When: May 7, 14:00–15.00
Where: LINXS, workshop room on the 3rd floor (The Loop, Rydbergs torg 4, 224 84)
Speaker: Prof Lars J. Tranvik, Uppsala University, Sweden
Abstract: Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in inland waters plays a substantial role in the global carbon cycle, and thus potentially affects climate as well. This presentation is an overview of the dynamics and fluxes of carbon involving DOM, from the micro-scale to the global scale. DOM is a heterogeneous mixture of decomposition products, and the reactivity and control of its molecular composition are central topics in aquatic biogeochemistry. Furthermore, DOM contributes substantially to the evasion of carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere, but is also an important precursor of carbon that is buried in sediments. The loss of DOM from the water column is mediated by microbial and photochemical mineralization, as well as sedimentation upon particle formation by flocculation or sorption to minerals. The factors that constrain and promote loss of DOM from the water column will be discussed, and compared across different habitats, from soil to sea.
Bio: Lars Tranvik received a PhD in 1990 in limnology from Lund University. He did pre- and postdoctoral work at the Max-Planck-Institute of Limnology, Plön, Germany, the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and Oregon State University, USA, and was an assistant professor at Lund University until 1997, when he became an associate professor at Linköping University, Sweden. Since 1999 he is professor of limnology at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he also has served as head of Department of Ecology and Genetics and dean of the biology section. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
His research has developed from aquatic microbial ecology, in particular the role of heterotrophic bacteria in food webs and as consumers of dissolved organic matter, to a broader focus on the carbon cycle of inland waters, and the control of the persistence and decay of organic matter across aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Recent research is focused on how terrestrial organic matter is transformed in the water column, resulting in a subsidy to aquatic food webs, a sediment carbon sink, and emission of carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere, of global significance. Currently, he is engaged in studies of the colloidal fraction of “dissolved” organic matter, and its role in the carbon cycle.
Contact: Please contact josefin.martell@linxs.lu.se for practical questions
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