Published Research | Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

November 9, 2025 Frontiers in Bird Science

Fire-crested alethes (Alethe castanea) follow humans and bushbuck in Uganda’s Budongo Forest

This report, authored by IBES Voss Postdoc Elodie Freymann, documents a novel foraging behavior in fire-crested alethes in the Budongo Forest Reserve of Western Uganda.

November 6, 2025 Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Algorithmic North: Weather, Security and International Law

Professor Amanda Lynch co-authored this policy brief.

November 5, 2025 Nature Geoscience

Isotopic evidence for elevated photorespiration during the last glacial period

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

September 23, 2025 Trends in Ecology & Evolution

‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time

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.

September 19, 2025 Journal of Heredity

Levels and partitioning of genetic variation of northeastern populations of diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin)

This study, co-authored by IBES and Biology Associate Professor Tyler Kartzinel, reveals that diamondback terrapins face heightened risks at the northern edge of their range in New England as their genetic diversity declines.

September 19, 2025 npj Climate Action

Unpacking the tradeoff between equity and climate resilience in U.S. housing policy

Jennifer Hadden, an IBES affiliate at the Watson School for International and Public Affairs, co-penned this commentary, which notes that "the current U.S. housing policy regime creates tradeoffs between promoting equity and addressing climate risk."

September 12, 2025 Nature Communications

Greenland ice sheet runoff reduced by meltwater refreezing in bare ice

This study, co-authored by Professor Laurence C. Smith and former IBES postdoc Jonathan Ryan, suggests that climate models may be overestimating current levels of meltwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet.

August 8, 2025 Carbon Balance and Management

Life cycle emissions associated with vault storage of wood cleared for fire management in the Western United States

This paper, coauthored by IBES Professor Stephen Porder and Declan Johnson '24, suggests that wood vaults are a promising emissions-reduction strategy, but challenges remain.

August 1, 2025 Sage Journals

Climate Politics as Status Politics: Struggles over the Symbolic Worth of Educational Credentials in the US Climate Change Debate

Assistant Professor of Environment and Society Rachel Wetts examines how the social value of education contributes to partisanship within climate debates.

July 30, 2025 Nature Climate Change

Reconsidering space-for-time substitution in climate change ecology

IBES Professor Dov Sax coauthored this article, which highlights why ecology's space-for-time substitution method can be misleading, and makes suggestions for improving the reliability of ecological forecasts.

July 15, 2025 EdWorkingPapers

Education and Climate Change: Synthesizing the Evidence to Guide Future Research

The first working paper from the Sustainable Education Research Initiative, led by IBES affiliate Matthew Kraft (Department of Education) and supported by an IBES Catalyst Research Award.

May 29, 2025 Frontiers in Climate

When boundaries are blurred: infrastructure needs in support of the climate displaced

Article coauthor Jennifer Hadden, an IBES affiliate at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, proposes a framework for understanding the basic infrastructure needs of people displaced by climate change during four phases: initiation, mobilization, pause and settle.

May 8, 2025 Nature Cities

Land subsidence risk to infrastructure in US metropolises

IBES Postdoc Sonam Futi Sherpa contributed to this study, which finds that all of the 28 most populous U.S. cities are sinking.

April 3, 2025 Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

Growing sustainable capitalism: The environmental politics of agri-tech in Singapore

This article, written by Voss Postdoc Vanessa Koh, examines the nexus of the emergence of the agri-tech ecosystem in Singapore and concerns over climate change.

March 21, 2025 Nature Climate Change

Improving future climate meetings

Jennifer Hadden, an IBES affiliate at the Watson Institute, penned with article alongside Aseem Prakash of the University of Washington.

March 15, 2025 Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

A Long-Lasting, High-Stability Reactor System for Compound-Specific Carbon Isotope Analyses

IBES Fellow Yonsong Huang and former IBES postdoc Bumsoo Kim are among the authors of this study.

March 11, 2025 Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

Determination of KGa-1b and SHCa-1 Δ′17O and δ18O via Laser Fluorination of Lithium Fluoride Clay Pellets

This study was conducted by members of Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra's lab, including an IBES postdoc and graduate affiliates.

February 5, 2025 Global Ecology and Conservation

Diet-microbiome covariation across three giraffe species in a close-contact zone

Associate Professor Tyler Kartzinel's lab group collaborated with nonprofits in Kenya and Namibia to compare the diets and gut microbiomes of giraffes.

January 27, 2025 Environmental Research

XIS-PM2.5: A daily spatiotemporal machine-learning model for PM2.5 in the contiguous United States

IBES and Epidemiology Associate Professor Allan Just led the development of this state-of-the-art national spatiotemporal exposure model, which reconstructs daily particulate air pollution estimates for use in a wide range of health studies.

January 12, 2025 Environmental Research

XIS-temperature: A daily spatiotemporal machine-learning model for air temperature in the contiguous United States

IBES and Epidemiology Associate Professor Allan Just led the development of this state-of-the-art national spatiotemporal exposure model, reconstructing daily temperature estimates for use in a wide range of health studies.

January 7, 2025 American Ethnologist

Improperty: Black land stewardship and the paradox of liberation on stolen land

IBES and Anthropology Assistant Professor Myles Lennon discusses "improperty": "modes of ownership that paradoxically unsettle the logics of accumulation and enclosure that are proper to the property form."

December 19, 2024 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Stable isotope tempestology of tropical cyclones across the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Ocean basins

IBES Director Kim Cobb is among the researchers who contributed to this study, which investigates past hurricanes in order to reduce future risk.

December 18, 2024 Sports Medicine

Running on Fumes: An Analysis of Fine Particulate Matter's Impact on Finish Times in Nine Major US Marathons, 2003-2019

IBES Associate Professor Allan Just and Faculty Fellow Joseph Braun, both epidemiologists in the School of Public Health, contributed to this study.

December 6, 2024 Nature Geoscience

The palaeoclimate potential of continental scientific drilling

Correspondence by IBES Fellow James Russell and colleagues on how a strategic expansion of continental drilling efforts would help advance paleoclimate research.

December 5, 2024 Distillations Magazine

Proxies for Justice

"The climate history of tropical regions has been chronically understudied," former Voss Postdoc Researchers Jayson Maurice Porter and Lina C.
Lina C. Pérez-Angel write in this article. "Correcting the record will require new methods and new mindsets.

December 2, 2024 Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

From reduction to regeneration: Environmental justice and ecological unity in the IRA era

In this peer-reviewed article, IBES and Anthropology Assistant Professor Myles Lennon "calls on the [environmental justice] movement to shift from the reductive framework at the heart of the IRA to a regenerative framework aligned with the movement's 'ecological unity' principle."

December 1, 2024 Current Anthropology

The Problem with “Solutions”: Apolitical Optimism in the Sustainable Energy Industry

IBES and Anthropology Assistant Professor Myles Lennon argues that "environmental solutionism is the rhetorical offspring of polluting industries, masking exploitative corporate practices with a facade of apolitical consensus."

November 23, 2024 Energy Research & Social Science

Beyond dark money: Information subsidies and complex networks of opposition to offshore wind on the U.S. East Coast

"In this article, we demonstrate how the discourses and strategies of local opposition groups are influenced by relationships with national-level groups and fossil fuel interests," write members of the IBES-based Climate and Development Lab.

November 5, 2024 Nature Communications

Submesoscales are a significant turbulence source in global ocean surface boundary layer

IBES Fellow Baylor Fox-Kemper is a coauthor on this new paper.

October 17, 2024 The Lancet

Climate emotions, thoughts, and plans among US adolescents and young adults: a cross-sectional descriptive survey and analysis by political party identification and self-reported exposure to severe weather events

Environmental Studies & Sciences concentrator Caitlyn Carpenter '26 is a coauthor of this study.

September 30, 2024 The American Journal of Emergency Medicine

The financial and environmental impact of unopened medical supplies discarded in the emergency department

This study was authored by students and faculty of Brown's Alpert Medical School, including IBES Affiliate Kyle Denison Martin.

September 26, 2024 Climate Policy Initiative

Partnering to Finance Adaptation

This report was co-authored by IBES alum Ken Schell-Smith '22.5.

September 19, 2024 News from Brown

How do coexisting animals find enough to eat? Biologists unlock insights into foraging habits in Yellowstone

Brown University ecologists teamed with National Park Service scientists in Yellowstone to answer a vexing question about how different wildlife species find enough to eat.

August 19, 2024 IOP Publishing

Where ideology meets private interest: the three-part composition of climate obstruction in the United States

New research from the Climate and Development Lab and Climate Social Science Network, fueled by IBES alums.

August 5, 2024 Nature Communications

Rare and highly destructive wildfires drive human migration in the U.S.

Elizabeth Fussell, professor of population studies and environment and society (Research), coauthored this new study.

July 31, 2024 Nature Communications

Increasing intensity of enterovirus outbreaks projected with climate change

IBES and Epidemiology Assistant Professor Rachel Baker is the lead author on this new study, which predicts greater outbreaks of enterovirus as climate change worsens.

July 21, 2024 PAGES Horizons

Tracking hydroclimate extremes from deep in the tropics

This outreach magazine article highlights cave monitoring efforts in the Philippines led by former Voss Postdoc Natasha Sekhon.

July 18, 2024 Nature Communications

Experimental evidence of climate change extinction risk in Neotropical montane epiphytes

Emily Hollenbeck PhD '18 and IBES Professor Dov Sax conducted field surveys of epiphyte distributions on three mountains in Central America and performed reciprocal transplant experiments on one mountain across sites that varied in elevation, temperature, and aridity.

June 25, 2024 IOP Publishing

Residential segregation and summertime air temperature across 13 northeastern U.S. states: potential implications for energy burden

IBES and Epidemiology Professor Allan Just is co-author on this paper, which asks: Do minoritized groups experience hotter summers than the area average, and do non-Hispanic white people experience cooler summers?

May 30, 2024 Climate Social Science Network

Climate Obstruction Across Europe

This major assessment volume, available for free from the IBES-based Climate Social Science Network and Oxford University Press, explores the forces blocking climate action in and around Europe.

May 20, 2024 Current Climate Change Reports

Equity and Justice in Loss and Damage Finance: A Narrative Review of Catalysts and Obstacles

Reviewing recent literature on loss and damage finance, members of the IBES-based Climate Social Science Network consider how the new UNFCCC Loss and Damage Fund could be transformative for climate finance.

May 20, 2024 Nature Scientific Reports

Group 2i Isochrysidales thrive in marine and lacustrine systems with ice cover

New research from Tyler Kartzinel, assistant professor of biology and environment and society, and IBES Fellow Yongsong Huang.

May 11, 2024 Energy Research & Social Science

Climate coalitions and anti-coalitions: Lobbying across state legislatures in the United States

In this academic article, members of the IBES-based Climate and Development Lab ask: Who are the main actors in state-level climate disputes, and what coalitions emerge as they take positions on specific areas of clean energy policy? Who wins in these contests?

March 15, 2024 Nature Communications Biology