Water as the bloodstream of the biosphere

Water is essential for life on Earth and the prosperity of human civilization. As it flows through rivers and streams, rests in lakes and oceans, circulate through the roots and leaves of plants and falls as rain or snow, water serves as the bloodstream of the biosphere.

If the pressure on the water cycle at local, regional or the global scale becomes too great it can lead to unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes. In recent years the functions and importance of “green” water, the soil moisture from precipitation, used by plants via transpiration, is becoming increasingly understood. And studies how the water “bloodstream” is globally connected, shows that local land-uses changes can be connected to rainfall modifications in faraway areas.

On this year’s World Water Day and celebrating the 200th Stockholm Seminar, three generations of water resilience researchers at Stockholm Resilience Centre shared their research and reflections on the multiple ways that freshwater sustain the biosphere and human development.

This included the Blue Planet Prize 2018 awardee Prof. Malin Falkenmark’s lifework of articulating water’s fundamental role for Earth’s life support system, innovating the understanding of water scarcity, and propelling the recognition of green water as a valuable and manageable resource; centre director Dr. Line Gordon’s decade long research unravelling the critical roles of “invisible” water for social-ecological resilience; and Dr. Lan Wang-Erlandsson’s account of the newest advancements towards a revised freshwater planetary boundary that acknowledges all facets of water for supporting a stable and habitable Earth.

Programme details

13.00
Welcome

By Carl Folke Folke, Director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Science Director Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University

13.15
Water - Bloodstream of the Biosphere

Malin Falkenmark, professor Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and SIWI, Awardee of the Blue Planet Prize 2018

14.00 Music
Echo, written and performed by Rosa Kvartetten: Daina Mateikaite (violin); Brita Pettersson(violin); Anna Manell (viola) and Jessie Langhard (cello)

14.10 Coffee break

14.40
The role of invisible water in sustaining ecosystem resilience and human development

Line Gordon, director and associate professor, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

Towards a new water planetary boundary for Earth resilience

Lan Wang-Erlandsson, PhD, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

15.20 Questions/discussion

15.45 Music
Sekstur, a folk song produced by Danish String Quartet, performed by Rosa Kvartetten: Daina Mateikaite (violin); Brita Pettersson(violin); Anna Manell (viola) and Jessie Langhard (cello).

16.00 End