A series of four free webinars were offered December 2016 through February 2017. Washington State University researchers affiliated with the BioEarth research initiative shared their findings related to climate change impacts on Northwest US water resources, nutrient cycling, and managed and natural ecosystems.
Webinar topics, speaker bios, and RECORDINGS here
One of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century is understanding how changes in the balance of carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients in soil, water, and air affect atmospheric chemistry, ecosystem processes and human health. BioEarth, a WSU-based research initiative funded by USDA NIFA, has sought to model biogeochemical cycles in a changing climate at the regional scale. This webinar series ties together important findings from BioEarth, focusing on the implications of research results for natural and agricultural resource management in the Northwest US.
Agricultural and natural resource decision-makers are confronted with interconnected challenges of managing nitrogen, carbon, and water in the context of uncertainties about the impacts of climate change. Interactions among systems are often poorly understood and difficult to conceptualize. Thus, even resource management decisions made with the best intentions may often lead to negative unintended consequences. Traditionally, most climate change impacts research has relied on models that simulate a single specific system (for example, vegetation dynamics, atmospheric conditions, the water cycle, or economics). BioEarth is one of a new generation of integrated earth system models that are being developed to better understand interconnections and feedback across different systems.
Input from stakeholders representing industry, nongovernmental organizations, federal, state, local and tribal government agencies, and diverse academic disciplines has played a critically important role in informing BioEarth model development. This webinar series will provide background information about how regional climate and nutrient dynamics are changing, and will describe applications of BioEarth modeling tools—enabling deeper understanding of system processes and vulnerabilities.
The BioEarth research team will host a final culminating stakeholder workshop at the WSU Tri-Cities campus on February 16 to delve deeper into questions about interactions between global environmental change and regional agricultural management decisions. To register for the workshop, visit http://bioearth.brownpapertickets.com
To access summary reports from previous BioEarth stakeholder workshops and other publications that have come out of the BioEarth research effort, visit http://bioearth.wsu.edu/publications.html
