Travis E. Huxman, Associate Professor
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Director, Biospher 2 and B2 Earthscience
The University of Arizona

Water for Carbon - Ecology, Hydrology and Global Change

Landscapes are rapidly changing on the planet - as rapidly as any other component of global change.  How vegetation cover influences the behavior of ecosystems and controls water and carbon cycling is an important question that relates to feedbacks to the climate system.  For example, does the recent increase in woody plants over large areas of North America act as an important sink for carbon that reduces the rate of CO₂ rise in the atmosphere?  Such vegetation changes also likely influence patterns of water-use and could influence the deliver of this resource to the human endeavor.  This talk will evaluate how these dynamics play out across our southwestern landscapes.  Recent work on the ecology and hydrology of global change highlight the need for new tools for addressing questions in the Earth system sciences, and this talk will talk about new directions of research programs at The University of Arizona, including that of the newly acquired Biosphere 2 facility.

Please join us for refreshments at 10:45 a.m.