Abstract: Wetlands, ponds, and lakes play an important role in global carbon cycling by sequestering carbon in their sediments and emitting greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Yet, there is a lot of uncertainty in the extent to which wetlands and waterbodies are carbon sinks or carbon sources, and inventorying emissions. In this talk, we will discuss the role of wetlands and waterbodies in the global carbon budget and provide an overview of our lab’s research studying the carbon cycle in ponds, lakes, and wetlands.

Bio: Meredith Holgerson is a freshwater ecologist studying how ponds and lakes function and respond to environmental change. Her research program focuses on community and ecosystem ecology, and she is interested in how organisms and ecosystem processes interact. She asks questions about freshwater food webs, community composition, greenhouse gas production, and ecosystem metabolism. Her research relies on field studies, small-scale and whole-ecosystem experiments, and collaborations to scale local observations to global patterns.

This event is presented as part of the 2024 Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge Seminar Series:

• Most Mondays, Spring Semester 2024, 2:55-4:10pm
• Via Zoom

This university-wide seminar series is open to the public (via Zoom), and provides important views on the critical issue of climate change, drawing from many perspectives and disciplines. Experts from Cornell University and beyond present an overview of the science of climate change and climate change models, the implications for agriculture, ecosystems, and food systems, and provide important economic, ethical, and policy insights on the issue. The seminar is being organized and sponsored by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.