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Guest Scientist: Upmanu Lall, IRI and Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

 Water is both plentiful and scarce, unevenly distributed across our globe, pure and polluted. Dr. Lall's research has explored a wide variety of water resource issues. As he has done for the past two years, he will share some of his work with us.

Combined with Dr. Lall's talk will be an overview of the American Meteorological Society's "Water in the Earth Systems" online course, and examples of classroom activities based on WES resources.

Guest Scientist: Dr. Fred W. Koontz, Executive Vice President Wildlife Trust & Adjunct Professor of Ecology, Columbia University

THE NEW YORK BIOSCAPE INITIATIVE: Protecting Biodiversity & Health in Metropolitan New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania

 Dr. Koontz will discuss The New York Bioscape Initiative, a collaborative research program bringing together >25 scientists, educators, health professionals and natural resource managers from 15 local institutions. The team seeks in the New York City metropolitan region to: assemble a transdisciplinary learning team to demonstrate links between wildlife, human, and ecosystem health; bring the new discipline of Conservation Medicine to the area; help conserve biodiversity and habitats; and ultimately influence environmental policy, ecosystem management, and citizen behavior. The Initiative also aims to strengthen regional conservation thinking by offering the "bioscape concept": a people­-oriented, health approach that unites biodiversity, health, sustainability, and sense of place. 

Geographically, the "New York Bioscape" is described by drawing a 100-mile radius average from midtown New York City; this is the familiar "Tri-State Region," stretched to include some natural areas that are especially relevant to metropolitan residents (e.g. the Catskills, Pocono Mountains, and New York-New Jersey shore). The Bioscape's 28,000 square miles is a complex mosaic of human-use areas and natural lands and waters. It is surprisingly rich in biodiversity, and contains varied habitats, from marine waters to coastal plains to Appalachian highlands. It also is a part-time home to many nationally and internationally important migratory species. Yet, at the same time, the human dimension is extraordinary. The area covers parts of four states, 44 counties, and hundreds of communities. In fact, 24 million people - 8% of the U.S. population - live in the Bioscape.