UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Peter Groffman, professor at City University of New York and senior research fellow at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will give the talk, “Bio-geo-socio-chemistry of urban watersheds,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, via Zoom. Groffman’s talk is part of the spring 2024 EESI EarthTalks series, “Urban Systems Science.”
According to Groffman, the steadily rising global urban population has placed substantial strain on urban water quality, and this strain is projected to increase for the foreseeable future. Considerable attention has been given to the hydrological and physico-chemical effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems. However, due to the relative infancy of the field of urban ecology, long-term water quality analyses in urban streams are sparse.
Grossman will discuss a 15-year stream chemistry monitoring record from Baltimore, Maryland, where he and his team quantified long-term trends in nitrate, phosphate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chloride and sulfate export at several sites along a rural–urban gradient. Results of their study suggest that both gray and green infrastructure are key for maintaining and improving water quality in this highly urbanized watershed.
Grossman’s research focuses on climate effects on ecosystem biogeochemical processes related to carbon and nitrogen cycles. He is also a professor at Brooklyn College and was recently elected the 2025 president of the Ecological Society of America, the nation's largest organization of professional ecologists.
The talk is part of the EarthTalks spring 2024 series, “Urban Systems Science,” which is exploring complex urban systems including interactions between tightly connected human and natural systems both within city boundaries and between cities and the surrounding rural environment. For more information about the spring 2024 series, visit the EarthTalks website.