EOS

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A medida que el mundo supera los 1.5 °C de calentamiento antropogénico y parece cada vez más probable que alcance los 2.6 °C y 3.1 °C hacia finales de siglo, sigue existiendo una gran controversia, incluso entre geocientíficos, sobre cómo frenar, detener o revertir el acelerado cambio climático que estamos provocando. Como han documentado numerosos estudios, ese calentamiento provocará la inundación de muchas ciudades costeras, daños con valor de billones de dólares derivados de fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, las extinciones generalizadas de especies y olas de calor cada vez más intensas. También representará una amenaza profunda para los sectores financieros y las economías a todas las escalas.

“La escala de mitigación necesaria para mantener el calentamiento por debajo de los 2 °C–3 °C va más allá de la reducción de las emisiones anuales”.

Una cosa es clara: para mitigar estas consecuencias, la primera prioridad de la humanidad debe ser reducir drásticamente sus emisiones anuales de alrededor de 40 gigatoneladas (mil millones de toneladas métricas) de dióxido de carbono (CO₂), el gas de efecto invernadero que más contribuye al calentamiento global. Sin esta reducción, cualquier otra medida en el mejor de los casos tendrá una eficacia limitada.

Desgraciadamente, a estas alturas, la escala de mitigación necesaria para mantener el calentamiento por debajo de los 2 °C–3 °C va más allá de la reducción de las emisiones anuales. También debemos eliminar y almacenar el carbono acumulado en la atmósfera.

Reducir las emisiones anuales no es suficiente

La necesidad de reducir las emisiones ha sido expresada con precisión, pasión y contundencia durante décadas. Sin embargo, las emisiones globales continúan batiendo nuevos récords, aumentando en un 1% en cada uno de los últimos tres años. Mientras tanto, aunque el crecimiento de las energías limpias y renovables (CRE, por sus siglas en inglés) ha batido recientemente sus propios récords, el consumo global de combustibles fósiles continúa en ascenso, y el petróleo, el gas y el carbón siguen representando más del 81% del consumo total de energía (solo 4% menos que hace 20 años).

Incluso bajo condiciones políticas favorables, el consumo de CRE, que como porcentaje del consumo mundial de energía primaria crece a un ritmo de aproximadamente 1% anual, está lejos de alcanzar el crecimiento del consumo energético global, que ronda el 2% por año. Incluso si el crecimiento de las CRE lograra igualar ese ritmo, podrían pasar décadas hasta alcanzar algo parecido a una descarbonización energética global, durante las cuales emitiríamos varias veces más CO₂ del que ya hemos liberado.

En las últimas décadas, centrarse en las emisiones anuales no sólo no ha servido para reducirlas, sino que tampoco son nuestras emisiones actuales (y las futuras) las que están causando el calentamiento de 1.55 °C que estamos presenciando. Es la cantidad de CO₂ que ya hemos emitido. Nuestras emisiones acumuladas de 1.8 billones de toneladas (1,800 gigatoneladas) de CO₂ procedentes de la energía y la industria — pesan más que toda la biomasa viva del planeta — extraídas de reservorios geológicos y vertidas a la atmósfera, permanecerá allí (y en el océano) durante miles de años. Incluso en ese feliz día en que finalmente empecemos a reducir nuestras emisiones, estaremos más lejos que nunca de resolver el problema. De hecho, aún seguiremos agravándolo.

Una gran oportunidad

Científicos y profesionales de múltiples disciplinas y sectores pueden desempeñar un papel clave en la mitigación del cambio climático. La investigación en geociencias es fundamental para comprender los reservorios de carbono y los flujos entre ellos, así como los efectos pasados, presentes y posibles en el futuro sobre el clima. Sin embargo, a estas alturas, parece evidente que es poco probable que más ciencia climática, e incluso mejor comunicación de la misma, inspiren la acción colectiva o política necesaria para activar una mitigación significativa. Entonces, ¿qué más pueden aportar los geocientíficos?

“La remoción de dióxido de carbono (CDR, por sus siglas en inglés) implica riesgos mucho menores que el multi-centenario experimento de geoingeniería de utilizar la atmósfera como desagüeo desagüe”.

Algunos ven un papel en apoyar la extracción de recursos naturales para satisfacer la asombrosa demanda proyectada de metales como el cobre y las tierras raras, y en promover el tipo sostenibilidad impulsada por la tecnología que promueve la industria minera. Los geocientíficos también contribuyen a informar sobre los enfoques de adaptación y resiliencia, aunque ninguna de estas constituye una forma de mitigación y, a largo plazo, resultan mucho más costosas. Se calcula que el impacto económico del calentamiento es de alrededor 12% del PIB (producto interno bruto) mundial por cada 1 °C de aumento de temperatura, y se prevé que nuestra trayectoria actual reduzca el PIB mundial hasta un 40% para el año 2100, con pérdidas aún mayores en ciertas regiones.

La mayor oportunidad — y quizá la mayor responsabilidad — para que los geocientíficos contribuyan a la mitigación está en facilitar la eliminación duradera de dióxido de carbono (CDR, por sus siglas en inglés). A veces surgen preocupaciones sobre la CDR como una forma de intervención climática o geoingeniería; pero es mucho menos arriesgada que el multi-centenario experimento de geoingeniería de utilizar la atmósfera como desagüe. De hecho, eliminar gigatoneladas de CO₂ cada año es esencial para alcanzar las estrategias de emisiones netas cero y evitar cantidades desastrosas de calentamiento, tal como lo han señalado de forma inequívoca el Panel Intergubernamental sobre Cambio Climático (IPCC), la Comisión de Transiciones Energéticas y la Sociedad Americana de Física.

Claves para el retiro de carbono

Generalmente se consideran tres principios fundamentales para la CDR. En primer lugar, se debe extraer el CO₂ que ya está presente en la atmósfera. Este principio se distingue de la captura y almacenamiento de carbono en fuentes puntuales (CCS, por sus siglas en inglés), el cual solo reduce las nuevas emisiones de CO₂ provenientes de fuentes fósiles industriales y energéticas a medida que compite con la energías limpias.

La instalación de captura directa de aire de Mammoth, en Islandia, operada por Climeworks, empezó a extraer dióxido de carbono del aire en 2024. Crédito: ©Climeworks

Existen múltiples enfoques para la eliminación duradera de dióxido de carbono. La captura directa del aire (DAC, por sus siglas en inglés), por ejemplo, es un método que está creciendo rápidamente el cual extrae CO₂ directamente de la atmósfera. Los métodos de eliminación y almacenamiento de carbono a partir de biomasa (BiCRS, por sus siglas en inglés) capturan una fracción de las 480 gigatoneladas de CO₂ que las plantas absorben naturalmente cada año, impidiendo que ese carbono regrese a la atmósfera al convertir la biomasa en formas que pueden aislarse y almacenarse.

Otros enfoques de CDR se centran en la gestión de ecosistemas para estimular una mayor eliminación de CO₂ de la que ocurriría de forma natural, el segundo de los tres principios de la CDR. Algunos ejemplos son las diversas estrategias para mejorar la meteorización de rocas en tierras agrícolas o bosques, y para métodos marinos, como el uso de nutrientes para fomentar el crecimiento de biomasa o el aumento de la alcalinidad del agua de mar para que extraiga más CO₂ del aire.

“Independientemente del método utilizado para eliminar CO₂, este debe almacenarse de forma duradera, con una probabilidad mínima de regresar a la atmósfera durante un largo periodo”.

El tercer principio, y el más importante, es el hecho de que, independientemente del método utilizado para eliminar CO₂, este debe almacenarse de forma duradera, con una probabilidad mínima de regresar a la atmósfera durante un largo periodo de tiempo. Usar el carbono capturado para crear productos comercializables como fertilizantes o compuestos químicos puede parecer económicamente inteligente, pero no es un enfoque duradero. Toda la demanda industrial global de CO₂ representa menos del 1% de nuestras emisiones anuales, y gran parte de ese carbono vuelve a la atmósfera o se utiliza en la recuperación mejorada de petróleo (EOR, por sus siglas en inglés) para extraer más petróleo.

Los llamados enfoques de CDR basados en la naturaleza o uso del suelo, como la reforestación, las prácticas agrícolas y la gestión de suelos, son alternativas intuitivamente atractivas que pueden eliminar y almacenar CO₂ y, si se hacen bien, mejorar la salud de los ecosistemas. Pero estos métodos tampoco son muy duraderos. Las plantas terrestres almacenan una masa de carbono (~1,650 gigatoneladas en toda la vegetación terrestre) casi equivalente a nuestras emisiones acumuladas, y los suelos contienen cuatro veces más. Sin embargo, la mayor parte del carbono de las plantas y el suelo regresa a la atmósfera a través de la descomposición natural o de perturbaciones en escalas de tiempo de años a décadas.

Además, las alteraciones antropogénicas de los bosques y los suelos provocadas por el calentamiento, que son cada vez más intensas y frecuentes, podrían debilitar aún más la durabilidad de la CDR basada en la naturaleza y la tierra. Solo los incendios forestales de Canadá en 2023 liberaron casi 3 gigatoneladas de CO₂, casi cuatro veces más que las emisiones anuales de toda la aviación global. (Estas perturbaciones también amenazan con desestabilizar los antiguos reservorios de carbono en turberas y permafrost, que almacenan en conjunto un stock de carbono equivalente a cinco veces nuestras emisiones acumuladas, otra razón más para acelerar el desarrollo de CDR.) Por lo tanto, aunque la CDR basada en la naturaleza y la tierra aporta beneficios colaterales y es barata y fácil de desplegar, en el contexto de contabilizar emisiones netas cero, solo tiene sentido como compensación de emisiones biogénicas análogas (por ejemplo, uso del suelo o la silvicultura), no para el 82% procedente en su mayor parte de la quema de combustibles fósiles.

Aparte de los tres principios fundamentales de la CDR, el potencial de aplicar enfoques a una escala lo suficientemente grande como para marcar una diferencia significativa es una consideración clave. La escalabilidad de la DAC a gran escala, por ejemplo, se enfrenta a problemas de consumo energético y costos. Asimismo, para reducir la carga acumulada de emisiones con métodos basados en la naturaleza y en la tierra, como la reforestación, requeriría extensiones de tierra descomunales que ya tienen otros muchos usos. Mientras tanto, el océano, que ya contiene cerca de 140,000 gigatoneladas de CO₂, ofrece un enorme potencial debido a su enorme tamaño y a su mayor tiempo de residencia en comparación con otros reservorios cercanos a la superficie, a pesar de las interrogantes sobre cómo el calentamiento futuro afectará esa durabilidad.

El sustancial subsuelo

“Cada vez está más claro que, tanto por su capacidad como por su durabilidad, es difícil superar a los yacimientos geológicos subterráneos”.

Los enfoques de eliminación duradera de dióxido de carbono son diversos y están evolucionando, pero cada vez está más claro que, tanto por su capacidad como por su durabilidad, es difícil superar a los yacimientos geológicos subterráneos. La cantidad de carbono presente en la corteza terrestre es millones de veces mayor que la contenida en todos los reservorios cercanos a la superficie combinados, y permanece allí abajo por varios órdenes de magnitud más tiempo. Las estimaciones sugieren que existe suficiente capacidad de almacenamiento subterráneo para al menos decenas de miles de gigatoneladas de CO₂ recapturado, y análisis recientes de factibilidad han demostrado que alcanzar tasas de almacenamiento de al menos 5 a 6 gigatoneladas de CO₂ por año para 2050 es realista y consistente con las trayectorias tecnológicas actuales.

Lograr una CDR a escala de gigatoneladas será un gran desafío — que requeriría construir apoyo y un mayor desarrollo de los métodos necesarios. Algunos enfoques muestran el mayor potencial.

El CO₂ capturado puede comprimirse e inyectarse como fluido supercrítico (sCO₂) en acuíferos salinos o en yacimientos de petróleo y gas agotados situados a gran profundidad bajo aguas subterráneas dulces y recubiertos por rocas impermeables. Este enfoque es probablemente la principal vía de almacenamiento para el CO₂ capturado mediante tecnologías de captura directa del aire (DAC), así como por la captura y almacenamiento de carbono (CCS) proveniente de las emisiones, y es algo que ya sabemos hacer gracias a décadas de práctica (aunque principalmente para la recuperación mejorada de petróleo). Bajo las condiciones adecuadas, diversos mecanismos de captura minimizan las probabilidades de que escape el CO₂ almacenado de esta manera.

En yacimientos como éste, la empresa islandesa Carbfix inyecta dióxido de carbono disuelto en agua en depósitos geológicos subterráneos, donde reacciona con la roca para formar minerales carbonatados. Crédito: Siljaye/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Otro enfoque prometedor es la mineralización directa, que consiste en inyectar CO₂, ya sea como fluido supercrítico o disuelto en agua, en rocas máficas y ultramáficas reactivas para formar minerales carbonatados. El uso de este método está aumentando a escalas de millones de toneladas por año en algunos lugares.

Otros métodos de eliminación y almacenamiento de carbono a partir de biomasa, BiCRS, relativamente nuevos pero prometedores que aprovechan la capacidad de captura de carbono de las plantas son la inyección subterránea (a menudo en yacimientos agotados de petróleo y gas) de carbono derivado de biomasa en forma de bioaceite, residuos agrícolas o forestales pirolizados, u otros desechos orgánicos (por ejemplo, municipales o de origen ganadero).

Desafíos para los geocientíficos

Dada la trayectoria aún ascendente de nuestras emisiones y la necesidad de soluciones escalables de almacenamiento de carbono, es difícil imaginar que la remoción de CO₂ mediante almacenamiento subterráneo duradero, CDR, no crecerá en las próximas décadas, especialmente si las políticas e incentivos relacionados con el carbono pasan de favorecer la reducción y la evitación de emisiones a la eliminación. Con el interés de la industria de los combustibles fósiles en apuntalar sus activos de producción energética, es posible que también prolifere el uso del almacenamiento de carbono asociado a emisiones (CCS), una tecnología afín a la CDR. En cualquier caso, es probable que el subsuelo sea cada vez más objeto de atención y acción.

A medida que crece este interés, debemos reconocer que el subsuelo es un lugar cada vez más concurrido, donde interactúan recursos hídricos, energéticos y minerales, sin mencionar que alberga hasta el 90 % de toda la vida microbiana y entre el 10 % y el 20 % de toda la biomasa del planeta. Aquí es donde entran en juego las geociencias.

“Ha llegado el momento de que los geocientíficos asuman un papel central en el desarrollo de soluciones de mitigación”.

Tras un siglo en el que la industria de los combustibles fósiles ha definido directa e indirectamente gran parte de la investigación y la formación de la disciplina, ha llegado el momento de que los geocientíficos asuman un papel central en el desarrollo de soluciones de mitigación, específicamente en el almacenamiento duradero de carbono y la gestión responsable del subsuelo. No faltarán desafíos.

Las actividades de minería, geotermia, y producción y disposición de petróleo y gas ya han incrementado los flujos de fluidos subterráneos muy por encima de los niveles previos al Antropoceno, y las proyecciones de estos flujos para 2050 son muchas veces superiores. Tan solo en Estados Unidos, además de más de 4 millones de pozos de producción de petróleo y gas, casi un millón de pozos de inyección subterránea eliminan una enorme variedad de materiales y residuos peligrosos y no peligrosos.

Escalar el almacenamiento subterráneo de carbono a niveles de gigatoneladas por año significaría inyectar grandes cantidades de CO₂, así como de diversas soluciones de carbono, en una amplia gama de reservorios geológicos y aguas asociadas. Esto generará no solo desafíos de ingeniería, sino también retos de esclarecimiento de la eficacia y los peligros de las inyecciones en condiciones muy diversas. Aunque sabemos relativamente bien cómo se comportan el CO₂ supercrítico (sCO₂) y del CO₂ disuelto en ciertos tipos de entornos subterráneos, no sabemos casi nada sobre el comportamiento de los nuevos fluidos de almacenamiento de carbono, como el bioaceite y los residuos biológicos en suspensión o torrefactos.

Los hidrogeoquímicos Ji-Hyun Kim y Rebecca Tyne toman muestras de aguas subterráneas en la cuenca de Paradox, Utah, para comprender las conexiones entre las rocas del subsuelo, los fluidos y las comunidades microbianas y cómo pueden verse afectadas por las actividades antropogénicas, incluido el almacenamiento de carbono. Fotografía: Jennifer McIntosh

El papel de las geociencias en la gestión responsable del subsuelo también implicará aportar nuevas perspectivas sobre cuencas sedimentarias y provincias ígneas, para abordar cuestiones como la permeabilidad y la composición de las rocas que son importantes para el almacenamiento duradero, así como para evaluar los factores de riesgo críticos. Entre los factores de riesgo incluyen la migración de fluidos y su interacción con fallas geológicas y otras barreras de permeabilidad, el potencial de disolución mineral para movilizar metales y modificar los flujos de fluidos, la contaminación de aguas subterráneas dulces y la sismicidad inducida.

Gran parte de este trabajo será necesariamente transdisciplinario, lo que supondrá un reto para los científicos acostumbrados a los énfasis tradicionales y disciplinarios a la hora de desarrollar un lenguaje y unos enfoques compartidos. Por ejemplo, para entender cómo afecta el almacenamiento de carbono a las comunidades microbianas (por ejemplo, a través de la diversidad de especies y metanogénesis) y a las comunidades humanas, y traducir ese conocimiento en acciones de política pública e involucramiento social, requerirá que los geocientíficos colaboren y se comuniquen con biólogos, ingenieros, planificadores, la industria, gobiernos, comunidades indígenas y otros.

A la altura de las circunstancias

El almacenamiento duradero de carbono para la remoción de dióxido de carbono puede literalmente estar debajo de nosotros, pero no podemos permitir que lo esté en sentido figurado.

La percepción pública hacia la CDR está mejorando, aunque muchos geocientíficos siguen considerándola una distracción de la reducción de emisiones o, peor aún, un obstáculo que desincentivará la reducción de emisiones. Sin embargo, este riesgo — en gran medida teórico, que, vale la pena señalar, también se plantea al perseguir la adaptación y la resiliencia — puede abordarse mediante la creación de objetivos separados para la CDR y la reducción de emisiones y por otros medios de implementación estratégica. Otros ven la CDR duradera como una forma de complicidad con la industria de los combustibles fósiles y sus tácticas de retraso y distracción, o que es una alternativa opuesta a enfoques intuitivamente atractivos basados en la naturaleza.

“Debemos tener claro que las emisiones acumuladas de la humanidad, tanto hasta la fecha como en el futuro (incluso con proyecciones optimistas), nos sitúan en una senda que requiere gigatoneladas al año de CDR duradera para tener alguna esperanza de evitar un calentamiento de entre 2 °C y 3 °C”.

Pero debemos tener claro que las emisiones acumuladas de la humanidad, tanto hasta la fecha como en el futuro (incluso con proyecciones optimistas), nos sitúan en una senda que requiere gigatoneladas al año de CDR duradera para tener alguna esperanza de evitar un calentamiento de entre 2 °C y 3 °C. Y, sea cual sea el método, la mayor parte de ese carbono capturado tendrá que almacenarse en reservorios geológicos.

Desarrollar y gestionar de manera responsable el almacenamiento subterráneo de carbono representa un desafío histórico para las geociencias. Estar a la altura de estos retos servirá a la sociedad y al planeta al ayudar a mitigar las desastrosas consecuencias del cambio climático. También puede cambiar la percepción pública de este campo como anticuada o desconectada y ofrecer una misión inspiradora para las nuevas generaciones de geocientíficos.

Datos del autor

Peter Reiners (reiners@arizona.edu), Universidad de Arizona, Tucson

This translation by Saúl A. Villafañe-Barajas (@villafanne) was made possible by a partnership with Planeteando and Geolatinas. Esta traducción fue posible gracias a una asociación con Planeteando y Geolatinas.

This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: AGU Advances

Observational analyses consistently find that yields of major rainfed crops increase with temperature up to a threshold of approximately 32°C, above which they reduce sharply. However, we still have a limited understanding of the explanation for such outcomes and, therefore, future yield projections are uncertain.

Agricultural productivity as a function of cumulative growing-season evapotranspiration. The connection between agricultural productivity and the cumulative water flux out of the ecosystem suggests that a land surface model that explicitly represents transpiration can be useful for exploring yield variations. Credit: Vargas Zeppetello et al. [2025], Figure 2

Vargas Zeppetello et al. [2025] explore an innovative hypothesis, which is both intuitive and revolutionary: that soil water stress limits both agricultural productivity and evaporative cooling, giving rise to increase in near surface temperature and finally decrease of yield at extremely high temperatures. In other words, they assume that water stress, and its influence on evaporative cooling, temperature, and agricultural productivity, drives the yield-temperature relationship.

To test their assumption, the authors use growing-season transpiration from an idealized land surface model as a proxy for yield. This approach reproduces the observed yield-temperature relationship, even though the model includes no mechanisms that limit productivity at high temperatures. In experiments where the influence of temperature on soil moisture is suppressed, yields still decline during hot, dry periods in a manner consistent with the observations. The authors conclude that future yield outcomes depend more critically on changes in rainfall, or irrigation, than suggested by estimates that attribute yield losses primarily to temperature variations.

Citation: Vargas Zeppetello, L. R., Proctor, J., & Huybers, P. (2025). Is water stress the root cause of the observed nonlinear relationship between yield losses and temperature? AGU Advances, 6, e2025AV001704. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV001704

—Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances

Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Though winds may shift, science perseveres. And so do scientists. Whether change pushes them in new directions or strengthens their resolve, scientists find ways to keep doing important work.

The stories that follow highlight the journeys of scientists who have been blown off course, let the winds carry them, and stood tall in the breeze.

When, from the age of 11, one scientist knew she wanted to drive rovers on Mars, she made it happen.

When a young man saw his Narragansett community’s concerns about the degradation of local landscapes and waters, that—along with his family’s Traditional Knowledges—set him on the path to becoming a soil conservationist.

Cassius Spears Jr.: Conserving the Living Soil Jeff Massey: Atmospheric Science Meets the Private Sector Kate Mulvaney: Bringing Human Dimensions to Water Resources Lucia Perez Diaz: Expressing Earth with Art Phoebe Lam: Embracing the Ocean’s Complexities Stacey Hitchcock: From Fearing Storms to Seeking Them Susanne Maciel: Marrying Mathematics and Geology Wendy Bohon: Quelling Fears and Sparking Geoscience Joy Jess Phoenix: Curiosity Unfettered Tanya Harrison: Roving on Mars Alex Teachey: Elevating Astronomy with the Arts

When an earthquake shook an aspiring actress’s world (and her apartment), she enthusiastically asked how he could help.

When an atmospheric scientist pushed through her childhood fear of storms, she found a career studying extreme weather.

Along the way, all of the scientists profiled here connected communities, made discoveries, and had some wild adventures. May their inspiring stories help you weather whatever comes your way.

—The Editors

Citation: Editors (2025), Winds of change, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250267. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

The Career Issue

Each year, we take a moment to appreciate the varied careers Earth and space scientists have forged. Their stories of determination, taking chances, and finding success are always inspiring.

This year’s cohort doesn’t disappoint.

In this issue we learn about 12 scientists who navigated their fields and found rewarding careers. Sometimes their plans went awry, or opportunities arose, or they found renewed purpose after taking a hard look at their priorities and interests. For Jess Phoenix, that meant running for Congress. For Lucia Perez Dias, it was illustrating a book. Alex Teachey left the theater to study physics.

Some of the scientists profiled here knew where they wanted to go, and they worked hard to get there. After hearing tribe members’ concerns about their land, a teenage Cassius Spears decided to study conservation. As a child, Tanya Harrison wanted to work with Mars rovers; as an adult, she did it.

Navigating a career has been even more challenging for some scientists this year amid drastic funding cuts, mass layoffs, and uncertainty due to shifting political priorities in the United States. These uncertainties put early-career researchers especially at risk, but senior scientists are positioned to influence institutional actions and mobilize in support of their more vulnerable colleagues, says Mark Moldwin in an opinion.

We hope you find these stories as uplifting as we do.

—Jennifer Schmidt, Managing Editor

Citation: Schmidt, J. (2025), Where the wind blows, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250268. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Lucia Perez Diaz always needed a creative outlet. She studied music from an early age and played the piano through her teens. She was always the one to be scolded for doodling in class.

Wary that the hustle required by a professional career in music might be challenging and inspired by an influential Earth systems teacher, Perez Diaz chose a geology degree over a music degree when attending the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain. She then completed a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geodynamics at Royal Holloway, University of London, investigating the geologic formation and evolution of the South Atlantic Ocean.

But Perez Diaz never let go of her creative side. After years of producing intricate illustrations for her own presentations, a pandemic-era refocusing spurred her to grow her illustration business. Now she’s a published children’s book author: Her first book, How the Earth Works, hit the shelves earlier this year.

Perez Diaz’s artwork includes a geosciences poster series. Credit: Lucia Perez Diaz

“Science is full of inspiring stories,” she said. “Art is a really great vehicle to tell them.”

Perez Diaz also works as a computational geodynamicist at Halliburton. Learning to program didn’t feel natural to Perez Diaz initially, and she required a lot of support from her peers. But the fact that she eventually succeeded and built a career using those skills motivated her to take on new, unfamiliar projects—like book publishing—with zeal.

“It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”

“People often ask me, ‘How did you manage to make a book?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Honestly, because I thought, What’s the worst that could happen?’”

She hopes to use what she’s learned to help others explore their own creativity. She hosts workshops to show aspiring illustrators that creating art isn’t as daunting as it may seem. “Often we look at others’ achievements and they make us feel like we don’t have their talent or their skills,” she said. “It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Lucia Perez Diaz: Expressing Earth with art, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250261. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Phoebe Lam’s science career started when she looked up at the stars. Her father, a theoretical physicist, explained the movements of Earth, the Moon, and planets, and Lam developed an appreciation for the natural world.

Today Lam works below the stars as a marine geochemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying the role particles play in the cycling of carbon, iron, and other elements in the ocean.

Early on, it was hard for Lam to fit her love for nature into the confines of a scientific discipline. As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she enjoyed all her classes—calculus, physics, chemistry, biology—almost equally.

“I realized I like the messiness of the real world.”

Lam saw her peers joining research labs and did the same. She dove into oceanographic work with scientists at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. An adviser predicted that Lam would be a “great generalist someday,” Lam said. “I wasn’t super focused—I was trying little things there, little things here. I think that still characterizes my brain.”

Drawn to work that integrated different disciplines, she joined an oceanography lab at Princeton University to study the trace metal requirements of phytoplankton.But dealing only with tightly controlled variables felt limiting. “I realized I like the messiness of the real world,” she said.

Frustrated, Lam joined the world of environmental policy—a “rebound relationship,” she said. While enrolled in a policy-focused master’s program, she took a class on carbon cycles, and found her way back to oceanography, eventually earning a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

The twists and turns of Lam’s academic journey “made me understand…that there are a lot of ways to do science,” she said. She counsels prospective undergraduate and graduate students to think about how they might feel satisfied by their research.

For Lam, that satisfaction comes from putting together the complex puzzle of the ocean’s chemistry—from knowing there are so many different questions she can ask of the ocean.

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Phoebe Lam: Embracing the ocean’s complexities, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250262. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Stacey Hitchcock remembers being terrified of storms as a child. (It didn’t help that her neighbor’s house was struck by lightning three times.) But today she is an atmospheric scientist studying extreme weather at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Hitchcock’s younger self conquered her fears of the weather by asking lots of questions. “I remember at some point asking my dad to explain radar to me,” she said.

Hitchcock first learned that studying the weather could be a profession when she took a tour of a university in Indiana while visiting to play in a tennis tournament. “I didn’t know it was a career,” she said.

As an undergraduate, Hitchcock helped with research on climate and snow. But extreme weather was always her passion. “I kept coming back to storms,” she said. And she pushed on when she encountered adversity. Some of her classmates said she wouldn’t make it professionally as an atmospheric scientist, but Hitchcock knew she was doing good work.

“If you feel like you’re succeeding, don’t let naysayers tell you that you’re not.”

“If you feel like you’re succeeding, don’t let naysayers tell you that you’re not,” she said. “That’s advice that I try to give to students.”

Hitchcock uses both observations and simulations in her research. She is working to better understand the structure of storms that produce intense rainfall and the challenges of forecasting multiple storms that occur in close succession. She credits her wide-ranging research interests to her willingness to try out projects and develop new collaborations.

“A lot of the best things that have happened to me in my career happened because I had an interesting opportunity and I said yes,” she said.

For instance, Hitchcock spent 4.5 years in Australia as a postdoctoral researcher.

The professional connections she made abroad led to investigations of how turbulence in the atmosphere caused by storms translates into bumpy flights. Hitchcock is still involved in that field.

It’s a somewhat fitting line of work, Hitchcock admits, because she used to be a queasy flyer.

—Katherine Kornei (@KatherineKornei), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Kornei, K. (2025), Stacey Hitchcock: From fearing storms to seeking them, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250263. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Like many young waitresses in Los Angeles, Wendy Bohon once dreamed of an acting career—that is, until the 1999 magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake shook up her plans (and her fourth-floor apartment).

“My surfboard fell on my head,” Bohon recalled. “I was like, ‘This is amazing.’”

The next day, she showed up at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Pasadena and asked to volunteer. They said no, but she persisted.

Eventually, Bohon helped design a public lecture series about earthquake science, which led to a job at the Pasadena office doing outreach and education.

Two decades later, she’s the branch chief for seismic hazards and earthquake engineering at the California Geological Survey, where she manages scientists who help keep people safe from earthquake hazards.

Tens of thousands of people know of Bohon for something else: science communication. Through social media, talks, and more, she shares the joy of understanding our planet with audiences that otherwise might never have taken a second look at a rock.

During grad school, Bohon experimented with how best to share science online. After earning her Ph.D. in geology in 2014, she managed communications for organizations such as Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS; now part of EarthScope) and NASA Goddard and even started her own science communication company. Outreach isn’t part of her current job, but she continues doing it in her free time.

“I care a lot about people, and I have anxiety,” Bohon said. “I know that earthquakes induce a lot of anxiety in people.”

Quelling anxiety isn’t her only goal. She also wants to inspire. Among other pursuits, she’s an ambassador for IF/THEN, an initiative that highlights women role models in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Bohon wants aspiring scientists to know that there’s a “whole ecosystem of science careers.” She especially dislikes the “leaky pipeline” metaphor that people use to describe the tendency of women to leave academia at higher rates than men, especially after becoming parents.

“You’re not lost. You’re just taking a different path, and your science knowledge goes with you wherever you go.”

Bohon was 7 months pregnant when she defended her Ph.D. And after taking a hard look at what an academic career would mean for her family, she decided it wasn’t for her. So she took her expertise and infectious enthusiasm elsewhere.

“They’re implying that if you don’t follow this very narrow path, that you’re leaking out, that you’re lost,” Bohon said. “You’re not lost. You’re just taking a different path, and your science knowledge goes with you wherever you go.”

—Elise Cutts (@elisecutts), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cutts, E. (2025), Wendy Bohon: Quelling fears and sparking geoscience joy, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250266. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

When NASA deployed a small six-wheeled robot named Sojourner on Mars in 1997, space-obsessed 11-year-old Tanya Harrison was watching.

“When NASA released the little animated GIF of Sojourner driving onto the surface, I thought, ‘I want to work on Mars rovers,’” she said. “I was laser focused on that goal from there out.”

A bad experience getting a master’s degree soured her on academia. To keep connected to the world of research, she looked for jobs that used her data analysis skills.

“I started emailing people who had written the papers that I read for my [master’s] thesis and saying, ‘Hey, do you need somebody to crunch data for you?’” Harrison said. Those emails led to a job at Malin Space Science Systems, which gave her experience operating cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But she realized she wanted more, which meant going back for a Ph.D. in geology and planetary science.

With doctorate in hand, Harrison fulfilled her dream of being directly involved with the Opportunity rover, along with planning the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions. “I was on the teams advocating for both Gale and Jezero [craters], so we went to all the places that I was hoping we would go!” she said.

Meanwhile, she made a splash posting about her life as a scientist on Twitter (now X), which led to the media’s seeking her out as an expert on all things Martian. “It hit me that I could make a bigger difference by inhabiting that role in the community than if I were just a scientist,” she said.

“My underlying goal is really to get all pieces of the larger space sector working together and bene-fiting each other.”

Today Harrison works as an independent consultant for space companies based in her native Canada. She served on AGU’s Board of Directors and still works on its Finance Committee. Her current life means less Mars work but more essential Earth observation research focused on climate change.

“My underlying goal is really to get all pieces of the larger space sector working together and benefiting each other,” she said, referring to academia, government, and private industry. “Forty percent of the Canadian landmass is in the Arctic, so we have a vested interest in being a leader in climate research.”

—Matthew R. Francis (@BowlerHatScience.org), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Francis, M. R. (2025), Tanya Harrison: Roving on Mars, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250265. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Susanne Maciel’s path into geophysics was not straight.

After finishing high school, Maciel was drawn to math because of a description she read in a Universidade de Brasília (UnB) student guide. “It was so beautiful,” she recalled. “It said math is, at the same time, a philosophy, a science, and an art.”

As she advanced toward her bachelor’s degree, the description proved true. “But I wanted to solve real-life problems, to go somewhere I could apply all I had learnt,” she said. At a career fair, Maciel learned about geology and realized geophysics was “the marriage between mathematics and geology.” Coming from a family of mostly visual artists, that educational choice was a point out of the curve.

After completing a master’s degree in geology at UnB, Maciel went on to pursue a doctorate at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, in São Paulo state. She worked with seismic wave monitoring during her Ph.D., and now, 15 years after returning to Brasília, she works at UnB’s Seismological Observatory.

Maciel studies the slight tremors that happen every day. “We study environmental noise; a vibration caused by cars passing or wind blowing is different from that [caused] by landslides or mudslides,” she said. Maciel does a lot of signal processing work looking at data from seismometers spread across Goiás state.

“This course keeps me rooted in reality.”

“We’re trying to catch specific seismic signatures of landslides before they happen,” she said. “That can help civil defense evacuate risk areas before disasters hit.”

Maciel is also a math professor in UnB’s education department, where she teaches undergraduate students from rural areas and traditional communities near Brasília. The training focuses on the realities and needs of the countryside, she said. Geophysics helps her bring real-life examples of math to her classes.

At the end of the day, teaching is a win-win, Maciel said. Her students “know the rocky outcrops and formations of their regions, and I learn a lot from them. We exchange views on nature but also affection. This course keeps me rooted in reality.”

—Meghie Rodrigues (@meghier.bsky.social), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Rodrigues, M. (2025), Susanne Maciel: Marrying mathematics and geology, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250264. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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As a social scientist, Kate Mulvaney researches the intersection of coastal water quality and human populations and behavior.

“People are affected by environmental problems, and people are ultimately going to have to protect the environment or improve the environment,” she said.

After earning her undergraduate degree in marine biology, Mulvaney joined the U.S. Peace Corps as a coastal management resources volunteer in the Philippines.

“It was an exciting position,” she recalled. “We did a lot of snorkeling, diving, reef surveys, and fish counting—the work that a lot of people dream they’re going to do [as] a marine biologist when they grew up.”

She soon realized that the data she and her team were collecting would be more powerful in the hands of people and communities who could use them to inform and enforce more environmentally conscious practices.

“That’s where I started to springboard into human dimensions work,” she said.

Mulvaney earned a master’s degree in marine affairs, a field at the intersection of marine science and marine policy, after which she took a fellowship at the U.S. State Department. There, she learned more about high-level decisionmaking that affects international ocean treaties and policies, which helped contextualize some of the local impacts she had seen earlier in her career.

“There was this consistent call for more social science data in [the] environmental governance space, but there weren’t very many people doing it.”

Both in small Filipino fishing towns and at the State Department, “there was this consistent call for more social science data in [the] environmental governance space, but there weren’t very many people doing it,” Mulvaney said.

That led her to pursue a doctorate in natural resources social science studying fisheries and climate change on the Great Lakes. Mulvaney joined the U.S. EPA more than a decade ago and was the third social scientist ever hired by EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

Over time, Mulvaney has witnessed other fields increasingly recognize the need to consider the human aspects of environmental science and governance.

“That’s been a slow, slow burn,” she said, but it has been rewarding to see her field become more mainstream within the science community.

She’s also experienced that recognition firsthand. In early January 2025, she became the first EPA social scientist to win the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

That acknowledgment “felt like a collective win” for environmental social scientists, she said. “I think it says a lot about the evolution of thinking across disciplines.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Kate Mulvaney: Bringing human dimensions to water resources, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250260. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Jess Phoenix’s career as a volcanologist and science consultant has taken her around the world. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a master’s in geology from California State University, Los Angeles.

“I was definitely a latecomer to the geo-party, but I dove in wholeheartedly,” Phoenix said.

She moved to Australia seeking a geology doctorate from Queensland University of Technology, but she fell out with her adviser and left without finishing her dissertation.

Leaving the program for which she had uprooted her family was terrifying, she said. But she soon realized that doctor or not, her geology education had provided her with a very marketable set of skills. (It was also around that time that she got the first of her many tattoos.)

“Geology is literally everywhere,” she said. “With the skill set you gain, even if you haven’t done the most terminal degree possible, you still have a very solid core of skill sets—pun intended.” Whether it’s making a detailed rock description (important in many industries), analyzing macro- and microscale problems, writing reports, or understanding the scientific method, “those are, fundamentally, extremely valuable skills,” she said. “Once you have them, no one can take them away from you.”

“As long as you maintain that curiosity, that flexibility, that willingness to interrogate your own assumptions and beliefs, you’re going to be OK.”

Phoenix’s wide-ranging career has taken her from the depths of the sea to fields of flowing lava. She wrote a memoir, consults on TV shows and documentaries, and appears as a subject matter expert on international news networks. She cofounded the environmental nonprofit Blueprint Earth, is a fellow of The Explorers Club, and ran for U.S. Congress in 2018.

“By allowing my curiosity to be pretty much unfettered, it’s given me a lot of opportunities to just try things and say yes,” Phoenix said. “You’ve got to be willing to take in new information and update your worldview constantly with your own career as well as your scientific interest. As long as you maintain that curiosity, that flexibility, that willingness to interrogate your own assumptions and beliefs, you’re going to be OK.”

Phoenix also emphasized how crucial staying connected with other scientists has been in her career. “Support their work and be their cheerleaders, and they’ll do the same for you.”

She was an ambassador for the Union of Concerned Scientists for 2 years and has recently returned to freelance science consulting, leading field research expeditions, and personally advocating for science.

“I’m in my own period of shifting and change,” Phoenix said, “but the rocks are always solid beneath my feet.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Jess Phoenix: Curiosity unfettered, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250259. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

A ski racer by the age of six, Jeff Massey has been searching for snow nearly his whole life. “I was tracking snowstorms and nor’easters much more than a first grader should,” he said. When he was in elementary school, his mother took him to visit a local TV meteorologist, who explained how weather forecasting worked.

“After that, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Massey said.

As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Massey studied atmospheric science, then went on to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Utah, studying the impacts of dust events on snow and completing a dissertation focused on weather modeling. He helped other researchers with projects related to snow, too.

After graduate school, Massey mulled over whether he should stay in academia or work in industry. He chose a role supporting a weather data platform for farmers run by the Climate Corporation, an agricultural technology company. He was pleased to find that what he loved about academia—the opportunity to produce original, unique research—was part of the job there, too, with the added benefit that his research had a direct application to farmers’ operations.

“I’ve done agriculture, I’ve done drone delivery, and now I’m doing finance. It’s interesting how related it all is.”

Massey then moved into roles at Amazon, where he used his weather modeling expertise to inform the company’s supply chain operations and, later, to build a new weather modeling infrastructure for Amazon’s drone delivery service.

Now he wields his atmospheric science skills to project how weather might affect certain energy and commodity markets for Squarepoint Capital, an investment firm.

“I’ve done agriculture, I’ve done drone delivery, and now I’m doing finance,” he said. “It’s interesting how related it all is—it’s all just different applications of weather data, machine learning, and programming.”

Businesses will need more weather expertise as climate change progresses and the economic impacts of extreme weather add up, he added. “Weather is still one of those variables you can’t control.”

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Jeff Massey: Atmospheric science meets the private sector, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250258. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

When Hermínio Ismael de Araújo Jr. started his undergraduate degree in biology in 2006, the culture at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, in northeastern Brazil, was that students got involved in research as early as possible. So at the end of Araújo’s first semester, he joined an animal physiology project and studied how local plants affected diabetic mice.

“But I’ve always liked paleontology better,” he said, so much so that his lab adviser introduced him to paleontologist Kleberson Porpino.

“We talked a lot, and I realized paleontology was really what I wanted to do,” Araújo recalled. From that moment on, he thought his professional path was clear: After graduation, he would get his master’s and doctorate at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), just as Porpino had done not long before.

Araújo was interested in taphonomy, or the study of how bones become fossils. Being a taphonomist is like doing forensics, Araújo said. “We can understand how an animal died, how it got buried, the [geological] processes that happened after that…until the moment we find it.”

The most interesting thing about paleontology “is to be able to give life to something that will never have life again.”

The most interesting thing about paleontology “is to be able to give life to something that will never have life again,” he said.

Halfway to finishing his bachelor’s degree, Araújo looked closely at the selection requirements for a master’s degree in geology at UFRJ. In Brazil, students can enroll in a master’s only after coursework for a bachelor’s degree is completed and their diploma has been conferred, which can take some time after their final semester.

“I didn’t want to wait a year after graduation to start my master’s,” he said.

So he finished his last year of courses a semester early so he could squeeze in a thesis defense and an enrollment in the master’s program in the same year.

Years later, as Araújo was pursuing his Ph.D., a faculty position opened at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Deciding to go for it, he again fast-tracked his degree work, defending his thesis a semester earlier than the official deadline so that he could assume the teaching position he currently holds.

“I’ve been working to help open more space for women and other minoritized groups at the university.”

Araújo said these sharp planning skills were inspired by his parents, who could not access higher education themselves but always encouraged their children to study. “My father is really organized—he does nothing without prior planning,” Araújo said. “My parents are so methodic that up to this day they still go to the supermarket [every week] at the same day and time,” he said, chuckling.

Araújo is currently president of the Brazilian Society of Paleontology and the graduate coordinator of the geosciences program at UERJ. In these positions, he engages in education programs against harassment and discrimination. “I’ve been working to help open more space for women and other minoritized groups at the university,” he said. “It is something I really like and am very proud of.”

—Meghie Rodrigues (@meghier.bsky.social), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Rodrigues, M. (2025), Hermínio Ismael de Araújo Júnior: Savvy planning can get you far, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250257. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Cassius Spears Jr.’s lifelong partnership with the living soil is rooted in the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s cultural ties to the land and subsistence way of life.

Spears grew up on his family’s ancestral land in what is now Rhode Island, hunting, foraging, and learning the traditional place knowledge of his ancestors. As a teenager, he attended community meetings in which Narragansett people discussed concerns about degradation across important landscapes and waters and how it affected harvesting practices and ways of life.

“Witnessing that firsthand concern, as well as witnessing my family’s traditional knowledge of place and what that looks like within landscapes and waterways, inspired me to go down the road of conservation,” he said.

Spears studied environmental conservation at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. In school, he frequently encountered scientific concepts that clashed with what his people’s ecological knowledge holds true.

“Early in my education, I was taught to think about soil in physical, taxonomical, or inert ways, which ran [in] conflict with traditional knowledge of soil as living or life-giving,” he said.

“When you live with the land, you inherently build a relationship.”

On soil and many ecological concepts, Spears said that he has seen a greater acceptance in scientific understanding. “Now soil health concepts have aligned with Traditional Ecological Knowledge and perceive soil as a vital living ecosystem,” he said.

In his career as a soil conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Rhode Island, Spears has worked to deepen the understanding between these sources of ecological knowledge. He said that local farmers and other land stewards have been especially receptive to incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into their practices.

“When you live with the land, you inherently build a relationship,” Spears said. “Many farmers understand this; connecting with natural processes every season creates a tangible bond with the land and a sense of responsibility to manage it in a good way.”

Spears takes great pride in the relationships his team has developed with local communities, partnering on projects that improve agricultural soil conservation, restore habitats, and fix riparian forest buffers. He said that having trust and patience, as well as immersing yourself in a community, is the key to building long-lasting and successful collaborations.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s essential to listen to and engage with community members genuinely,” he said. “Seeing our local communities lead conservation work inspires me and fills me with hope for future generations.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Cassius Spears Jr.: Conserving the living soil, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250256. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Alex Teachey didn’t take a single science class in college. At least, not the first time.

A few years after getting a theater degree, Teachey started a casual blog surrounding his interest in astronomy. It gained a surprising number of followers, enough for him to consider being a science teacher. So he went back to school for physics and worked as a research assistant in astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.

“That’s where I just got hooked,” he said.

Teachey now has a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics but still considers his theater background an influential part of his career. He contributed regularly to the Weekly Space Hangout podcast and for years cohosted Astronomy on Tap in New York City.

“Communication is a huge part of our field. If you don’t get the word out, it might as well not have happened.”

“Communication is a huge part of our field,” Teachey said. Like a tree falling in the woods, “if you don’t get the word out, it might as well not have happened.”

As a grad student, Teachey led work on the first possible detection of an exomoon. The project netted significant media coverage, and his background in the performing arts prepared him to speak with the press.

He continued prioritizing science communication while searching for exomoons as a postdoc at Academica Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. He launched the Taiwan chapter of Astronomy on Tap and led popular sessions on performance techniques for scientists.

Teachey launched an Astronomy on Tap satellite location in Taipei after cohosting the event in New York City for several years. Credit: Alex Teachey

Having moved across the world for his postdoc, Teachey now plans to shift careers again to stay in Taipei. He might work in coding. Or maybe science communication. But he’ll always be an astronomer, he said, just like he’ll always be an actor.

—J. Besl (@J_Besl), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Besl, J. (2025), Alex Teachey: Elevating astronomy with the arts, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250255. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth

The explosive submarine Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption of January 2022 is famous for its large volcanic plume that lifted nearly 60 kilometers into the mesosphere and for its tsunami that caused fatalities as far away as Peru. The eruption’s boom was heard even as far as Alaska (10,000 kilometers away), and the barometric pressure disturbances of this boom were tracked globally as it continued to circle the earth.

Using records from a large number of barometric and water well monitoring stations across China (see figure above), He et al. [2025] demonstrate a strong correlation between the boom’s pressure pulse and ground water levels. High permeability reservoirs displayed an immediate response. The responses in low permeability aquifers were, however, more muted. This work is notable in that it highlights a clear coupling between strong atmospheric pressure events to pressures within confined aquifers.

Citation: He, A., Liu, Y., Zhang, F., Zhang, H., Singh, R. P., & Wang, Y. (2025). Large-scale groundwater system characterization using pressure responses to barometric perturbations caused by the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130, e2025JB031616. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JB031616

—Douglas R. Schmitt, Editor, JGR: Solid Earth

Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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body {background-color: #D2D1D5;} Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

Nearly 300 current and former NASA employees have signed an open letter expressing concern that budget cuts to the agency will jeopardize safety, basic research, national security, and the nation’s economic health. 

The 21 July letter, titled “The Voyager Declaration,” in honor of the Voyager space probes, was addressed to Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, who joined the agency on 9 July. 

“We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources,” the letter states. “The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire.”

The agency faces pressure to reduce its staff and a budget request proposing funding at levels described as an “extinction-level event for NASA science” by Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for the Planetary Society. 

 
Related

•  The Voyager Declaration
•  Hundreds of NASA Employees, Past and Present, Sign Letter of Formal Dissent
•  Get Involved: AGU Science Policy Action Center
 

In the letter, signatories asked Duffy to protect NASA from proposed budget and staffing cuts and dissented to several planned or already-enacted changes including spacecraft decommissioning; abandonment of international space mission partnerships; and termination of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programming.

The letter’s authors also pointed out a “culture of organizational silence” promoted at the agency that, combined with suggested changes to NASA’s Technical Authority—a system of safety oversight—represents a “dangerous turn away from the lessons learned following the Columbia disaster.” The letter was dedicated to astronauts who lost their lives in spaceflight incidents and was signed by at least 4 astronauts.

“We’re scared of retaliation,” Monica Gorman, an operations research analyst at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a signatory of the letter, told the New York Times. She said staff “go to the bathroom to talk to each other, and look under the stalls to make sure that no one else is there before we talk.”

Staff at the National Institutes of Health and the EPA signed similar letters to their administrators in June. Some of the signatories of the EPA letter have since been placed on leave. Stand Up for Science, a nonprofit science advocacy organization, helped coordinate all three letters. 

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

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Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth

Understanding how rocks break in the brittle upper crust is critical for predicting earthquakes, managing reservoirs, and modeling subsurface mechanics. In JGR: Solid Earth, two new studies by Jacob et al. [2025] and Hurley et al. [2025] use cutting-edge synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction techniques to reveal how stress evolves at the grain scale inside sandstone samples under load.

In both studies, researchers applied increasing axial compression to small cores of sandstone rocks, while scanning them with high-energy X-rays at a synchrotron radiation facility. Jacob et al. [2025] employed a technique called scanning three-dimensional X-ray diffraction to obtain high-resolution maps of intra-granular stress in the sandstone. By combining stress mapping with stepwise compression, the team observed increasing stress heterogeneity accompanied by dynamic reorientation of local stresses. High-stress clusters emerged and formed spatially persistent structures. These patterns were found to correlate with zones of higher grain rotation and strain, forming potential precursors to failure.

Hurley et al. [2025] combined X-ray tomography with three-dimensional X-ray diffraction and near-field high-energy diffraction microscopy to image stress and texture evolution in 3D. The researchers observed that larger grains showed more internal misorientation, possibly due to the presence of surface cements. By combining stress mapping with stepwise compression, the team showed that grain stresses demonstrated compressive stress alignment parallel to the loading direction and tensile stresses alignment orthogonal to the loading direction. This evolution was consistent with porosity evolution revealed by X-ray tomography, which showed pores closing parallel to the loading direction and opening normal to the loading direction.

Together, these studies reveal that rocks under stress behave more like collections of interacting grains than uniform solid blocks, showing similarities with inter-particle force transmission in granular materials. They also underscore the power of modern synchrotron tools in capturing these processes while performing rock deformation experiments, providing deeper insights into how brittle failure initiates in the Earth’s crust.

Citations:

Jacob, J.-B., Cordonnier, B., Zhu, W., Vishnu, A. R., Wright, J., & Renard, F. (2025). Tracking intragranular stress evolution in deforming sandstone using X-rays. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130, e2025JB031614. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JB031614

Hurley, R. C., Tian, Y., Thakur, M. M., Park, J.-S., Kenesei, P., Sharma, H., et al. (2025). Crystallographic texture, structure, and stress transmission in Nugget sandstone examined with X-ray tomography and diffraction microscopy. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130, e2025JB031690. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JB031690

—Yves Bernabé, Editor, JGR: Solid Earth

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Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.

Karst groundwaters are vital resources, providing drinking water to nearly 10% of the world’s population. However, human activities and global change have deteriorated the karst water quality and dependent ecosystems.

A new article in Reviews of Geophysics explores contaminant transport in karst groundwaters and recent efforts to model it. Here, we asked the authors to give an overview of karst aquifers, how scientists model contaminant transport, and future research directions.

What are karst aquifers and where do they form?

Karst aquifers are underground water reservoirs that develop in soluble rocks like limestone or dolomite. Over thousands of years, these rocks dissolve to form complex underground networks of channels, caves, and fractures (Figure 1). These unique systems are found all over the world—from Florida to the Dinaric Alps—and they supply drinking water for nearly one in ten people globally while supporting ecosystem functioning.

Figure 1: Conceptual representations of transport processes in karst aquifer at differing spatial scales. a) 3D block diagram of a karst aquifer scale, b) aquifer scale, c) borehole scale, d) single-fracture scale, e) pore-scale level (described at the Representative Elementary Volume, REV). Here, contaminant degradation is described by the chemical transformation influenced by physical, chemical, and (biogeo)chemical processes. The figure only describes anthropogenic contamination by indicating diffuse (areal) and point sources because both are key contamination sources in karst aquifers. Credit: Çallı et al. [2025], Figure 1

Why are karst aquifers important to understand?

Karst aquifers are both vital and vulnerable. They respond quickly to environmental changes, and pollutants can spread rapidly through their distinctive underground networks. Because water moves so fast and through unpredictable pathways, it’s hard to know how long contaminants will persist or where they’ll go. Understanding them is key to ensuring safe drinking water and protecting the ecosystems that depend on them.

What are the main sources of contamination in karst aquifers?

Contaminants come from both natural and human-made sources. Industrial chemicals, agricultural runoff, sewage, and land use changes are common threats. Even natural elements like arsenic or uranium can pose risks if they dissolve into groundwater. Due to the thin soils and fast-moving water in karst aquifers, there’s little time or space for these pollutants to be filtered or degraded before they spread (Figure 1).

How do scientists monitor for contamination in karst aquifers?

Scientists use tracer tests—adding a harmless dye or chemical to water and tracking where it goes—to map water flow. They also analyze natural “tracers” like isotopes or chemical signals already in the water. These techniques help us understand how fast water travels, how long it stays underground, and how different sources mix (Figure 2). This information is essential for predicting contamination risks, and support efforts to protect karst water resources.

Figure 2: Monitoring spatiotemporal distributions of contaminant plumes across the karst systems. Here, the acronyms Adv, Dis, and Diff refer to advection (or advective flow), dispersion, and diffusion processes, respectively. Sp (sorption) and Rc (chemical reaction) indicate the impact of retardation and reactive processes on the movement of solute plume. In the figure, C0 and C refer to the initial solute concentration and the concentration of solute at a given time, respectively. Here, ti indicates the first detection time of solute of interest (e.g., at the observation well) and tobs refers to the observed concentrations at the time of interest. In the figure, the two-way red arrows indicate the solute/mass exchange between the conduit and the matrix. Credit: Çallı et al. [2025], Figure 3

What kinds of models are being developed to track the movement of contaminants within karsts?

Researchers are developing computer models that simulate how water and contaminants move through the complex karst network. These models range from simplified, large-scale representations to detailed simulations of karst flow through conduits and fractures (Figure 3). They help us explore different scenarios—like how a pollutant might spread after a flood or how land use changes affect water quality. Therefore, they are essential for effectively managing karst water quality and planning pollution prevention strategies.

Figure 3: Generic classification of karst simulation models based on the model parametrization considering process complexity and data requirement. a) Conceptualization of the karst aquifer physical boundaries depicted by the grey-shaded area with a blue-indicated karst conduit and conduit network (the blank circles also describe the swallets/sinkholes along the conduit network), b) Spatially lumped karst simulation models depicted based on the solute concentration distribution over different karst compartments including epikarst, conduit, and matrix, c) Spatially distributed karst simulation models described considering the spatial distribution of the solute concentration. The classification is adapted from Hartmann et al. [2014]. Herein, a tracer test is described only to demonstrate the spatial distributions of contamination plume across two main karst simulation approaches. Credit: Çallı et al. [2025], Figure 9

What are some of the challenges of karst transport modeling?

The biggest challenge is heterogeneity—karst systems are incredibly variable at all scales. We often lack detailed data on the shape of the underground conduits, flow speeds, or chemical conditions. This makes it difficult to build reliable models. Even small changes in how water moves can greatly affect contaminant behavior, so improving model accuracy is a major research focus.

What additional research, data, or modeling efforts are needed to overcome these challenges?

We need better field data—from tracer tests, groundwater monitoring, and mapping—to calibrate and validate models. Advances in remote sensing and machine learning also offer new tools. Future research should focus on integrating hydrological, chemical, and biological processes and on translating model results into actionable decisions. Collaboration across disciplines is key to (better) understanding, managing, and protecting karst water resources in a changing world.

—Kübra Özdemir Çallı (kuebra.oezdemir_calli@tu-dresden.de, 0000-0003-0649-6687), Institute of Groundwater Management, TU Dresden, Germany; and Andreas Hartmann (andreas.hartmann@tu-dresden.de, 0000-0003-0407-742X), Institute of Groundwater Management, TU Dresden, Germany

Citation: Çallı, K. Ö., and A. Hartmann (2025), Groundwater pollution in karst regions: toward better models, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO255022. Published on 22 July 2025. This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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