SES Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series - 2009 Mark C. Serreze Cooperative Institute for Research in Environ. Sciences (CIRES), National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Univ. of Colorado. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF A SHRINKING ARCTIC SEA ICE COVER 18 September -- 3:00 PM, Speck Auditorium, Rowe Building, MBL* Arctic sea-ice undergoes seasonal melting every year, with minimum coverage occurring in September. Over the past eight years, Serreze and his colleagues have observed a more than 25% decline in sea-ice cover, compared to the average seasonal minimum during the period 1979-2000. Is this a symptom of global climate change, or just due to natural variability? What are broad implications of this sea-ice loss for climate beyond the polar ice-cap? Dr. Serreze will address these questions in his talk (see abstract on back). Dr. Serreze is professor and director of National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, and is one of the world’s leading scientists evaluating the patterns of and processes controlling ice and permafrost distribution around the globe. He received a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1989, for his work in understanding Arctic sea ice variability. His Arctic research interests are wide-ranging, and include atmosphere-sea ice interactions, synoptic climatology, boundary layer problems, numerical weather prediction. He has conducted field work in the Canadian Arctic on sea ice and icecaps, and on the Alaskan tundra. His efforts over the past ten years have increasingly focused on trying to make sense of the rapid environmental changes being observed in the Arctic. In 2006, Serreze received the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) award for Best Book for publication of The Arctic Climate System. He also has provided testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation regarding changes in arctic sea ice cover (2004) and to a 2006 Congressional Briefing, "Recent Scientific Findings of Arctic Environmental Change. RECOMMENDED READINGS: Serreze, M.C., A.P. Barrett, J.C. Stroeve, D.N. Kindig, and M.M. Holland (2009). The emergence of surface-based Arctic Amplification. The Cryosphere 3:11-19. Lawrence, D.M., A.G. Slater, R.A. Tomas, M.M. Holland and C. Deser (2008). Accelerated Arctic land warming and permafrost degradation during rapid sea-ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters 35:L11056 _____________________________ *refreshments available at 2:30 PM before the seminar Abstract: Environmental Impacts of a Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice Cover Mark C. Serreze Director, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder CO Arctic sea ice extent at the end of the summer melt season has declined sharply over the period of satellite observations and is projected to disappear entirely as concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases continue to rise. The extreme seasonal ice extent minima of September 2007 and 2008 serve as exclamation points on the downward trend and have fueled concern that rapid transition to a seasonally ice-free state may be imminent. While the factors forcing this trend have and will continue to be widely studied, less attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of current and future sea ice loss. Ice loss is already promoting increased wave action and coastal erosion and is resulting in strong rises in atmospheric temperature during autumn, not just at and near the surface, but extending through a considerable depth of the atmosphere. Through atmospheric transports, this strong warming, known as Arctic amplification, is starting to extend well beyond areas of ice loss, and will eventually influence Arctic land areas, glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet. Though altering horizontal temperature gradients, continued loss of the ice cover is in turn likely to impact on patterns of atmospheric circulation and precipitation not just within the Arctic, but into middle latitudes. This talk addresses these and other emerging environmental impacts of Arctic sea ice loss. SES Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series - 2009 Peter Groffman Senior Scientist, Institute of Ecosystems Studies, Millbrook, NY. EXOTIC EARTHWORM INVASION AND SOIL CARBON IN FORESTS. 25 September -- 3:00 PM, Speck Auditorium, Rowe Building, MBL* Earthworms are an invasive species in northern temperate forests. European in origin, they arrived in the US with settlers during the 1800's. Through their burrowing activities, earthworms cause dramatic physical changes on forest soil. altering forests floor structure, and crucial nutrient cycling processes, such as nitrification. Understanding earthworm effects on plant nutrient uptake, fine-root production and foliar chemistry will help predict the fate of invaded forests. Dr. Groffman’s work explores how Earthworm Invasions will impact nutrient retention and carbon storage in invaded forests. Dr. Groffman is a microbial ecologist and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Ecosystems Studies in Milbrook, NY. He received his Ph.D. from the University of George in 1984. From 1984-87 he was Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Departments of Crop and Soil Science and Microbiology and Public Health, Michigan State University. He has worked at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest since 1992. His broad research interests are in soil microbial ecology and carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Specific research efforts, in addition to earthworm invasions, include long-term monitoring of soil microbial biomass and activity, investigation of snow depth as a regulator of soil freezing and nitrogen dynamics, the effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on nitrogen gas fluxes, and effects of a whole watershed calcium addition on soil nitrogen and carbon cycling. Dr. Groffman has served on numerous science and policy advisory boards. He was/is a member of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science, the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Network Executive Board, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Nutrient Reduction Workgroup, and the Working Group on Aquatic Terrestrial Biogeochemistry at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. He has also served on National Academy of Sciences Committee on Long-range Soil and Water Conservation, and the National Research Council Board on Agriculture, as well as the Coordinating Committee on Exchanges of N2O, CH4 and CO2 between Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Atmosphere of the International Geosphere- Biosphere Program (IGBP). He is on the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI) of the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC), and was a lead author for the second (Wetlands) and third (North America) Assessment Reports of the IPCC. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals, Ecology and Ecosystems. He was chair of the Soil Ecology section of the Ecological Society of America from 1997– 98 and the Wetland Soils Section of the Soil Science Society of America from 2002 - 2003. RECOMMENDED READINGS: Bohlen, Patrick J., Stefan Scheu, Cindy M Hale, Mary Ann McLean, Sonja Migge, Peter M Groffman, and Dennis Parkinson (2004). Non-native invasive earthworms as agents of change in northern temperate forests. Frontiers in Ecology 2(8):427-35 Bohlen, Patrick J., Derek M. Pelletier, Peter M. Groffman,Timothy J. Fahey, and Melany C. Fisk (2000). Influence of Earthworm Invasion on Redistribution and Retention of Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in NorthernTemperate Forests. Ecosystems 7:13-27 Sua´rez, Esteban R., Timothy J. Fahey, Peter M. Groffman, Joseph B. Yavitt1 and Patrick J. Bohlen (2006). Spatial and temporal dynamics of exotic earthworm communities along invasion fronts in a temperate hardwood forest in South-Central New York (USA). Biological Invasions 8: 553–564 SES Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series - 2009 George Kling Robert G. Wetzel Professor, Dept.of Ecol. & Evol. Biol. University of Michigan. 23 October -- 3:00 PM, Lillie Auditorium, Lillie Building, MBL* USING ECOSYSTEMS SCIENCE TO SOLVE PROBLEMS: THE CASE OF KILLER LAKES IN AFRICA. On 26 August 1986 an enormous volume of toxic gas was released from Lake Nyos, a crater lake in northwest region of Cameroon, Africa. This gas suffocated about 1700 people living and farming in the lake basin. Two years earlier in Lake Monoun there was a smaller release of gases that killed 37 people. What caused this? Two possible explanations for these events were originally proposed, one invoking a volcanic event, and another based on limnological processes. During his doctoral research, which coincided with these tragic events, George Kling discovered the exact cause of these disasters – massive CO2 release. He has continued to study these lakes to better understand and predict their behavior, and he has worked with the government of Cameroon to develop strategies for averting such catastrophes in the future. Dr. Kling received his Ph.D. in 1988 from Duke University, was a post-doctoral fellow at the Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole from 1988-91, then moved to the University of Michigan where he is now Robert G. Wetzel Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is broadly interested in how elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur move through the environment. This research requires study of physical transport phenomena coupled with geochemical reactions, and the