Dataset Information

Ten simple rules for switching from face-to-face to remote conference: An opportunity to estimate the reduction in GHG emissions.

ABSTRACT: In 2020, the world faced the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that drastically altered people's lives. Since then, many countries have been forced to suspend public gatherings, leading to many conference cancellations, postponements, or reorganizations. Switching from a face-to-face to a remote conference became inevitable and the ultimate solution to sustain scientific exchanges at the national and the international levels. The same year, as a committee, we were in charge of organizing the major French annual conference that covers all computational biology areas: The "Journées Ouvertes en Biologie, Informatique et Mathématiques" (JOBIM). Despite the health crisis, we succeeded in changing the conference format from face to face to remote in a very short amount of time. Here, we propose 10 simple rules based on this experience to modify a conference format in an optimized and cost-effective way. In addition to the suggested rules, we decided to emphasize an unexpected benefit of this situation: a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to travel for scientific conference attendance. We believe that even once the SARS-CoV-2 crisis is over, we collectively will have an opportunity to think about the way we approach such scientific events over the longer term.

SUBMITTER: Guignon V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8523038 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ten simple rules for switching from face-to-face to remote conference: An opportunity to estimate the reduction in GHG emissions.

Guignon Valentin V Breton Catherine C Mariette Jérôme J Sabot François F Fumey Julien J Fumey Julien J Lefort Vincent V Fiston-Lavier Anna-Sophie AS

PLoS computational biology 20211018 10

In 2020, the world faced the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that drastically altered people's lives. Since then, many countries have been forced to suspend public gatherings, leading to many conference cancellations, postponements, or reorganizations. Switching from a face-to-face to a remote conference became inevitable and the ultimate solution to sustain scientific exchanges at the national and the international levels. The same year, as a committee, we ...[more]

PMID: 34662331

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Project description:Reducing methane (CH4) emissions is increasingly recognized as an urgent greenhouse gas mitigation priority for avoiding ecosystem 'tipping points' that will accelerate global warming. Agricultural systems, namely ruminant livestock and rice cultivation are dominant sources of CH4 emissions. Efforts to reduce methane from rice typically focus on water management strategies that implicitly assume that irrigated rice systems are consistently flooded and that farmers exert a high level of control over the field water balance. In India most rice is cultivated during the monsoon season and hydrologic variability is common, particularly in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) where high but variable rainfall, shallow groundwater, and subtle differences in topography interact to create complex mosaics of field water conditions. Here, we characterize the hydrologic variability of monsoon season rice fields (n = 207) in the Indian EGP ('Eastern India') across two contrasting climate years (2021, 2022) and use the Denitrification Decomposition (DNDC) model to estimate GHG emissions for the observed hydrologic conditions. Five distinct clusters of field hydrology patterns were evident in each year, but cluster characteristics were not stable across years. In 2021, average GHG emissions (8.14 mt CO2-eq ha-1) were twice as high as in 2022 (3.81 mt CO2-eq ha-1). Importantly, intra-annual variability between fields was also high, underlining the need to characterize representative emission distributions across the landscape and across seasons to appropriately target GHG mitigation strategies and generate accurate baseline values. Simulation results were also analyzed to identify main drivers of emissions, with readily identified factors such as flooding period and hydrologic interactions with crop residues and nitrogen management practices emerging as important. These insights provide a foundation for understanding landscape variability in GHG emissions from rice in Eastern India and suggest priorities for mitigation that honor the hydrologic complexity of the region.

Dataset Information

Ten simple rules for switching from face-to-face to remote conference: An opportunity to estimate the reduction in GHG emissions.

Publications

Ten simple rules for switching from face-to-face to remote conference: An opportunity to estimate the reduction in GHG emissions.

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