The Geological Society of America
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Joint Sessions
Climate Change through Time: Evidence in the Geologic Record
Recent discussions on climate change commonly include evidence from the Holocene glacial record, dendrochronology, human historical documents, and future trends based on models of temperature increases and sea-level rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently released its assessment on climate change and has strengthened its stand on human impacts associated with climate change since the last assessment was released. These discussions and reports often convey the uniqueness of these fluctuations in the last few centuries. However, the geologic record contains robust evidence of ancient climatic and sea-level changes that are often missing from the present debate on global warming. The objective of this session will be to bring together agronomists, biologists, glacial scientists, Quaternary geomorphologists, biostratigraphers, sequence stratigraphers, geochronologists, isotope geochemists, and other geoscientists who are interested in engaging in an integrated and open technical session on the evidence, as well as the rates, and controls of climate change in the geologic record.
The Impending Global Water Crisis: Geology, Soils, Agronomy, and International Security
One of the most pressing challenges facing the global community is the availability of quality fresh water for food and fiber production and industrial and domestic uses. Human population growth and the distribution of population centers stress water resources worldwide in both developed and underdeveloped nations. Continued population growth, especially the location of population centers, along with variations in the hydrologic cycle related to climate change will continue to stress global water resources.
Current global water usage averages about 70% for food and fiber production, 20% for industrial activities, and 10% for municipal and domestic consumption. Because precipitation moves through soil prior to recharging groundwater or outcropping to surface water bodies, water quality is inextricably linked to soil quality. Thus, many issues related to water usage and conservation are linked to water use efficiency in agriculture and to emerging industrial activities in the developing world. Geology provides a controlling influence on groundwater quality.
The water quantity and quality issue is critically linked to the ability of sub-Saharan Africa to emerge from extreme poverty as well as to political stability in the Middle East. Water quantity and quality have long been an issue in the Western part of the U.S. and are being exacerbated by expanding population centers and the competition between domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Even the Southeastern U.S. is experiencing major issues related to water quantity and quality, as rapidly expanding metropolitan centers, such as Atlanta, GA consume significant volumes of surface water that impact down-river consumers in the agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors. These existing water quantity/quality issues are expected to be further exacerbated by global climate change and by the expected rapid emergence of a greater dependence on biofuels.
Meeting the challenges of the impending global water crisis will require interdisciplinary research involving geologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, agronomists, engineers, resource economists, and social scientists.
Energy Budgets and the Global Market
Rising gas prices have re-fueled debates on the future role of fossil fuels as affordable and sustainable energy sources and the role of bio-based fuels and other alternative energy resources. Some suggest that fossil fuel resources are insufficient to meet increasing global demands, others argue that higher prices will encourage new exploration, foster enhanced recovery techniques in proven fields, and spur development of other fossil-fuel resources such as tar sands and oil shales that are economically and technically challenging to recover at lower market prices. Bio-based fuel sources such as corn, sugar cane, and cellulosic plant material such as switch grass have been identified as economically viable and renewable sources of fuel. These bio-based fuels have a certain appeal but it is not clear that they are truly economic or produce a net-energy BTU gain on a full cycle basis when cultivation, fertilization, processing, and transportation costs are factored in. The environmental costs associated with water utilization, soil erosion, deforestation, and loss of crop diversity in bio-based fuel production are equally important factors to consider.
This session aims to bring together proponents from the fossil fuel and biofuel industries, energy resource experts, soil scientists, hydrologists, agronomists, and economists to realistically discuss the roles of fossil fuels and bio-based fuels in meeting the world’s future energy needs.
Globalization of Biogeochemical Cycles
Globalization is defined by the Carnegie Endowment “Globalization 101” project as “the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.” Biogeochemistry has, until recently, generally been considered to be the study of the interaction of regional geochemistry and plant and animal life. This view must change as millions kilograms of minerals are routinely moved vast distances throughout the world in response to the development of manufacturing centers, urban population growth, and the need to replenish soil nutrient levels to sustain food production. Biogeochemical cycles are being altered as a result of the mining, processing, transport, and utilization of these minerals. Alterations can be site-specific, watershed, continental or global in scope. For example, metric tons of macro and micro nutrients move from agricultural to urban centers within and between continents each year as grain is shipped to population centers. In addition, manufacturing requires numerous minerals and metals that are mined, processed, and moved around the world in response to global demand.
Economic and national security is directly impacted by the availability and proper handling of strategic minerals, while food security requires essential plant nutrient elements. Degradation of water supplies, soil and plant contamination and reduced biodiversity can result from altered biogeochemical cycles. While it can be argued that the alteration of biogeochemical cycles is contributing to environmental degradation in many cases, our modern society is unlikely to revert to historic practices as hundreds of millions of people have improved food and economic security relative to past decades. Geologists, environmental scientists, soil scientists, hydrologists, agronomists and crop scientists, as well as business leaders and policymakers are challenged to identify problems and solutions for local and global alterations of biogeochemical cycles. A sustainable planet requires solutions when altered biogeochemical cycles adversely affect our environment.
Wetland and River Restoration: Environmental Saviors or Scientific Failure?
Wetland and river restoration has become a mainstay of the environmental engineering industry and a centerpiece of many states’ development management strategies. Most states have some policy allowing the destruction of wetland provided that the impact is mitigated by wetland creation or restoration elsewhere. The literature is full of individual studies examining the function of created and restored wetlands, but there has been little overarching synthesis of the science and discussion regarding the success or failure of large-scale wetland mitigation as a strategy. Recent studies have also suggested that most engineered river restoration projects are a failure.
This session will critically examine the science and engineering behind wetland and river restoration including recent scientific studies questioning the value of these engineered systems. This session should provide a forum for vigorous debate over the policy of allowing wetland destruction to be offset by mitigation.
Coastal Impacts: Can Massive Environmental Restoration and Coastal Engineering Protect the Gulf Coast from Future Hurricane Impacts and Rising Sea Levels?
Federal and state governments are considering spending billions of dollars on re-engineering the US Gulf Coast with the primary goal of protecting infrastructure and communities. These projects range from massive wetland restoration in the Louisiana delta to reconfiguring the barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi in an attempt to block storm surge. Some of these plans have been the subject of many years of scientific investigation (e.g. wetlands restoration) and some have been responses to the impact of hurricane Katrina (barrier island reconfiguration).
This session will critically examine the science and engineering behind the various coastal restoration and engineering plans. Talks will also examine the state of our knowledge regarding hazard assessment along the Gulf Coast and the impacts of long-term climate change, subsidence, and human activities on vulnerability to hazards. The session will provide a forum for debate between supporters of these multi-billion dollar engineering activities and skeptics.
Geobiology and Biomineralization: From the Origins of Life to the Origins of Cities
This session will bring together scientists working in the areas of geobiology, geomicrobiology, biomineralization, origins of life, and astrobiology. The goal of the session is to increase our understanding of how organisms interact with minerals at multiple spatial and time scales. This exploration will proceed from the involvement of clay minerals with the origins of life on Earth and possibly other planets to the modern occurrence of biomineralization within single organisms as well as collective biomineralization within societies of organisms, including the synthesis of minerals by humans to build modern cities and transportation structures.
Emerging Trace Contaminants in Surface and Ground Water generated from Waste Water and Solid Waste Application
A broad range of chemicals, including organic compounds from human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, natural and synthetic hormones, detergent metabolites, plasticizers, herbicides, insecticides, fire retardants; and inorganic compounds, including trace metals and newly emerging manufactured nanomaterials; occur in residential, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters and in sewage sludge and manures. When analyzed for, many of these compounds are found at low concentrations in surface water downstream from areas of intense urbanization and animal production, both in Europe and in North America, and in ground water from wells located near septic systems. Although present in trace amounts, the organic compounds may act as endocrine disrupters and cause developmental abnormalities as well as potentially be involved in the etiology of several diseases in human and wildlife populations, thus resulting in a threat to environmental health. Also, despite the benefits that will undoubtedly result from advances in nanotechnology, concerns surrounding the potential negative impacts to the environment and human health have emerged, resulting in the new discipline of nanotoxicology. Trace elements (e.g., Cu and As) used as growth regulators/promoters and antibiotics in animal production systems can also create health hazards when present in soils, plants and water in above-threshold concentrations. Further research is needed on analytical methods for these compounds and their metabolites, on novel sampling techniques for concentrating them and on their distribution and transformations in the environment as well as their occurrence in soil, plants, and surface and ground water. Research is also needed on methods by which bio-availability of the compounds and their trophic transfer is better understood.
Carbon Sequestration: Methods, Markets and Policy
Terrestrial and ocean sequestration of carbon can potentially reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and mitigate global warming. Terrestrial methods include (1) geologic sequestration such as injection into various strata of captured carbon dioxide; (2) agricultural sequestration by increasing soil organic matter in agricultural lands; and (3) forest sequestration through reforestation and improved forest management. Proposed ocean sequestration of carbon involves (1) capture and injection of carbon dioxide into the deep oceans, i.e. below 3000 meters, or (2) using iron fertilization to increase phytoplankton blooms in selected ocean areas. The effectiveness of the various proposed sequestration methods will be compared and discussed. Developing carbon markets thriving in North America and abroad will be examined with specific emphasis on verification of carbon credits for specific practices. Finally, government policy on carbon sequestration and the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will be assessed. Why is the volume of trading in carbon credits increasing without a regulatory framework in the USA? How might future changes in carbon policies impact research and the implementation of carbon sequestration programs.
Human Influences on the Stratigraphic Record
This session will explore the topic of humans as agents of erosion, as well as sediment storage, and the potential impact on the present and future stratigraphic record. It will examine how natural sedimentation rates have been altered by the origin of traditional and industrial agriculture, urbanization, and dams. It will also provide a forum to discuss the effect and effectiveness of erosion control structures, and the role that dams and other human interventions may be playing on sediment delivery to the coasts. This session aims to bring together sedimentologists, geoarchaeologists, historians, soil scientists, and agronomists.
Deadline for submittal: 11:59 PM, Tuesday, 4 December 2007, (Pacific Standard Time).
This is a firm deadline.
NO proposals will be accepted after this date.
Web submission is required.
TOPICAL SESSION PROPOSAL FORM -- CLOSED