Earth Lab's Environmental Data Science weekly seminar series

Title:  Impacts of global change and on tropical ecosystem functioning
Speaker:  Dr. Imma Oliveras,  IRD (France), ECI (University of Oxford), State University of Mato Grosso

Abstract:
One of the biggest challenges in biosphere science is to understand how ecosystems are responding to global changes, such as climate change, land use change and changes in disturbance regimes. This challenge is particularly acute for tropical ecosystems because of their high biodiversity, importance for global biogeochemical cycles, and still poorly understood ecophysiological functions. This talk will give a brief overview of some of the state-of-art on the impacts of global change on tropical ecosystem energy budgets, biogeochemistry cycles, and ecological function.

Speaker Bio: 
Dr Imma Oliveras is Research Director at the Institute of Recherche pour le Developpement (France), Senior Scientist at the Environmental Change Institute (University of Oxford) and visiting professor at the State University of Mato Grosso. She leads the Disturbance Ecology and Global Change Group, and her main research addresses the vulnerability and resilience of ecosystems to global change. She is interested on how changes in abiotic conditions - particularly extreme droughts and altered fire regimes- affect plant form and function, and how this aggregated to diversity and ecosystem functioning.

ESOC coffee hour occurs weekly from 9-10am Wednesdays in the ESOC Reading Room (Ekeley W230). Please email Claire Waugh (waughc@colorado.edu) for information.

ESOC researchers, post-docs and graduate students gather for conversation and to discuss research. Occasional guest speakers are invited to give short presentations on topics of interest.

Understanding flood risk from space: opportunities to adapt to changing risk and catalyze climate justice
Beth Tellman, Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, School of Geography, Development, and Environment  

Floods affect more people than any other hazard, and the frequency and magnitude of exposure is growing with demographic and climatic changes. Yet the ability to predict and monitor floods from local to global scales remains a challenge and limits access to financial protection for vulnerable populations. The increasing availability, frequency, and spatio-temporal resolution of satellite data provides new opportunities to monitor floods locally and globally. Advances in cloud computing and machine learning techniques enable increasingly accurate flood event monitoring by fusing observations from multiple sensors. I will show how these new methods and data can improve our ability to understand and adapt to flood risk from global to local scales. This talk will demonstrate how improved flood observations yield insight into where populations are moving into flood plains, inform decisions to relocate refugee camps, underpin innovative index insurance schemes in Colombia and Bangladesh. Beyond adaptation, satellite-based flood data could be used to catalyze climate justice. I’ll show examples from recent work in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where we are partnering with lawyers from Texas Rio Grande Legal Aide and community-based organizations to co-produce flood history data. Lawyers hope to use these data to hold FEMA accountable to doling out recovery funds for exposed populations and challenge infrastructure investments that protect wealthier communities from flooding at the expense of increased exposure to others.

This is part of a regular C-SEF Webinar series, to build community and brainstorm research ideas. Everyone is welcome.

Chemistry of Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere and Indoor Air
Paul Ziemann,
ANYL faculty, CU Boulder

"Laboratory studies provide much of the fundamental data on reaction kinetics, products, and mechanisms that are needed to understand atmospheric and indoor air chemistry and to develop models that are used to establish air quality regulations and predict the effects of human activities. Research in my laboratory focuses primarily on environmental chamber studies of the atmospheric chemistry of organic compounds emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources and the physical and chemical processes by which oxidized organic reaction products form aerosol particles. In addition to this we have conducted a number of collaborative studies of indoor air chemistry at CU. In this talk I will provide a brief overview of recent research in my lab for the purpose of informing first-year chemistry graduate students."

Prior to the seminar we will announce the winners of the ANYL Best Student & Postdoc Paper Contest and present awards!

For the second half of the seminar time block there will be a meeting of ANYL faculty and first year students.

A CIRES Early-Career Assembly (CECA, formerly CGA) Appreciation Breakfast will take place on Tuesday, September 12 from 8:30-10 am in the CIRES Fellows Room (Ekeley S274). 

All CIRES graduate students and post-docs are invited to stop by to grab some breakfast or stay to enjoy some friendly conversations.  This will be an opportunity to take a break at the start of the semester and meet up with others across CIRES. Coffee, bagels, and doughnuts will be provided in appreciation of all of the great work you do! RSVPs are not required. 

ESOC coffee hour occurs weekly from 9-10am Wednesdays in the ESOC Reading Room (Ekeley W230). Please email Claire Waugh (waughc@colorado.edu) for information.

ESOC researchers, post-docs and graduate students gather for conversation and to discuss research. Occasional guest speakers are invited to give short presentations on topics of interest.

Presented by: 

Dr. Caitlin Rottler (South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma)

ABSTRACT:

The Ogallala Aquifer (OA) underlies about 111 million acres of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, including about 1.9 million acres of Tribal lands and 2.9 million acres of federal lands. Water from the aquifer is vital to regional aquatic, riparian, range, and agricultural ecosystems. Management of the OA presents challenges in various forms, as it is a common resource that crosses multiple state lines and is subject to an array of Tribal, Federal, State, and Municipal regulations. Aquifer depletion, especially in a region expected to become hotter and drier with climate change, presents a growing problem, threatening both natural and managed ecosystems.

One way to begin approaching the complex issue of understanding and managing the Ogallala Aquifer at the regional scale is to address the problem of multiple large, disparate datasets that, as a result of being difficult to locate, are not easily combined and synthesized in a way that supports science-based decision-making and communication between and among stakeholders. The Ogallala Data Directory Project worked to identify datasets and make them easier to access with less labor-intensive searching by creating a metadata library with records corresponding to datasets located in various places online.

Project outputs include a fully searchable website housing metadata records that assist in cataloging datasets by geographic scope of coverage, time period, and data type. Metadata entries are included for hydrologic, agricultural, and ecological data. The directory is hosted with the Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project data portal that has been built through ongoing collaboration with the Colorado State University Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.

Register here: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpdO6hpzwqEtap6k84m6_pvshey...

Please join the CMC for their monthly meeting. Join by Google Meet or phone: https://meet.google.com/vee-dwjy-cji?hs=224 or (US) +1 502-443-0399 PIN: 491275827

On September 19 between 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, pop into the CIRES communications office at the DSRC (3B508) to record a happy birthday message for CIRES and/or NOAA, and eat a cupcake! The messages will be used to create a video that will be shared on social media to celebrate CIRES' birthday (September 29) and NOAA's birthday (October 3).

If you aren't able to make the scheduled time and would like to record a message, please email ciresnews@colorado.edu to coordinate a different option.

On September 20 between 12:00 - 1:30 pm, pop into the CIRES communications office (CIRES 301) on the CU Bouder campus to record a happy birthday message for CIRES and/or NOAA, and eat a cupcake! The messages will be used to create a video that will be shared on social media to celebrate CIRES' birthday (September 29) and NOAA's birthday (October 3).

If you aren't able to make the scheduled time and would like to record a message, please email ciresnews@colorado.edu to coordinate a different option.

ESOC coffee hour occurs weekly from 9-10am Wednesdays in the ESOC Reading Room (Ekeley W230). Please email Claire Waugh (waughc@colorado.edu) for information.

ESOC researchers, post-docs and graduate students gather for conversation and to discuss research. Occasional guest speakers are invited to give short presentations on topics of interest.

Special CIRES/ATOC Seminar

Dr. Chris Little, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Lexington, MA

CIRES Visiting Fellows Program (Sabbatical)

Sea Level Variability along the United States East Coast...and beyond!

Coastal sea level records from tide gauges provide a unique and valuable resource for understanding decadal to centennial timescale climate variability. The tide gauge record along the United States east coast (USEC) is of particular interest, because of its length and relatively dense spatial coverage. Among other signals, USEC sea level exhibits large amplitude (up to 10 cm), decadal-timescale, variations arising from changes in ocean circulation. Lagged relationships with atmospheric and ocean variability suggest these changes in coastal sea level may be predictable and/or used to infer past changes in ocean circulation and climate. In fact, the USEC tide gauge record has already been used to reconstruct large-scale North Atlantic ocean variability. However, caution is warranted: several recent analyses reveal non-stationarity and linkages to climate and sea level variability in other ocean basins. Robust reconstructions of climate, and predictions of coastal sea level, require an improved mechanistic understanding.

Understanding the dynamics underlying decadal USEC sea level variations, and its apparent modulation over multidecadal timescales, requires global models with adequate representation of key processes, including those that govern the communication of large-scale climate variability to the coast. During my CIRES sabbatical, I’ve begun to assess theoretical and modelling tools that will help address some of outstanding questions in the coastal sea level record. In this talk, I will present some elements of the spatiotemporal variability evident in the USEC and global tide gauge record, review relevant driving mechanisms and potential relationships with other decadal climate phenomena, introduce initial findings from high resolution ocean models, and outline some promising research directions. My hope is to inspire new ideas and collaborations around ATOC and CIRES…and beyond.

Join TOPS Open Science 101 Ethos of Open Science Training offered in-person at the University of Colorado Boulder. If you’d like to participate in the training, please register with this link. Registration deadline is September 25. 

The Transform to Open Science (TOPS) mission is a NASA initiative designed to rapidly transform agencies, organizations, and communities to an inclusive culture of open science. TOPS is part of NASA’s Open-Source Science Initiative. TOPS aims to meet everyone where they are at on their open science journey. While some members of our growing community may have practiced open science for many years, others may be trying to transition to a new way of conducting research or are students who are looking to begin their scientific careers. As such, TOPS’ first priority is to develop the infrastructure to train 20,000 scientists and researchers as part of our five-year program. This community-developed open science curriculum will introduce those beginning their open science journey to important definitions, tools, and resources; and provide participants at all levels recommendations on best practices from subject matter experts. TOPS will initially focus on developing the Open Science 101, designed as five modules that mimic a scientific workflow.