Since early 2010, the Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences have co-sponsored a stimulating lecture series on water and the environment. The lectures, known as the Moos Family Speaker Series on Water Resources, honor the late Malcolm Moos, president of the university from 1967 to 1974. Each lecture pairs a nationally known speaker with a panel of Minnesota experts

Register Now for: ‘The Outsized Role of Earth’s Largest Lakes’

Dr. Robert W. Sterner

Roughly two thirds of the planet’s available surface freshwater is contained in just twenty lakes.  Scattered around the globe, and diverse in almost every measurable respect, these immense “dimples” in Earth’s surface have shaped human society and history.  Their value continues to grow as freshwater scarcity increases.  This talk will explore Earth’s largest lakes, some of which are in our backyard, from the standpoints of hydrology, biogeochemistry, biodiversity, and geopolitics, using these approaches ultimately to ask what role these twenty places play in our lives.

7 p.m., April 30, University of MN St. Paul Student Center