Columbus, OH The Ohio State University Climate Change Outreach Team will present “Climate and Carbon Impacts on Productivity, Chemistry, and Invasive Species in the Great Lakes”? on Thursday, January 17, 2013. Galen A. McKinley, Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, will discuss biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, and invasive species in Lakes Superior and Michigan; the impacts of physical change in a changing climate; and prospects for acidification of the Great Lakes due to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
The webinar will be held on January 17 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Attendance is free, but registration is required to receive log-in information — visit changingclimate.osu.edu to sign up. A Q&A session will follow the presentation.
The webinar will discuss the importance of the Great Lakes as a critical national resource whose large-scale function is still poorly understood, making it difficult to predict the effects of climate change on these ecosystems. Dr. McKinley will also introduce numerical models that can help answer questions about how physical factors impact Great Lakes chemistry, ecology, and invasive species, and how the lakes might respond to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide that could increase water acidity as well.
Dr. McKinley is Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at University of Wisconsin — Madison, and a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Climatic Research of the UW Madison’s Nelson Institute. She uses numerical models and data to study how physical and biogeochemical processes influence carbon cycling and its variability over time in both the oceans and the Great Lakes.
The OSU Climate Change Outreach Team is a partnership among multiple departments within The Ohio State University, including OSU Extension, Ohio Sea Grant, the Department of Agricultural, Environmental & Development Economics, and the School of Environment & Natural Resources, to help localize the climate change issue by bringing research and resources to Ohioans and Great Lakes residents. More information about the team’s work is available at changingclimate.osu.edu.
Contact
Christina Dierkes, Ohio Sea Grant, 614-292-8913, dierkes.10@osu.edu.