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VOL. 101 | NO. 2 Our Magnetic Brains
FEBRUARY 2020
Los Angeles’s
Shaky Underbelly
Beavers: Nature’s Firefighters
Up in
Smoke As wildfires scorch the land,
scientists are using novel methods
to study the damage to our air.
FROM THE EDITOR
Editor in Chief
Heather Goss, AGU, Washington, D.C., USA; Eos_EIC@agu.org
Editorial
Finding Wildfire’s Fingerprint Manager, News and Features Editor
Science Editor
Caryl-Sue Micalizio
Timothy Oleson
in the Atmosphere
Senior News Writer Randy Showstack
News Writer and Production Associate Kimberly M. S. Cartier
News and Production Fellow Jenessa Duncombe
Production & Design
W
ildfires seem to be everywhere in the news lately. Manager, Production and Operations Faith A. Ishii
Senior Production Specialist Melissa A. Tribur
For those of us in the United States, and particularly Editorial and Production Coordinator Liz Castenson
in California, “wildfire season” evokes a clear sense Assistant Director, Design & Branding Beth Bagley
of dread, having personally touched so many us. (I have several Senior Graphic Designer Valerie Friedman
Graphic Designer J. Henry Pereira
friends who lost homes—thankfully, though, nothing more—
during the 2017 Thomas Fire in my hometown.) As the calen- Marketing
dar turned over to 2020, wildfires in Australia had burned more Director, Marketing, Branding & Advertising Jessica Latterman
than 10 million acres in a month—at what was only the start Assistant Director, Marketing & Advertising Liz Zipse
a blazingly hot and dry summer. In Indonesia, ultrafine par- Marketing Program Manager Angelo Bouselli
Senior Specialist, Digital Marketing Nathaniel Janick
ticles from agricultural practices that ignite peatlands have Digital Marketing Coordinator Ashwini Yelamanchili
serious effects on the health of tens of thousands of people in
the region each year. Advertising
The air is filling with smoke. Scientists, gratefully, are busy Display Advertising Dan Nicholas
dnicholas@wiley.com
figuring out the answers to all our questions: What is the smoke made of, where is it all going,
Recruitment Advertising Heather Cain
and just how bad is it? We’ve compiled this special issue of Eos to take a close look at the grow- hcain@wiley.com
ing field of wildfire emissions research, pulling in experts from across a dozen disciplines of
Science Advisers
the geosciences.
Geomagnetism, Paleomagnetism, Julie Bowles
Ralph Kahn of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center offers us “A Global Perspective on Wild- and Electromagnetism
fires” on page 18. An expert on aerosols and remote sensing technology, Kahn describes the Space Physics and Aeronomy Christina M. S. Cohen
Cryosphere Ellyn Enderlin
many satellite instruments being used to study wildfire emissions today. Scientists are over-
Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior Edward J. Garnero
coming the disadvantages of observations from space from any one satellite (e.g., relatively Geodesy Brian C. Gunter
low resolution, narrow observation bands, orbital paths that limit revisits) by combining data History of Geophysics Kristine C. Harper
Planetary Sciences Sarah M. Hörst
from what are now a wealth of instruments overhead. The gaps in these low-Earth-orbit obser-
Natural Hazards Michelle Hummel
vations of smoke plumes, in both spatial and temporal coverage, can also be filled in by chem- Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Emily R. Johnson
ical transport models; the models themselves can be constrained and validated by the obser- Seismology Keith D. Koper
vational data. With each pass overhead, our Earth observers are giving us a clearer picture of Tectonophysics Jian Lin
Near-Surface Geophysics Juan Lorenzo
smoke emissions and how they travel through the atmosphere. Earth and Space Science Informatics Kirk Martinez
A major challenge right now is figuring out the effects of wildfires on global climate, and Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Figen Mekik
the reverse: the changing climate’s effect on wildfires. On page 30 (“Firing Up Climate Mod- Mineral and Rock Physics Sébastien Merkel
Ocean Sciences Jerry L. Miller
els”), you’ll meet the FIREX-AQ team flying over the western United States in a DC-8, trying Global Environmental Change Philip J. Rasch
to collect enough information to more accurately incorporate fires into global climate models. Education Eric M. Riggs
It’s a herculean job when one considers the wild variations of fires in size, biomass fuel, and, Hydrology Kerstin Stahl
Tectonophysics Carol A. Stein
of course, whether they’re ignited by human or natural sources. Most models today don’t even Atmospheric Sciences Mika Tosca
attempt to incorporate them, but FIREX-AQ and several other teams in our feature story believe Nonlinear Geophysics Adrian Tuck
that understanding wildfires is crucial to truly understanding—and forecasting—our climate. Hydrology Adam S. Ward
Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Andrew C. Wilcox
For a bit of respite from these disasters, turn to page 12 (“Beavers: Nature’s ‘Little Firefight- Yoav Yair
Atmospheric and Space Electricity
ers’”) to learn about some habitat protection provided by our favorite dam builders. Ecohy- GeoHealth Ben Zaitchik
drologist Emily Fairfax searched through records of forest fires in North America that occurred Societal Impacts and Policy Sciences Mary Lou Zoback
near beaver habitats and discovered that their dams acted as irrigation channels, keeping
nearby vegetation insulated from the flames. Be sure to visit this news story online to view ©2020. AGU. All Rights Reserved. Material in this issue may be photocopied by
the stop-motion animation Fairfax created to illustrate the beavers’ influence on their wooded individual scientists for research or classroom use. Permission is also granted
to use short quotes, figures, and tables for publication in scientific books and
surroundings (bit.ly/natures-firefighters). journals. For permission for any other uses, contact the AGU Publications Office.
Visit us at Eos.org for all these articles and many more as part of our wildfire emissions spe- Eos (ISSN 0096-3941) is published monthly by AGU, 2000 Florida Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20009, USA. Periodical Class postage paid at Washington, D.C.,
cial coverage through February. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Member
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Submit your article proposal or suggest a news story to Eos at bit.ly/Eos-proposal.
Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official positions
of AGU unless expressly stated.
Christine W. McEntee, Executive Director/CEO
Heather Goss, Editor in Chief
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 1
CONTENT
24
18 30
Features
18 A Global Perspective 24 Exposing Los Angeles’s
on Wildfires Shaky Geologic Underbelly
By Ralph Kahn By Robert W. Clayton et al.
Satellites provide global-scale data that are invaluable Current calculations might underestimate the
in efforts to understand, monitor, and respond to susceptibility of Los Angeles to earthquake shaking,
wildfires and emissions, which are increasingly so researchers and volunteers are deploying seismic
affecting climate and putting humans at risk. networks around the city to remedy a data shortage.
On the Cover 30 Firing Up Climate Models
Wildfires in Russia, seen here, burned so large and so close to By Adityarup Chakravorty
population centers in 2019 that several Siberian cities were
Scientists are working to incorporate wildfire data into
choked under clouds of smoke for days. Credit: Anton Petrus/
climate models, resolving hindrances related to scale,
Moment/Getty Images
speed, and the complex feedbacks between the climate
and wildfire emissions.
2 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020
CONTENT
13 42
16 44
Columns
From the Editor AGU News
1 Finding Wildfire’s Fingerprint in the Atmosphere 35 Celebrating the 2019 Class of Fellows
News Research Spotlight
4 Using Satellites and Supercomputers to Track 41 An Intergrated History of the Australian-
Arctic Volcanoes Antarctic Basin
5 Will Melting Sea Ice Expose Marine Animals 42 Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions
to New Diseases? with Artificial Intelligence
7 Human Brains Have Tiny Bits of Magnetic Material 42 Sunlight Stimulates Brown Algae to Release
8 A Dirty Truth: Humans Began Accelerating Organic Carbon
Soil Erosion 4,000 Years Ago 43 Curiosity Rover Reveals Oxygen Mystery
9 Geophysics Recruits Radio Telescopes in Martian Atmosphere
10 What Do You Get When You Cross a Thunderstorm 44 Theoretical Models Advance Knowledge
with a Wildfire? of Ocean Circulation
11 Using Garnets to Explore Arc Magma Oxidation 44 A “Super” Solution for Modeling Clouds
12 Beavers: Nature’s “Little Firefighters”
Positions Available
Opinion 45 Current job openings in the Earth and space sciences
13 Creating Spaces for Geoscientists with Disabilities
to Thrive Postcards from the Field
16 Improving Reproducibility in Earth Science Research
48 Bedrock flow processes are the focus of these
researchers, who say hello to us from the Laramie
Range in Wyoming.
AmericanGeophysicalUnion @AGU_Eos company/american-geophysical-union AGUvideos americangeophysicalunion americangeophysicalunion
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 3
NEWS
Using Satellites and Supercomputers
to Track Arctic Volcanoes
C
onical clues of volcanic activity speckle Geophysical Research Letters in 2017 (bit.ly/ often missing. Now ArcticDEM measure-
the Aleutian Islands, a chain that measure-lava). The success of that research ments spanning over a decade can be used to
spans the meeting place of the Pacific guided her current applications of ArcticDEM better understand and monitor changes to
Ring of Fire and the edge of the Arctic. (The for terrain mapping. the Arctic surface shortly following such
chain also spans the U.S. state of Alaska Monitoring long-term changes in a volca- events, as well as years later.
and the Far Eastern Federal District of Rus- nic landscape is important, said Dai. “Ashes For example, the volcanic eruption at
sia.) Scientists are now turning to advanced easily can flow away by water and by rain and Okmok resulted in a sudden 2 00-meter ele-
satellite imagery and supercomputing to then cause dramatic changes after the erup- vation gain from the new cone’s formation
measure the scale of natural hazards like vol- tion,” she said. “Using this data, we can see
canic eruptions and landslides in the Aleu- these changes…so that’s pretty new.”
tians and across the Arctic surface over time. Creating time series algorithms with the
When Mount Okmok in Alaska unexpect- ArcticDEM data set, Dai tracks elevation
edly erupted in July 2008, satellite images changes from natural events and demon-
informed scientists that a new 200-meter strates the algorithms’ potential for moni-
cone had grown beneath the ashy plume. But toring the Arctic region. Her work has already
scientists suspected that topographic changes shown that erosion continues years after a
didn’t stop with the eruption and its imme- volcanic event, providing first-of-their-kind
diate aftermath. measurements of posteruption changes to
For long-term monitoring of the eruption, the landscape. Dai presented this research at
Chunli Dai, a geoscientist and senior research AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019 in San Francisco,
associate at the Ohio State University, Calif. (bit.ly/DEMs-land-surface).
accessed an extensive collection of digital
elevation models (DEMs) recently released by Elevating Measurement Methods
ArcticDEM, a joint initiative of the National “This is absolutely the best resolution DEM
G eospatial-Intelligence Agency and the data we have,” said Hannah Dietterich, a
National Science Foundation. With Arctic- research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological
DEM, satellite images from multiple angles Survey’s Alaska Volcano Observatory not
are processed by the Blue Waters petascale involved in the study. “Certainly, for volca-
supercomputer to provide elevation mea- noes in Alaska, we are excited about this.” In this map of ArcticDEM coverage, warmer colors
sures, producing high-resolution models of Volcanic events have traditionally been indicate more overlapping data sets available for
the Arctic surface. measured by aerial surveys or drones, which time series construction. Blue and red rectangles
Dai first used these models to measure are expensive and time-consuming methods mark mass wasting events, triangles identify volca-
variations in lava thickness and estimate the for long-term study. Once a hazardous event noes, and red stars show locations of active layer
volume that erupted from Tolbachik volcano occurs, Dietterich explained, the “before” detachments and retrogressive thaw slumps, both
in Kamchatka, Russia, in work published in shots in before-and-after image sets are used for studying landslides. Credit: Chunli Dai
The 2008 Okmok eruption in Alaska resulted in a new volcanic cone, as well as consistent erosion of that cone’s flanks over subsequent years. The volcano’s ring-shaped
plume is visible in the center of this satellite image. Credit: NASA image courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, N
ASA Goddard Space Flight Center
4 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020
NEWS
but also showed continuing erosion rates
along the cone flanks of up to 15 meters each
Will Melting Sea Ice Expose
year.
Marine Animals to New Diseases?
Landslides and Climate
For Dai, landslides provide an even more
exciting application of ArcticDEM technology.
Landslides are generally unmapped, she
explained, whereas “we know the locations of
volcanoes, so a lot of studies have been done.”
Mass redistribution maps for both the Kar-
rat Fjord landslide in Greenland in 2017 (bit
.ly/Karrat-Fjord) and the Taan Fiord landslide
in Alaska in 2015 (bit.ly/Taan-landslide) show
significant mass wasting captured by DEMs
before and after the events.
“We’re hoping that our project with this
new data program [will] provide a mass wast-
ing inventory that’s really new to the com-
munity,” said Dai, “and people can use it,
especially for seeing the connection to global
warming.” Northern sea otters are just one of many marine mammal species that can contract the phocine distemper virus
Climate change is associated with many (PDV), which is related to the canine distemper virus. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
landslides studied by Dai and her team, who
focus on mass wasting caused by thawing
permafrost. ArcticDEM is not currently
I
intended for predictive modeling, but as n 2004, Tracey Goldstein was trying to Northern sea otters “don’t move widely,”
crack a marine mammal mystery. Gold- said Goldstein, so the emergence of PDV in
stein, associate director of the One Health the Alaskan population “really surprised” her
Institute at the University of California, Davis and her colleagues. Researchers realized the
School of Veterinary Medicine, was part of a virus was likely transmitted to the otters by
“If we can measure [the team digging for answers about why Alaska’s some species of marine mammal that had
changing Arctic northern sea otter populations were plum- contact with European harbor seals exposed
meting. to the virus. “Nomadic Arctic seals with cir-
environment], then we can The falling number of otters was curious. cumpolar distributions (e.g., ringed and
get the linkage between Before the decline began, decreases in the
killing of otters for the fur trade had actually
bearded, Erignathus barbatus, seals) and geo-
graphic ranges that intersect with those of
global warming and its sparked a population rebound, Goldstein said. harp seals, may be carriers of PDV to the
North Pacific,” researchers write in Scientific
impact on the Arctic land.” Researchers still don’t know exactly what
made the otter populations dwindle. How- Reports (bit.ly/PDV-mammals).
ever, Goldstein was shocked by something This explanation presented one big prob-
she and her colleagues discovered while lem: Contact between Arctic and s ub-Arctic
screening the animals for a variety of dis- seal species was assumed to be impossible
more data are collected over time, patterns eases. Some of the animals had been exposed due to Arctic sea ice separating the species.
may emerge that could help inform future to the phocine distemper virus (PDV), which This left the team wondering whether there
permafrost loss or coastal retreat in the Arc- is pathogenic for pinnipeds and is closely could be a connection between the rapid
tic, according to Dietterich. “It is the best related to the measles virus and the canine melting of Arctic sea ice, driven by climate
available archive of data for when crises distemper virus. change, and the emergence of PDV in the
happen.” otters.
Global climate trends indicate that Arctic Same Virus, Different Location
environments will continue to change in the This wasn’t the first time researchers identi- Boundaries Melting Away
coming years. “If we can measure that, then fied a PDV outbreak in marine mammals. An In an international study conducted between
we can get the linkage between global warm- estimated 23,000 European harbor seals were 2001 and 2016, Goldstein and her colleagues
ing and its impact on the Arctic land,” said killed after they were sickened by the virus in probed connections between virus transmis-
Dai. 1988. In 2002, a second epidemic hit the sion patterns and environmental factors to
northern Atlantic Ocean, killing approxi- understand when and how PDV was intro-
mately 30,000 harbor seals. duced into the North Pacific.
By Lara Streiff (@laragstreiff), Science Commu- However, this was the first time a PDV out- “The study is ambitious in its interdisci-
nication Program Graduate Student, University break was confirmed in the northern Pacific plinary effort to summarize immunologi-
of California, Santa Cruz Ocean. cal data on prevalence of antibodies to PDV,
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 5
NEWS
molecular data on the P
DV strain, and data on sea lions. They also collected blood and tissue ice along the Russian coast was closed was
animal behavior and migration patterns” samples from 165 dead animals found on significantly associated with PDV exposure or
with ice extent data, said Karin Hårding, an beaches or that people had hunted for food. infection,” they add.
associate professor of biology and environ- The researchers then screened the samples Goldstein thinks that the PDV case pro-
mental studies at the University of Gothen- for active infection and the presence of anti- vides the first documented connection
burg in Sweden. Hårding wasn’t involved with bodies, which signify past exposure. between reduced sea ice coverage and the
the study. In addition, researchers “incorporated sat- emergence of a virus in a marine mammal
ellite telemetry data from ongoing ecological species.
studies of seals and Steller sea lions, which Hårding was more cautious. The relation-
provided a unique opportunity to combine ships between phenomena like ice coverage
animal movement and epidemiologic data of the Arctic basin and the prevalence of
In 2004, scientists to understand the potential spread of PDV,” antibodies “will always be correlations but
they write. do not prove causal relationships,” she
confirmed the first instance The scientists noticed two spikes in Pacific wrote. “However, the authors do not claim
of a phocine distemper PDV exposure and infection: one from 2003 [causation]. They just highlight interesting
to 2004 and another in 2009. August or Sep- patterns that coincide,” she added.
virus outbreak in the tember of 2002 and 2008 were months with As sea ice continues to melt in this warm-
northern Pacific Ocean. reduced amounts of Arctic sea ice, resulting ing world, will marine species be exposed to
in the opening of water routes between Rus- other diseases from which they were previ-
sia’s Arctic coast and the Pacific Ocean. ously isolated? Only time will tell, but “it has
Furthermore, in both 2001 and 2007, “sea happened once, and there’s likely going to be
ice blocked passage through at least part of the opportunity for it to happen again,” Gold-
Researchers collected nasal swab and blood the Arctic Ocean bordering Russia’s coast,” stein remarked.
samples from 2,530 live animals, including the researchers note. “When controlling for
northern sea otters, i ce-associated seals animal group and age class, presence of an
(including bearded, ribbon, spotted, and open water route along the northern Russian By Rachel Crowell (@writesRCrowell), Science
ringed seals), northern fur seals, and Steller coast following a year in which the Arctic sea Writer
6 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020
NEWS
Human Brains Have Tiny Bits of Magnetic Material
S
cientists have mapped magnetic mate-
rials in human brains for the first time,
revealing that our brains may selec-
tively contain more magnetic material in
their lower and more ancient regions.
Researchers used seven specimens donated
in Germany to measure brain tissue for signs
of magnetite, Earth’s most magnetic mineral.
Scientists have known that other types of life,
such as special kinds of bacteria, contain
magnetite. But the distribution of magnetite
in human brains has been unclear because no
systematic study had mapped the mineral in
human tissue before.
The results could shine a light on why Humans have areas of the brain that are more magnetic than other areas. Warm colors show higher levels
humans have magnetite in their brains to of magnetic resonance, measured here in nanoampere-square meter (or its magnetic moment) per kilogram
begin with, which remains an open question. of brain tissue. The upper region of the brain, the cerebrum, has low levels. The lower in the brain you go, the
Stuart Gilder, lead author of the study and a stronger the magnetic signal grows and are particularly high in the brain stem. Credit: Gilder et al., 2018, https://
scientist at Munich University, said that the doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29766-z
team’s results show that magnetic particles
exist in the “more ancient” part of the brain.
“We thought from an evolutionary stand-
point, that was important,” Gilder said. study was not so different, he said. “I could movement and autonomic functions like
essentially apply everything that I do to rock heart rate and breathing.
Magnetic Minds to brains,” Gilder said. The scientists cut the Gilder said that the pattern emerged in each
Scientists discovered the first hints of mag- preserved brains into 822 pieces and ran each of the seven brains, and it showed no differ-
nets in human brains in 1992, when a paper sample through a magnetometer, a machine ence depending on the person’s age or sex.
reported that tiny crystal grains, some barely in their lab used to measure records of Earth’s The brain stem had consistently higher mag-
wider than a DNA strand, were found in magnetic field in rocks. netization than any other region, although
human brain tissue from seven patients in Whether Gilder is studying rocks or brains, only five of the seven brains had intact brain
California (bit.ly/Magnetic-Minds). The crys- he measures their magnetism in two steps: stems.
tals looked just like the tiny magnets in mag- First, he tests a material’s natural magnetic Joseph Kirschvink, a professor at the Cali-
netotactic bacteria that help them navigate strength, which will typically be low. (Even if fornia Institute of Technology in Pasadena
along geomagnetic field lines in lakes and a material contains magnetic particles, their not involved in the study, said that the work
saltwater environments. dipoles point in random directions, poten- “confirms the biological origin of the brain
No one knows why or how magnetite gets tially canceling each other out.) magnetite.” Kirschvink said that the results
into human brains. Magnetite could serve Second, Gilder uses an electromagnet to in the study closely matched research he had
some physiological function, such as signal apply a strong magnetic field to the sample, performed in his lab, but the latest research
transmission in the brain, but scientists are which aligns the tiny magnetic particles so has “100 times more data.”
able only to speculate. One study of the fron- that they all face the same direction. “If I The scientists took pains to limit contam-
tal cortex of 37 human brains suggests that measure something that is more magnetic ination, cutting the samples with a ceramic
we breathe in magnetite from the environ- after I’ve applied a very big magnetic field, knife and staging the experiment inside a
ment through our noses. But other research- that’s proof that this material contains mag- magnetically shielded room in a forest far
ers, like Gilder, think magnetite comes from netic recording particles,” Gilder said. from urban pollution. They removed samples
internal sources. For the brain samples, the comparison with high levels of natural magnetic strength
revealed that magnetite was in “almost every that could have been polluted with fragments
From Rocks to Brains piece” of the specimens, said Gilder. of the saw cutting into the donors’ skulls
To find out some answers, Gilder and his team many years ago. Even with the potentially
dissected seven brains and measured their “The Exact Same Pattern” contaminated samples removed, the data still
magnetic strength and orientation. The The latest study reveals that the lower regions showed an anatomical pattern.
brains had been preserved in formaldehyde of the human brain, including the cerebellum Gilder presented the research at AGU’s Fall
since the 1990s, when relatives and guardians and the brain stem, had 2 or more times the Meeting 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. (bit.ly/
of the deceased donated them to science. The magnetic remanence of the upper regions of human-brain).
brains came from four men and three women the brain. The upper regions of the brain
between the ages of 54 and 87. compose the cerebrum, which is responsible
Gilder typically studies rocks in his lab to for reasoning, speech, and other tasks, By Jenessa Duncombe (@jrdscience), Staff
ascertain their geologic history, but his latest whereas the lower regions handle muscle Writer
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 7
NEWS
A Dirty Truth: Humans Began Accelerating
Soil Erosion 4,000 Years Ago
I
n a way, human history is etched in the soil. data that would either destroy or support the
An international team of researchers different hypotheses that were behind the
recently found evidence that we humans trends,” Carvalhais explained.
have been leaving our mark on this planet In the end, humans were the most likely
since long before the Industrial Revolution. culprit.
Around 4,000 years ago, human activities had Changes in erosion were less related to
already significantly accelerated soil erosion fluctuations in precipitation and tempera-
around lake beds on a global scale. ture, researchers found, whereas trends in
“We have been imprinting our presence deforestation coincided with the rise in ero-
[on] the landscape and in the natural world sion. Jenny and his collaborators analyzed
further back than we thought,” said Nuno pollen samples at each lake bed site to pro-
Carvalhais, a research group leader at the Max duce a proxy for tree coverage of the sur-
Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and the rounding land; they found that decreases in
senior researcher on the study published in tree cover were tightly coupled with acceler-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ated erosion. “Deforestation at the time was
of the United States of America (bit.ly/human caused by the human beings, because at that
-imprint). time they were starting to develop agricul-
The findings required an interdisciplinary ture,” said Jenny.
approach, with different types of analyses
allowing a more comprehensive picture of Humanity’s Past and Future
how human activities could be behind the Written in the Dirt
accelerating erosion, Carvalhais said. Although soil erosion accelerated 4,000 years
Jean-Philippe Jenny, a French geoscientist ago in Europe, similar trends occurred only
affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for recently in North America, probably following “What you come away with
Biogeochemistry and the Alpine Center for European immigration and importation of
Research on Trophic Networks and Lake Eco- agricultural practices.
is the lesson that societies
systems and lead author of the study, ana- The research team also found that 23% of that don’t take care of their
lyzed core samples of sediments collected lake sites had a decrease in erosion rates,
from 632 lake beds around the world. Because which may be the result of human-driven
soil don’t last.”
sediments accumulate in lakes at continuous river management, such as the construction
rates, lake sediment cores can be used as a of dams.
natural archive of fluctuations in soil erosion “It means that we as human beings are
over time. now living in a time period where we have a The erosion rates produced by conven-
Combining sediment rates with radioactive huge effect on everything on the Earth, and tional agricultural practices are not sustain-
carbon dating data from each site, Jenny and all our activities will be recorded in the natu- able, and they sap crucial nutrients from the
his collaborators inferred the changes in lake ral archives,” said Jenny. soil. “What you come away with is the lesson
sedimentation accumulation rates and found “These guys have done a really remarkably that societies that don’t take care of their soil
that 35% of the sampled lakes had accelerated ambitious job putting the story together,” don’t last,” Montgomery said.
erosion over the past 10,000 years. said David Montgomery, a professor of Earth And there are broader environmental
The acceleration in erosion began around and space sciences at the University of Wash- implications too. As with many types of
4,000 years ago, and the researchers sought ington and author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civi- large-scale human activities, increased soil
out the mechanisms that could explain this lizations. The results of the paper “put into erosion “can impact the climate in the long
trend. “We built up our hypotheses, and perspective just how powerful a force people term,” said Jenny.
based on these hypotheses, we [collected] the are on the planet today,” he said. The results of this study provide more data
Montgomery, who was not involved in the about “the sensitivities of the Earth system
study, suggests that it was not merely defor- to climate and environmental factors, includ-
estation that accelerated soil erosion, but ing humans,” said Carvalhais. “And this can
subsequent agricultural activities as well. help us improve our ability to understand and
“We have been imprinting Though deforestation is a necessary first step also to predict or forecast future scenarios.”
our presence [on] the for widespread farming, increased soil ero-
sion is mainly driven by “the plow that fol-
“To go into the future, we also need to
understand our history,” he added.
landscape and in the lowed,” he said. “It wasn’t simply cutting
down the trees that caused the erosion; it was
natural world further back keeping them off the landscape through By Richard J. Sima (@richardsima), Science
than we thought.” farming practices.” Writer
8 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020NEWS
Geophysics Recruits Radio Telescopes
R
adio telescopes reveal distant solar much larger telescope: They can achieve an Tests on Two Continents
systems and bubbles of gas near our angular resolution equal to that of a telescope Connecting the capabilities of InSAR satel-
galaxy’s center. But they’re useful for with a diameter that’s the distance between lites and geodetic VLBI telescopes would open
more than just astronomy—a subset of the the linked telescopes. Very long baseline up new observing opportunities, Parker said.
world’s radio telescopes could also play an interferometry refers to interferometry done “We get a connection between what the sat-
important role in geophysics research. A team over very large distances (“baselines”), even ellite is measuring and the reference frame
of scientists has now demonstrated how radio across continents. (Astronomers used VLBI to that the telescope is measuring.”
telescopes could be linked to satellites that create the Event Horizon Telescope, a net- To test the feasibility of this idea, the
measure ground deformation, the first step work of telescopes that obtained the first researchers focused on four geodetic VLBI
toward studying changes in Earth’s surface image of a black hole, revealed last April.) telescopes, three in Australia and one in Swe-
on a global scale. When a network of VLBI telescopes accu- den. They showed that the telescopes could be
rately measures the arrival of light from a tied to the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-
Wanted: A Global View distant galaxy, researchers can compare the 1 satellite constellation used for InSAR by sim-
“The height of Earth’s surface is changing all time stamps of the observations to deter- ply pointing the telescopes statically toward
of the time,” said Amy Parker, a satellite mine the telescopes’ positions relative to one the location of an overpassing satellite. Micro-
radar specialist at Curtin University in Perth, another. Thanks to precise timing, the dis- waves emitted by the satellites were readily
Australia. These displacements occur for a tances between telescopes can be measured picked up by the telescopes and reflected back,
myriad of reasons, some natural and some to within a few millimeters. even when the telescopes didn’t track a satel-
anthropogenic: earthquakes, mining, and lite’s overpass. “It’s the easiest solution for an
groundwater extraction, for example. operator to implement, and it’s as good as
But accurately monitoring these changes steering the telescope,” said Parker.
on intercontinental scales—important for These observations can be completed in
determining how land movements affect only a minute or two, Parker and her col-
calculations of sea level rise and fall, for leagues showed, and they don’t require any
instance—is currently impossible: Interfer- new instruments or infrastructure. However,
ometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), it might be necessary to protect telescopes’
which involves bouncing microwaves off sensitive electronics from the satellites’ rel-
Earth’s surface and measuring their travel atively strong signals, the researchers found.
time and phase to trace ground deformation, One option is to install foil—impervious to
works only over contiguous swaths of land, radar frequencies—around a telescope’s l ow-
because water scatters microwaves incon- noise amplifier. Another possibility, which
sistently. InSAR is “pretty amazing,” said Parker and her team tested, was to simply
Parker, but it measures ground displacement point the telescope slightly away from a sat-
only relative to an arbitrary reference like the ellite’s position.
mean value in an image. It doesn’t measure “The international network of Very Long
changes relative to an absolute reference Baseline Interferometry telescopes provides
frame, and it can’t be used to study global- an existing, yet unexploited, link to unify
scale processes, said Parker. “We need to tie satellite-radar measurements on a global
measurements on different continents in to scale,” the researchers conclude in their
a consistent reference frame.” study, which was published in Geophysical
One way of doing so, Parker and her col- A radio telescope, part of the Goldstone Deep Research Letters (bit.ly/radio-telescopes).
leagues suggest, is to connect two existing Space Communications Complex, looms over Cali- “It’s a really nice piece of work,” said John
networks: InSAR satellites and radio tele- fornia’s Mojave Desert. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Gipson, a physicist at NASA Goddard Space
scopes capable of very long baseline interfer- Flight Center and an International VLBI Ser-
ometry (VLBI). vice for Geodesy and Astrometry team mem-
ber not involved in this research. “It’s very
Opposite: Rick Bohn/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Here Come the Telescopes Because telescopes don’t move relative to practical.”
Astronomical observations often involve Earth’s surface, these measurements reflect Parker and her colleagues are optimistic
resolving fine details, like separating two changes in the planet’s crust and can be used that the scientific community will see the
objects that appear close together in the sky. to trace the motion of tectonic plates, for advantages of using radio telescopes for geo-
Physically larger telescopes have better angu- instance. The International VLBI Service for physics applications. They hope to see a siz-
lar resolution, but there’s a practical limit to Geodesy and Astrometry coordinates these able number of telescopes and InSAR satel-
how large a single telescope can be. geodetic measurements from NASA Goddard lites linked within the next year or two.
That’s where interferometry comes in. By Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Cur-
carefully combining the light gathered by rently, there are about 40 VLBI telescopes
multiple telescopes linked together by precise worldwide that can do this sort of geodetic By Katherine Kornei (@katherinekornei), Sci-
timing, astronomers can, in a sense, build a monitoring. ence Writer
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 9NEWS
What Do You Get When You Cross a Thunderstorm
with a Wildfire?
F Soaring pyrocumulonimbus
ew things are more ominous than a Dark as Night
looming thundercloud. Add a wildfire to Not surprisingly, pyroCbs can be incredibly
the mix, and the result can be a tower- dangerous. systems can rise out of the
ing tempest of thick smoke, smoldering On 7 February 2009, a devastating day troposphere and extend
embers, and superheated air. in Australia’s history, conditions spawned
Fire-fueled thunderstorms are naturally at least three pyroCbs that carried embers into the stratosphere tens
occurring weather systems that sometimes 30 kilometers from their source and sparked
of kilometers above Earth’s
spin up as a result of smoke and heat billow- lightning that ignited additional fires 100 kilo-
ing from intense wildfires. These extreme meters away. Known as the Black Saturday surface.
storms, called pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), bushfires, these fires collectively burned
occur infrequently, but when they do they can 4,500 square kilometers and claimed the lives
lead to tragic results. of 173 people.
A pyroCb that formed during the Carr Fire
The Making of a Firestorm near Redding, Calif., in 2018 had such strong they can’t describe exactly how a wildfire will
Wildfires give off intense heat, forcing large winds that it created a tornado-strength fire affect the lower atmosphere and change the
amounts of smoke and hot air to rise. As the vortex, and a pyroCb in Canberra, Australia, weather conditions. The effort to study
mixture moves higher into the troposphere— in 2003 was so extreme that it released a tor- pyroCbs “is still so young, and there’s still so
the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere—it rent of black hail and turned the daytime sky much to learn,” Nauslar said.
cools and expands as the air pressure drops. as dark as night.
Moisture in the air soon condenses, forming Fortunately, these events are still rela- Smoke High Above
big puffy clouds called pyrocumulus clouds. tively rare, although recent research from A major signature of pyroCbs is their impact
When conditions in the atmosphere are Australia suggests that climate change may on the stratosphere. But until recently, sci-
just right—including a hot, dry layer of air cause conditions there to become more entists didn’t think wildfires could inject
near the ground and a cooler, wetter layer favorable for the formation of pyroCbs in the soot, aerosols, and organic compounds high
above it—the atmosphere can become con- future. into the atmosphere.
vectively unstable. Increasingly turbulent air Nick Nauslar, who forecasts fire weather The “idea that a firestorm could act like a
sets water droplets and ice crystals in pyro- for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric volcano and inject material into the strato-
cumulus clouds on a collision course, building Administration’s National Weather Service, sphere was completely unknown,” said Mike
up an electrical charge and turning the sys- said that about 25–50 pyroCb events occur Fromm, a meteorologist at the U.S. Naval
tem into a towering thunderhead. around the world each year. He said that pre- Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Soaring pyroCbs, which rarely produce rain dicting exactly when the storms will occur Fromm has studied pyroCbs since the late
on the ground even though they are thunder- remains a challenge for scientists. 1990s using satellite instruments.
storms, can even rise out of the troposphere “They are still really difficult to forecast,” Smoke particles from pyroCbs can stay in
and extend into the stratosphere tens of kilo- Nauslar said. Even though scientists can the atmosphere for days to weeks and, in
meters above Earth’s surface. check the weather conditions before a fire, extreme cases, months. Smoke from a mas-
sive pyroCb in Canada in 2017 remained
s uspended in the upper stratosphere for
8 months, according to a recent study in Sci-
ence in which researchers considered the
lofted pyroCb particles as a proxy to investi-
gate the potential climatic and atmospheric
effects of smoke plumes from nuclear explo-
sions.
PyroCbs won’t be causing a nuclear winter
anytime soon, but Fromm told Science News
that an open question about pyroCb plumes
is whether they could damage ozone in the
stratosphere. “We’re still trying to under-
stand and quantify and calculate [whether]
there is, in fact, a climate impact of these
plumes,” Fromm told Eos.
Brown smoke billows from the Willow Fire in Payson, Ariz., in 2004, fueling the formation of a towering pyrocu- By Jenessa Duncombe (@jrdscience), Staff
mulonimbus system above. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Eric Neitzel, CC BY-SA 3.0 (bit.ly/ccbysa3-0) Writer
10 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020NEWS
Using Garnets to Explore Arc Magma Oxidation
complex, so when a study reaches in and
draws out a simple result, it can be incredibly
revealing.”
Greek Crystals
The garnet crystals came from a suite of sub-
duction zone samples that were previously
collected from Sifnos, Baxter said. About
45 million years ago, the area was rich with
volcanic explosions triggered by geological
activity.
Although the three crystals under study
share a similar subduction history, their com-
positions and redox records are varied, Bax-
ter noted. Two of the rocks show systemic
changes in iron isotope compositions, indi-
cating that they were still growing while law-
sonite breakdown occurred. However, those
changes aren’t present in the third rock,
demonstrating that it stopped growing before
any major release of water occurred. The
absence of these changes in the third sample
clued the team in to the conditions responsi-
ble for the release of oxidizing fluids in sub-
Ethan Baxter examines garnet samples in Sifnos, Greece. Credit: Ethan Baxter/Boston College duction zones.
“The method these authors used, to extract
the individual growth zones of a single crystal
and perform isotopic analysis on [it], is a
R
esearchers have long pondered why arc ditions, the researchers said, whereas the novel approach that will ultimately tell us
magmas are more oxidized than other rims record reduced conditions. These find- even more about the conditions [occurring]
volcanic rocks. Ethan Baxter, a geo- ings support an existing hypothesis that sul- during metamorphism of these types of rocks
chemist at Boston College, and his colleagues fate or other oxidizing species released during at depth.… This opens up many new doors to
recently “fingerprinted” the source of oxi- dehydration of subducting lithologies con- discovery of the metamorphic processes in
dizing fluids in subduction zones, bringing tribute to oxidation of the mantle wedge the subducting plate,” Kelley said.
researchers closer to answering this ques- above subduction zones. Because the results of this study are based
tion. “It’s a careful study, with a tantalizing on the study of three rocks collected from one
The research “was exciting because it was result,” said Katherine Kelley, a professor of island, Baxter said, the team wants to analyze
conducted by a master’s student, and it oceanography at the University of Rhode rocks collected from other field sites, such
brought together a large, collaborative [inter- Island. “Metamorphic rocks can be incredibly as the Italian Alps, to look for global trends
national] group” of researchers from differ- applying to subduction zones. The team also
ent specialties, Baxter said, referring to Anna wants to delve into why fluids released in
Gerrits, whose research interests sparked the subduction zones are oxidized and “the
investigation.
“Metamorphic rocks can be chemistry responsible for creating that oxi-
For three zoned garnet crystals from Sif- dizing fluid,” he said.
nos, Greece, researchers measured the oxy- incredibly complex, so The researchers reported their results in
a Nature Geoscience paper (bit .ly/oxidizing
gen fugacity (which they describe as a ther-
modynamic property serving as a chemical
when a study reaches in -fluids).
control in subduction zones and other envi- and draws out a simple
ronments) and stable iron isotope composi-
tion. It’s the first study to examine “zonation
result, it can be incredibly By Rachel Crowell (@writesRCrowell), Science
of iron isotopes from garnet crystals in a sub- revealing.” Writer
duction zone,” Baxter said.
The study concludes that the garnets and
the surrounding mineral assemblage display
“a record of progressive dehydration,”
u Read the full stories and the latest news at Eos.org
including lawsonite dehydration. Garnet
interiors grew under relatively oxidized con-
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 11NEWS
Beavers: Nature’s “Little Firefighters”
W
hen a wildfire tears through a radiating out from their pools to create “little vegetation before, during, and after the fires.
landscape, there can be little left water highways,” said Emily Fairfax, an She used measurements from NASA’s Landsat
behind. assistant professor at California State Univer- satellites, which use red and n ear-infrared
A new study, though, suggests that beavers sity Channel Islands who led the study. light to detect the lushness of vegetation.
may be protecting life around streams, thanks Fairfax wondered whether beaver dams Fairfax found that vegetation along sec-
to their signature dams. Satellite images from would insulate riparian vegetation, as well as tions of a river without dams burned straight
five major wildfires in the United States the fish and amphibians that live there, from to the river’s edge. But for sections with a res-
revealed that corridors around beaver habitat wildfire damage. Wildfires course through ident beaver, “essentially, the plants don’t
stayed green even after a wildfire. landscapes naturally, but blazes will become know a fire is happening.” The channels dug
Millions of beavers live in forests across more frequent as climate change dries out by beavers acted like irrigation channels, said
North America, and they make their homes forests. Fairfax, keeping vegetation too wet to burn,
in a particular way. By stacking piles of Fairfax sifted through records of past fires even during drought. In all, stretches of river
branches and rocks in a river’s path, they in the U.S. Geological Survey’s database and without beavers lost 51% of their vegetation
slow its flow and create a pool of calm water chose five recent fires that occurred in beaver greenness, compared with a 19% reduction for
to call home. They even dig little channels habitat. She then analyzed the “greenness” of sections with beavers.
Joseph Wagenbrenner, a research hydrol-
ogist at the U.S. Forest Service who was not
involved with the research, said that protect-
ing the vegetation around rivers can help pre-
vent problems downstream. Contaminants
and sediment can clog rivers right after a fire,
degrading water quality and threatening life.
He said the work could be important for sci-
entists’ efforts to reduce wildfire’s negative
impacts.
Fairfax presented the research at AGU’s
Fall Meeting 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. (bit
.ly/smokey-the-beaver). She also created a
stop-animation story of one little beaver’s
influence during a burn, which you can watch
online at bit.ly/natures-firefighters.
This screenshot from a stop-animation video created by Emily Fairfax shows how beaver dams can insulate sur- By Jenessa Duncombe (@jrdscience), Staff
rounding vegetation from wildfires. See link at the end of the article to watch the video. Writer
Stay Connected
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12 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020OPINION
Creating Spaces for Geoscientists with Disabilities
to Thrive
N
early a quarter of the U.S. population
has some form of disability. In the
geosciences, when we fail to account
for the policies and cultures that isolate and
exclude people with disabilities, we continue
to send the message to more than 20% of the
population that geoscience careers may not
be a welcoming place for them. We need to
become more aware of the challenges that
people with disabilities face within the geo-
sciences and work to dismantle those barriers
in our classrooms, research groups, depart-
ments, and the scientific community at large.
Disability presents across all demographics,
making it an important yet still often over-
looked piece of the diversity puzzle. Creating
a better path for participation for disabled
geoscientists will open opportunities across
all underrepresented groups. Participants in an accessible geology field trip with the International Association for Geoscience Diversity in 2016
look over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In the foreground are Jen Piatek (left) and coauthor
Access for All Versus Cost Sean Thatcher; in the middle distance (left to right) are Grant Vincent, Anna Todd, and Matt O’Brien; and on the
and Sentimentality ledge are Amanda Haddock (left) and Will Kilpack. Credit: Anita Marshall
“Of course our building is accessible—there is only
one small step to get inside.”
Physical barriers to participation in geosci- resources into improving access and usability work themselves. The important thing at the
ence activities exist everywhere [Carabajal of indoor and outdoor spaces in a way that departmental level is to demonstrate a
et al., 2017]. Buildings on campus may include blends into the style of historic properties. solutions-oriented mind-set and a willing-
inaccessible laboratories and restrooms, hid- For example, the recently completed ramp at ness to prioritize inclusion over sentimental
den or o ut-of-the-way ramps, and freight the Rainbow Forest Museum at Petrified For- desires to keep physical spaces unaltered.
elevators that look like something from a est National Park in Arizona brings wheel-
horror movie. These issues are often more chair access to the main entrance rather than Flexible Fieldwork
common in geoscience departments, which to the back door, an important affective
“Sorry, but you can’t come on the research trip—
tend to be located in some of the oldest build- change that blends seamlessly with the 1930s
you’d be a liability in the field.”
ings on campus and thus are often exempt architecture.
from accessibility requirements under the Decision-makers need to involve the peo- Students with disabilities are often prevented
Americans with Disabilities Act. ple whom the changes would most benefit. from completing their degree because of the
Although physical accessibility improve- This collaboration is also a good way to build lack of fieldwork opportunities. Many acces-
ments can be costly and in some cases nearly community, so long as the burden is not put sibility challenges in f ield-based learning
impossible to fully address, we can make our- on the disabled to do the bulk of the advocacy result not from the physical barriers of the
selves aware of the numerous barriers in our terrain or the task but from needlessly inflex-
physical spaces and advocate for changes that ible policies that restrict a student’s partici-
can be made. Sometimes access can be greatly pation. Examples include deaf and hard of
improved with small adjustments, such as Sometimes access can be hearing students being told they are liabilities
using wooden blocks to raise table heights because they won’t be able to hear the
or inexpensive transition strips on doorways greatly improved with instructors or potential hazards, and wheel-
with high thresholds. The National Park Ser-
vice, which manages numerous historically
small adjustments, such as chair users being told that departmental pol-
icies bar them from driving their own vehi-
significant locations in the United States, rec- using wooden blocks to cles. Yet at the same time, departments claim
ognized that in leaving spaces unmodified
simply because it was not legally obligated
raise table heights or that budgetary reasons prohibit them from
providing accessible vans or sign language
to improve them, it was “losing the opportu- inexpensive transition interpreters. Instead, these students are sent
nity to reach the widest possible audience off on independent assignments, which are
and share a spectrum of experiences” [Jester
strips on doorways with often less rigorous and far less effective for
and Park, 1993]. It has invested significant high thresholds. academic growth and limit the development
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE NEWS // Eos.org 13OPINION
of the social bonds that promote future suc- accessibility and inclusion training for geo- In addition, residency requirements and
cess in the discipline [Streule and Craig, 2016; science teaching assistants, the number of other bureaucratic hurdles may require a per-
Atchison et al., 2019]. students approaching instructors with acces- son who needs support services to relocate
If field experiences are integral to profes- sibility requests increased, as did the number well before financial compensation begins—a
sional preparation, then they must be made of students feeling that their instructor had a gap that for many is simply not feasible. Aca-
equitable for all students. There are a small genuine interest in their success [Fairfax and demic institutions may not be able to change
number of programs with inclusive field Brown, 2019]. A single instructor’s actions can or eliminate these s tate-level obstacles, but
opportunities for students with disabilities, be the point on which a student determines they can certainly provide the best informa-
such as the University of Arizona’s Accessible his or her sense of belonging, or lack thereof, tion to their students about what to expect
Earth program and the Enabling Remote in the entire discipline. and explore ways to make this transition less
Activity (ERA) project at the Open University. of a financial barrier.
Building on the technology-based approach Recruitment: Proving You Want
of the ERA project, the University of Florida the Best, Not the Easiest Disrupting an Exclusionary Culture
is developing a lending library of tech tools to
“Why would a disabled person even want a geol- “Do you think you could finish this program with
improve accessibility of existing field courses.
ogy degree? They won’t get a job with it.” your…limitations?”
The need for d isability-inclusive practices Many students declare geoscience majors
extends into the professional sphere, where after taking required college courses or
geoscience employers may hold significant through other outreach events, but disability
A single instructor’s actions biases against candidates with disabilities, is rarely considered in the design of such
can be the point on which despite the fact that people with all types of introductory course materials or recruitment
disabilities have had and continue to have activities. As a result, everything from how
a student determines his or successful careers in the geosciences [Atchison we advertise our programs (typically to
her sense of belonging, or and Libarkin, 2016]. Nearly all of the burden attract adventurous, outdoorsy students) to
for addressing disability in the professional the lack of disability representation in geo-
lack thereof, in the entire sphere falls to the disabled person. During science course material and a cultural accep-
discipline. the job hunt, candidates with disabilities tance of condescending comments directed
must determine how best to handle hiring at those who do show an interest sends the
committees who are not trained in equitable message that people with disabilities need
interview procedures. Once hired, employees not apply [Bush and Mattox, 2019; Hall et al.,
with disabilities must constantly consider the 2004].
Some geoscience programs are developing balance of personal needs versus cultural
alternatives to on-location fieldwork, such as stigma when asking for accommodations.
the University of Leeds’s Virtual Landscapes Departments should seek to address this
and Western Washington University’s Lab by putting the burden of providing a safe and
Camp. stable workplace back onto the employer. What we say and do when
This effort can start with more inclusive job
Approaching Accommodations descriptions, by providing evidence up front
we assume there are no
as Support, Not a Free Pass that more effort has been given to equitable people with disabilities
treatment beyond copying and pasting the
“Your exams must be so much easier with accom-
university’s diversity and accommodation
present can perpetuate an
modations!”
statement, and by demonstrating that exclusive culture.
Accommodations—modifications specified institution-wide support structures are in
by on-campus disability services to enable place to enable students’ success.
equitable treatment—are often the first test The academic institution may not have
of a department’s culture. Despite legal man- purview over some accommodation barriers,
dates, instances of instructors withholding but it can still provide guidance that leads to This message is amplified for people from
accommodations or making the process the best chances of success for its students. underrepresented groups who also have a
overly difficult continue to occur. Some stu- For example, g overnment-run disability ser- disability. Countering these recruitment bar-
dents formally push back by filing com- vices often vary from state to state, which riers requires critically evaluating how we are
plaints, but most choose to exit these situa- may greatly affect students’ decisions about promoting our departments through adver-
tions by dropping the course in question or which graduate or postdoctoral program tisements and social media, presenting a
changing degree tracks entirely, leaving no they’re able to attend. Medical care and more balanced view of the many fields of
evidence as to why they left. transportation are typically limited to a small study and career paths available within the
On the other hand, faculty who demon- geographic area, so individuals relying upon geosciences, and acknowledging that scien-
strate an awareness of the importance of these services as their primary means of tists with disabilities already work within our
accommodations cultivate a sense of trust transportation are greatly hindered in partic- discipline [Sexton et al., 2014; Mol and Atchison,
that enables students to focus on learning ipating in such extracurricular activities as 2019].
rather than on the need to self-advocate. A field trips and professional development Finally, the geoscience community can
recent study showed that upon completion of opportunities. suffer from the same casual ableism—beliefs
14 Eos // FEBRUARY 2020You can also read
