Stony Brook University Hosts Joint Symposium on Climate Change

Event organizers: Jeff Levinton, Department of Ecology and Evolution; Peter Daum, Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Minghua Zhang, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

On Tuesday February 16, The joint BNL-SBU Center for Regional Impacts of Climate Change (CIRCC) sponsored a one-day symposium at the Wang Center at Stony Brook University to bring together those interested in climate change from the Stony Brook campus and from Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The Stony Brook University – Brookhaven National Laboratory Joint Symposium on Climate Change featured presenters from a variety of disciplines including anthropology, ecology, environmental sciences, and marine and atmospheric sciences. The interdisciplinary meeting was organized by Peter Daum, chair of Brookhaven Lab’s Environmental Sciences Department; Jeff Levinton, distinguished professor in SBU’s Department of Ecology and Evolution; and Minghua Zhang, professor in SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Institute for Planetary and Terrestrial Atmospheres.

With presentations that ranged from statistical analysis of aerosol mass spectra to a discussion of plant adaptation to elevated ambient temperature and CO2 concentrations, the Joint Symposium on Climate Change was truly an interdisciplinary meeting.

Stony Brook University Provost Eric Kaler welcomed event attendees.

“The topics are so diverse and yet they are all so closely related to each other centering around the climate change problem.” said Dr. Zhang.

Dr. Levinton was also pleased with the diverse background of the symposium attendees. “The audience included climate modelers, ecologists, observational atmospheric scientists, plant physiologists and more,” he said. “The range was staggering but I was pleased that there was so much interest in the distant work of others.”

Attendees filled the Wang Center Lecture Hall

The organizers hope that this meeting will serve as a springboard to connect researchers across disciplines and institutions. “The next step will be to establish smaller working groups to translate this cross-disciplinary interest into working research groups,” said Dr. Levinton.

“I am sure that SBU and BNL will find ways to enhance the the collaborative research activities that already exist, and find ways develop new collaborations as we go forward,” said Dr. Daum.

Presentations

Chris Gobler (SoMAS) Consequences of climate change for ocean organisms
Jeff Levinton, Ecology and Evolution (E&E) Regional climate change and estuaries
Stephen Baines (E&E) Watershed biogeochemistry, aquatic ecosystem dynamics and regional climate
Lucian Wielopolski (BNL) Non-destructive soil analysis and its impact on the Soil Sampling Paradigm
Jeff Fitts (BNL) Geologic CO2 storage: Is it viable?
Fritz Henn, Associate Director
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Alison Liu (BNL) Plants adapt to the elevated ambient temperature and CO2 concentration through epigenetic regulation of the gene expression
Minghua Zhang (ITPA/SoMAS) An overview of physical processes in the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) running at the NY Blue
Andy Vogelmann (BNL) Clouds and Climate
Steve Schwartz (BNL) Why hasn’t the Earth climate warmed as much as expected?
Yangang Li (BNL) FASTER project to improve climate models
Lawrence Kleinman (BNL) Aircraft Field Campaigns
Yin-Nan Lee (BNL) Aerosols during VOCALS
Bob McGraw (BNL) Statistical analysis of aerosol mass spectra
Ernie Lewis (BNL) Production and hygroscopic behavior of atmospheric aerosol particles
Arthur Sedlacek (BNL) Evolution of the optical properties of aerosol
Jian Wang (BNL) Cloud activating properties of atmospheric aerosols
H. Resit Akcakaya, Lilliana Davalos, Catherine Graham (E&E) Quantifying the influence of climate change on the distribution and persistence of species
Dianna Padilla (E&E) Invasion of aquatic species and climate change
Jessica Gurevitch (E&E) Plant species and climate change
Steve Munch (SoMAS) Changes in lifespan, and population growth with temperature
Jackie Collier (SoMAS) Climate and changes in microbial community composition and function
Ruth Coffey (SoMAS) Ground water and climate – marine perspective
Jeff Levinton
Department of Ecology and Evolution

Tsvi Pick, Geosciences (GEO) Ground water and climate – land perspective
Alistair Rogers (BNL) What have FACE experiments told us about the response of ecosystems to rising [CO2], and what do we still need to learn?
Rob Armstrong (SoMAS) Climate change and marine biogeochemical cycles
David Black (SoMAS) The Paleo perspective on climate change
Edmund Chang (ITPA/SoMAS) Storm track variability in global warming
Pat Wright (E&E) Changes of storms in Madagascar
Keith Jones (BNL) Dormant hydrate systems in oceans and their potential climate impact