NSF funds 18 CNH projects - 2012

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) program announced funding for 18 new projects in 2012; total funding for the awards is $17.6 million.

Research funded by CNH awards aims to provide a better understanding of natural processes and cycles and of human behavior and decisions -- and how and where they intersect.

"We're dependent on our environment and the resources it provides us, yet we often don't recognize that many of our most pressing problems can only be tackled by considering them as a single, interconnected system," said Sarah Ruth, program director in NSF's Directorate for Geosciences.

"CNH grants seek to explore that system, and to foster a better understanding of our place in it."

"For more than a decade, the CNH program has supported projects that have explored the complex ways people and natural systems interact with each other," said Tom Baerwald, CNH program director in NSF's Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.

"This year's awards have the same broad range, exploring topics for which basic researchers seek enhanced understanding and practical insights, while improving the ways people function and prosper while maintaining and improving environmental quality."

"Social and natural scientists must work together to understand how human societies and ecological systems depend on each other," said Peter Alpert, CNH program director in the Directorate for Biological Sciences. "The CNH program remains at the forefront of support for this key research on sustainability."

NSF's Directorates for Geosciences; Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences; and Biological Sciences support research conducted through the CNH program.

CNH is part of NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability investment.

CNH 2012 awardees, their institutions and projects are:

• Li An, San Diego State University
  CNH: Impacts of Ecosystem Service Payments in Coupled Natural and Human Systems
• Christopher Anderson, University of North Texas:
  CNH-Ex: Ecology, Culture, and Outcomes: Linking Human Perceptions and Socio-Ecological Thresholds for Ecosystem Restoration (ECO-Link)
  
• Paul Armsworth, University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
  CNH-Ex: The Influence of the Size of Protected Areas on Their Ecological and Economic Effectiveness
  
• Nandita Basu, University of Iowa:
  CNH-EX: Monsoon Harvests: Assessing the Impact of Distributed Storage Tanks on the Vulnerability of Subsistence-Level Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India
  
• Rebecca Bird, Stanford University:
  CNH: Indigenous Fire Regimes, Land-Use Ecology, and Contemporary Livelihoods in Northern California
  
• Sarah Glaser, College of William & Mary:
  CNH-Ex: Conflict and Fisheries in the Lake Victoria Basin
  
• Amy Hessl, West Virginia University:
  CNH: Pluvials, Droughts, Energetics, and the Mongol Empire
  
• Shannon LaDeau, Institute of Ecosystem Studies:
  CNH: Urban Disamenities and Pests: Coupled Dynamics of Urban Mosquito Ecology and Human Systems Across Socioeconomically Diverse Communities
  
• Nina Lam, Louisiana State University:
  CNH: Coupled Natural-Human Dynamics in a Vulnerable Coastal System
  
• Simon Levin, Princeton University:
  CNH: Social-Ecological Complexity and Adaptation in Marine Systems
  
• Fiorenza Micheli, Stanford University:
  CNH: Enhancing Resilience of Coastal Ecosystems and Human Communities to Oceanographic Variability: Social and Ecological Feedbacks
  
• Mark Moritz, Ohio State University:
  CNH: Exploring Social, Ecological, and Hydrological Regime Shifts in the Logone Floodplain of Cameroon
  
• Timothy Murtha, Pennsylvania State University, University Park:
  CNH-Ex: Land, Water, and Territory: A 3,000-Year Study of Niche Construction and Cultural Evolution in the Tikal National Park, Guatemala
  
• Guillermo Podesta, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science:
  CNH: From Farm Management to Governance of Landscapes: Climate, Water, and Land-Use Decisions in the Argentine Pampas
  
• Anne Short, Boston University:
  CNH-Ex: Shifting Land Use and Forest Conservation: Understanding the Coupling of Social and Ecological Processes Along Urban-to-Rural Gradients
  
• Christine Wiedinmyer, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research:
  CNH: Cooking Up Clean Air: Scaled-Up Air Quality and Health Impacts of Clean Cookstoves in Ghana
  
• Scott Yabiku, Arizona State University:
  CNH: Feedbacks Between Human Community Dynamics and Socioecological Vulnerability in a Biodiversity Hotspot
  
• Ben Zaitchik, Johns Hopkins University:
  CNH: Agroecosystem-Based Climate Resilience Strategies in the Blue Nile Headwaters of Ethiopia