EESS talk on "Human driven changes in atmospheric deposition of nutrients to the marine ecosystems"
Event details
| Date | 25.02.2020 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:00 |
| Speaker | Professor Maria Kanakidou, EPCL Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Heraklion |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Oceans are responsible for about half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, are a major source of food for humanity and without the ocean phytoplankton carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have been about 200 ppm higher. Biological carbon sequestration depends on the availability of nutrients to the marine ecosystem, since nutrients are essential for the ecosystem functioning. The relative abundance of them available to an ecosystem is also important because favoring the development of certain species against others can lead to biodiversity losses. Nutrients equilibria of both land and marine ecosystems have been disturbed during the Anthropocene period.
Material of natural and/or anthropogenic origin, particularly aerosols, deposited from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface can act as a source of nutrients for the ecosystems, in particular into the open ocean, and affect nutrient’s equilibrium. Atmospheric acidity is a key driver of solubility changes of nutrients, making them readily available to the ecosystems, and is following the human-driven changes in the emissions of acidic and basic compounds into the atmosphere (mainly sulfur and nitrogen emissions).
We will discuss recent global chemistry-transport modeling studies that are based on laboratory and field experiments focusing on the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, iron and phosphorus, the role of atmospheric acidity and organics, how these cycles have been impacted by human activities and potential consequences for the ecosystems.
Short biography:
Maria Kanakidou is Professor of Computational Environmental Chemistry (since 2008), Director of the Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL) of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete, holds an Excellence Chair at the Institute of Environmental Physics of the University of Bremen (2020-2023) and is also a visiting faculty member at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Patras.
Her scientific interests focus on human-driven changes and feedbacks on atmospheric chemistry and physics, biogeochemical cycles and interactions with climate. She is most known for her global modeling studies of organics and recently on nutrients (nitrogen, iron and phosphorus) atmospheric deposition to the ocean.
She is recipient of the EGU 2016 Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal for Atmospheric Sciences, a von Humboldt award (2019), the H. Julian Allen Award 1998, member of the UN/WMO GESAMP WG 38 on 'The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean', and honorary member of International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution.
Oceans are responsible for about half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, are a major source of food for humanity and without the ocean phytoplankton carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have been about 200 ppm higher. Biological carbon sequestration depends on the availability of nutrients to the marine ecosystem, since nutrients are essential for the ecosystem functioning. The relative abundance of them available to an ecosystem is also important because favoring the development of certain species against others can lead to biodiversity losses. Nutrients equilibria of both land and marine ecosystems have been disturbed during the Anthropocene period.
Material of natural and/or anthropogenic origin, particularly aerosols, deposited from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface can act as a source of nutrients for the ecosystems, in particular into the open ocean, and affect nutrient’s equilibrium. Atmospheric acidity is a key driver of solubility changes of nutrients, making them readily available to the ecosystems, and is following the human-driven changes in the emissions of acidic and basic compounds into the atmosphere (mainly sulfur and nitrogen emissions).
We will discuss recent global chemistry-transport modeling studies that are based on laboratory and field experiments focusing on the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, iron and phosphorus, the role of atmospheric acidity and organics, how these cycles have been impacted by human activities and potential consequences for the ecosystems.
Short biography:
Maria Kanakidou is Professor of Computational Environmental Chemistry (since 2008), Director of the Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL) of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete, holds an Excellence Chair at the Institute of Environmental Physics of the University of Bremen (2020-2023) and is also a visiting faculty member at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Patras.
Her scientific interests focus on human-driven changes and feedbacks on atmospheric chemistry and physics, biogeochemical cycles and interactions with climate. She is most known for her global modeling studies of organics and recently on nutrients (nitrogen, iron and phosphorus) atmospheric deposition to the ocean.
She is recipient of the EGU 2016 Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal for Atmospheric Sciences, a von Humboldt award (2019), the H. Julian Allen Award 1998, member of the UN/WMO GESAMP WG 38 on 'The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean', and honorary member of International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Athanasios Nenes, LAPI