13/05/2026
📢 NEW WEBINAR
🗣 Jesus D. Gomez-Velez (University of Iowa)
Title: The Global Conveyor: How River Corridor Connectivity Shapes Water Quality.
Abstract
Transport, storage, and reactions along the river corridor influence mass and energy balances from local to continental scales. This network regulates both natural and human-induced disturbances, playing a crucial role in the sustainable management of water resources amid ongoing social, economic, and climatic changes. Our understanding of how channels connect with their surroundings has significantly improved over the past 40 years, emphasizing the importance of viewing the river corridor as a complex three-dimensional system rather than just a linear feature. This presentation highlights recent advances that combine mechanistic insights with data-driven methods to address three major environmental challenges involving the river corridor. First, we look at hyporheic exchange as a key connectivity pathway and a natural biogeochemical reactor, underscoring the need for better constraints to refine estimates of whole-stream metabolism. Second, we explore how connectivity within the river corridor affects nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas emissions. Third, we consider the river corridor’s role in the global environmental plastics budget. For each issue, we stress the value of simple modeling approaches that support the creation, implementation, and evaluation of sustainable practices for managing water quantity and quality at a continental scale.
ℹ️ https://www.h2ogeo.upc.edu/
