"Environmental Responses to Anthropogenic Perturbations" is the topic of a day-long symposium to be offered by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder Friday, Feb. 21.
Registration is required by Tuesday, Feb. 18, but the symposium is free and open to the public.
All sessions will be presented by a CIRES fellow in the Old Main chapel. Sessions begin at 9 a.m. and extend until 5 p.m., each lasting 35 minutes. The day opens with a continental breakfast in Old Main at 8:30 a.m.
Oral presentations will detail aspects of the impact of human activities on atmospheric processes, carbon cycles, arctic climate and aquatic ecosystems. Societal impacts of climate change also will be discussed.
Each of the speakers is internationally recognized in his or her field. Offerings will include "Arctic Regional Climate Assessment: The Case Study of Greenland," by CIRES acting director and geography professor Konrad Steffen, at 9:40 a.m.
In December 2002 Steffen released preliminary study results demonstrating unprecedented melting for Greenland the summer of 2002, coinciding with record-low summer sea-ice levels in the arctic basin.
Steffen, a 27-year veteran of high Arctic field work, who has spent portions of the past nine summers on the Greenland Ice Sheet, maintains more than 20 weather stations in a system known as the Greenland Climate Network that transmits hourly measurements of ice sheet climate conditions via satellite to Boulder scientists.
"Anthropogenic Influence on Air Quality" will be offered by Fred Fehsenfeld, a program leader at the NOAA Aeronomy Lab on recent regional projects including the Texas 2000 Air Quality Study and the New England Air Quality Study, both expected to have far-reaching results for national environmental remediation policies.
Professor of Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology Bill Lewis will discuss "Effects of Human Activities on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Western United States."
Lewis, a limnologist, has chaired the National Research Council Committee on Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River Basin since 2001. He is the recipient of several high-level awards including the Naumann-Thienemann Medal of the International Society of Pure and Applied Limnology.
Other topics will cover the phenomenon of increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases, the way some bacteria have evolved new metabolic pathways for breaking down certain toxic chemicals at waste sites, the effects of agricultural forests on atmosphere, land-use impacts on the grassland-woodland balance as they relate to carbon stocks, impacts of climate warming on Alaskan Inupiat populations and the effects of extreme climate on populations.
A sponsored lunch will be held at the University Club and two coffee breaks are offered throughout the day. A reception and poster session will be held following the talks from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
CIRES is a partnership between CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. CIRES fellows are selected for outstanding achievement and their abilities in diverse areas of environmental sciences. CIRES researchers collaborate around six loosely defined themes. The symposium is offered under the theme of Planetary Metabolism.
See to view a complete schedule of events or to register for the symposium. For more information, contact special events coordinator Kathy Zellers, (303) 735-0196.