Schweppe Lecture Series

Dr. Wei-Jun Cai
The University of Georgia

Thursday, April 5, 2007, 7:00 PM, Visitors Center Auditorium

"Global Carbon Cycle in a Changing Climate"

The Earth’s climate has experienced many changes over the geological past.  This speech intends to link the global carbon cycle and its shift to historic climate change.  I will use examples from the glacial-interglacial cycle to examine how the ocean CO₂ system interacts with the atmosphere and biosphere.  In the past 300 years (and in particular the past 50 years), anthropogenic influences are increasingly affecting the global carbon cycle and climate change. At present, global warming has become a great societal concern and evidence suggests that the current warming is most likely due to anthropogenic influences such as the release of CO₂ into the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning and deforestation. On the other hand, increased atmospheric CO₂  level will affect the health of the ocean ecosystem such as the threatening of the coral reef system by ocean acidification.  I will present some of these issues from a carbon cycling point of view.

Dr. Cai is a renowned expert in studying carbon cycling in the coastal ocean environments with regional and global perspectives. He is a Professor at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia.

Dr. Cai's main areas of research are:

• CO₂ and O₂ exchange across the air-sea interface and carbon cycling in coastal oceans

• Development of sensors (pH & pCO₂) for carbon-cycling studies

• Organic carbon degradation and CaCO₃ dissolution in marine and lake sediments

• Acid-base and redox chemistry in natural environment

• Global change

For additional information about Dr. Cai’s research, visit: http://alpha.marsci.uga.edu/directory/wjcai.htm

The free lecture will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Visitors Center of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, and the public is invited to attend. Dr. Cai's visit to the Marine Science Institute is part of the Laura Randall Schweppe Endowed Lecture Series in Marine Science.