Fuelling forests, modelling nutrient cycling and projecting climate change
Date: March 25, 2024
Location: DC 1302
Time: 1:30PM-2:30PM
**Light snacks and refreshments will be provided**
Event description:
Join the Waterloo Climate Institute and the Faculty of Mathematics for a guest lecture on the intricacies of how nitrogen cycling is represented within Earth System Models, which are used to project climate change. Sian Kou-Giesbrecht from the University of Dalhousie will explore how the terrestrial biosphere currently sequesters a third of human CO2 emissions in plant and soil biomass, and is known as the “terrestrial carbon sink”. However, the terrestrial carbon sink needs nutrients such as nitrogen to fuel plant growth.
A major uncertainty in future climate change projections is resolving how much nitrogen limitation will constrain plant growth and carbon sequestration under global change in the future. Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht will also explore aspects of nitrogen cycling in forests, how it is influenced by global change, and how our empirical understanding can help improve Earth System Models and their projections of the terrestrial carbon sink and climate change.
Biography
Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht is a new professor at Dalhousie University (started Fall 2023). Prior to starting at Dalhousie University, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (Environment and Climate Change Canada) working on the representation of terrestrial nitrogen cycling within the Canadian Earth System Model. Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht's research focuses on carbon and nitrogen cycling in the terrestrial biosphere and how these cycles are modelled in Earth System Models, which are used to project climate change.