Dr. Kimberly Van meter

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

University of Illinois at Chicago

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Title: Assistant Professor

Abstract:

Water quality today is driven by both the present and the past. Nutrients we see in lakes, rivers, lakes, and coastal zones are a function of not just today’s land-use practices, but also of past trajectories of land use and management. In my work, I explore how long-term changes in agricultural management have shaped today’s water-quality challenges. I also discuss the important impact of wetlands in retaining nutrients on the landscape, and the potential for wetland restoration to improve water quality.

Biography:

Kimberly Van Meter is an assistant professor working in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In her work, she explores the ways in which climate, land use, and management practices impact surface water and groundwater quality in anthropogenic landscapes. She is particularly interested in interactions and feedbacks between human and natural systems. In recent work, she has focused on the long-term impacts of intensive agricultural practices and on water quality and has developed the ELEMeNT model, a parsimonious modeling framework for exploring long-term trajectories in nutrient dynamics.