This week Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute will host two climate experts for seminars today and Wednesday to cover the topic of climate change.

The AWRI is currently seeking to add another member to its eight-member team and is using the lectures to learn more about the candidates.

Indrani Pal, of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, will speak at 11 a.m. today on the topic of precipitation extremes. On Wednesday, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi researcher Kevin Strychar will speak at 11 a.m. about the reality of the climate change model.

The lectures and discussions will focus on how Earth is responding to its current warming trend and what the trend means for the Earth’s climate.

In the last year many extremes in the weather cycle have caused hydrological phenomena such as the record-breaking Texas drought and the extreme flooding along the Mississippi river.

In Texas, October 2010 through September 2011 was the driest for that 12-month period since 1895, when the state began keeping rainfall records.

Pal points to heavy rainfall over the U.S. as a main cause for the disruption of the large-scale climatic circulation patterns.

“Water is the lifeline for the Great Lakes region,” Pal said. “I would like to point out how knowing the climatic variability actually helps to understand water-related issues.”

Al Steinman, AWRI director, said there are many uncertainties within the Great Lakes regions due to insufficient modeling.

“Downscaling of global models makes it hard to predict the impact of climate change in the Great Lakes,” he said.

Downscaling refers to localizing a model, specifically the global phenomena of climate change.

“What we can say is that the Earth’s air temperature probably will rise between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius, water temperature will increase, which means less ice cover and more evaporation,” Steinman said.

The impact of global climate change is nominal in every climate.

“There are economic, social and ecological implications for the future; that is why this research is important,” Steinman said.

Economic implications range from storm damage expenses to infrastructure changes that would have to be made to accommodate for the drastic changes in climate. Agriculture may also be affected due to runoff, erosion and drought.

If droughts continue in other parts of the country the Great Lakes would be one of the last major reservoirs of clean fresh water, Steinman said.

“We could see a major population increase because water is such a valuable resource,” he said. “There could be some that return from the Sun Belt states because a lack of water.”

The presentations will take place at the institute. To learn more, visit www.gvsu.edu/awri.

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