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The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science

Reconstructing nutrient cycling in the palaeorecord to assess current global changes Seminar

Time:
16:00
Date:
9 October 2013
Venue:
Shackleton Building, Lecture Theatre B

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Dr Julian Leyland at J.Leyland@soton.ac.uk .

Event details

Geography and Environment Seminar

 Human activities have doubled the pre-industrial supply of reactive nitrogen on Earth, and future rates of increase are expected to accelerate. The long-term response of the terrestrial biosphere to this potential fertilization is largely unknown. Here, I present several palaeoecological records from lacustrine sediment cores and tree cores to begin to establish a baseline for 20th century changes in nitrogen cycling. The spatial scales of these records range from local (watershed-level) to global. There is little evidence indicating widespread eutrophication in the past 500 years despite increasing anthropogenic supplies of reactive nitrogen. Non-anthropogenic drivers of nitrogen cycling, especially the carbon status of terrestrial ecosystems, are likely to be essential for understanding which ecosystems are vulnerable to future anthropogenic changes.

Speaker information

Kendra McLauchlan,Kansas State University

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