Faculty Research
Globalization and border security in the United States, Israel, and India
In the first decade of the new millennium, despite predictions of an increasingly borderless world through the process of globalization, the United States, Israel and India built a combined total of 5700 km of security barriers on their political borders. This research project analyzes how these previously controversial border security projects were justified in each country; what consequences these physical barriers have on the lives of people who live in these newly securitized spaces; and what long-term effects the process of locking down and closing political borders will have on the concepts of freedom and openness in these societies. More information…
Climate, disturbance and land carbon
Regions of the Arctic have warmed more than other locations in recent decades, and amplified northern warming is expected to continue. The fate of large amounts of land carbon in the Arctic, most of which is concentrated belowground, remains a large question mark with regard to global change feedbacks to climate. A number of ongoing projects, from Svalbard to Kamchatka, seek to better understand Arctic carbon-climate connections by investigating past wetland behavior and responses to climate variation and change. Â Beilman lab.
Climate and ecohydrology
Global climate change is the most important environmental challenge facing humanity. Understanding and predicting regional and local effects of global warming on natural ecosystems, water resources, agriculture, and other human endeavors is a critically important responsibility for the scientific community. Human impacts on land cover, through land use change and introduction of alien plants and animals is another important driver of environmental change with a myriad of negative consequences for natural and human systems. Several on-going research projects address climate change, land cover change, and alien species invasion in the tropics.More information…