Water’s dissolved oxygen content is critical to estuarine ecosystems—if the level drops too low, even for a short time, it can stress or kill marine life.
Measuring dissolved oxygen can provide key information about the health of an estuary. Dedicated volunteers with the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s Baywatchers program have been measuring dissolved oxygen for over 30 years, sampling more than 20 times each summer at 200 stations across 30 estuaries.
However, dissolved oxygen levels can change rapidly over the course of a day. Low oxygen events can be caused by hot spells, or when windless conditions limit oxygen exchange between the water and the air. Lowest oxygen levels typically occur at night or very early in the morning when algae and aquatic plants are using oxygen and not producing oxygen by photosynthesis. Some of these lows are missed by our current sampling method.
New technology has produced relatively low-cost automated sensors that can continuously measure dissolved oxygen, taking readings every 1, 5, or 15 minutes. These sensors provide large amounts of high-resolution data, and a much clearer picture of an estuary’s health and threats to marine life.
As a new technology, researchers and conservation groups still need to develop methods to deploy and maintain the sensors, manage the large amounts of incoming data, and communicate complex data patterns to people who need the information.
Our Work
Continuous Oxygen Monitoring in Buzzards Bay is a collaborative project of Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Buzzards Bay Coalition, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Onset Computer Corporation.
The COMBB Project tests deploying continuous sensors to measure dissolved oxygen and water quality, engages volunteers with this new technology, and synthesizes the data in a way that is understandable and actionable for local residents, municipal officials, and state regulators who make decisions about water quality.
We will deploy sensors at multiple locations within the West Falmouth, Wareham River, Acushnet River, and Westport River estuaries. With two of these estuaries, we are comparing the performance of sensors placed at fixed locations with sensors deployed on mobile TideRider robots that move up and down the estuaries and up and down in the water column. The project team will develop new procedures to maintain sensors and to check, store, and display the measurement data.
Alongside our work with the sensors, we conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to seek input from local communities:
- We survey water quality monitoring volunteers to learn how they can contribute to new continuous water monitoring as well as traditional methods.
- We ask town officials about how they can best use the new continuous data.
- We consult state regulators to make sure the new data can be fed into regulatory processes and used to develop new water quality standards.
Impact
Locally, COMBB will provide more detailed data on the health of multiple Massachusetts estuaries, and improve our understanding of how dissolved oxygen changes over time in these areas.
More broadly, findings from the project will be shared beyond Buzzards Bay and Massachusetts to help water quality monitoring groups across the U.S. develop methods and best practices for expanding the scope of continuous water quality monitoring.
Support for this project comes from a grant from the National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities Program and the Buzzards Bay Coalition.
Most deforestation in the DRC today is driven by the expansion of smallholder farming systems.
Each year, the country loses roughly 1,200 square miles of forest (0.20%), and this rate has remained constant over the last decade. The decline in the extent and quality of forests in the region increases food insecurity and destabilizes local markets, making some 6 million rural households progressively more vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change.
Integrating the protection, management, and restoration of both primary forest and biodiversity (nature based climate solutions) within a framework of economic growth and poverty reduction is the key to sustainable development. In the DRC, success hinges on local community empowerment and participation—not just as passive beneficiaries of policy, but as active leaders and managers in the process.
Our Work
Projet Équateur aims to promote investment in the conservation and regeneration of forest landscapes and biodiversity, improve livelihoods, and promote economic development in the DRC through scientific research, education, and capacity building.
Since 2011, we have operated Projet Équateur from a base of operations in Mbandaka, the provincial capital of Équateur. We work in partnership with the national and provincial governments, as well as other local stakeholders, to promote scientific approaches to land use planning and management for a low-emissions future. Activities are organized around three key areas:
- Researching investment in improved forest landscape governance and management to assess tradeoffs and create equitable incentives. We share knowledge critical to scaling the implementation of natural climate solutions, and develop measurable standards for a high-integrity carbon market and other performance-based finance.
- Strengthening land use planning and management processes to combat deforestation and biodiversity loss. We are trialing low-input food production technologies to improve food security and nutrition, and reduce the yield gap; introducing new cookstoves to better manage demands on woody biomass; and connecting commodity producers to markets to help generate greater household income.
- Developing models for a “Green Economy” using carbon credits and other performance-based mechanisms to finance sustainable forest landscape management. These include: integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation issues into provincial and national development planning; monitoring and evaluating emission performance from the land sector; and applying benefits sharing and payments for performance mechanisms to incentivize low-emission development.
Impact
This project is helping identify key pathways to the lasting protection of 643,000 km2 of primary forests at risk in the DRC, for the benefit of people and nature. Our science supports selecting and scaling pathways to improve food security and income generation for more than 6 million smallholder subsistence farms by developing the operational models and financial mechanisms needed to mobilize national policy and provincial plans for a sustainable forest landscape. These approaches can develop accountability and transparency in public policy and empower local communities to conserve forest resources and drive community development.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Glenn Bush, Associate Scientist, gbush@woodwellclimate.org, 508-444-1570
Beth Brazil, Senior Director of Foundation Relations, bbrazil@woodwellclimate.org, 508-444-1549
Climate change is a threat multiplier—exacerbating existing societal stressors and regional instabilities.
Although climate change has been identified by policymakers as a critical national security issue, granular climate impacts are rarely included in security strategy. In 2021, Woodwell Climate’s Risk team began to address these needs through a collaborative research and policy-development effort with the Center for Climate & Security (CCS), a non-partisan security institute. In this interdisciplinary collaboration between the scientific and security communities, our goal is to provide actionable climate intelligence that can be used to directly inform security policy.
Our Work
We quantify and map key climate risks that have the potential to aggravate existing instabilities and tensions in the future—from the impacts of crop yield failure on food security in Iran and North Korea, to the threat of permafrost thaw on critical infrastructure in the Arctic.
We examine these impacts and others in our most recent collaboration, focusing on the key geographies of Iran and Türkiye in the Middle East. This follows from our first suite of climate security case studies, with full reports and interactive StoryMaps on the China-India border region (storymap), the Arctic (storymap), and North Korea (storymap).
Impact
In each case study, we go beyond just assessing key climate risks. In partnership with CCS, we offer comprehensive, policy-relevant climate security analysis and science-based policy recommendations.
By identifying and addressing the ways in which climate change can aggravate and catalyze existing threats, climate-aware security policy can help avoid the worst security scenarios and prepare for those that are unavoidable.
If you would like to connect with us about this work, please contact Project Lead Dr. Alex Naegele at anaegele@woodwellclimate.org or climatesecurity@woodwellclimate.org.