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SEMINAR: The Hydrodynamics of Large Lakes and the Implications of Carbon Sequestration

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Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
The Hydrodynamics of Large Lakes and the Implications of Carbon Sequestration : This seminar is part of the Centre for Water Research seminar series at UWA Other events...
Description: Large lakes play an important role in global carbon cycling. However, deep lakes are susceptible to anoxia with the associated loss of biodiversity if overloaded with nutrients; the balance between the forces that stabilise a lake and those that mix the water column is very delicate and there are signs that global change is upsetting this delicate balance with potentially devastating effects for the endemic fauna and flora. I will illustrate the subtleties of the balance using two extreme examples, Lake Ohrid, a deep, very old European lake that is under threat from global warming because of its great depth and Lake Argyle, a very large reservoir, that has the potential of being used for aquaculture to provide about 35% of Western Australia's fish needs and sequester about 20% of WA's carbon emissions, providing an opportunity to mitigate global warming. The large expanses of shallow littoral waters of Lake Argyle have been shown to support very active differential heating, cooling and wind mixing, provided a very active horizontal exchange between the littoral and deep central waters, making it ideal for aquaculture.

I will review the underlying fluid dynamics of these two extreme lakes and show how a fundamental understanding of underlying fluid dynamics of lakes has allowed us to set up a real-time coupled hydrodynamic-ecological model, forced by a full high resolution meteorological model, that now serve as real-time decision support systems for lake managers.

In conclusion, I shall, very briefly, summarise some important unresolved hydrodynamic and ecological problems and put the proposal to use Lake Argyle as a carbon sequestration site and food source into the Western Australian context of making the State carbon neutral, energy and water self sufficient and with an enhanced social well being. The same understanding may be used to install impellers in Lake Ohrid to save this lake from suffocating from lake off oxygen brought about by global warming. Together, these two examples serve to illustrate how large lakes may be harnessed as a resource for meeting the challenges of global change.

Short bio of the presenter: Prof. Imberger received his PhD in 1970 from the University of California, Berkeley and was appointed to full Professor at The University of Western Australia in 1978 at the age of 36, at that time the youngest full professor in Australia in the field of Engineering.

Long before sustainability became an all-embracing goal he embarked on what was to become a long and dedicated career developing instrumentation, software and theory that collectively forms the basis of decision support systems for sustainable management of large natural water bodies such as rivers, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, estuaries and coastal seas.

His career has seen him carry out research in nearly every major country. International funding has allowed him to maintain a sophisticated field and modelling programme that completely supports the research of his postgraduate students. One of his most significant achievements was the establishment, in 1978, of the Centre for Water Research (CWR), the premier research centre in the world in natural aquatic systems research; this Centre is now totally self funding. In the 30 years of activity, researchers in CWR have attracted about 300 international long term visitors, 1000 short term national and international visitors, have graduated 66 PhDs, about 900 undergraduates and 24 Masters.

He has a well established reputation as an inspirational teacher and extends his influence by maintaining an active program of community talks to Rotary, church, retirement and other groups. He feels strongly that he has a duty to assist the general community come to grips with topics such as global warming, climate variability, and ecosystem health among other topics.

Jorg Imberger is unique as he is an outstanding scientist/researcher, model developer, instrument developer, practical problem solver, inspirational teacher and community advocate/educator. This is evident from the formal international recognition that he has received.
Speaker(s) Professor J�rg Imberger, Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the Centre for Water Research
Location Blakers Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, Mathematics Department
Contact Askale Abebe <[email protected]>
Start Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:00
End Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:00
Submitted by Askale Abebe <[email protected]>
Last Updated Fri, 04 Oct 2013 10:19
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