A US-Japan Joint Seminar in hydrology will be held has to foster exchange of ideas, bridge gaps in research approaches, and to jointly develop prospective research directions. Historically, there has been limited interaction among scientists between the two countries because language, culture, and research foci separate these scientific communities. These differences highlight a potential for scientific discovery and are the reasons for this US-Japan Joint Seminar in hydrology. The purpose of this forthcoming seminar is to expand the theme of linking hydrology and biogeochemistry to consider effects of climatic and environmental change, as well as emerging measurement and analytical techniques used in catchment science research that allow fundamental scientific advancements. The meeting will host approximately 20 scientists from each country, including students and early career scientists, to present and discuss cutting-edge research in catchment sciences in an open forum to foster collaboration and exchange. The seminar will focus on the following aspects of hydrological and biogeochemical catchment sciences: (1) the role of hydrologic connectivity in regulating carbon and nitrogen cycling and export from catchments in the face of climatic and environmental change; (2) synthesis and cross-site comparison along climatic gradients to understand mechanisms of solute yields from catchments; (3) advances in techniques (trace gas fluxes, isotopic mass balances) for balancing nutrient budgets and better understanding processes (denitrification, transport, uptake, mineralization, etc.); and (4) integrating field observations with theory to inform better model predictions
The US-Japan Joint Seminar will 1) foster interaction and develop new collaborative research between US and Japanese catchment scientists, 2) stimulate and engage the next generation of scientists who will become leaders in research and support future interaction between the two countries, and 3) advance understanding of how catchments respond to climatic and environmental changes. Cross-continental synthesis is a challenge, yet a necessity for determining how catchments will respond to global environmental change. To meet that challenge, the proposed multi-perspective seminar in catchment hydrology and forest biogeochemistry will bring together established researchers and early career scientists, providing invaluable opportunities for synthesis in catchment sciences.
Approximately every 10 years since the early 1970s, the US and Japanese hydrologic science communities have held a seminar to promote the exchange of ideas and research collaboration between the two countries. This project supported the most recent US-Japan Joint Seminar in Catchment Science, which was held in March 2013. The meeting brought together 18 US and 24 Japanese scientists. Additionally, the seminar was designed to stimulate and engage the next generation of scientists, which included early-career faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates, who will become leaders in research and support future interaction between the two countries. The scientific focus of the meeting was a synthesis of the effects that climatic forcing, natural disturbance, and forest management have on the timing, duration, and magnitude of hydrological and biogeochemical responses in predominantly forested catchments. Outcomes of this seminar include the development of two working groups, one of which is examining the relative roles of hydrological or biological control on nitrogen response after forest disturbance and the other is synthesizing studies of the drivers and processes affecting atmospheric nitrate fate and transport within catchments. The seminar has already catalyzed exchange and merging of perspectives between catchment scientists in the US and Japan and improved the appreciation of differing expertise and community strengths that each have to offer. Continued exchange between groups within the catchment science community (not just the US and Japan) will provide opportunities to stimulate and engage the next generation of scientists to address these integrated research themes and make fundamental advances in the catchment sciences.
