29 May

Room Ekoln, MVM (Mark-, vatten och miljöcentrum), Uppsala

Dr. Li Li “Biogeochemical Reactions in Natural Systems: rates, fluxes, and residence times”

seminars, workshops |

Seminar given by visiting Associate Professor Dr. Li Li from The Penn State University.

Abstract

How and how fast does the Earth surface respond to environmental changes? This question has lingered the earth and environmental science communities for decades, with literature now boasting decades of water flow and chemistry data that record Earth’s response to changing environmental conditions. Natural systems are complex systems where external forcings, internal structure heterogeneity, and process coupling conspire to dictate the magnitude and timing of water flow, reaction rates and fluxes. These complexities present grand challenges for developing general principles, theories, and models to project into the future. In this talk I will show how data, process-based models, and virtual experiments can collaborate to illuminate mechanisms and interrogate the role of individual variables and processes in influencing biogeochemical reactions. I will discuss two examples: one on rates of chemical weathering as determined by water-reacting mineral contact time, the other on the differentiation and controls of production and export rates of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) at the catchment scale.

Biography

Dr Li Li, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Penn State University, USA (http://LiReactiveWater.com). Li obtained her PhD from Princeton University and subsequently worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in USA before joining Penn State U. in 2009. Currently she is on sabbatical as a visiting professor at the ECHO lab at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Li was trained as an environmental geochemist but has broad interdisciplinary interests at the interface of hydrology and biogeochemistry. Her research group asks broad questions on how external drivers and internal structure characteristics of natural systems influence their hydrological and biogeochemical functioning. Her group generally uses process-based models and data analysis approaches, and collaborate widely with field scientists. Li has been actively involved in the scientific community at large, including organizing conference sessions and workshops and serving as an associate editor for Water Resources Research. 

 

Facts

Time: 2019-05-29 13:00
City: Uppsala
Location: Room Ekoln, MVM (Mark-, vatten och miljöcentrum)