Earthshot Institute Lab Launch
Earthshot Institute is gathering teams to conduct research and build tech that will catalyze social-ecological regeneration. Together, we are cultivating a research ecosystem that grows across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
Three new labs will launch on November 10: Assisted Forest Regeneration, Ganges, and Beaver. Learn more about the institute and match with a lab at our next event! Diverse skills are needed—and all are welcome. Come lend your unique genius to the planet! ❍
The Assisted Forest Regeneration Lab will expand the possibilities of the traditional scientific literature review by calling on numerous participants around the world. Leland Werden, of ETH Zürich, is leading this effort to bring together a polyglot team of forestry data scouts to look well beyond the usual journals and databases and synthesize the world’s under-appreciated wisdom about what interventions work to regenerate forests. To join this lab, one just needs a bit of familiarity with forestry, or ecology, or a related field, and an interest in putting one’s data-digging skills to work.
The Ganges Lab, led by Anthony Acciavatti, of Yale University, will map and analyze a key feature of the Ganges basin—naalas—to understand how new forms of green infrastructure, such as parks, bioswales, and bioremediation, can rejuvenate this vital and sacred river. The lab will need people with expertise in remote sensing and machine learning (to identify and map naalas), river ecology and hydrology (to understand how they function and generate ideas for better management), as well as permaculture techniques and anthropology (to plan interventions on the ground).
The Beaver Lab, led by Grace Lindsay, of NYU, returns to one of Earthshot’s foundational ideas: If we could use satellite imagery and machine learning to identify beaver dams, maybe we could start to understand—and even forecast—how these relatively small additions to a river result in dramatic transformation of local ecology. Beaver dams have been shown to result in greener, more drought-resilient waterways in semi-arid environments. By learning from their new database of natural dams, the lab will predict how humans can emulate their effects on biological productivity, carbon sequestration, and drought resilience. This lab will be calling for experts in remote sensing, machine learning, and riparian ecology.
Join us on November 10 to learn about our new labs!
Image: Stuart Rankin, Ganges river delta