LDEO March 2025 Newsletter: Earth & Environmental Science News
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Celebrating Science
Paleoclimatologist and marine geologist Maureen Raymo, who also served as director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School, studies how ice ages fluctuate and how sea levels change to understand past climate change. In 1988, Raymo and colleagues published the first of a series of papers on the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis, which proposes that Earth’s climate began cooling when tectonic forces caused the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau to start rising some 40 million years ago. The elevation increased the weathering of minerals, which drew more carbon dioxide from the air, weakening the greenhouse effect and contributing to the glaciation of the poles that we see today. Here, Raymo checks out corals, mollusks, and other sea creatures embedded in a onetime sea cliff in Barbados. Credit: Kevin Krajick
Huge Areas May Face Possibly Fatal Heat Waves if Warming Continue
Even healthy young adults may not be able to survive unless they can access artificial cooling.
A Climate Change Signal in the Tropical Pacific
Research from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has the world’s climate scientists rethinking their models.
Celebrating the 2025 International Day of Women and Girls in Science
In honor of this year’s STEM theme, we highlight just a few examples of the exceptional women scientists from the Columbia Climate School.
Women in Science: Volcano Researcher Ally Peccia
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re highlighting amazing scientists like Peccia, who studies the interactions between volcanoes and the climate.
Women in Science: Polar Geophysics Researcher Caitlin D. Locke
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re spotlighting Locke, who studies the Antarctic Ice Sheet to determine how the seafloor shape beneath its ice shelves influences ice flow.
Women in Science: Air Quality and Climate Change Researcher Garima Raheja
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we're featuring Raheja, who researches machine learning methods for measuring air pollution in vulnerable communities across the world.
Women in Science: Climate and Wildfire Researcher Caroline Juang
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we profile Caroline Juang, who studies how climate change is impacting wildfires out west.
Women in Science: Extreme Heat Researcher Casey Ivanovich
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we talk to Ivanovich, who is studying climate extremes and humid heat.
Events
On March 12 12pm ET, join us for Sea Level and Coastal Change with postdoc Austin Chadwick and geodynamicist Jacqueline Austermann, hosted by Lamont 75th Anniversary Committee co-chair Arthur Lerner-Lam. This event is part of our virtual series Earth Observations: Conversations with Lamont Scientists. Learn More/RSVP
On Mar 12 6-8pm ET, join us for our next Public Lecture, All Rings Considered: The Life of a Tree-Ring Scientist, with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory dendrochronologist Brendan Buckley, who will share tales from a career in the field as well as an overview of the exciting research conducted by our Tree Ring Laboratory, which will turn 50 in September 2025. Over that half-century, TRL-LDEO has been at the forefront of "dendroclimatological" studies, and our scientists have worked in every location on Earth that has trees—whether living now or at some point in the past. Hosted by Lamont interim director Steven L. Goldstein, this in-person event begins with a reception from 6-7pm ET followed by the discussion from 7-8pm ET. At the reception, visitors have the opportunity to view two incredible art exhibits: Climate Disasters Inspired by Great Masters, canvases by Mary Tiegreen + Bing AI representing current climate issues, and Research as Art, intersections of art and science by Lamont researchers to spark conversations about each through the lens of the other. Learn More/RSVP
Education
Explore Summer 2025 Pre-College Program at the Columbia Climate School 🌎
Columbia Climate School in the Green Mountains is a 2-week campus-based program for high school students taking place from June 29 to July 11, 2025 in Castleton, Vermont to mobilize action and drive impact in response to our warming planet. Students will complete the program feeling empowered to address a climate challenge in their own communities.
Watch the mini-documentary Empowering Youth to Lead Climate Solutions and see how we're inspiring the next generation of changemakers.
Don’t wait for change — lead it!
Ready to take action? Apply now and become a climate leader!
Professional Learning workshops are for working professionals and adult learners who want to upskill and explore new topics to further job-related interests without the commitment of a degree program, developing an understanding of climate and sustainability challenges with our experts.
The spring 2025 workshop will be Decarbonization: Policies and Practices for Countries and Companies. Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment (CCSI) experts Martin Dietrich Brauch and Laura Garcia Cancino will discuss the opportunities and challenges of decarbonization, embracing different perspectives, from a global level to a country level to a company level. RSVP for our March 11 5:30pm ET Info Session to learn more and register for the workshop!
Pre-College workshops are for high-school students (Grades 9-12) who want to sharpen their knowledge and skills in climate change and sustainability, advancing their learning outside of school, and preparing them for the college experience.
We all have an important role to play in creating the change needed to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts, and informing the public about the need for innovative climate solutions is an important step. The Spring 2025 pre-college workshop, Climate Conversations: The Role of Effective Communication in Creating Change, will focus on climate communication strategies needed to generate support for climate mitigation and adaptation. Learn more/register by March 14, 2025.
Climate LIVE K12 features live lectures and interactive activities with our scientists and experts for K-12 students, educators, families, and the public! FREE!
Up Next: On Mar 12 4-4:30pm ET, join us for Threading the Needle: Tackling Microplastic Pollution from Clothing, ideal for high school students and educators, undergraduates, graduate students, and the public. Catherine Prunella of New York Sea Grant will discuss cutting-edge tech and legislative solutions to protect ecosystems from microplastic damage. RSVP today (FREE but registration required)!
And check out our YouTube archive of all past workshops.
Hudson River Field Station
Environmental DNA (eDNA)
We are excited to share some new data offering insights into the fish populating the Hudson around both the Field Station in Piermont, and more broadly, the lower Hudson estuary.
Through the use of environmental DNA (eDNA), we are gaining new insights into local fish biodiversity and population dynamics moving beneath the water! Using a seasonal snapshot of data from our 2021-2024 eDNA, we are expanding our understanding of how species use the lower estuary.
Since 2021 Piermont has been partnering on eDNA extractions and processing with Hudson River Park (project lead), Sarah Lawerence College for the Urban River at Beczak, and the NYSDEC Norrie Point Environmental Center. Our first project leveraged our spatial distribution, applying eDNA in tracking several Hudson key migratory species (Atlantic Sturgeon, American Eel and Striped Bass). Check out the 2024 report findings!
More recently, the project expanded to focus on what other fish DNA was found in our samples. We partnered with Sam Chew Chin who used metabarcoding techniques to explore the fish biodiversity across sites. For each site, unique species were detected supporting knowledge of the locality of fish populations in the Hudson based on their environmental tolerances to factors like salinity, temperatures, and more. Initial findings are that Atlantic Menhaden was the most abundantly detected species across the sites in the sampling period, and they were most heavily detected in our Piermont Field Station samples. Menhaden are important in the marine food web, consuming plankton that they convert to energy for larger species that consume them. They spawn offshore and then move into the estuary where they gain size before heading to the ocean where they can live for 10-12 years.
We plan to post the full report with additional information on our website, so stay tuned! We are excited to continue to expand and participate in this project!
Lamont in the Media (Select Stories)
We May Be Able to Trap Climate Pollution in Ordinary Rocks
Washington Post
January Wasn't Expected to Break Global Temperature Records. But It Did
NPR
How the Trump Administration Could End a Century of American Scientific Dominance (Opinion)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Just a Small Rise in Global Temperatures Could Be Deadly
Science News
