Samantha Chapman, PhD

Professor of Biology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Villanova University

  • Villanova PA

Samantha Chapman, PhD is an Associate Professor with expertise in global change in coastal ecosystems and invasive plant species.

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Spotlight

3 min

Assessing Biden's "Green Infrastructure" Plan From a Climate Perspective

In a virtual climate summit attended by leaders from all over the globe, President Joseph Biden announced plans for the United States to cut carbon emissions by as much as 52% by the year 2030. This commitment was outlined in what the Biden administration is calling a "green infrastructure" bill, one that has echoes of the Obama-era Green New Deal.  Samantha Chapman, PhD, a biology professor at Villanova University and co-director of the Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, recently broke down the pros and cons of the bill with KYW Newsradio's Matt Leon. According to Dr. Chapman, the bill addresses what she identifies as the two major strategies for mitigating the negative effects of our warming planet: "preventing more climate change and adapting to climate change." Dr. Chapman considers that the strength of the bill lies in what she and Matt Leon refer to as "base hits" rather than the "home run" structure of the Green New Deal, meaning that Biden's plan relies on smaller, easily achievable goals—like incentivizing a switch to a more sustainable type of cement for building bridges—rather than sweeping reform in an effort to get the bill passed. Dr. Chapman calls the improvement of the power grid, which would support the manufacturing of electric cars and ease our nation's reliance on fossil fuels, "one of the biggest things in the bill." The professor also notes that she is hopeful about the installation of broadband in remote areas allowing for wider internet access and investment in energy-efficient affordable housing and job training to support communities that rely on the fossil fuel industries. "You can't just shut these people's livelihoods down and say 'okay, good luck' or just give them a payout. People want to have jobs that fulfill them," says Dr. Chapman. This direction, focusing on infrastructure with climate and equity at the center of the conversation, is in line with the Biden campaign's slogan to "build back better." Dr. Chapman points out that this bill creates an opportunity to focus on the word "better" by reevaluating the definition of infrastructure itself. "What is infrastructure?" she asks. "Is clean air infrastructure? Is clean water infrastructure? We know that natural infrastructures [feedback systems like our waterways and forests]—and we still have a lot of them in the U.S., thankfully—give us a buffer against climate change." As a climate scientist specializing in coastal ecosystems, Dr. Chapman told Leon she hopes to see an emphasis on these types of natural infrastructures. "I think that salt marshes and mangroves are really important in buffering our coast against big storms, so I want to see explicitly that we are going restore these places. It would be good for biodiversity; it would be good for people hanging out and kayaking; and it would help us protect against these big storms that are coming whether or not we cap our emissions. I think I would like to see more of these green barriers along our coast rather than big seawalls, and I haven't seen that exactly yet, but again the fine print's not there," she points out. "The bill's not done." Finally, Dr. Chapman spoke to how this infrastructure bill could have an impact on the future of the country if it is passed and observed. "I think there's still work to do on things like forests and biodiversity; there's always more work to do. I think it would be a massive step in the right direction. And then we'd have to go to the rest of the world and start doing some work there."

Samantha Chapman, PhD

2 min

How the Biden Administration Can Help Save the Planet

With the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as the 46th president of the United States came a slew of executive orders—and perhaps most notably America's reentry into the Paris Climate Accord. After the Obama administration joined the largest global cooperative agreement to limit the emission of dangerously climate-altering greenhouse gasses in 2015, the U.S. withdrew in 2017 under former president Donald Trump. Villanova University biology professor Samantha Chapman, PhD, studies how "blue carbon" solutions, like the restoration of wetlands, can contribute to slowing the harmful impact of climate change on the planet. Recently, Dr. Chapman broke down the top three things the Biden administration must do to save the planet, since we are, as she puts it, "close to some scary tipping points." #1: Pressure Brazil’s President Bolsonaro to stop the devastation of the Amazon. "The Amazon Rainforest regulates our global climate. It is imperative that through diplomacy and aid, we incentivize developing countries to preserve their intact lands and biodiversity. We can't do this without helping local communities incentivize the people living in these places to save these lands. Road building in forests is a huge cause of our planet's downward slope." #2: Invest in restoration of natural ecosystems. "We must invest resources into coastal wetlands and forests, here and abroad. USAID could be partially retooled in partnership with the United Stated Geological Survey (USGS), which already does this. These natural ecosystems will serve as natural climate solutions and be harbors for threatened species and nice places for humans to recreate. We must restore the opportunity for nature to re-invoke the necessary feedbacks that make the ecosystems work. Sometimes this involves complicated engineering, sometimes it is simpler and means giving nature space to restore. We're trying both." #3: Find ways to make people feel connected to land and nature—and value it. "This is a vague one and not one that I'm sure any administration can do. The pandemic has given me hope on this—I see so many more people out hiking, fishing, walking, and hanging out in parks. When time comes for voting on taxes, people have to remember that these state parks and preserves and even neighborhood parks cost money to staff and preserve. The U.S. has incredible land and nature and yet, in my experience, Americans value and understand it less than other countries. Some of that has to do with our frontier history. We can learn from Native Americans. Appointing Representative Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior is one good step the Biden administration has taken in this direction." Dr. Chapman emphasizes that despite the uphill battle ahead, she remains hopeful. "Left to heal and helped to heal, the ecosystem processes that sustain our lives and those of the other amazing organisms on our planet can be restored," she notes. "Good things are happening. They just need to happen at a much larger scale."

Samantha Chapman, PhD

Media

Social

Areas of Expertise

Coastal Ecosystems
Wetlands
Biodiversity Loss
Climate change effects on coastal wetlands
Invasive Species
Carbon Storage and Sequestration
Climate Change
Ecology

Biography

Climate change, encroaching development, and accelerating environmental degradation of natural habitats pose a serious threat to an increasing number of plant and animal species. Dr. Chapman researches and can discuss leading issues on coastal climate change and possible solutions to biodiversity loss.

Education

Northern Arizona University

PhD

Northern Arizona University

MS

The Pennsylvania State University

BS

Select Accomplishments

Anne Quinn Welsh Honors Faculty Fellow, Villanova University

2017-19

Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship

2005-2007

Selected Participant, National Science Foundation/UMBC ADVANCE Faculty Horizons workshop for aspiring STEM faculty

2006

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Affiliations

  • Member of NASA Climate Adaptation Science Investigators Group
  • Board of Directors, Soil Ecology Society
  • Christmas Tree Farms and Soil Carbon Storage: A North American Carbon Program (NACP) Affiliated Project
  • Smithsonian Marine Science Network
  • Editorial Board Member, Ecology; Journal of Ecology

Select Media Appearances

Mangrove Trees Are on the Move, Taking the Tropics with Them

Scientific American  online

2024-06-25

Any real-world transformation probably wouldn’t be so simple. “I think these places are going to be a matrix of both salt marshes and mangroves,” says Samantha Chapman, a biology professor at Villanova University. But in some areas, she says, it might be a “total transition.” She thinks that, over time, there will be push and pull, creating additional habitat for some species while inevitably forcing others to look elsewhere. Many Florida game fish, for example, especially snook and tarpon, use mangrove estuaries as nurseries.

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Mangroves common in South Florida are moving north

Axios  online

2023-04-19

Floridians are familiar with mangroves—but imagine them moving into Georgia or South Carolina... With the country experiencing fewer freeze events, mangroves that thrive in coastal wetlands are moving into salt marsh habitats at higher latitudes, Villanova University professor Samantha Chapman tells Axios.

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Beached whales, disappearing crabs—what’s happening to our oceans?

KYW Newsradio  

2023-03-08

Over the past few months, more than a dozen dead whales have washed up along the New York and New Jersey coasts... Part of the whale problem starts with the population itself. While humans have made significant strides in reviving the population, the majority of whales that are stranding are ones that are in bigger groups, according to Villanova University biology professor Dr. Samantha Chapman.

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Research Grants

The influence of mangrove invasion and rising temperatures on belowground processes in coastal ecosystems

National Science Foundation

2017-2020, Ecosystem Science
Principal Investigator with Co-PIs M. Hester, J. Morris, A. Langley and C. Feller.

Mangroves marching northward: the impacts of rising seas and temperatures on ecosystems at Kennedy Space Center

NASA ROSES

2012-205, with extension to 2016.
Principal Investigator with I.C. Feller, J.A. Langley and W. Walker.

Interactions of invasive insects, wildfire and climate change: Mechanisms, processes and adaptations on forest productivity, composition and decline

USDA Forest Service RSJVA

2010-2014
Principal Investigator with J. Hom.

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Select Academic Articles

Mangrove trees outperform saltmarsh grasses in building elevation but collapse rapidly under high rates of sea-level rise

Earth's Future

Morris, J.T., J.A. Langley, W.C. Vervaeke, N. Dix, I.C. Feller, P. Marcum, & S.K. Chapman

2023

Mangrove trees are invading saltmarshes at subtropical ecotones globally, but the consequences of this vegetation shift for ecosystem sustainability remain unknown. Using the Coastal Wetland Equilibrium Model (CWEM) to simulate vegetation survival and sediment accretion, we predict that black mangroves, Avicennia germinans, can build soil elevation by 8 mm yr−1, four times greater than saltmarshes at the same site, a finding that is broadly consistent with field measurements of elevation change.

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Nitrogen Addition Increases Freeze Resistance in Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans) Shrubs in a Temperate-Tropical Ecotone

Ecosystems

Feller, I.C. U. Berger, S.K. Chapman, E.M. Dangremond, N.G. Dix, J.A. Langley. C.E. Lovelock, T.Z. Osborne, A.C. Shor, & L.T. Simpson

2023

In response to a warmer climate and fewer killing freezes, mangroves are currently expanding into saltmarshes. However, the speed of the transition from saltmarsh to mangrove can also be modified by extreme events and nutrient subsidies. In a fertilization experiment along the Atlantic coast of North America, we found that nitrogen addition altered plant traits in Avicennia, which increased their resistance to freezing temperatures.

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Impacts and effects of ocean warming on tidal marsh and tidal freshwater forest ecosystems

Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. pp. 105-120.

J. Patrick Megonigal, Samantha Chapman, Steve Crooks, Paul Dijkstra, Matt Kirwan, & Adam Langley

2016

Tidal wetland responses to warming involve complex feedbacks between plants, microbes and physical processes, the balance of which will ultimately determine if these ecosystems can keep pace with accelerated sea-level rise. Plant primary production is likely to increase with warming based on evidence from latitudinal gradients of tidal marsh biomass and experimental manipulations.

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