Global and Environmental Change
- Anne E. Carey
- Yu-Ping Chin
- Ozeas Costa, Jr.
- Andréa G. Grottoli
- Ian Howat
- Motomu Ibaraki
- Steven K. Lower
- William Berry Lyons
- Garry D. McKenzie
- Frank W. Schwartz
- Lonnie G. Thompson
Ecosystems and human society worldwide are under increasing stress from anthropogenic activities. These include global climate change, compromised water resources, ecosystem degradation, and urban development. For example, human derived greenhouse gases are largely responsible for increases in the global average temperature over the last three decades. This phenomenon has begun to alter global systems e.g., coral bleaching, melting of Tundra permafrost, severe droughts, and loss of polar and mountain glaciers through out the world. Moreover, the demand for water has drastically increased because agricultural, industrial, and residential uses are exceeding the sustainable supply in both developed and developing countries.
In order to address the various scientific challenges associated with global and environmental change, our research group at The Ohio State University study a wide range of topics such as global climate change, paleoclimatology, glaciology, polar sciences, environmental and isotope geochemistry, geomicrobiology, oceanography, limnology, hydrology, risk assessment, coral reef biogeochemistry, and water quality. Field research is conducted in areas as close as local Ohio watersheds and the Great Plains, and as far away as Tanzania, Taiwan, the tropical Pacific, New Zealand, the Arctic, and Antarctica.
Eleven professors are working in this research group including distinguished professors, Dr. L.G. Thompson (National Academy of Sciences member and National Medal of Science Recipient), W. Berry Lyons (AGU Fellow), and Dr. F.W. Schwartz (Ohio Eminent Scholar). We publish papers in a diverse number of journals such as Science, Nature, Environmental Science & Technology, Geochimica et Cosmochimca Acta, Geology, Water Resources Research, Limnology and Oceanography, Organic Geochemistry, Journal of Geophysical Research, and members have served on a variety of nationally recognized panels and committees e.g., National Science Foundation, National Research Council, Department of Energy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, etc. Graduate students in the program have won numerous awards including prestigious fellowships such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the U.S. EPA STAR Fellowship Program, and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Fellowship.
Our program is geared for training graduate students in both professional and academic programs. Graduates from this research group take various career pathways at universities, national laboratories, and in the private sector industry.