Nine new projects that connect Cornell Atkinson researchers with partners at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) will explore the crisis of private property insurance as climate change increases storm frequency and severity, natural strategies to protect farmland and water quality in the Mississippi River Basin, and evaluating potential impacts of expanding aquaculture feedstocks, among others. 

Four new postdoctoral fellows have been hired to undertake projects co-led by an EDF researcher and a Cornell faculty member. Five Cornell and EDF partnerships have received Innovation for Impact Fund awards, aimed at building partnerships and developing projects that will address key sustainability challenges. 

Cornell and EDF researchers interested in developing partnerships for future awards are invited to attend a workshop Sept. 30 - Oct. 1 on Cornell’s Ithaca campus. 

Partnering with EDF supports Cornell Atkinson’s mission to transform knowledge into impact, said Patrick Beary, the Bruce H. Bailey Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships. 

“By combining Cornell’s research in climate, energy, food, and One Health with EDF’s strategic expertise and practical approach, we can shape the policies and practices that define our future,” Beary said. “Together, we’re driving real change on sustainability challenges that require both innovation and action.”

Doria Gordon, senior director and lead senior scientist at EDF, said EDF works to find “solutions that ensure a clean energy transition, healthy communities, and the ability of people and nature to thrive.” 

“This partnership with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability helps to catalyze those solutions, accelerating scientific understanding that underpins policy and practice change,” Gordon said. “EDF’s scientists, economists and practitioners have access to the extensive expertise represented by Cornell Atkinson fellows for collaborations that identify and drive change that will meet our common goals.”

Three of this year’s Atkinson-EDF partnerships will explore:

• Public Risk Pooling: Opportunities to Drive Climate Adaptation
  Climate change and land use management challenges have created a crisis in U.S. property insurance markets: more frequent, more extreme storms have pushed several private insurers to insolvency. In many states, public insurance markets are a (costlier and less comprehensive) resource for homeowners who can’t access private markets. Public insurance markets are well positioned to drive risk reduction. This project will identify the levers public insurance programs use to support risk reduction, barriers to expanding their use, and paths of policy reform to equitably increase the resilience of areas facing growing risk from natural hazards, while simultaneously stabilizing insurance markets. It is co-led by John Zinda, associate professor of global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), and EDF scientist Carolyn Kousky. 

• Creating a Sustainable Agricultural System in the Mississippi River Basin with Natural Infrastructure: The Economic Costs and Benefits
  The Mississippi River Basin, which hosts 240 million acres of cropland, is increasingly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. In addition, the EPA reports that 35-40% of lakes have excess nitrogen and phosphorus, resulting in toxic algal blooms, fish mortality, and dead zones. Natural infrastructure, such as wetlands, buffers, and floodplain restoration, can significantly reduce flooding and loss of productive cropland while improving water quality. Researchers will quantify the economic costs and benefits of integrating natural infrastructure across the basin landscape, in support of policy planning and advocacy. They’ll also assess how much optimal placement of natural infrastructure could reduce economic damages from nutrient pollution and flooding, and whether natural infrastructure could improve retention of carbon in agricultural soils – critical for soil health and climate mitigation. The project is co-led by Mainul Hoque, research associate in the SC Johnson College of Business, and EDF scientist Will McDow. 

• Evaluating Food Security and Carbon Sequestration Trade-offs of Potential Mesopelagic Fisheries
  The mesopelagic zone (200–1000 meters deep in the ocean) contains a huge amount of the ocean’s biomass. The small fish that live in the mesopelagic zone play a vital role in the biological carbon pump that moves carbon to the seafloor for long-term sequestration. Mesopelagic fish are currently being considered as a new potential source of food for aquaculture, as farmed fish demand is growing and additional food sources are needed to feed carnivorous fish, such as salmon. This project will evaluate the trade-offs between potential disruption to carbon sequestration and human nutrition in commercial exploitation of mesopelagic fish. Postdoctoral associate Joyce Yager will conduct the research, co-advised by Eugene Won, senior research associate of animal science in CALS, and EDF scientists Julia G. Mason and Mattias Cape. 

Descriptions of all of this year’s Cornell-EDF projects are available on the Atkinson website. 

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for Cornell Atkinson.