial washing machines. Tests are being carried out at Columbia-owned dorms and/or apartment buildings. Story on the project
SAVING TRIBAL LAND | Sea-level adaptation, New York and Virginia | ONGOING thru SPRING 2027
The Shinnecock people have long dwelled along the seashore of Long Island, with many now living on a low-lying peninsula slowly being inundated by sea-level rise. Economist Malgosia Madajewicz is working closely with tribal authorities to help design adaptation strategies. In Virginia, she and colleagues have also started working with the Pamunkey tribe, who live along the Pamunkey River on the oldest inhabited native reservation in North America. Shinnecock Nation website | Pamunkey Tribe website
DIARY OF A TREE | Real-time forest monitoring, Hudson Valley | ONGOING
Biologist Kevin Griffin and colleagues are running a network of instruments in the New York suburbs to monitor physiological functions of trees, and transmit the data in real time. They have wired some 60 trees in the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island, monitoring how they respond to daily weather shifts; this can suggest how they may respond to long-term climate changes. They also have a live rooftop webcam at suburban Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory that takes a photo of the area canopy every 15 minutes. This is aimed at assessing how seasonal rhythms of trees may be changing. The photos are available to the public in real time. Article on the webcam | Camera livestream | Earth Institute article on the research | New Yorker article
SNOWY DAYS | Citizen scientists collect data on snowfall, upstate New York | WINTER 2025-26 and ONGOING
Engineer and climate scientist Marco Tedesco is recruiting citizens to crowd-source information on snowfall in upstate New York’s Catskill and Adirondack mountains, and outlying areas. Using cell-phone apps and a plain old ruler, volunteers will collect data on fresh snowfall including depth, temperature, reflectivity and even shapes of individual snowflakes. Some will test for presence of microplastics. Data will be used to validate NASA’s satellite measurements, estimate snowpack contributions to water supplies, and to study pollution and climate. Project website | Story on the project
CHIPPING AWAY | Studies of ancient stone quarries, U.S. East Coast | ONGOING
Geologist Philip LaPorta leads the nonprofit Center for the Investigation of Native and Ancient Quarries , which catalogs and studies the remains of stone quarries used for thousands of years by Indigenous people up and down the East Coast. He has documented hundreds of sites in the New York-New Jersey area alone. His geologic fieldwork enables him to trace stone tools found far from their sources back to individual quarries. He has also investigated ancient quarries in Egypt, Israel, India, Bulgaria and Poland.
NYC’S ANCIENT TREES | Analyzing timbers from old buildings | TBD
Many New York City structures built in the 19th and early 20th centuries are framed inside with massive timbers—in many cases, now the sole remnants of eastern old-growth forests that were erased to help create the metropolis. Tree-ring scientists Caroline Leland and Mukund Palat Rao are salvaging these rare artifacts from demolitions of old buildings with the aim of studying past climates. Some rings in the timbers record yearly weather conditions going back to the 1500s—data available nowhere else, since most trees that old were cut down long ago. On-site collection of timbers has been on hold recently, but is expected to resume. Story on the project
RESURRECTED SPRINGS | Studies of 1800s spas, Northeast states | TBD
The infrastructure of many Northeastern U.S. commercial warm springs popular with 19th century tourists has been left to decay or been demolished; locations of some have been lost. Working with local historians, geologists Dallas Abbott and Bill Menke are searching out sites in New England and New York state to study them. Among other things, they will compare old temperature readings of waters with new ones to judge whether possible subtle rises in temperature could indicate if global warming has affected underground waters.
WIDER UNITED STATES
MYSTERIOUS CREATURES | Studies of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints, Utah, Arizona | ONGOING
The remote slickrock deserts of the Colorado Plateau are rife with footprints left by dinosaurs, and also with petroglyphs left by long-ago native peoples. Grad student Bennett Slibeck is studying the possible relationship between the two. Dinosaur prints have been found very close to petroglyphs (carved in stone) and pictoglyphs (painted on), strongly suggesting that the former inspired the latter. Images suggest that their makers interpreted the prints to have been left by giant birds—an eerily accurate vision, given that scientists only recently concluded that birds are, in fact, dinosaurs’ most direct living descendants. Slibeck, who himself is Indigenous, is working with archaeologists and elders of the Navajo, Hopi, Paiute and Kaibab people to document these features and understand their cultural context.
TOXIC ARCTIC WATERS | Observations of microbe blooms, northwest Alaska | SUMMER/FALL 2025 AND ONGOING
Biological oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam is helping study the waters off the coastal Chukchi Sea community of Kotzebue, where warming has led to rapid declines in sea ice and summer blooms of cyanobacteria that can harm ecosystems and marine food supplies. Indigenous citizens helped design the program, and are monitoring waters by boat and with instruments moored to the bottom. The project is called “Qiñiġniaḷak qiñiġnaqsiḷugu,” Iñupiaq for “Making the invisible visible.” Article on the project
WHITHER THE TUNDRA | Arctic vegetation studies, northern Alaska | SUMMER 2025
The Toolik Lake research station, on the tundra of Alaska’s North Slope, has been the site of continuous ecological research for some 50 years, part of a worldwide network aimed at understanding long-term cycles and changes in nature, especially in regard to climate change. Principal investigator at Toolik is plant physiologist Kevin Griffin. He and ecologists Natalie Boelman and Shahid Naeem are engaged in a range of work each summer on the effects of climate change on plants and tundra biodiversity. Much other work is being done by researchers from other institutions. Toolik Station website
CRITICAL ZONE | Studies of climate’s effects on orchards, Texas, Mexico | SUMMER 2025
Earth’s so-called critical zone extends from the top of the vegetation canopy to deep groundwater, where complex interactions among organisms, air, moisture and soil regulate what can grow and flourish. In many arid regions, increasingly severe and frequent heat waves and droughts are hurting crops, but the exact physics are poorly understood. Researchers including Mukund Palat Rao will place sophisticated instruments in pecan orchards in the west Texas border town of Tornillo, and in neighboring Chihuahua state, Mexico. These will continuously measure factors including canopy temperature, tree growth and the relationship between soil and plant moisture. It is hoped that this data will help growers adapt. Project overview
TROPICAL TREES, STORMS AND CLIMATE | Forest surveys, Puerto Rico | ONGOING
Recent hurricanes have devastated tropical forests, and future storms are expected to become more intense with warming climate. This is especially true in Puerto Rico, where 2017’s Hurricane Maria killed or severely damaged a quarter of the island’s big, old trees. Now, many of these trees are being naturally replaced with species that may be less resilient to droughts and other forces. Forest ecologist Maria Uriarte and colleagues are working to assess the long-term outlook for forests. Much of the work focuses on plots Luquillo Experimental Forest, near the capital of San Juan. Story, video, slideshow on Uriarte’s work
BETTER SEPTIC | Innovative wastewater systems, Alabama | ONGOING
In poor rural Alabama, municipal sewage systems are few and far between, and many private ones just consist of a pipe running to a nearby ditch or stream. As a result, in at least one county, a full third of residents suffer from sewage-related parasitic hookworm. In a pilot project, teams are building 15 modular small-scale wastewater systems, each serving about 20 households or businesses, similar to ones used by the U.S. military at temporary bases. If the pilot is successful, such systems could be built to serve many other areas. Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center, co-leads the project. Alabama Violated Rights in Sewage Case | Project web pages
EXPLOSIVE POTENTIAL | Spotting land mines with aerial geophysics | Pawnee, Oklahoma | TBD
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are the latest manifestations of a worldwide menace: more than 100 million land mines and other unexploded munitions kill thousands every year, even long after conflicts are over. Detecting them with handheld instruments is slow and dangerous. A team co-led by grad student Jasper Baur is testing ways to find them more quickly and safely using instrument-equipped drones and artificial intelligence. In one effort, they have buried about 150 real but disarmed devices at an explosives range in rural Oklahoma, where researchers can visit to test airborne magnetometers, ground-penetrating radar and thermal imaging devices. Baur and colleagues are also working directly in Ukraine. Story on the project
RESETTING THE HUMAN CLOCK | Dating early stone tools, southern California | TBD
Evidence is mounting that humans settled the Americas well before the longtime conventional date of some 13,000 years ago. Geochemists Sidney Hemming and Tanzhuo Liu may be on the trail of the most radically early date: some 45,000 years ago. But this is based on analysis of just a single stone tool about the size of a child’s palm, found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. There are abundant stone artifacts in this arid, barren area; working with archaeologists, Hemming and Liu hope to collect more material from several ancient sites. Analyses to determine the tools’ age will be done using rock varnish, a natural substance that forms on stony surfaces over thousands of years. Anza-Borrego Park
INTERNATIONAL
FROM RUBBLE TO RESILIENCE | Aiding earthquake recovery, Turkey | ONGOING
A February 2023 earthquake in Turkey’s Hatay Province killed 55,000 people, left more than a million homeless, and leveled public infrastructure. As the region struggles to rebuild, researchers co-led by Jacqueline Klopp of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development are looking into how to help organize, and address structural and geologic vulnerabilities that made the quake so catastrophic. Among the challenges: there is no central hub for researchers and policymakers to tap; many people still live and work from containers meant to be temporary; and there are flooding, dust and waste-management issues. Work is in conjunction with Mustafa Kemal University and the Columbia School of Architecture. Story on the project
DINOSAURS ON ICE | Geology transects, northwest China | SUMMER 2025
For most of their reign, dinosaurs are thought to have lived in warm, humid conditions. However, recent studies have suggested they became dominant after about 200 million years ago when they survived a cold period that wiped out most competitors. One author of such a study, paleontologist Paul Olsen, will travel with colleagues through the desert of northwest China’s Junggar Basin, which holds many of the world’s best-preserved dinosaur fossils, along with evidence of freezing conditions during a crucial period 202 million years ago. To clarify the picture of this time, they will sample sediments from outcrops and drill cores. Dinosaurs Took Over Amid Ice, Not Fire
OLD WAYS | Studying ancestral conservation methods, Papua New Guinea | SPRING/SUMMER 2025
Anthropologist Paige West and Indigenous leader and scholar John Aini are working with communities in the New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea to understand and revitalize traditional Indigenous conservation practices, and develop new forms of resilience in the face of climate change. West will also work with collaborators to develop a new project examining changes in traditional religious practices, the loss of local languages and the effects of climate change. Decolonizing Conservation in the Pacific | Reimagining Conservation Practice in Papua New Guinea
ICY SIGHTS AND SOUNDS | Studies of wasting glaciers, Italy, Greenland | SUMMER 2025
Hit by record temperatures, glaciers in northern Italy’s rugged Dolomite Mountains are quickly melting. Geophysicist Marco Tedesco and colleagues will fly drones equipped with instruments over Mount Adamello, which hosts Italy’s largest glacier, to characterize the amount of melting and the exact processes at work. They will also deploy microphones to record the sounds of meltwater rushing under the surface, and relate that to their surface observations. A similar mission will take place at the Russell Glacier in western Greenland. Melting of the Greenland Ice, Up Close
BEDROCK CLUES | Coring rock under Greenland ice | SUMMER 2025 and 2026
In 2016, scientists led by geochemist Joerg Schaefer raised a stir by asserting that the Greenland ice melted to bedrock at least once in the recent geologic past—suggesting it could happen again with human-induced climate change. In 2023, he and colleagues achieved a scientific first by drilling through more than 1,500 feet of ice into bedrock, to gather more evidence. This summer, they will return to drill more sites in remote northeast Greenland. Also involved: Nicolás Young and Gisela Winckler. Project web pages | Story on the project | Greenland ice melted to bedrock in the past
AFRICAN SMOG | Air pollution studies, Kenya, Zanzibar | SUMMER 2025 AND ONGOING
Much of sub-Saharan Africa suffers from drastic air pollution that kills as many as 700,000 people a year, and most countries have no means to measure pollution or pinpoint its sources, much less address it. Atmospheric scientist Dan Westervelt and colleagues have designed low-cost monitors and are now helping governments set up networks to chart pollution from cooking fires, garbage burning, vehicles, generators and other sources. This year they are continuing previous work in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. They will also deploy monitors in Zanzibar, to get some of the first air-quality information from there. Project website | Air Pollution in the Global South
GETTING THERE | Improving informal urban transport, Africa, Latin America, Asia | SUMMER 2025 and ONGOING
In many big cities of the Global South, there is little organized public transport; rickshaws, motorcycles, minibuses and other largely unregulated private vehicles are the main way to get around. This exacerbates traffic congestion and air pollution, among other problems. In eight cities, a new global consortium is partnering with transport operators, passengers, governments and technology firms to explore ways these services might be improved to bring about better efficiency, access and public health. Projects in Accra, Bangkok, Beijing, Bogotá, Cape Town, Kumasi, Mumbai and San José. Led by Jacqueline Klopp of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development. Project website | A ‘digital commons’ to track African urban transport
MILLENNIA OF CLIMATE ADAPTATION | Ethnographic, archaeological investigations, southwest Madagascar | SUMMER 2025 and ONGOING
A team of researchers co-led by Kristina Douglass and Indigenous Malagasy people is using archaeological, ethnographic and ecological data to investigate how residents have adapted farming, fishing, foraging and herding to big natural climate swings over the last 3,000 to 5,000 years. Human-influenced climate change presents new threats, and the past may help act as a guide to how the Malagasy can adapt in the future. Spinoff projects include investigations of the early settlement of Madagascar, past megafauna extinctions, and the effects of modern coral harvesting. Project website
WARNING SIGNS | Volcano monitoring, Costa Rica, Chile | ONGOING AND JANUARY-MARCH 2026
Some 80 active volcanoes worldwide threaten people, but dependable eruption forecasts are elusive, because many are in poor, remote areas, and unmonitored with modern technology. Volcanologists Terry Plank, Einat Lev and colleagues are working to create a standardized package of instruments and protocols that can be duplicated cheaply across the world and monitored remotely. Experimental arrays have been deployed in the Aleutian Islands’ Cleveland and Okmok volcanoes, and Costa Rica’s Poás Volcano. A trip to Chile’s active Villarrica Volcano is planned for 2026. Multimedia report on Poás | Project web page | Villarricca web page
SINKING AND SHAKING | Studies of land subsidence, earthquakes in Bangladesh | TBD
Across much of low-lying Bangladesh, sea levels are rising and land is sinking, causing flooding and pollution of fresh water aquifers. On top of this, it has become clear that the region faces risk of catastrophic earthquakes. Geophysicist Michael Steckler and colleagues are studying the forces at work, especially near the coast. The results are aimed at helping the nation design and maintain dikes, wells and other infrastructure. Steckler makes frequent trips, including to the coastal Sundarbans, home of the world’s largest remaining mangrove forest. Bangladesh earthquake risk | Watch a documentary | Project blog
MONSOON MYSTERIES | Ocean-going studies, Bay of Bengal/Arabian Sea | TBD
A third of the world depends on agriculture fed by seasonal Asian monsoon rainfall, which is governed largely by sea-surface temperatures and currents in the Indian Ocean. In recent decades, the ocean has undergone pronounced warming, which may be changing patterns. In an attempt to understand two key areas—the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea—research ships from India and the United States are carrying out a series of cruises. Research combines remote sensing with shipboard measurement and deployment of autonomous underwater gliders. Biological oceanographer Joaquim Goes is one of the key participants.
OCEAN INVADERS | Studies of harmful plankton off Oman | TBD
It’s part plant, part animal, and it’s taking over. It’s Noctiluca scintillans, a floating organism that forms thick, slimy mats on the ocean, feeding on everything from sunlight to fish eggs. It is thriving off Oman in the Arabian Sea, where climate change has created ideal conditions for it. This is damaging Oman’s fishing and aquaculture, clogging water intakes of oil refineries and desalination plants, and hurting tourism. Oceanographer Joaquim Goes is leading a seagoing study of the organism and how to deal with it. The creatures are now spreading off southeast Asia and India, and may eventually reach other areas. Studying Bioluminescent Blooms in the Arabian Sea
CLEARER AIR | Access to cleaner cooking, central Ghana | ONGOING THRU 2028
Some 3 billion people cook with wood and other biomass on rudimentary stoves, producing a fifth of the world’s black-carbon emissions, along with substantial adverse health effects. In a central Ghana region with 30,000 people, researchers are exploring ways to transition people in farming communities to new cookware and cleaner fuels, including propane. Surveys of existing air quality are the first step. Staff includes geochemist Steven Chillrud, who measures human exposure. Project web page
A BIGGER GRID | Surveys to expand rural electricity, Uganda, Zambia | ONGOING
Some 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. This project aims to bring half of them online in the next 4 years by directing private capital in the most efficient ways. Many past efforts have focused on homes, schools and health facilities. Instead, engineer Vijay Modi and colleagues are focusing on agricultural lands where electricity would increase income. Researchers are using satellite imagery, interviews and data on crops, livestock, irrigation systems and agricultural processing and storage systems to identify such areas. Areas closest to existing grids may be brought on; in more remote places, construction of mini solar-powered grids for a few hundred families might make more sense. Project web page
WANING GLACIERS | Citizen surveys, Peru | JUNE 2025
Anthropologist Benjamin Orlove of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society is surveying people in various parts of the world who are affected by declines of nearby glaciers, and how they are trying to adapt. In Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, his research focuses on changes in water availability, increases in floods and droughts, and alteration of significant landscapes. In his study area, residents’ primary challenge is coping with reduced water for irrigation and domestic use.
MELTDOWN ON ICE | Surveys of meltwater ponds, streams in Antarctica | NOV-DEC 2025
Scientists have recently documented a substantial number of seasonal meltwater ponds and streams atop the Antarctic ice sheet, which are expected to increase as climate warms. They could hasten deterioration of the ice, in part by fracturing it. Most such features identified have been found on floating ice shelves. Now, a team co-led by glaciologist Jonathan Kingslake will look at meltwater on ice fixed to land, where liquid may drain downward and speed ice flow by lubricating the bottom. Initial fieldwork will take place at the Flask Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula. Project website | Water is streaming across Antarctica
DEEP UNDER ICE | Drilling Under Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf | NOV 2025-JAN 2026
A team from 13 nations plans to penetrate 580 meters through floating ice at the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, through underlying ocean waters, and on into some 200 meters of sediment. They hope to recover the remains of ancient microorganisms that will signal whether the ice sheet has collapsed during past times when temperatures were similar to those projected for this century. If it has, it could signal catastrophic future sea-level rise. No one has ever drilled into the Antarctic seabed so far from a major base and so near the ice sheet’s center. Contact: Jonathan Kingslake. Project website
DROUGHT MYSTERIES | Tree-ring sampling, Senegal, Ghana | APRIL 2025, 2026
Tree-ring scientists have worked around the world to build comprehensive records of past natural droughts and other weather patterns vital for building models of how changing climate may affect each region. Sub-Sahara Africa is a black hole in this regard, due to lack of species that produce readable annual rings, and a dearth of old trees that have survived cutting. A team led by dendrochronologist Edward Cook will work in Senegal in April 2025 to collect rings from four tree species whose potential for holding reliable records has newly been established. The team plans to work in Ghana in April 2026. Drought forecasting is especially important in West Africa, where most agriculture is rain-fed, and hydropower is a major source of electricity. Lamont-Doherty Tree Ring Lab web pages
RESTORING AMAZONIA | Research, training to revive degraded lands, Brazil, Colombia, Peru | TBD
Deforestation in much of the Amazon has been followed by poor land-use practices that have led to sinking agricultural productivity, polluted waters and habitats unsuitable for native species. A new initiative led by ecologist Maria Uriarte will create a program aimed at researching best restoration practices and training students to carry them out. The four-year program will be implemented in Peru’s Madre de Dios department, Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, and various sites in Colombia. The work will focus on degraded pastures, gold-mining areas and logged forests. Strategies could include replanting of valuable native timber species interspersed with suitable commercial crops. The researchers will work directly with small, medium and large private investors to carry out projects.
MORE POTENTIAL RESEARCH; DETAILS WHEN AVAILABLE:
Geologist Folarin Kolawole and colleagues are conducting ongoing research into the fault system believed to have caused the sizable April 5, 2024 New Jersey earthquake that shook much of the U.S. Northeast. Work includes mapping of surface rock formations affected by past earthquakes, and geophysical probes of the subsurface. Article on preliminary fieldwork
Geophysicist Leonard Ohenhen will be working with colleagues to investigate the forces causing many levees around New Orleans to slowly sink, while the areas behind them remain stable. Ohenhen has expertise in both satellite imagery and using measurements of subsurface electrical resistivity to diagnose changes in ground levels.
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness is conducting workshops for state and municipal employees at many sites to help with planning for climate resilience, post-disaster economic and housing recovery, mass-care community sheltering and relocation assistance.
Geochemist Alexander Van Geen and colleagues are working in the Vailsburg neighborhood of Newark, N.J. to distribute simple do-it-yourself kits for people to test their homes for the presence of deteriorating lead paint. Many here were built 80 or more years ago, and could contain hazardous levels.