In today’s globalized world, humans and nature are inextricably linked. The coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) framework provides a lens with which to understand such complex interactions.

One of the central components of the CHANS framework involves examining feedbacks among human and natural systems, which form when effects from one system on another system feed back to affect the first system.

How do humans and their environment interact, and how can we develop an understanding of these processes to adapt to a planet undergoing far-reaching climate and other environmental changes?

To answer these and related questions, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 14 grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natural and human systems.

How and why is tea quality vulnerable to changing climate conditions, and how do these changes affect farming communities and land-use strategies?

Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) program will use tea production and consumption systems as a case study to explore the complex interactions among human and natural systems.

They will look at how links among tea agroecosystems, markets and farmers are affected by increased climate variability and resulting socioecological feedbacks.

Scientists are certain: We’re entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity’s existence.

Paul Ehrlich, CHANS-Net member and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and his coauthors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations, and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

"[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," said Ehrlich, professor of population studies in biology.