Climate change necessitates a rapid transition to renewable energy resources, and as such, the U.S. is aiming to increase its solar energy generation from the current 3% of total energy production to 45% by 2050. Bridging this gap will require identifying locations suitable for solar development, which will likely include novel deployment configurations such as agrivoltaics (i.e., the co-location of agricultural and solar energy production). At the same time that the U.S. is seeking to expand solar energy, wildfire smoke is predicted to increase across the U.S. Smoke reduces the available solar radiation at the surface, and previous case studies document smoke-driven reductions in solar energy generation. This GCRT will conduct the first longitudinal study of wildfire smoke impacts on utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) output across the contiguous U.S. The spatial and temporal extent of this project allows for generalizable insights that account for variations in smoke plume characteristics, PV plant design, and meteorological conditions. Moreover, this project will be the first to isolate the economic and social impacts of surface-level wildfire smoke on solar resource potential through 2100. Finally, the project extends current agrivoltaic research by estimating the impact of wildfire smoke on the feasibility of agrivoltaic configurations. The results of this interdisciplinary project will help decision makers and utilities develop robust electricity grids while addressing climate goals. Associate Professor Emily Fischer and Ph.D. candidate Kimberley Corwin from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences will collaborate on this project.

Carnivore populations globally are experiencing dramatic declines due to accelerating habitat loss and direct conflicts with humans. Carnivore decline has widespread consequences for ecosystem function, while human-carnivore coexistence requires balancing conflicts that can impact the social and economic well-being of human communities. This GCRT assembles a diverse team to investigate the culture of carnivore tolerance and intolerance, specifically how beliefs and experiences are transmitted through social networks. The team will focus on an important yet data-poor system with a novel high risk/reward approach – African lions and pastoralists, measuring the spread of conflict and tolerance through mobile phone data – while advancing the use of network science in conservation across 3 key human-carnivore systems globally.

Being in the field is considered a capstone experience for undergraduate students in the environmental sciences, yet are such experiences inclusive? If so, which elements are critical to inspiring persistence for underrepresented groups? Inclusive Field Pedagogy (IFP) acknowledges the importance of collaborative learning during which both mentor and mentees can integrate different knowledge to ask and answer social-ecological research questions. The importance of connecting different ways of knowing is the potential to retain students from diverse cultural, geographical, and economic backgrounds in environmental sciences. The GCRT Being in the Field brings new approaches to deconstructing how transitions to an environmental or sustainability science career path has unique tipping points for underrepresented students triggered during the field experience.