Evidence of recent environmental

change in lakes in the Hudson Bay

Lowlands, northern Ontario

Dr. Andrew Paterson

Research Scientist
Dorset Environmental Science Centre
Ontario Ministry of the Environment

Friday, March 30, 2012
3:30 p.m.
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University

All are welcome to attend.

Impact of water withdrawals,

dams and climate change on ecologically-relevant

river flow characteristics: Results of a

global-scale modeling study

Dr. Petra Döll

Professor of Hydrology
Institute of Physical Geography – Hydrology Group
University of Frankfurt/Main
Germany

Friday, March 16, 2012
3:30 p.m.
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University

All are welcome to attend.

The Little Ice Age & Beyond: Societal Impacts and

Modelling the Long-term Changes

Dr. Lawrence A. Mysak

Past-President of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans

Canada Steamship Lines Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, McGill University

Professor Mysak’s presentation will begin with a brief discussion of the impacts of the Little Ice Age (LIA) on military history, musical instruments, and church windows.  He will describe how reconstructed LIA wind-stress fields which take into account the North Atlantic Oscillation, together with three radiative forcings (volcanic activity, insolation changes and greenhouse gas changes), are used to drive the UVic Earth System Climate Model in order to simulate various environmental changes since 1500 A.D.  These changes involve the Northern Hemisphere surface air temperature (SAT), the sea-ice cover in both hemispheres, global ocean properties (heat content and hydrography), and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.  In his study, the LIA extended from 1500 to about 1850, when the industrial era began. The simulated NH SAT agrees quite well with several temperature reconstructions.  Interestingly enough, the simulated sea-cover in each hemisphere responds quite differently to the forcings.  Only in the NH is the simulated sea-ice area and volume noticeably larger during the LIA than during the present-day area and volume.  It is also shown, among other things, that changes in the upper ocean heat content are mainly driven by radiative forcing changes, except in the polar regions where the varying wind-stress drives multi-decadal advective events into the high latitudes.

Friday, March 2, 2012

3:30 p.m.

Room 426, Burnside Hall

McGill University

All are welcome to attend.

Understanding variability and temporal

trends in biosphere-atmosphere CO₂

exchange through integrating

models with data

Dr. Trevor Keenan

Postdoctoral fellow, Richardson Lab
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University

Friday, February 17, 2012
3:30 p.m.
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University
805 Sherbrooke Street West

All are welcome to attend.

California delta wetlands: land-use change,

greenhouse gas emissions and subsidence

Dr. Oliver Sonnentag

Professeur adjoint
Département de géographie
Université de Montréal

Friday, February 3, 2012
3:30 pm
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University

Coastal environments, sea level change,

and ancient hurricanes in Cuba

Dr. Matthew Peros

Assistant Professor, Bishop’s University
Canada Research Chair in Climate and Environmental Change

Friday, January 20, 2012
3:30 pm
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University

All are welcome to attend.