EARTH & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SPRING 2023 RAST-HOLBROOK LECTURE SERIES
EARTH & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SPRING 2023 RAST-HOLBROOK LECTURE SERIES
DR. AMY MYRBO “THE DANGERS OF ADDING SULFATE TO FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS”
April 20, 2023, 4 p.m.
303 Slone Research Building
Abstract:
Sulfate, which is usually considered innocuous, is a powerful pollutant (leading to release of nutrients, DOC+DIC, and mercury) when added to fresh water by human activities. In addition, sulfate discharge leads to sulfide in lake sediment pore waters, which can change aquatic plant ecosystems. The issue is particularly important in the Laurentian Great Lakes region, where wild rice, an aquatic grass that is highly culturally significant to Native peoples, is threatened by mining, municipal wastewater discharge, and other human impacts.
Bio:
Amy Myrbo (Amiable Consulting, St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota) is a research development professional, specializing in geoscience diversity and equity, program evaluation, and strengthening NSF geoscience proposals. She is also an Assistant Scientist at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station. She currently serves as external evaluator on NSF awards totaling more than $26 million. Her academic research centers on lake sediment biogeochemistry and sedimentology; at present she works with Native American natural resource managers on the histories and present conditions of wild rice lakes, on the numerous dangers of adding sulfate to freshwater lakes, and on the effects of road salt on urban lake ecosystems. She serves or has served on committees and in leadership for the American Geophysical Union (DEI Task Force and Committee, Land Acknowledgment Task Force, Indigenous Action Committee) and Geological Society of America (Limnogeology Division, local organizing committees), as an associate editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology, and on the Board of the EarthLife Consortium Foundation. She helped develop and operate the NSF-funded multi-user facilities LacCore and the CSDCO (now CSDF) for 17 years, serving as Director of Outreach, Diversity, and Education from 2014-2019.