With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year, fireworks will soon light up American skies. Professor Meredith Hastings, DEEPS Chair and leader of the Breathe Providence Project, joined the Possibly Podcast to talk about fireworks and their impact on the environment and our health.

Following the DEM's two-year Air Toxic Study, South Providence residents are advocating for a plan to address the air pollution in the area. Professor Meredith Hastings, the Breathe Providence project leader, commented on the air quality, saying, "We know there’s a lot of bad stuff in the air. Sometimes it’s illegal. It’s definitely cancer-causing.” Linda Perri, head of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association, told City Council members and planners, “We need to have a say in how the growth is going to happen, especially because we breathe the air and we live in the shadow of the port.”

Local residents and researchers are working together in a community-led effort called "WaterSpeak" to test the air, water and soil in the Port of Providence. DEEPS Assistant Professor Mara Freilich has partnered with the People’s Port Authority, a grassroots environmental organization, to help community scientist investigate questions to understand how pollution is affecting the community. The team also plans collaborate with Breathe Providence, a research team at Brown University that tracks neighborhood air quality across the city, including along Allens Avenue.

Assistant Professor Mara Freilich's project is one of six cross-disciplinary projects to receive an award in the second year of Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems. This Scialog initiative was launched to spur novel interdisciplinary research into the complex processes behind neurobiological adaptation to stressors like exposure to pollution, toxins, and increasingly unpredictable environments.

Student researcher Emma Blankstein recently joined the Possibility Team to talk about "Breathe Providence", a research team at Brown that tracks air quality in Providence neighborhoods by asking neighbors to track what they smell in an effort to better understand air pollution in Rhode Island.

In a recent Nature publication, DEEPS alum Lorenzo A. Davidson '24, undergraduate Constance M. Erdozain, Professor Emanuele Di Lorenzo and team explore key factors impacting the migration of juvenile North Pacific albacore tuna. Using electronic tagging data and an individual-based model (IBM), the researchers demonstrate that mixed layer depth has a pivotal role in influencing albacore migration timing and depth preferences. "These findings highlight the relevance of subsurface ocean conditions to the movement of highly migratory species and demonstrate the utility of IBMs in the study of complex migratory behaviors."

In this new study, DEEPS graduate student Manuel Justin Custado examines the authorship of climate science research in South East Asia, offering a valuable lens into who is funding, writing, and accessing climate science for this highly impacted region. "Quantifying these patterns can provide insights into key challenges and opportunities regarding the participation of local researchers in SEA climate science."

A blend of chemistry and molecular-biology techniques are enabling archaeologists to mine ancient sediments for clues about the people who once lived there. DEEPS Professor James Russell commented on how ancient vegetation can provide reveal hints about ancient climate: the heavier it rains in the region, “there’s less and less of the heavy isotope left and more and more of the light isotope.”

A recent study utilizes ancient plant waxes preserved in sediments from two Utah lakes to investigate ancient climate history. Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra noted that a key reason for analyzing the hydrogen isotopes is to compare the climate patterns revealed by the plant wax to the patterns predicted by current climate models.

The Brown Daily Herald spoke to weather experts, including Professor Amanda Lynch and graduate student Maria Luìsa Rocha, to understand the distinction between the two winter weather events. “In short, all blizzards are snowstorms, but not all snowstorms meet the criteria to be classified as blizzards,” Maria noted.

A historic 37.9 inches of snow fell in Providence this week, breaking the record as the snowstorm is the largest recorded in state history. DEEPS Associate Professor Jung-Eun Lee shared insight into what causes blizzards, and what factors contributed to this historic weather event.

DEEPS Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra and Postdoc Gavin Piccione are co-leaders on a collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation to examine how climate behaved in past climates when large lakes existed in the Mojave Desert.

When DEEPS postdoctoral geochemist Gavin Piccione received a notification of possible lead pollution in his area, it inspired the development of the Urban Water Pollution Project (UWPP), a collaborative research initiative to understand heavy metal pollution in the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket watersheds in Providence. “The goal and the strategy is the more you know, the more power and more connection to this place you have,” Piccione said.

Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper recently offered commentary on the clean-energy economy and climate change. “The transition toward a clean energy economy is well underway, and that’s happening all around the world,” Fox-Kemper said.

DEEPS PhD student Peter Van Kawtyk, with co-authors Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper, Assistant Professor Karianne Bergen, and Dr. Helene Hewitt (UK Met Office), have published a new perspective paper that discusses emerging research on machine learning-based "emulators" in climate science. They argue that "the next phase of climate modeling hinges on closer collaboration between simulator and emulator communities."

A new series of workshops hosted by Climate Ready Together shares general information about how Providence is impacted by climate change and how residents can get involved in addressing it on a macro level. The most effective method for combating climate change relies on coordinated state-level strategy, notes DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb, citing the importance of “real awareness and education across many different channels and many different avenues,” including in classrooms and town councils. The story is published as part of a collaboration between ecoRI News and students in Brown University’s Science Journalism class.

Celebrate the 2025 Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet awardees in this recording of our virtual celebration. Hear from the winners, including DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb.

Increasingly severe rain storms are straining an aging city and campus infrastructure. Beneath the recently renovated Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle, Brown installed water storage tanks “that will accept the high volume” of rainwater produced during high-intensity storms. “There’s not a single campus across the country that is immune to climate-related impacts and threats to its infrastructure,” commented DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb. “You often do need to wait to see those impacts on the ground before you make the deep investments.”

Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper is leading Brown’s team in the SIMCoast initiative modeling microplastics in the Narragansett Bay.

This new policy brief, co-authored by Professor Amanda Lynch, situates the algorithmic transformation of Arctic WWC services within its broader legal and security context. It concludes by outlining three domains for policy intervention: international organisations, international law and international security.

A recent paper co-authored by Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra supports the hypothesis of a negative feedback that limits atmospheric carbon dioxide decline during glacial periods.

DEEPS PhD student Alejandra Lopez describes her research on the Salton Sea alongside community volunteers. Through rigorous science and community engagement, Alejandra's work on the Salton Sea Project is demonstrating what environmental research can accomplish when it centers the needs and knowledge of those most impacted.

Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra, undergraduate alumnus Jonah Bernstein-Schalet, former Postdoctoral Researcher Evan Ramos, and graduate student Sebastian Munoz are coauthors on a recent publication in JGR Biogeosciences. Their research looks into CO2 emissions from headwater streams, comparing chemical signatures of river water samples taken from an Oregon watershed with both very steep and very shallow-sloping rivers. "Results from this study may impact our estimates of how rivers move carbon across the earth's surface and exchange carbon dioxide with the atmosphere."

DEEPS Chair, Professor Meredith Hastings discussed the air quality in Providence, as monitored through her Breathe Providence project.

Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra is co-author of this study, which provides a new framework for examining how organisms have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale across hundreds, thousands, or millions of years.

Assistant Professor Mara Freilich is co-editor on a new book, "Climate Changed: Models and the Built World," available now through Colombia University Press. The book examines models and their imperfect yet central role in understanding the relationship between global climate dynamics and the human-built environment. It compares and synthesizes the methods and function of models in disciplines ranging from architecture and planning to climate science and natural hazards research.

DEEPS PhD student Alejandra López contributes to two new briefs revealing widespread nutrient pollution, dangerously low oxygen levels in the lake, and frequent episodes of hydrogen sulfide emissions that exceed California’s health standards—conditions occurring among residents in areas that rank among the most burdened by pollution in the state. López noted, “Families live with chronic exposure to pollutants that would never be tolerated elsewhere. We call for enforceable standards and local-focused solutions that put residents at the center of restoration.”

More than 85 climate scientists declared the Department of Energy’s new climate report unfit for policymaking in a comprehensive review. DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb, who co-authored two sections of the review, said, “It’s really important that we stand up for the integrity of [climate science] when it matters the most. And this may very well be when it mattered the most.”

From freshly formed simple craters on the Moon to hydrogen sulfide production in the Salton Sea, DEEPS undergraduate students participated in cutting edge research throughout the 2025 summer break. We are proud to showcase some of these research projects with this photo series.

DEEPS Assistant Professor Harriet Lau recently presented at TEDx New England on the our planet's natural cycles and rhythms – from micrometers to thousands of miles, and from milliseconds to millions of years. Throughout Earth's multi-billion-year history, these rhythms collide, interact, and unfold, influencing humanity and shaping our experience of time.

ecoRI News spoke with experts about the risks that Rhode Island will face going forward as heat waves hit more frequently and for longer periods. DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings commented, noting that when it’s hot outside, air quality tends to get worse. “Under hotter conditions we speed up reactions,” she said. “That can lead to the faster production of secondary pollution.”

Dozens of veteran climate scientists have launched a coordinated response to a Trump administration report that casts doubt on the severity of climate change. Kim Cobb, DEEPS Professor and Director of IBES, told CNN it’s significant that the Trump administration is deep-sixing the climate assessments at the same time it’s releasing a misleading new report. She also said she hopes to help “set the record straight” on climate science in their response to the DOE report.

A new art installation on Public Street by artist Eli Nixon features colorful windsocks that are raised as local air quality fluctuates. DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings attended the windsock event and spoke about air quality issues, which she has studied as a part of her project Breathe Providence.

This article in Nature investigates how researchers are filing appeals, seeking court remedies, turning to philanthropy and starting GoFundMe campaigns to support their research. The article includes the cancellation of Assistant Professor Mara Freilich's NASA grant, which engaged citizens in studying the air quality around California's Salton Sea.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week we hear from John Nicklas, PhD Candidate and Climate and Health Scientist. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

Assistant Professor Mara Freilich is one of the seventeen researchers on cross-disciplinary teams to win funding in the first year of "Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems", a three-year initiative that aims to spark new science exploring neurobiological response to rapid and extensive human-caused environmental changes. Freilich and her team will be exploring "From Feeding to Flux: Unraveling the Impact of Animal Behavior on Global Ocean Carbon Flow."

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week we hear from Aikaterina “Katia” Tavri, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Remote Sensing Specialist using satellite imageries to study sea ice variability. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week features Pierre Chabert, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Physical Oceanographer studying extreme flooding events in New England. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. Our first scientist is Lily Dove, Postdoctoral Fellow and Physical Oceanographer exploring the Southern Ocean: The Lung of the Ocean. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.