Hi folks, I wanted to provide a quick update on our talk this afternoon. Our speaker is Dr. Amanda M. Nahlik. She is a wetland ecologist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) Office of Research and Development in Corvallis. As a part of budget cuts to the EPA, the Office of Research and Development is being dissolved. This makes the future of important long-lived monitoring programs such as the National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS) unclear. Considering these changes, Dr. Nahlik has opted to give another talk, titled Monitoring and Assessment in a Changing World. See abstract below.

Please join us in person if you can in Burt 193 or via Zoom ( zoom link ; password WRS2025).

Learn more about changes at the EPA here: https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/us-epa-plans-reduce-staff-1980s-levels-cut-budget-by-300-million-2025-05-02/

Alyssa

Title: Monitoring and Assessment in a Changing World

Abstract: Monitoring and assessment are essential (1) to evaluate progress in meeting goals put into place to protect aquatic resources and (2) to respond and detect changes in the environment due to anthropogenic pressures, climate change, and other unforeseen stressors.  In this seminar, Dr. Amanda M. Nahlik (United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development) discusses historical monitoring approaches used to address large-scale issues in the United States and the current National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS) Program.  Using examples from the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA), benefits of implementing long-term, large-scale monitoring are discussed.

Bio: Dr. Amanda M. Nahlik is a wetland ecologist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) Office of Research and Development in Corvallis.  She has advanced the understanding how anthropogenic disturbances, including climate change, affect wetland biogeochemistry across regional and national scales.  She is the Technical Science Lead of the U.S. EPA’s National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS) program, under which annual, field-based condition assessments of U.S. aquatic resources are conducted in lakes, rivers and streams, coasts and estuaries, and wetlands. Amanda has a Ph.D. (2009) and an M.S. (2005) from Dr. William J. Mitsch’s wetland laboratory at The Ohio State University, and a B.A. (2002) from Kenyon College.  Over her career, Dr. Nahlik has published extensively on different aspects of wetland and aquatic ecology – including water quality improvement, carbon storage, greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem services, and development of indicators and metrics of wetland ecosystem condition.