Telling the “Hidden” Stories of Water: Revealing Connections between Climate, Land, Water, and Human Systems

Please join us for a seminar by Dr. Jay Zarnetske, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University. Dr. Zarnetske studies watershed science and helps train the next generation of environmental scientists. To answer a wide range of fundamental and applied scientific questions, he focuses on questions about the physics and chemistry of water, such as “Where does water go when it rains? What flow path does it take? And how long did it take to get there?”

Abstract

In this presentation, we will take time to appreciate the world from the perspective of water. Water is profound in that it connects us all and the environment. By documenting these water connections, we gain a more holistic understanding of the world and can achieve environmental sustainability goals. Yet, society rarely invests in resources to understand these connections.

So, here we will look at some recent projects led by our lab that focus on water connections. We will start by going to the vast, beautiful, yet rapidly warming Arctic, to reveal the hidden stories of Arctic change as told by stream water. And then we will finish with examples of how we can better communicate the incredible, yet often hidden, value of water to society and life on Earth.