The Swope Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory.
In a study published in Environmental Research Letters, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Ecosystems Center examine ways to reduce the nitrogen footprint of smaller institutions, like the MBL, by focusing on a bottom-up approach.
“This bottom-up approach is all about balancing the needs of various stakeholders to come up with the best, most feasible solution for the institution,” says Sarah Messenger, lead author and research assistant in the MBL Ecosystems Center.
At the MBL, and many institutions like it, the biggest sources of nitrogen are food production and consumption. That’s because nitrogen is used as fertilizer to grow our food and produce the feed that supports livestock animals.
Researchers found that switching to an all-vegan diet (no animal products) in dining halls would make a huge dent in the institution’s nitrogen footprint, but MBL’s dining team called it a non-starter. The kitchen staff isn’t trained for that, nor would the customers be open to it, they said. It would also mean big changes for the department’s budget.
“The problem here is not just at an institutional level, but at a family level, at the community level, at regional, state, and national levels. The problem is that these things cost a lot of money and they are difficult to implement,” says Javier Lloret, MBL research scientist.
The scientists also found that upgrading the institution’s HVAC systems, fitting new, more efficient windows, or going 100% solar could cut the institution’s nitrogen footprint. But all of those solutions come with a large price tag.
“The MBL is really small, so we don’t have the personnel resources of larger Institutions,” says Messenger. “We don’t have a sustainability department. We have limited manpower, limited resources, and limited money that we can put towards making these big changes.”
But what the MBL and many smaller institutions have are people who are experts at what they do. So instead of searching for a solution to the institution’s nitrogen footprint that could require a large budget commitment from the director or the board of trustees, the scientists identified on-the-ground stakeholders in the departments that were responsible for the biggest portion of MBL’s nitrogen footprint—food and facilities—and modeled “low-effort” solutions for those departments. They focused on ideas that didn’t require new personnel, a large investment or a change in normal operations, and could be accomplished over the short term (three to five years).
“The goal was to only model changes that these department leaders could implement in their departments without needing sweeping changes and institution approval,” says Messenger, adding that the team “completely disregarded any reduction strategies that weren’t acceptable to the people that know their department best.”
People eating in the MBL cafeteria. Credit: Emily Greenhalgh
The MBL’s facilities team was already implementing an upgrade of the institution’s lighting, so the research team adding those upgrades to their model — calculating a 7.3% drop in the nitrogen footprint of the utilities sector and a 2% drop in the MBL’s overall nitrogen footprint. Purchasing extra renewable energy credits to power the MBL with solar energy was also modeled.
Combining all the approaches, the scientists calculated a 7.7% drop in the MBL’s nitrogen footprint with no major disruption to operations and no additional monetary support from the institution.
“It might not seem like a lot, but 8% is a lot of nitrogen,” said Lloret. “These small changes do make a difference.”
While no measures have been implemented yet, the team said they were optimistic by the response from the department stakeholders and hoped that the MBL, and other small institutions like it, could use this paper to examine ways to minimize their nitrogen and carbon footprints.
“We all want the same thing,” says Messenger. “We would all love the MBL to reduce the impact on our environment as much as possible, but exactly how to get there is challenging. We’re hoping that this paper can be a map forward.”
Other co-authors include MBL Ecosystems Center Director Anne Giblin and MBL Trustee James Galloway.
The authors of the paper wanted to thank MBL’s Erin Hummetoglu, Marie Russell, and Bill Brosseau for their contributions to this project.
Citation: Messenger, S., Lloret, J., Galloway, J. N., & Giblin, A. (2021). Identifying and assessing effectiveness of alternative low-effort nitrogen footprint reductions in small research institutions. Environmental Research Letters, 16(3), 035014. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abd9f6
Redirects to https://www.mbl.edu/march-madness/
Redirects to https://goforward.mbl.edu/.
Aerial view of The Knob and Quissett Harbor in Woods Hole, with greater Buzzards Bay in the distance. Buzzards Bay is approximately 28 miles long by 8 miles wide and is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Credit: Fish Hawk Films
“We hope getting this data out will encourage scientists to use it to test new hypotheses and develop new insights into Bay health,” said Rachel Jakuba, science director of the Buzzards Bay Coalition and lead author of the journal article.
Since 1992, a large team of citizen volunteers, dubbed Baywatchers, has been collecting water samples from more than 200 sites along the coast of Buzzards Bay. The samples have been analyzed at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) since 2008 under the direction of Chris Neill, Senior Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, and MBL Senior Research Assistant Richard McHorney.
The goal is to document the effects of nitrogen pollution in the Bay, including low oxygen levels that threaten marine life, in order to inform policies to improve Bay health.
"Baywatchers data directly influence policy by documenting impaired waters, making the public aware of long-term water quality trends, and importantly, documenting how water quality improves when communities upgrade water infrastructure, like fixing antiquated wastewater treatment plants," said Neill. "They also show the Bay's waters are warming rapidly."
The main sources of nitrogen pollution in the 430-square-mile Bay are private septic systems and underperforming wastewater treatment plants. Collaborations such as the MBL-Buzzards Bay Coalition’s are essential to move science toward societal solutions.
“Scientists can provide information on the causes and consequences of excess nitrogen loading and suggest alternatives, while citizens groups can push for action and help bring together citizens, regulators, and policy makers to achieve a solution,” said MBL Ecosystems Director Anne Giblin, a member of the Buzzard Bay Coalition’s Leadership Council.
Giblin and MBL Senior Scientist Ivan Valiela were among a group of scientists who helped the Coalition formulate and establish the Baywatchers program in the early 1990s.
Baywatchers data have been used to identify nearly 30 bodies of water around the Bay that do not meet federal standards under the Clean Water Act, evaluate wastewater discharge permits, support the development of targets for reduction of nitrogen pollution, and develop strategies for reaching those goals.
Viewed from left: The southeastern Massachusetts coast; Buzzards Bay; The Elizabeth Islands, Woods Hole and Falmouth, Mashpee and Bourne; Vineyard Sound and Martha’s Vineyard, from the International Space Station in 2003. Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center.
And the Baywatchers program itself elevates public awareness and generates support for actions to control nutrient pollution and improve water quality.
“With a program like Baywatchers, every one of those citizen volunteers not only collects samples, they go out and talk to their friends about the nitrogen issue. That is a huge public education benefit. By making sure those volunteers are well educated in the scientific facts, you get this tremendous informal education program going,” Giblin said.
Baywatchers is one of the largest and longest-running water quality monitoring programs in the country, and its dataset on water quality in Buzzards Bay keeps growing.
“Over the past 30 years, the Coalition has prioritized our commitment to comprehensive water quality monitoring above all else – placing sound science at the core of our work and successes in restoring and protecting the Bay. It is a function that continues to develop as we expand the density of our monitoring stations, parameters measured, methods for collection, and scientific collaborations,” said Mark Rasmussen, president of the Buzzards Bay Coalition.
“Making our entire dataset available through peer-reviewed publication is an important step and I’m indebted to the many scientists, citizens, and funders who got us to this milestone,” Rasmussen said.
The Baywatchers Monitoring Program has been funded by the Buzzards Bay Coalition primarily through contributions from the organization’s members and private foundations, legislative support from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Citation: Rachel W. Jakuba, Tony Williams, Christopher Neill, Joseph E. Costa, Richard McHorney, Lindsay Scott, Brian L. Howes, Hugh Ducklow, Matthew Erickson and Mark Rasmussen (2021) Water quality measurements in Buzzards Bay by the Buzzards Bay Coalition Baywatchers Program from 1992 to 2018. Scientific Data, DOI: 10.1038/s41597-021-00856-4
—###—
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.
Over the past year, the Marine Biological Laboratory has been working to refresh our visual identity, keeping the historic ties to our legacy seal, while ensuring our new identity is modernized, simplified, and can be replicated across multiple channels—from print to the digital sphere. We landed with a clean, modern icon that’s distinctive while being representative and respectful to the MBL’s history. Our refined family of brand assets work in unison and, together with our legacy seal, offer a fresh take on the MBL brand.
We’re pleased to unveil our new brand identity which speaks not just to our distinctive past, but to our promising future. You can check out this exciting new look and learn more about the design process at mbl.edu/OurBrand.
The MBL offers immersive courses, workshops, and conferences year-round. Central to the MBL’s identity are its advanced, discovery-based courses for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. READ MORE >
MBL scientists pursue research in diverse areas of fundamental biological discovery, to explore the origins, diversity, and nature of life on a changing planet and to inform the human condition. READ MORE >
The MBL’s convening power attracts the world’s most accomplished scientists to Woods Hole to carry out some of their most creative and far-reaching work. READ MORE >
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.