The Speaker from ETH Zurich has the Floor – Crowther Lab goes to the G20

The Speaker from ETH Zurich has the Floor – Crowther Lab goes to the G20

Justin has been an advocate for the environment since his childhood – only fitting that he represented us at the G20!

By: Justin van der Horn, Environmental Strategy Officer at Crowther Lab

The Crowther Lab aims to be a hub of ecological information to help understand and address the global threats of biodiversity loss and climate change. Accordingly, collaboration and outreach are core to what we do. We work with a network of leading scientists. We endeavor to make our research findings approachable to the general public. We partner with restoration groups and NGOs  to understand their needs and to put our science into action. Of course, international and governmental organizations are key stakeholders as well. As such, I was honored to represent the lab last month at G20 working group meetings. But it was also a bit surreal. My path in life to such a diplomatic meeting was not straightforward, but in some ways, I’d been planning for it longer than I knew. Much longer…

Imagine little Justin on his 7th birthday. Soccer enthusiast? Hardly. I was gleefully hosting an “Earth Day Birthday” and cajoling my friends into making bird feeders. I perhaps should have known then that I was destined for an environmental career. But, as I began university, my plan was to become a diplomat. I loved cross-cultural exchange, I believed in the power of collaboration, and above all, I wanted to make a positive impact. Ultimately, I chose a non-governmental path which applied those same principles and my passion for the environment. So, it was both odd and prophetic to find myself at the G20.

The G20: an amazing opportunity for us scientists to “speak science to power” and engage with policymakers on Nature-Based Solutions.

We were invited to speak at two working group meetings: one on Climate Stewardship and the other on Land Degradation and Habitat loss. Although the two groups focused on the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss separately, our message about the scale and potential of responsible ecosystem restoration rang strong and true at each meeting. It was an incredible opportunity to engage foreign policy representatives and ministers of climate, environment and land from 20 of the largest economies in the world.

As I arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I couldn’t help but think about the juxtaposition of talking about forest and soil restoration potential in the middle of a desert in a country so strongly associated with its fossil fuel production. Then again, what better place to discuss desertification and applying restoration approaches appropriate for each biome – whether desert, grassland, or forest?

I was pleased to hear speaker after speaker reinforce the power of Nature-Based Solutions to help address social, economic and environmental goals. Clearly the wave of evidence from science and practice is gaining momentum!

Go Justin! Our Environmental Strategy Officer addressed how responsible ecosystem restoration can help mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss.

It was exciting to address policymakers and share our message – especially a message of potential and opportunity. There are up to 0.9 billion hectares of degraded land outside of existing forest, urban or agricultural land that could support added tree cover. In combination, that’s an area larger than Brazil and nearly the size of the United States. I’d like to think that comparison was extra relevant with representatives from both countries in the room!

I also emphasized four principles to help guide responsible restoration and climate action. These include cutting emissions; conserving and protecting existing ecosystems; practicing social responsibility; and exercising responsible ecology. Our partners at 1T.org and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration shared similar messages. Together, I believe we made the case that nature is a foundation for healthy societies and strong economies. And, I believe the message was heard.

I think it’s important to speak science to power, to engage and collaborate with governments for mutual learning and benefit, and to help ensure that our science informs more meaningful action. ….Perhaps it’s also important to be careful what you wish for when you blow out your Earth Day Birthday candles…you might just end up at the G20.

Restoring the Forest Microbiome

Restoring the Forest Microbiome

Colin’s research focus is ecosystem ecology. He is especially interested and an expert in soil microbiomes and fungi!

By: Colin Averill, Postdoc and Ambizione Research Fellow at Crowther Lab

We are witnessing a global movement to protect what is left of nature, as well as restore as much as we can. When we work to restore natural ecosystems, we generally start with the plants. In tropical forest ecosystems, we are often logistically constrained to planting just a subset of the original tree species that were once present. The idea is that this initial planting will “jump-start” the natural process of forest succession, leading to the recruitment of even greater biodiversity than we put in at planting, and eventually develop into a thriving forest ecosystem. Yet, so many restoration efforts fail. The trees we plant often die in places they once thrived, outcompeted by new species that have invaded the site. However, perhaps only considering the vegetation is too limited a view of what an ecosystem is, and which parts of the ecosystem are missing.

When we think of forests, we generally focus on what we can see – the plants and animals inhabiting the aboveground. However, just below the earth live incredibly diverse and complex communities of bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms are essential to how plants interact with the soil environment, and are necessary to access critically limiting soil resources. Many soil fungi form belowground networks among trees, allowing trees to share resources and buffer one another in stressful environments. These microorganisms are the forest microbiome. Yet, many key forest microbial species are missing in the post-agricultural landscapes where most forest restoration happens. It begs the question, what would happen if while planting trees we also “planted” the forest microbiome, jumpstarting not just the plants, but also their associated bacteria and fungi?

Scenes from the field: preparing the soil for inoculation and the saplings for planting!


This is what our Ph.D. student, Felix Finkbeiner (also founder of Plant-for-the-Planet), is investigating with our team within the tropical dry forests of the Yucatán Peninsula of México. We’ve collected soil from intact forest remnants in the surrounding landscape, and use this soil as microbial inocula for soil microbiome restoration. The experimental setup is analogous to a randomized controlled drug trial. We’ve established 144 “blocks” of 100 trees across the landscape (14,400 trees!), and then randomly assigned the blocks to one of two treatment conditions. Half of the trees get a small scoop of forest inocula at the time of planting, while the other half gets a “placebo” dose of soil from the post-agricultural site we’re working to restore. Over the next several years we will be monitoring these trees to ask questions like:

  • Does soil microbiome inoculation increase the recovery of native forest microbial biodiversity?
  • Can microbiome inoculation increase tree growth, survival and carbon capture rates?
  • Will microbiome introduction increase the recruitment of other tree species into the plots, above and beyond what we planted?

We are excited to discover what happens. But, success or failure, we will learn more about how forest ecosystems assemble and gain a deeper knowledge of when restoration succeeds and fails. Beyond questions of the forest microbiome, this project is an example of how restoration and science can happen at the same time. By nesting experiments within larger restoration projects, we can learn more about how forests work on a fundamental level, while simultaneously learning how to do restoration better.

We’ve established a similar trial in Wales, UK in collaboration with The Carbon Community, a UK charity. We’re excited to replicate and expand this work across more restoration sites in diverse parts of the world. By doing so, we can generate truly general knowledge about how the global forest system works, and how best to restore and protect it.

Learn more about our soil microbiome research project in Yucatán, Mexico:

 
 
Why I Still Have Hope about Climate Change and Biodiversity

Why I Still Have Hope about Climate Change and Biodiversity

Profile picture of Simeon Max, Environmental Impact Officer at Crowther Lab
Simeon Max is our Environmental Impact Officer. Currently Simeon is working to get Restor, a new platform for ecosystem restoration, ready for its launch this year.

By: Simeon Max, Environmental Impact Officer at Crowther Lab

“Do you still have hope for the climate?”

This is a question my friends ask me. It’s a valid question, especially when apocalyptic news about global biodiversity loss and the climate catastrophe fill headlines on a daily basis.

Of course I still have hope.

The considerable contribution of ecosystem restoration and conservation to solve these challenges has been widely recognized. But recognizing the potential is not enough. Until now, progress and action on the global scale has been far from reaching its full potential. But times are changing and we have reasons to believe that we can restore earth’s ecosystems in the limited amount of time we have at our hands. Here are some of them.

Uniting for urgency

The world is looking into the eyes of the catastrophe and there is an unprecedented urgency to act. But a renewed and widespread global awareness of the potential of ecosystem restoration is uniting society: politicians, corporates, the public and not least the thousands of restoration practitioners on the ground. Science shows that the global restoration of forests can potentially capture up to 30% of the excess carbon accumulating in our atmosphere as a result of human activity.

With a strategy for the way forward that has been developed by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration we’re seeing a truly global movement with actionable commitments, and when the billions of dollars pledged for restoration will be released, we will get far!

Disruptive technology

We now have better tools than ever to implement and scale restoration. Why not leverage Industry 4.0 technologies for the restoration of peatlands, grasslands, coral reefs and forests? The process of restoration is so much more than getting your hands dirty on the ground (though that is a key part of it).

Disruptive technologies can enable and accelerate the ground work as well as the planning, managing and reporting of restoration: drones, satellites, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the blockchain technology are rushing to nature’s aid. These tools also help us document restoration efforts, which is crucial for learning what works and what doesn’t. That’s why at the Crowther Lab we’re focused on connecting the dots between data science and ecology.

Simeon Max in the field; his background is in forestry and on-ground restoration.
It’s no surprise that Simeon is passionate about restoration: his background is in forestry and on-ground restoration. Previous to the Crowther Lab, Simeon has worked many years for projects in Uganda and Indonesia.

Restoration action: building a new ecosystem

Organizations, volunteers, indigenous groups – people around the world have been restoring local ecosystems for decades. This persistent work has built the basis for an increased global awareness and the current momentum. But there’s still room to grow: we can get more people involved and restore more land. And this is changing: a wave of new initiatives and start-ups are energizing the restoration world.

There are new promising business models along the whole restoration supply chain, which ensure that restoration is not just a “hype” but rather based on a sustainable strategy. Ambitious corporate commitments to go carbon neutral include the insetting of carbon in supply chains. An example is the inclusion of trees on farms in agroforestry systems, which is increasingly seen as a profitable business opportunity. Companies like Zurich Insurance are investing in reforestation projects, Patagonia makes climate action a corporate initiative and Microsoft is supporting projects like conserving old growth forests in the USA. This is the kind of collective action we need; we need more well-intentioned projects to reach scale, and it’s crucial that they are grounded in science.

Supporting the movement with science

Successful ecosystem restoration needs to be based on scientific knowledge. Nowadays, there are new opportunities to ensure a universal access to that science, to accelerate learning and democratize restoration know-how:  big data, for one, can help to advance our understanding of ecosystems and restoration practices. We now have a range of tools readily available to collect high quality data cheaply, and a sensitized community of global restoration practitioners who want to advance science with their experience and data. Decades of research in restoration ecology and careers dedicated to the movement have provided the foundation that this action needs.

We now learn from one project in one place, and transfer this knowledge to other areas with similar characteristics. My team at Crowther Lab is committed to making restoration know-how available as widely as possible: and that is why we built Restor. With Restor, a new open data platform, we want to connect initiatives on the ground in an active and engaged network and support them with science – all clearly interpreted and understandable. As of today, data from over 15,000 locations around the world have been submitted to Restor for restoration knowledge sharing.

The foundations for scaling local restoration have been laid by global commitments. The tools to get there are being developed and rolled out. Restor is our contribution to reaching global climate and restoration goals, and it is one of many parts of the solution. But its success also depends on the engagement of the people. It is a mammoth task (or rather, a human task – let’s not rely on the mammoths for now) to restore the millions of hectares and to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. 

We have to make sure we get it right and consider the ecological, as well as the social and economic dimensions of restoration.

So don’t lose hope: something new is emerging, and we can all be part of it. 

Together.


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