Timothy Killeen, formerly the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and president of the American Geophysical Union, will visit Penn State to share his perspective as newly appointed Assistant Director for Geosciences for the National Science Foundation.

"Tim Killeen's vision for the geosciences will be invaluable in guiding NSF during this renaissance period for addressing the scientific challenges facing the Earth," commented NSF Director Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr. "We couldn't be more pleased."

In his new role, Killeen will oversee the Geosciences directorate (GEO), which has a fiscal year 2008 budget of $752 million and supports research in the atmospheric, earth and ocean sciences, including climate processes and changes, the water cycle, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and severe storms.

The actual value of the Marcellus as a gas reservoir has yet to be firmly established, says John Harper, chief, geological division of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey.

“The Marcellus was not considered promising until gas prices increased and [drilling] technology advanced,” Harper says. “But only time will tell just how lucrative the Marceulls play truly will be.”

Harper will discuss this at 4 p.m., Monday, April 27 in this, the final talk of the 2009 Spring Series of Earth Talks related to Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Play.

Besides drilling and pipeline infrastructure, gathering, compression, processing and fractionation facilities—or midstream facilities—are needed to support Marcellus Shale natural gas production, says Randy Nickerson of MarkWest Energy Partners, the largest natural gas processor in Appalachia.

“Wherever you find industry representatives discussing the development of the Marcellus field, the conversation inevitably includes the tremendous need for new midstream facilities to gather, compress and, in many cases, process the gas prior to delivering it into the large interstate gas pipeline systems,” says Nickerson, senior vice president and chief commercial officer.

Nickerson will discuss these midstream facilities at 4 p.m., Monday, April 13 in his talk “Moving Marcellus Production to the Marketplace.”

Development of the Marcellus Shale poses unique technical and operational challenges for industry—challenges that must be overcome for extraction of the formation’s natural gas reserves to be economical, said William Ottaviani, chief operating office of Rex Energy Corporation.

“While the Marcellus Shale has been known to exist for years, its commercial development is relatively new, so the industry is still going through a learning curve on how best to capitalize on this opportunity,” Ottaviani said. “When you superimpose development of a high potential, unconventional natural gas play like the Marcellus Shale on an area better suited to smaller scale operations, challenges do arise.”

Ottaviani will discuss those challenges and some of the current efforts used to mitigate them in this talk, part of the 2009 EarthTalks Spring Colloquium Series on “The Marcellus Shale Play: Boon or Burden?”

The Marcellus Shale has unique elements that set it apart from other economic developments with far greater social and environmental impacts, says an industry spokesman.

“Range Resources and the entire gas-producing industry want to educate the public on what is fact and what is fiction with Marcellus Shale natural gas development,” says Matt Pitzarella, director of public affairs for Range Resources Appalachia. “While gas drilling companies may be competitors, the industry is working together closely to help educate an engaged public in Pennsylvania. Most importantly nearly every Pennsylvanian realizes the enormous long-term benefits of developing clean-burning natural gas from the Commonwealth.”

State DEP Working to Balance Environmental Challenges, Economic Opportunities of Marcellus Shale

Drilling the Marcellus Shale promises economic opportunities, but respecting Pennsylvania’s environment can maximize the value of those benefits, says J. Scott Roberts, deputy secretary for mineral resources management at the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“Meeting the environmental challenges from water re-use and disposal to site construction controls will allow Pennsylvanians to fully enjoy the economic opportunities of the Marcellus,” Roberts said.

Roberts will explore both the opportunities and challenges presented in drilling the Marcellus Shale in this talk, the latest of this Spring's Earth Talks series.

6th talk in the series of talks relating to the environmental, economic, social, and political issues related to Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Play.

5th presentation in the series of talks relating to the environmental, economic, social, and political issues related to Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Play.

Development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves will create both opportunities and challenges for Pennsylvania communities and residents.

“By looking at the experiences of other states with natural gas shales, we can identify some of the potential implications of Marcellus Shale development for Pennsylvania’s economy, businesses and workers, local governments and residents,” said Kelsey, also state program leader for economic and community development with Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Kelsey will look specifically at how communities and local economies were affected by the development of the Barnett Shale (Texas) and the Fayetteville Shale (Arkansas). He also will discuss the effects of natural gas production in Sublette County, Wyoming—the largest gas-producing county in that state.

Dan Brown, associate dean for research with the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, will speak on how environmental modeling can bridge the social and natural sciences to evaluate the interactions between the land surface, human activity and environmental processes including hydrologic flows and ecosystem productivity.

Brown will discuss the need for environmental modeling efforts to include land cover dynamics, which he characterizes as a “key determinant of a number of environmental processes." He will also discuss a number of efforts that he has been involved with to represent land-cover dynamics and link these to anthropogenic land-use processes.

The Marcellus Shale formation underlies 72 percent of the entire land area of the Susquehanna River Basin. Given the renewed interest in energy independence, coupled with the aggressive estimates of recoverable natural gas from the Marcellus, the rush is now on to extract that resource. Accompanying that rush is a new demand for water in the basin.

In his presentation, Beauduy will focus on the extent of that demand, how it compares to overall water demand in the basin and how this new demand can be accommodated. He also will discuss how the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is attempting to balance the need to protect the basin's water resources while simultaneously allowing for their utilization to support this important new industry.

1st presentation in the series of talks relating to the environmental, economic, social, and political issues related to Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Bed.

While nitrogen can play a key role in reducing world hunger by improving crop yields, the element also is a major contributor to some of the nation’s most pressing environmental concerns from acidification of lakes and streams to disruption of forest processes.

“This duality of nitrogen—important for food production yet linked to environmental degradation—presents a major challenge for sustainability,” says Beth Boyer, associate professor of water resources and director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Institute.

“The accumulation of reactive nitrogen in air, land and water contributes to numerous environmental concerns and has serious implications for water quality,” says Boyer, who also serves as the assistant director of the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment.

Human activities from farming to construction have degraded many of the region’s wetlands, but people are learning how to “build” wetlands that perform vital ecosystem services such as floodwater storage, water-quality improvement and biodiversity conservation.

That’s among the conclusions that Rob Brooks, professor of geography and ecology, has reached after 15 years of assessment and restoration research in collaboration with faculty, staff, and students of the Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center. In his talk, Brooks will share those findings and discuss freshwater wetlands, where they are found, how they are formed and what ecosystems services they provide. He also will examine how wetlands’ interact with streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries in a watershed context.

While climate change will warm the western U.S. by 2-4 degrees, temperature, impacts will be less significant than changes in the land surface water balance. The changing water balance will strain water management and stress ecosystems, bringing more wildfires, forest epidemics and fishery mortality.

This is a primary theme in this week's talk by Steve Running, internationally recognized expert in terrestrial ecology, who will examine climate change and ecological sensing in this presentation co-sponsored by the Penn State Geography Department Miller Lecture Series and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) as part of its 2008 EarthTalks Fall Colloquium Series.

Runnings is a professor of ecology at the University of Montana, served as the lead author for the 4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore.

Rivers Shaped Our Past, Shaping Our Future, Speaker Says

They have shaped and been shaped by politics and economies. They influenced colonial settlement, drove Northern-Southern sectionalism and encouraged pork-barrel politics. More recently, they have been at the center of environmental legislation.

“Rivers, perhaps more than any other natural resource or landscape feature,” says Martin Doyle, environmental geographer at the University of North Carolina, “are the significant thread weaving through U.S. history.”
Doyle will examine the history of river engineering and river policy in the U.S., as part of this year’s EarthTalks Fall Colloquium, “Quenching the Thirst: Managing the Water Resources of a Changing Planet.”