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Sustainably solving legacy phosphorus and nitrogen in landscapes with wetlands and wetlaculture

Lunch and Learn - Join us for a conversation with the Voinovich School’s Community, Ohio University on Sustainably solving legacy phosphorus and nitrogen in landscapes with wetlands and wetlaculture.

The world is faced with unprecedented threats to our aquatic ecosystems from excessive nutrients caused especially by agricultural and urban runoff. A sizeable increase in the wetland resources around the world could solve the diminishing wetland problem but with the strategic purpose of mitigating the excess phosphorus and nitrogen in a sustainable fashion. The status of our physical models (mesocosms) in Ohio and Florida for investigating nutrient saturation of our landscapes and aquatic ecosystems and recycling (flipping) those nutrients back to agriculture— defined as wetlaculture—will be described as a procedure of decreasing nutrient fluxes to downstream ecosystems and returning those nutrients to agricultural production. Dr. Bill Mitsch is Eminent Scholar and Director, Everglades Wetland Research Park and Sproul Chair for Southwest Florida Habitat Restoration, Florida Gulf Coast University, Naples Florida. He is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, The Ohio State University, and has Courtesy Professorships at University of South Florida, Florida, and Notre Dame. He is 2004 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate bestowed by the King of Sweden and 2010 Einstein Professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences among his many awards and just completed the 5th edition