Forbes to lead off natural resources lecture series Sept. 14

Valery Forbes
Valery Forbes

Valery Forbes, director of the School of Biological Sciences, will start the School of Natural Resources Fall 2011 Seminar Series on Sept. 14 with “Why We Need Better Models for Assessing and Managing Ecosystem Services.” The talk begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Hardin Hall Auditorium. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Forbes will challenge ecosystem modelers to come up with management tools that are complex enough to be accurate and clear enough to work for decision-makers and educators. Before coming to UNL in January, Forbes was in Denmark. She was founding chair of the Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change and professor of aquatic ecology and ecotoxicology at Roskilde University.

Unless otherwise indicated below, the seminar series offers lectures at 3:30 p.m., Wednesdays through Nov. 30, in the Hardin Hall Auditorium.

“This year’s seminar series is intended to help foster connections, especially between the School of Natural Resources and other departments on campus,” said Don Wilhite, director of the school.

Two speakers are not from UNL. Andy Bishop, coordinator of the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture, will discuss the changing conservation delivery paradigm on Oct. 5. And Paul Sutton, from the Department of Geography at the University of Denver, will discuss mapping and monetizing the human ecological footprint on Nov. 15.

Lecture dates, topics and speakers are:

— Sept. 21, “Physically-based Models for Remote Estimation of Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems’ Primary Productivity,” by Anatoly Gitelson, School of Natural Resources, UNL.

— Sept. 28, “Going Green: Impact of Modern Beef Production on the Environment,” by Galen Erickson, Department of Animal Science, UNL.

— Oct. 5, Hardin Hall 901, “Independent Environmental Acts of Kindness or Focused Conservation Delivery: The Changing Conservation Delivery Paradigm,” by Andy Bishop, Rainwater Basin Joint Venture Coordinator.

— Oct. 12, “Assessing Groundwater Renewability with Environmental Tracers,” by John Gates, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, UNL.

— Oct. 26, “The Oily Side of Algae,” by Paul Black, Department of Biochemistry, UNL.

— Nov. 2, “Genetics of Adaptation to High-Altitude Hypoxia in Birds and Mammals,” by Jay Storz, School of Biological Sciences, UNL.

— Nov. 9, “Disciplinary Differences and Their Implications for the School of Natural Resources,” by Jeff Royer, Department of Agricultural Economics, UNL.

— Nov. 15, 3 p.m., “The Real Wealth of Nations: Mapping and Monetizing the Human Ecological Footprint,” by Paul Sutton, Department of Geography, University of Denver.

— Nov. 30, “Nebraska Water and Energy Flux Measurement, Modeling, and Research Network (NEBFLUX): Progress and data on measuring plant physiology and evapotranspiration for various vegetation surfaces,” by Suat Irmak, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, UNL.

— Kelly Helm Smith, Natural Resources

More details at: http://go.unl.edu/snrseries