ESSIC scientist Sujay Kaushal and Ph.D. candidate Sydney Shelton hosted an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) thread on Reddit on the /r/askscience subreddit. For two and a half hours, Kaushal and Shelton answered questions from the public regarding salinization and its impact on our planet.
The team answered questions about road salt, urbanization, and desalinization.
“[I enjoyed] working with our CMNS communications staff at UMD on science outreach issues. It takes teamwork to discover things and then work together on discovering new ways to communicate research accessible to people of all walks of life.” said Kaushal.
Kaushal and Shelton are co-authors on a paper in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment conceptualizing the natural salt cycle and the global effects of increasing salt production and riverine salt concentrations.
Kaushal’s research focuses on long-term chemistry of fresh waters, effects of land use and climate on water quality, and managing and restoring freshwater ecosystems. His current projects investigate freshwater salinization syndrome, human-accelerated weathering, long-term chemistry of inland waters, river restoration, urban evolution of biogeochemical cycles, and applications of geochemical approaches in ecology. More details regarding his research, teaching, and current CV can also be found at http://www.geol.umd.edu/faculty/KAUSHAL and www.kaushallab.com.
To read through the AMA, click here: “AskScience AMA Series: I am a geologist from the University of Maryland who has been studying salinization for over 20 years. How is human demand for salt transforming our air, soil and water, and what can we do to minimize harm? Here to answer all your questions about salt’s impact!”.
