All Climate Events

Tuesday, January 9, 2018. 12:00 PM. Webinar: Eutrophication will increase during the 21st century as a result of precipitation changes. Eva Sinha, Stanford University and Anna Michalak,Carnegie Institution for Science.  Sponsored by NOAA's National Ocean Service.  More information here.

Abstract: Questions surrounding water sustainability, climate change, and extreme events are often framed around water quantity � whether too much or too little. The massive impacts of water quality impairments are equally compelling, however, and recent years have provided a host of compelling examples of unprecedented harmful algal blooms and hypoxic dead zones. Linkages between climate change and water quality impacts are not well understood, however. The first half of the talk will frame challenges and opportunities related to characterizing water quality, bridging from local to global scales, identifying key drivers, and understanding the role of climate. In the second half of the talk we will show that climate change�induced precipitation changes alone will substantially increase (19 � 14%) riverine total nitrogen loading within the continental United States by the end of the century for the �business-as-usual� scenario. The impacts, driven by projected increases in both total and extreme precipitation, will be especially strong for the Northeast and the corn belt of the United States. Offsetting this increase would require a 33 � 24% reduction in nitrogen inputs, representing a massive management challenge. Globally, changes in precipitation are especially likely to also exacerbate eutrophication in India, China, and Southeast Asia. It is therefore imperative that water quality management strategies account for the impact of projected future changes in precipitation on nitrogen loading. About the Speakers: Eva Sinha is a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth System Science at the Stanford University. She obtained her Master�s in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B-Tech in the Department of Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. She studies the impact of human-caused climate change on water quality. Her research focuses on how changes in precipitation patterns and changes in land management will impact nutrient loading, excess of which is one of the major drivers of impaired water quality. Dr. Anna M. Michalak is a faculty member in the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science and a Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. She studies the cycling and emissions of greenhouse gases at urban to global scales � scales directly relevant to informing climate and policy � primarily through the use of atmospheric observations. She also explores climate change impacts on freshwater and coastal water quality via influences on nutrient delivery to, and on conditions within, water bodies. Her approach is focused on the development of spatiotemporal statistical data fusion methods that optimize the use of limited data. She is the lead author of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, a former Editor of the journal Water Resources Research, and Chair of the scientific advisory board for the European Integrated Carbon Observation System. She is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (nominated by NASA), the NSF CAREER award, and the Leopold Fellowship in environmental leadership.