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Rebecca Asser: Rural Eastern North Carolina changed my entire outlook on life and American society. It is diverse and rich with history, which plays out in the environmental inequities brought to the forefront by rising sea levels and intensified flooding. |
Beaufort, Carteret County, North Carolina, 28579, United States of America |
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Jin Bai: Raleigh-Durham Triangle area, Urbanization and climate change. |
Research Triangle Park, Lowes Grove, Durham County, North Carolina, 27709, United States of America |
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Kendall Bealls: Great Smoky Mountains National Park |
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, 37878, United States of America |
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Ally Brown: One place that has unique meaning to me is the Galapagos Islands. I was fortunate to spend a semester on San Cristobal island and study their enchanting environment as well as the management issues that Galápagos natives face while trying to protect their home. Climate change disproportionately effects the Galápagos islands; warmer and rising seas are changing the marine ecosystem that surrounds the islands. As a society that relies heavily on tourism, they must juggle the need to protect the ecosystem that sustains their economy with the harmful effects tourism has on the islands. |
Galapagos Islands, Parroquia Santa Rosa, Cantón Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador |
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Haven Cashwell: Marshallberg, North Carolina is where my family lives and is one of my favorite places to be. This town is on the coast of North Carolina, so it will experience changes with rising sea level and increasing temperatures. I want to eventually research a coastal town like Marshallberg to understand the climate resiliency of these towns. |
Marshallberg, Carteret County, North Carolina, 28553, United States of America |
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Steph Courtney: I have a close connection with Lake Superior, especially the north shore region of Minnesota. In general, the colder Great Lakes region won’t have horrible outcomes for its human inhabitants — however, like anywhere else, drastic change will be difficult for flora & fauna to adjust to. Increased storms, warming water (though more slowly in Lake Superior), increased precip and heavy precip events, etc., will affect natural systems and the human activities that rely on them. |
Lake Superior, Houghton, Michigan, United States of America |
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Hallie Fischman: Sapelo Island, Georgia. Sapelo Island is a remote barrier island that faces problems from hurricanes, sea level rise, and eutrophication |
Sapelo Island, McIntosh County, Georgia, United States of America |
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Nate Gibson: My field work is based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. The city is directly threatened by global change due mainly to issues of water management. New Orleans now experiences frequent flooding as a result of thunderstorms, not to mention hurricanes. |
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States of America |
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Kate Gorman: My research location is the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. I am so excited to study bee communities in this location because I am curious how urban centers can more successfully support biodiversity. The human population is becoming increasingly urbanized as time goes on, meaning urban centers will likely become more prevalent globally. In order to support conservation efforts on a local and global scale, we must understand how growing cities affect vulnerable taxa, especially vulnerable groups such as pollinators. Raleigh is growing quickly and serves as the perfect location for such a study. |
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, United States of America |
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Amanda Hyman: Benin. Increased droughts paired with more extreme weather events and decreasingly reliable seasonal patterns. |
Africa Kparou, Gounkparé, Pèrèrè, Borgou, Benin |
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Harsha James: The Poonthura village, located in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram district, the capital of Kerala, India, is a coastal village predominantly comprising of fisher – folk settlement. Poonthura is exposed to natural calamities like sea intrusion, storms, and shoreline changes. It is located in the southwest part of India, identified as one among the twenty-four climate change hot spot regions globally. Climate change hot spots – can be defined as the ‘live labs’ where the manifestation of the climate change impacts is observed “first.” The houses here are constructed near the sea, often resulting in displacement and relocation during heavy monsoon. The tsunami of 2004 caused massive damage to fishing inventories like boats, nets, houses, and other fishing equipment in this area. The shoreline changes and seawater intrusion are the visible impacts of climate change in this area. The monsoons are a bit ferocious in the area, and hence relocations are necessary during monsoons. |
Ambalathara Poonthura Rd, Thiruvallam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695001, India |
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Kathryn Jewell: My research location is at the regional level, and there are a number of global change concerns there – but a location that means the most to me is my hometown of Wilmington, NC. Being on the coast, there have already been a number of changes, such as sea level rise, shifting coastal islands and increasing hurricanes. I have definitely seen a change in these growing up, and it is one of the reasons I wanted to go into an environmental field in the first place. |
Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States of America |
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Megan Johnson: Colorado, and much of the southwestern US, is very important to me and faces global change challenges of increased wildfire, drought, and reduced snowpack (among others) |
Colorado, United States of America |
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Justine Neville: Albemarle Pamlico Peninsula of NC |
Albemarle Drive, Oriental, Pamlico County, North Carolina, 28571, United States of America |
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Brandon Ryan: A place which has personal meaning to me is Nashville, TN. It is a city in which I have a lot of fond memories as a kid and recently throughout college. There are many global challenges which are affecting Nashville and a large portion of southeastern cities. Prolonged droughts and shrinking of water availability. Increased flooding along the Cumberland River, as well as an increase in strong supercells, which leads to more precipitation and increased risk of tornadoes. Urban Heat which causes hotter temperatures within the city. |
Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, United States of America |
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Tayler Schillerberg: The intersection of agriculture and environments in her native Iowa, as well as the Iowan farmers and everyday citizens, inspires her research. Global change challenges that affect the American breadbasket include weather and climate changes, sustainability, and water quality. These challenges echo those faced throughout the world and affect global food security. |
Iowa, United States of America |
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Hannah Stewart: A specific place which has significance to me are the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York. The Finger Lakes region is known for its vineyards which are a popular destination for summer tourism. However, due to uncharacteristically high temperatures earlier in the growing season, grape buds open and are subject to breakage and damage. Thus, if sudden cold weather approaches from Canada maturing grape buds will suffer. Each bud loss can eradicate a pound of grapes, significantly affecting yields and wine production. Upstate farmers are trying their best to adjust to unpredictable temperatures, however need assistance and support in the coming future to preserve the valued wine culture. |
Cayuga Lake, New York, United States of America |
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Ámbar Torres-Molinar: Puerto Rico, in addition to being my research location is also my home. This has a huge personal meaning to me because I still have the opportunity to work in the place I love the most. Partnering with agencies from Puerto Rico during my research also gives me the opportunity to build important connections that will make it possible to work on improving the island’s natural resource management and conservation priorities. Islands in the Caribbean are projected to received the direct effects of climate change, and Puerto Rico is not an exception. During the last 5 years, the island has faced multiple environmental challenges, including: catastrophic hurricanes, major droughts, and earthquakes. All of these challenges affect the islands ecosystems in a major way. |
Puerto Rico, Orocovis, Puerto Rico, United States of America |
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Greta Easthom: Atmospheric Rivers primarily target the west coast of the continental U.S., but sometimes may snake up the east coast as well. While atmospheric rivers have some positive outcomes by alleviating California's droughts for instance, they also can lead to dangerous flash and coastal flooding. A warmer world means more moisture is available to further fuel these systems and thus inundate the coastal areas I love so much! |
California, United States of America |
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Natalie Von Tress: My research location is Lake Okeechobee in South Florida. The hydrology surrounding Lake Okeechobee has been altered over the past century to allow for the urban and agricultural development of the region. This development is largely attributed to accelerating eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee and its downstream estuaries, where algal blooms have led to significant economic and ecological loss. |
Lake Okeechobee, Florida, United States of America |
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Tira Beckham: Robeson County is in southeastern NC and is home to the Lumbee tribal community. It is designated by the NC department of Commerce as a Tier 1 county with a median income of approximately $33,000. Because this is a primarily rural area that rests within a floodplain, it experiences significant flooding during and after large coastal storms. Because of their lack of local capacity, they are slower to recover after these storms and often unable to build resilience for the next storm |
Robeson County, North Carolina, United States of America |
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Kat Horvath: A place that I truly love is Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. My grandma has lived near this beach my entire life and it's become my "home beach." Hunting Island State Park is a barrier island and in the past ~5 years it's been walloped by multiple hurricanes, tropical storms, and severe thunderstorms. It's been significantly transformed by these storms and is a constant, present reminder to me that our climate is changing and that the time to act is now. I love this place for it's diverse wildlife, tortured shorelines, and normally gentle surf. I hope this place still exists for me to one day bring my future children there to enjoy and fall in love with. |
Hunting Island State Park, Oceanmarsh Subdivision, Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States of America |
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Hemant Kumar: My current research location is the lower Flint River basin in southwest Georgia. It faces changed rainfall patterns (along with increased number of extreme rainfall events)which will impact the availability of water for agricultural during summer months. This will result in major changes in the agricultural practices of the region. |
Flint River, Upson County, Georgia, United States of America |
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Tricia Kyzar: Most of my research takes place within the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR or GTM) in northeast Florida. As a coastal area it is facing the same challenges as many coastal areas, sea level rise, increased storm related challenges, etc. The latitudinal location of the GTM places it in a transition zone where we are seeing the northward migration of mangroves and the changes this is bringing to estuaries and coastal shorelines. One unique challenge for the GTM is a series of scarps and terraces in one area that may prevent marsh migration. |
Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, US 1, Palm Coast, Flagler County, Florida, United States of America |
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Jamila Roth: Gulf Coast of Florida- global changes: increased temperature, herbivory (due to tropicalization), and nutrients |
Gulf Coast, Gulf Harbor, Collier County, Florida, 34110-6206, United States of America |