Climate change expert Dr. Lynn F. Fenstermaker will be the guest speaker at the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Speaker Series, which will take place from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21, in the Loker Student Union Ballroom C. The event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided.

Fenstermaker’s talk is titled "Monitoring Climate Variability and Impact in Nevada," based on research done in the Mojave Desert which is located in both California and Nevada.

An associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute, a research component of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), Fenstermaker is also director of the Nevada Climate-Ecohydrological Assessment Network (NevCAN), whose purpose is to collect data for long-term assessment of climate variability and change and its impact on ecological and hydrological processes and functions. She also has served as director of two NSHE climate change experiments: the Nevada Desert FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) Facility, where researchers examine the effects of elevated CO2 on the Mojave Desert ecosystem, and the Mojave Global Change Facility, where scientists study the effects of other climate change factors such as nitrogen deposition, crust disturbance, and increased summer precipitation.

Fenstermaker, whose research experience and interests are in the use of remote sensing to map, monitor and assess the effects of environmental stressors on vegetation at small and large scales and ecosystem responses to global climate change, is the author of numerous journal articles on those subjects. She also is co-editor of the book “The Mojave Desert: Ecosystem Processes and Sustainability.”

To RSVP, or for more information, contact the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences at (310) 243-2547 or email arivera@csudh.edu.