Capital, Cities, Carbon: YSE Experts Preview Climate Week NYC

In the latest Rose Walk and Talk, YSE's Jennifer Marlon explains why extreme heat poses a growing threat to human health — and it’s not just about the temperature.

August 26, 2026

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Anthony Leiserowitz, professor of climate communication, has been elected an American Psychological Association Fellow, effective January 1, 2027. Fellow status is awarded to those who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of psychology.

Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, was recognized for his work on climate and environmental psychology, which has helped shape how the public and policymakers understand the human dimensions of the climate crisis.

“I’m so honored to be named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Environmental and conservation psychology are more important to solving our shared global challenges than ever before, and I’m just glad I’ve had the opportunity to help advance the field,” Leiserowitz said.

August 11, 2026

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A new study led by Kexin Song, a postdoctoral associate at YSE, offers field-based evidence that satellite data can detect meaningful differences in how well Amazon forests recover from drought stress, rather than merely reflecting glitches caused by clouds, sensor quirks, or measurement timing. By cross-checking geospatial observations with physiological measurements from more than 342 trees representing 114 species, researchers confirmed that a satellite-derived resilience indicator capture real ecological signals. This finding strengthens the case for using satellites as early-warning tools for ecosystem transitions across hard-to-access regions such as the Amazon.

An important caveat that the study found, however, is that the observation timing must align with natural recovery rhythms. For instance sampling too frequently can hide recovery dynamics, but sampling too infrequently risks missing them. The study suggests that some earlier satellite-based resilience assessments warrant re-examination.

The paper, "Physiological fidelity of a satellite-derived forest resilience indicator in the Amazon," was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

July 21, 2026

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A YSE-led study published in Environmental Research Letters found that current federal rules regulating American ginseng harvest — based on plant age and leaf count — poorly predict the biological traits that matter most for conservation.

Ginseng, a wild plant prized in traditional medicine, can only be legally harvested once it's at least five years old and has three leaves.  However, when researchers measured hundreds of ginseng plants, they found that age was a weak guide to how large a plant's root had grown or how many seeds it could produce. 

The authors say switching to size-based harvest limits could do more to protect ginseng in the wild, while also making the rules easier for harvesters and forest farmers to follow.

The study was led by Karam C. Sheban ’26 PhD, and co-authored by Mark Bradford, the E.H. Harriman Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology, and  Marlyse C. Duguid, the Thomas J. Siccama Senior Lecturer in Field Ecology.

July 15, 2026

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