REALLY tiny bubbles could help fight algal blooms

New technology using something called nanobubbles—tiny gas bubbles that are several thousand times smaller than a grain of sand—could help fight Ohio’s harmful algal blooms. Testing, with CFAES as a partner, is about to begin.

“This could be a game-changer for small lakes and reservoirs,” said Heather Raymond, director of the CFAES Water Quality Initiative.

Read the story. (Photo: Getty Images.)

Earth Day webinar: Soil as climate solution

Ever wonder what it will take to slow down the planet’s warming?

The cause is excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the answer might be right under our feet.

A webinar set for Thursday, April 22, 1–2 p.m., hosted by the CFAES Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, will celebrate Earth Day with insights from Ohio State faculty on Earth’s carbon cycle, and how we can restore it by storing carbon in soils.

Participation is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Find out more and register.

(From Alayna DeMartini, CFAES Advancement; photo: Getty Images.)

A career spent on, in, and helping our waters

From an early age, Mark Monaco knew he wanted to spend his life working in marine science. He’s been able to do just that thanks to the start he received at CFAES—a start immersed, often literally, in Lake Erie.

Continue reading A career spent on, in, and helping our waters

America’s forests as climate solutions

In America’s fight to reduce carbon emissions, expanding and better managing the nation’s forests would be the cheapest and easiest steps to take.

That’s according to new research by CFAES’ Brent Sohngen, who is slated as one of eight speakers—from academia, government agencies, advocacy groups, and multiple states—in a free public webinar titled “The Economics of U.S. Forests as a Natural Climate Solution.”

Set for April 29, noon to 2 p.m., the webinar is a joint program by CFAES, North Carolina State University, the University of Maine, the University of Idaho, and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations.

Read more about the webinar and Sohngen’s research.

Register for the webinar. (Photo: Getty Images.)

Learn to identify Ohio’s mushrooms

April is mushroom season in Ohio, and you can learn about more than 140 different types—Which ones are good to eat? Which ones could kill you?—in a full-color handbook published by OSU Extension, CFAES’ outreach arm. Titled Mushrooms and Macrofungi of Ohio and the Midwestern States (166 pp.), it’s available in print ($20) and as a PDF ($8.50).

CFAES sustainability news, April 9, 2021

Floating gardens as a way to keep farming despite climate change

Ohio State News, March 31

Ohio bill seeks to deregulate state’s streams, wetlands and ponds

WKBN-TV, Youngstown, March 31; featuring Mažeika Sullivan, School of Environment and Natural Resources and director, Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park

Moving toward net-zero dairy farms

“Farming Is Striving for Net Zero Impacts.” That’s the headline of a Forbes.com interview with CFAES alumnus David Darr (BS ’99, MS ’01, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics), who is Dairy Farmers of America’s (DFA) senior vice president and chief strategy and sustainability officer.

DFA, the interview reports, is one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the United States, and is also the first U.S. co-op to set science-based environmental targets for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050—a step in fighting climate change.

Continue reading Moving toward net-zero dairy farms