IT’S STARTS AT THE TOP:
THE INTERTWINED FATES OF WATER AND ECOSYSTEMS IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS

ABSTRACT

Precipitation in Colorado’s high country has a big effect on the lives of Front Range residents, whether plant, animal, or human. Snowpack feeds local creeks, lakes, and ditches and moistens the soil for plant communities. Climate change is altering the amount and timing of snow and rain, the runoff of melting snow, as well as the chemistry of the water sent downstream. Greater variability in precipitation will also increase the frequency of drought, flood, and wildfire. Other environmental changes of the Anthropocene Era are also affecting water chemistry and in turn the biological communities in our lakes and streams. Speakers will address questions such as, What changes to our water supply are observed now and predicted for the future? How do scientists measure and model these changes? And what are the consequences for our local ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic?

SPEAKERS

Liz Payton, Western Water Assessment, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder: An overview of climate change’s complex effects on the water cycle

Eve-Lyn Hinckley, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder: Water in a warming alpine: Surprises in the water quality record of Niwot Ridge, Colorado, and beyond

Sarah A. Spaulding, US Geological Survey and INSTAAR, University of Colorado Boulder: Algae in the Front Range and beyond

Tim Seastedt, INSTAAR and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Senior Fellow in the  Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder: Rewetting the sponge: Managing soils to contribute to climate mitigation and enhancing biodiversity

Brett KenCairn, Senior Manager, City of Boulder Nature-based Solutions, and Director, Center for Regenerative Solutions, serves as the city of Boulder’s Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Action and leads the City’s Natural Climate Solutions team.  He is also the Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions (CRS)—a national initiative to expand natural climate solutions nationally that is co-sponsored by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network: Nature-based solutions: Approaching the earth as ally