Carbon transport and storage in the environment varies in time and location. The accumulation of ghgs in the atmosphere is controlled by human activity, ecosystem type, and the exchange of gas between biospheres.
Wade McGillis,
University of Notre Dame
This talk will show 30 years of research on the topic including past, present and future activities. Boundary layer transport, enclosure/chamber, and mass balance techniques are used to quantify environmental flows and the magnitude/direction of carbon dioxide transfer. Marine atmospheric boundary layers, bottom benthic boundary layers, and terrestrial surfaces are explored in a range of ecosystems across the planet. Specifically, presentation will be provided on processes controlling the exchange of carbon dioxide across the air-sea interface and productivity, calcification, and dissolution of bottom substrates in marine and aquatic systems (different oceans, corals, seagrass, ice). Production and emission of carbon-dioxide, including how open-ocean, estuarine, and river waters capture and release carbon will be discussed. This work has implications not only for understanding how different ecosystems function, but also for understanding their response to climate change, potential climate feedbacks, and possible sustainable adaptation measures.
Wade McGillis, a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, joined CEEES in 2022. Prior to Notre Dame he was at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Wade was in the departments of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Geochemistry, Earth and Environmental Engineering, and the Director of Rivers and Estuaries. He was a founding Science Steering Committee member of the United States Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program (OCB) and was Chair of the United States Surface Ocean and Lower Atmospheric Study (SOLAS and a committee member of the international program).
For 10 years, Wade led the Columbia University water quality sampling and synthesis hub for New York City Citizen Scientists. Wade has been a +pool science advisor for 14 years and a science advisor for the Hudson Riverkeeper organization for 12 years. Wade is a patent holder for the carbon sequestration and removal process used by Heirloom Inc, the first industrialized operational CDR company in the USA. Wade pioneered the use of Boundary Layer Meteorological Approaches to measure the exchange of carbon dioxide between the global oceans and atmosphere and received the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) best scientific paper awards in both 2002 and 2003. Wade invents, measures, and models ways to understand how our ecosystems function and how humans impact the world around us.