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Global pressures on freshwater ecosystems are high and rising. Viewed primarily as a resource for humans, current practices of water use have led to catastrophic declines in freshwater species and the degradation of freshwater ecosystems, including their genetic and functional diversity. Approximately three‐quarters of the world's inland wetlands have been lost, one‐third of the 28 000 freshwater species assessed for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List are threatened with extinction, and freshwater vertebrate populations are undergoing declines that are more rapid than those of terrestrial and marine species. This global loss continues unchecked, despite the importance of freshwater ecosystems as a source of clean water, food, livelihoods, recreation, and inspiration. The causes of these declines include hydrological alterations, habitat degradation and loss, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and the multiple impacts of climate change. Although there are policy initiatives that aim to protect freshwater life, these are rarely implemented with sufficient conviction and enforcement. Policies that focus on the development and management of fresh waters as a resource for people almost universally neglect the biodiversity that they contain. Here we introduce the Alliance for Freshwater Life, a global initiative, uniting specialists in research, data synthesis, conservation, education and outreach, and policymaking. This expert network aims to provide the critical mass required for the effective representation of freshwater biodiversity at policy meetings, to develop solutions balancing the needs of development and conservation, and to better convey the important role freshwater ecosystems play in human well‐being. Through this united effort we hope to reverse this tide of loss and decline in freshwater biodiversity. We introduce several short‐ and medium‐term actions as examples for making positive change, and invite individuals, organizations, authorities, and governments to join the Alliance for Freshwater Life.

A reduced-order model (ROM) is developed using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) for a physics-based lithium-ion battery model. The methodology to obtain the proper orthogonal modes and to analyze their optimality is included. The POD-based ROM for a lithium-ion battery is used to simulate a charge/discharge process and the behavior of a battery pack. Compared to the physics-based model, the computational time to solve the ROM is significantly less, and the two models show excellent agreement.

Lingshuang Cai, postdoctoral research associate of ABE; Jacek A. Koziel*, assistant professor of ABE; Yin-Cheung Lo, M.S. of ABE; Steven J. Hoff, professor of ABE Summary and Implications Swine operations can affect air quality by emissions of odor, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other gases, and particulate matter (PM). Particulate matter has been proposed to be an important pathway for carrying odor. In this research, continuous PM sampling was conducted simultaneously with three collocated TEOM (tapered element oscicllating microbalance) analyzers inside a 1000head swine finish barn located in central Iowa. Each TEOM was fitted with total suspended particulate (TSP), PM-10, PM-2.5 and PM-1 preseparators. Used filters were stored in 40 mL vials and transported to the laboratory. Carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) 85 μm solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers were used to extract VOCs. Simultaneous chemical and olfactometry analyses of VOCs and odor associated with swine PM were completed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer-olfactometry (GC-MS-O) system. Fifty VOCs categorized into nine chemical function groups were identified and confirmed with standards. Five of them are classified as hazardous air pollutants. VOCs were characterized with a wide range of molecular weight, boiling points, vapor pressures, water solubilities, odor detection thresholds, and atmospheric reactivities. All characteristic swine VOCs and odorants were present in PM and their abundance was proportional to PM size. However, the majority of VOCs and characteristic swine odorants were preferentially bound to smaller-size PM. The findings indicate that a significant fraction of swine odor can be carried by PM.