NREL NEWS NOTES
NATURAL RESOURCE ECOLOGY LABORATORY
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
No. 13 June & July August 1995
NREL HOME PAGE
It is a pleasure to announce our informative and up-to-date
NREL Home Page on the World Wide Web which went into effect June
1, 1995 for your convenience.
Our address is: http://www.nrel.ColoState.EDU/NREL.html.
Bill Parton has been asked and has agreed to serve as an editor
for the Second Edition of the Glossary of Meteorology, published
by the American Meteorological Society.
David Schimel was promoted to Senior Scientist in the Climate
and Global Dynamics Division of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research on July 17 by the UCAR Trustees. Dave is the first Ecologist
to achieve that rank at NCAR. He has appointments at both CSU and
NCAR.
Indy Burke will be an Associate Editor for the journal Ecological
Applications beginning in September.
In June, Diana Freckman was named Chair, National Research Council,
Committee on Noneconomic and Economic Value of Biodiversity: Applications
for Ecosystem Management.
Dennis Ojima is a member of the Steering Committee of the IGBP
SAC IV meeting to be held in Beijing, China, October 23- 27. He
is the Chairman of the poster sessions and has been asked to be
the special editor for the symposium volume.
Jim Detling will be on sabbatical in Australia from September
12, 1995 to April 30, 1996.
Mary Ann Vinton has accepted a tenure-track position as Clare
Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Plant Ecology in the Department
of Biology, Creighton University in Omaha, NE.
Mike Coughenour had a very productive visit at the National Rangelands
Program of CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology in Canberra, Australia.
There was considerable interest in using the SAVANNA spatial ecosystem
modeling approach to scale up process level understanding of pastoral
ecosystems in Australia, particularly the semi-arid woodlands. It
is likely that Mike will be collaborating with the Australians to
apply the model there. The broad
objective would be to use spatially explicit ecosystem modeling
to develop scenarios of plant, soil, biodiversity, and livestock
production responses to alternative land and herd management practices
and land use allocations at local through regional (~25,000) spatial
scales and 5-100 year time scales.
Keith Paustian will chair an expert group, under the auspices
of IPCC/OECD, to revise methodologies for country-level inventories
of CO2 flux from agricultural soils. Arvin Mosier,
USDA, is chairing the group revising inventory methods for CH4
and N2O emissions from agricultural
soils.
Dr. Shiou Pin Huang completed his sabbatical at NREL (July 15,
1994-July 24, 1995) and has returned to the University of Brazilia,
Brazil. While at CSU, Dr. Huang worked on nematode biodiversity
and community structure in Colorado shortgrass steppe natural ecosystems
(LTER) to assess the impact of cattle grazing.
Dan Binkley spent May and June at the Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences in Umeå. He and Peter Högberg evaluated whether
atmospheric deposition of N is threatening the health or productivity
of Swedish forests. Sweden has some of the best long-term research
studies on forest productivity and nutrient cycling, offering a
great opportunity to do more than just speculate. A reviewable draft
of Dan's
assessment should be available early in the fall - if you are
interested, ask him for a copy.
Brian Newkirk presented a talk on Loch Vale research and nitrogen
and sulfur deposition to park interpreters at Rocky Mountain National
Park on June 9.
Dennis Ojima attended a joint meeting of the Int'l Workshop on
Global Databases and GLOBE in Boulder, May 30-June 2. He presented
a talk titled "Terrestrial ecosystem modeling, global input and
validation data" and led a discussion group on "Data availability,
data access and dissemination rights."
Jill Baron presented an invited paper at the XXI Assembly of the
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Boulder Colorado,
July 1-14. This paper was published concurrent with the Assembly.
(See Baron et al. 1995 in the Manuscripts
Published section of this Newsletter). Loch Vale Watershed was
well represented with 5 other papers given by USGS scientists who
work collaboratively with NREL scientists in Loch Vale.
Correction to April & May issue: Tim Kittel presented
(rather than attended) a seminar titled 'Ecosystem Sensitivity to
Climate and CO2 Change: The VEMAP Model Intercomparison at the Department
of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie on March 17. Tim attended
a VEMAP meeting in Washington, DC on May 8-11. He visited Steve
Running, Ray Hunt, and other members of the Numerical Terrestrial
Simulation Group at the University of Montana, Missoula, June 15-22.
Bill Parton and Dennis Ojima attended the sixth annual Aspen Global
Change Institute, Summer Science Session in Aspen, July 9-22. Dennis
presented a talk titled "In situ methods comparisons with remote
sensing" and Bill presented "Numerical modeling of vegetation."
David Theobald presented a poster entitled 'Land Use Change on
the Rocky Mountain Forest Fringe" at the Western Conference
of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in Big
Sky, Montana, July 18-20.
Dennis Ojima, Menwyelet Atsedu, Chuluun Togtohyn, and Wondwosen
Asfaw (visitor from Ethiopia) attended the Fifth International Rangeland
Conference, Salt Lake City, July 23-28. Dennis and Chuluun also
presented posters.
Arvin Mosier and Dennis Ojima organized a TRAGNET Workshop, held
July 29 and 30 in Snowbird, UT, just prior to the ESA meeting. The
purpose of the workshop was to assemble everyone who plans to input
data and/or models
into TRAGNET, so they can begin the TRAGNET intersite comparison
project which was funded by NSF.
John Gross presented a paper titled 'Simulating genetics, disease,
and metapopulation dynamics of bighorn sheep: an individual-based
approach" at the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation
Biology held at the Lory Student Center, CSU on June 8-10. John,
Gary Skiba, Tom Nesler, Judy Sheppard and Chris Pague presented
the poster 'Ranking conservation priorities of vertebrates in Colorado'.
John also moderated the session on Population Modelling at that
meeting.
Dave Swift was in China from May 20 to June 5, working on a program
aimed at improving degraded rangelands in northern China. Chinese
scientists are beginning a major research and extension effort to
modernize grazing management in the Kerqin Sand Lands of Liaoning
Province and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Dave is part
of a team of international (U.S. and Canadian) scientists and Chinese
National counterparts who are serving as an external advisory panel
to this project, funded by the Asian Development Bank. The consulting
team includes NREL alum Jerry Dodd of North Dakota State University,
and others. Plans are for Dave to return to the People's Republic
in late August for 4 weeks, and to spend a total of 7 more weeks
on two trips during 1996.
Brian Newkirk participated in the TRAGNET (Trace Gas Network)
meeting and workshop held July 29-30 in Snowbird, UT, where he gave
a demonstration of the prototype data access and display system
for trace gas data using the World Wide Web and Netscape on Saturday.
On Sunday, he ran a hands-on workshop for the TRAGNET participants
so they could try the system and provide feedback.
Diana Freckman attended and presented a proposal to the SCOPE
IX General Assembly in Tokyo for a Committee on Biodiversity and
Ecosystems Function: Soils and Sediments, May 28-June 2. She attended
a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the National
Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara
on June 2-4.
Tim Kittel presented a paper titled 'A bioclimatic, soils, and
land cover database for simulation of U.S. ecosystem/vegetation
responses to global change: The VEMAP dataset" at the IUGG XXI
General Assembly held in Boulder, July 2-14. This paper was authored
by T.G.F. Kittel, N.A. Rosenbloom, D.S. Schimel, T.H. Painter, and
A.W. Grimsdell.
Dennis Ojima and David Schimel co-organized an ESA symposium on
global change at the ESA meetings held in Snowbird, UT, July 30-
August 3. The symposium was well attended and the group was honored
with a summary
presentation by Professor Thomas Rosswall, Rector of the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences.
The ESA 80th Annual Meeting at Snowbird, UT, July 30-August 3,
was a howling success. Many NREL members participated in many ways.
Dee Brendel worked tirelessly at the registration desk, and was
helped by Eric Allstott and Brian Newkirk. Brian and Eric also helped
keep the meeting going in innumerable ways. Session chairs from
NREL were: Melannie Hartman, Rob Kremer, David Valentine, Bill Pulliam,
Bob Niles, Geneva Chong, Gillian Bowser, Deb Coffin, Mary Ann Vinton
and former NREL employees - Neal Scott, Tad Day, Steve Archer and
Robin Reid. Symposium conveners were: David Schimel, Dennis Ojima,
Tom Stohlgren, Dan Binkley and Bob Stottlemyer. Papers were presented
by all of these people , as well as Robin Martin, Brian Newkirk,
By Valentine, Menwyelet Atsedu, Indy Burke, Bill Lauenroth, Alan
Covich, Beth Holland and Tim Kittel. Program Chair, Jill Baron was
honored at the awards ceremony for tireless efforts in organizing
the meeting, and took a well-deserved vacation immediately after
the meetings.
Bill Parton attended and gave a keynote speech at the NATO, Advanced
Research Workshop titled "Ecosystem model comparisons: Science or
fantasy world?", May 21-26 at IACR Rothamsted, Harpenden, Herts,
UK. He also presented a paper titled "CENTURY model description."
Tom Stohlgren and Cindy Correll (USFS) sponsored a meeting on
June 26 to discuss the use of double sampling and multi-scale nested
sampling methods to assess map accuracy for use in the USFS Integrated
Resource Inventory (IRI). Those attending: Tom Stohlgren, Mohammed
Kalkhan, Geneva Chong, Cindy Correll, Lisa Schell and 5 other USFS
participants.
Bill Parton attended the annual meeting and workshop for the NSF
project titled "Soil organic matter in the tropics" held in Hawaii,
June 13-17. He then traveled to Potsdam, Germany, June 20-22, to
present a paper titled "Intercomparison of global models of net
primary productivity" at the 2nd IGBP-DIS/GIAM/GCTE International
Workshop.
David Schimel attended the National Research Council summer study
to review the U.S. Global Change Research Program and NASA's Mission
to Planet Earth. Dave was group chair for the Large Scale Terrestrial
and Marine Ecosystems working group. This meeting will report to
Chairman Walker of the House Science Committee through the NAS concerning
priorities and implementation of the USGCRP.
Seminars will be held in A302 NESB every Friday, 11 am - 12 pm
except where noted.
June 28: Dr. Paul Woomer, Tropical Soil Biology
and Fertility Programme, Nairobi, Kenya presented a Special Seminar
titled 'Understanding and modeling carbon and nutrient dynamics
under shifting cultivation'
August 1: Dr. Andrew Ash, CSIRO, Division of
Tropical Crops and Pastures, Queensland, Australia presented a Special
Seminar titled 'Grazing Research in the Tropics: Towards Sustainable
Use of Resources in Tropical Woodlands and Savannas. CSIRO is sponsoring
a major research effort on 'Managing Tropical Woodlands for Production
and Conservation". This program has major strands that focus
on the ecology of exotic woody weeds and on grazing ecology. Dr.
Ash leads the grazing ecology group, and will present results from
his studies on the interactions of plants and herbivores, and on
grazing behavior at levels from the plant to large paddocks (1000's
of hectares).
October 6: Dave Valentine - "Boreal Ecosystem
Atmospheric Study (BOREAS): The Documentary!"
**October 9: Edith Allen - "Trajectories of
Succession and the Need for Restoration." **4:10 PM, Anatomy/Zoology
W118**
October 13: Jim Ellis & Kathy Galvin - "Resource
Conservation and Rural Development in South Africa."
October 20: Menweylet Atsedu - "Defoliation
Responses of Shortgrass Steppe Plants in Relation to Long-Term Grazing
History."
October 27: Robin Kelly - "SOM Responses to
Reduced Plant Inputs on Shortgrass Steppe: Ants, Herbicides, Simulated
Cow Pies, and what I did with my summer vacation(s)."
November 3: Dave Theobald - "Simulating Land
Use Change in Colorado."
November 10: Johan Six - "Soils and Land Use
in the Eastern Region of South Vietnam."
November 17: Deb Coffin - TBA
November 24: NO SEMINAR
December 1: Andres Cibils & Adnan Beker - "Animal-Plant
Interactions in an Atriplex Canescens Dominated Community Browsed
by Cattle on the Shortgrass Steppe: Some Research Questions."
December 8: Clifford Martinka - "The Changing
Organizational Context for Science."
Jonathan Scurlock visited NREL, May 29-June 3 to work with Bill
Parton on a project with Oak Ridge National Lab.
Dr. Andrew Ash, CSIRO, Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures,
PMB, Aitkenvale, Queensland 4814, Australia visited John Gross and
other NREL research scientists to work on joint interests in determinants
of herbivore foraging patterns, August 6-12.
Dr. Wondwosen Asfaw, Rangeland Specialist, Ministry of Agriculture,
Ethiopia visited at NREL July 25-August 19 to work on the Greenhouse
Gas Mitigation Project in the rangeland and highlands of Ethiopia.
He was sponsored by Dennis Ojima.
Dr. Tibor Toth, Soil Scientist with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
visited CSU during the week of July 17-21. Tibor was part of the
NSF Hungarian-US LTER program funded to Diana Freckman and Deb Coffin.
He visited with scientists and students conducting research at NREL
and at the CPER LTER site. His major research area of interest is
in the ecology of salt-affected soils. Mark Easter has copies of
his most recent reprints, if you are interested in seeing them.
Dennis Ojima, Bill Parton, Ted Elliott and Dave Valentine sponsored
a visit to NREL on July 6 by Dr. Max Beran, TIGER Programme Manager,
Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, OXON OX10 8BB, England to discuss
global change research.
Dr. Paul Woomer, TSBF, Nairobi, Kenya visited NREL June 26-July
2 to work on CENTURY Model studies for slash-and-burn practices.
He was sponsored by Bill Parton and Dennis Ojima.
NREL had a number of international visitors the week of August
7, most of whom had attended the International Rangeland Congress
in Salt Lake City. These included several scientists from CSIRO
Div. Wildlife and Ecology in Canberra, who were visiting Mike Coughenour
and others: Ken Hodgkinson, Jim Noble, John Ludwig, Dave Freudenberg,
Jill Landsberg. Joel Brown and Andrew Ash from CSIRO Tropical Crops
and Pastures in Townsville were also here. Harry and Rena Biggs,
from Kruger National Park, South Africa visited Mike Coughenour,
to discuss the possibilities of using the SAVANNA modeling approach
in Kruger. Mark Hardy, from CEDRA Agric. Dev. Inst., Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa visited Mike Coughenour and Bill Lauenroth. Mark was
interested in plant responses to grazing and methods for modeling
grazing ecosystems.
Richard Lammers from the University of Toronto visited NREL from
August 13-25 to work with Melannie Hartman, Rob Kremer, and Jill
Baron on modeling the South Platte and Big Thompson river basins
with the Rhessys model.
New students at or coming soon to NREL include: Serita Frey, Ph.D.
(Maj. Prof. Ted Elliott); Laura Stretch, M.S. (Maj. Prof. - Dennis
Ojima); Amy Treonis, Ph.D. (Maj. Prof. - Diana Freckman); Karrin
Alstet (Maj. Profs. - Singer/Welker); Romuelo Menezes (Maj. Prof.
- Ted Elliott); Claudia Regan (Maj. Prof. - Tom Stohlgren).
A new crop of students conducting research at the CPER LTER site
have recently defended and/or completed their graduate degrees.
They include: Jeb Barrett, M.S.; Howie Epstein, M.S.; Julie Fair,
M.S.; Robin Kelly, M.S.; Diana Lane, M.S.; Gustavo Martinez, M.S.;
Tamera Minnick, M.S.; Jose Paruelo, Ph.D.; and Marcos Robles, M.S.
Congratulations!!
Kirk Wythers began his M.S. thesis research this summer at the
CPER LTER site, under Bill Lauenroth.
Keith Paustian received funding from USDA Competitive Grants Program
for a 3-year project titled 'Analysis of production, N dynamics
and profitability in complex cropping systems", which includes
a subcontract to J.T. Ritchie at Michigan State University. This
project will use a newly developed simulation model, SALUS, to analyze
crop, soil and economic variables in complex cropping systems. The
model is designed to perform multi-year simulation of multi-species
crop rotations and a wide variety of management options. The model
will be tested using existing data from 11 long-term field experiments
located in 10 different states, representing a high diversity in
climate, soil and management conditions. The model is intended to
serve as a decision support tool for policy analysts, managers and
extension specialists and to support strategic agricultural research.
The proposal titled 'Analysis of past and current changes in grassland
ecosystem dynamics in Asia and North America" was funded by
NSF. This proposal was submitted by Larry Tieszen (Augustana College),
Dennis Ojima, Jim Tucker (NASA), and Chuluun Togtohyn. This is a
proposed 3 year project to investigate the role and consequences
of changes in climate, land use, vegetation, and soils of the temperate
grassland ecosystems of Asia and North America. The objective of
this study is to characterize the factors controlling ecosystem
integrity relative to changes in climate and land use of North American
and Asian grasslands, and to understand these changes relative to
the presence and distribution of C3 and C4 species in these two
regions. The project will utilize the information gathered over
the years at long-term research sites of the grasslands in Asia
and North America and collect new data where needed for isotopic
analysis of soil and vegetation for cross- comparisons of grassland
productivity and ecosystem structure and function. The integrating
techniques of isotopic fractionation, remote sensing, and ecosystem
modeling to evaluate the status of these ecosystems will be used.
Jim Ellis, Kathy Galvin and Kevin Price (University of Kansas
Center for Research, Inc.) received funding from NASA for their
proposal titled 'Characterization of environmental stability and
susceptibility to climate change and human disturbance: A case study
of the arid and semiarid steppes of northern China and Mongolia".
The dry steppes of northern China (Inner Mongolia) and Mongolia
have a long and well documented history of changing climate and
changing land use. The region of Inner Mongolia, now part of China,
is essentially a transition zone between the relatively stable,
moderately productive farming zones of northern China and the unstable
rangelands of western Inner Mongolia and southeastern Mongolia.
This transition zone, plus adjacent farming and rangeland zones,
provide a unique opportunity to evaluate how climate variability
and climate change influence the stability of dryland ecosystems
and how human land use further impinges (or does not impinge) upon
the relationship between climate variability and ecosystem dynamical
stability. In this study these interactions using multi- temporal
and interregional comparisons of remotely-sensed vegetation index
(NDVI) values in conjunction with on the ground analyses of vegetation
dynamics, land use patterns and land use intensity will be explored.
A successful conclusion will result in a new level of understanding
of the influence of climate variability and change on ecosystem
stability and a satellite based analytical procedure for assessing
the relative stability of global ecosystems.
Jill Baron and Diana Freckman received funding from NSF for their
proposal titled 'Biogeochemical and hydrologic controls on nutrient
fluxes in freshwater ecosystems: linking isotopic information with
spatially distributed models: Collaborative Proposal to NSF from
CU, CSU, UA and USGS. This proposal will trace sources and sinks
of nitrate, ammonium, and sulfate in alpine Niwot Ridge and subalpine
Loch Vale Watershed, Colorado. The objective is to address how these
solutes are affected by seasonal and storm-related changes in flowpaths.
Arvin Mosier (USDA), Jack Morgan (USDA & Soil & Crop Sci.),
Dave Valentine, Bill Parton and Dennis Ojima received funding from
NSF-TEGCO for the proposal titled 'Shortgrass steppe ecosystem dynamics
and trace gas exchange under elevated CO2". The three
basic objectives in this research are to determine the impact of
doubling CO2 in the SGS on photosynthesis, productivity,
water and N use efficiency, plant water relations, and C and N allocation
in above and belowground organs in two dominant grass species, Bouteloua
gracilis (C4) and Pascopyrum smithii (C3); determine
the impact of doubling CO on soil water and N dynamics; and to incorporate
knowledge gained from these studies into simulation models that
will allow for realistic extrapolation through time and space of
soil moisture, nutrient cycling, plant productivity and overall
ecosystem response. The research proposed is primarily a field program
that will be conducted at the USDA/ARS Central Plains Experimental
Range (CPER)-Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Close association
and coordination will be maintained within the CPER and LTER programs
and the information gleaned from these studies will be used directly
within both long- term programs.
Dan Binkley and Chrtistian Giardina received funding from the
National Park Service for their proposal titled 'An assessment of
air quality impacts in Class I National Parks and Monuments of the
Colorado Plateau".
Ted Elliott has been funded through OERM on proposals titled 'Oregon
Coast Range Provinde adaptive management pilot project: Application
of AR/GIS, collaborative GIS" which was submitted to USDA/Forest
Service and 'USDA global change data assessment and integration"
submitted to CIESIN.
Tom Hobbs and John Gross have received continuation funding from
the Colorado DOW for their project titled 'SCOP: A system for conservation
planning".
Dennis Ojima, Tom Kirchner and Bill Parton received funding from
the University of Nebraska/NSF (MMIA) for their proposal titled
'Integrated assessment of climate and land use changes in the central
U.S." In this period of rapid environmental and human-system
changes, an integrated approach to assessment of the ecological
and human-system dynamics is fundamental to our understanding and
assessment of ecosystem dynamics. Changes in land use and climate
systems are contributing to rapid changes in how ecosystems behave.
Ecosystem and socio-economic models are needed to investigate the
differential causes and effects of land use changes in the central
region of the U.S. These models also need to be developed within
the context of a policy formulation decision support system, so
that the results will be not only of scientific interest but of
direct policy relevance.
Bill Parton, Lenny Bohren (Dept. of Industrial Science), Indy
Burke, Kathy Galvin and Bill Riebsame (Univ. Colorado, Boulder)
received funding from NIH/Univ. Texas, Austin) for their proposal
titled 'Population and Environment in the U.S. Great Plains".
The main goal is a multidisciplinary study of long-term aspects
of the relationship between population and the environment in the
Great Plains of the United States. This research involves an examination
of the demographic experience of the region and toward a model of
recursive change in population and environment, one in which changes
in one of these factors in one time period influence the other in
a subsequent time period, and so on. The project will also examine
hypotheses that see land use change as a process of spatial or of
cultural diffusion. Researchers will collect and analyze county-level
data about land use decisions and their consequences for the population
and the environment over more than a century in order to understand
long-term, interactive and recursive relationships. The study will
validate its findings and will follow these analyses with a model-building
and simulation exercise using the CENTURY soil model system, then
will integrate the analysis of demographic and environmental change
by building a demographic and social change component to add to
the CENTURY model.
Dave Valentine and Dave Schimel submitted a continuation proposal
to DOE (NIGEC) titled 'An integrated investigation of methane and
carbon dioxide fluxes in mid-latitude prairie wetlands: Micrometeorological
measurements, process-level studies and modeling".
Ted Elliott and Vern Cole submitted a continuation proposal to
DOE (NIGEC) titled 'Regional projections of C dynamics with global
change in the central United States".
Deb Coffin, Indy Burke and Bill Lauenroth submitted to NSF a proposal
titled 'The role of Bouteloua species in structuring grasslands:
Consequences of species variation'.
A proposal titled 'Water redistribution and plant communities
in shortgrass steppe" was submitted to NSF/Ecosystems by Bill
Hunt, G.H. Dunn and Dexing Chen.
A proposal titled 'Collaborative Research: Differential mediation
of energy flow and nutrient cycling by ruminant herbivores in Great
Plains" was submitted to NSF by Dan Milchunas.
Indy Burke and Bill Lauenroth submitted a continuation proposal
to NSF titled 'Long-Term Ecological Research Program - Shortgrass
Steppe".
Bill Hunt submitted a proposal titled 'RUI: Integration of soil
food web structure ecosystem processes and system stability"
to the University of Northern Colorado/NSF.
Jill Baron submitted a continuation proposal to the ESA titled
'Operating costs for organizing the Ecological Society of America
1995 and 1996".
Dennis Ojima and Bill Parton submitted a proposal titled 'Using
multi-sensor data to model factors limiting carbon balance in global
arid and semiarid lands" to NASA.
A continuation proposal titled 'Development and management of
a USDA UV- B monitoring program" was submitted by Jim Gibson
and Dave Bigelow to USDA/CSRS.
John Gross submitted a proposal to the Colorado Division of Wildlife
titled 'Ranking conservation priorities of vertebrates in Colorado".
Richard Flagler (NADP) submitted a proposal titled 'Assessing
the response of three North American pine species to ozone using
ethylenediurea and sodium eythorbate" to the University of Massachusetts/EPA.
Tom Stohlgren and Mike Coughenour submitted a proposal titled
'Bibliographies of USGS mapped information in and around the national
parks" to the National Park Service.
Diana Freckman submitted a proposal titled 'Integrating soil biodiversity
and function" to NCEAS.
Baron, J.S., E.J. Allstott, and B.K. Newkirk. 1995. Analysis of
long term sulfate and nitrate budgets in a Rocky Mountain Basin.
Pages 255-262 in: K.A. Tonnessen, M.W. Williams, and M. Tranter
(eds.) Biogeochemistry of seasonally snow-covered catchments. IASH
Publication No. 228, International Association of Hydrologic Sciences
Press, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB,
UK.
Binkley, D., F.W. Smith, and Y. Son. 1995. Nutrient supply and
declines in leaf area and production in lodgepole pine. Canadian
Journal of Forest Research 25:621-628.
Burke, I.C., W.K. Lauenroth, and D.P. Coffin. 1995. Recovery of
soil organic matter and N mineralization in semiarid grasslands:
Implications for the Conservation Reserve Program. Ecol. Applic.
5(3):793-801.
Campbell, G.G., T.G.F. Kittel, G.A. Meehl, and W.M. Washington.
1995. Low- frequency variability and CO2 transient
climate change. Part 2: EOF analysis of CO2 and model-configuration
sensitivity. Global and Planetary Change 10:201-216.
Freckman, D.W. 1995. Soil biodiversity: A new sense of hitting
pay dirt. ASM News (Current topics) 61:280-281.
Gross, J.E., M.W. Demment, P.U. Alkon, and M. Kotzman. 1995. Feeding
and chewing behaviours of Nubian ibex: compensation for sex-related
differences in body size. Functional Ecology 9:385-393.
Hook, P.B. and I.C. Burke. 1995. Evaluation of methods for estimating
net nitrogen mineralization in a semiarid grassland. Soil Sci. Soc.
Am. J. 59:831-837.
Ihori, T., I.C. Burke, and P.B. Hook. 1995. Nitrogen mineralization
in native cultivated and abandoned fields in shortgrass steppe.
Plant and Soil 171:203-208.
Milchunas, D.G., A.S. Varnamkhasti, W.K. Lauenroth, and H. Goetz.
1995. Forage quality in relation to long-term grazing history, current-year
defoliation, and water resource. Oecologia 101:366-374.
Milchunas, D.G. and W.K. Lauenroth. 1995. Inertia in plant community
structure: state changes after cessation of nutrient enrichment
stress. Ecological Applications 5:452-458.
National Research Council. 1995. A review of the Biomonitoring
of Environmental Status and Trends Program: The Draft Detailed Plan.
National Academy Press, Washington, DC. 74 pp. (D.W. Freckman, Chair,
NRC Committee to Review the Department of Interior's Biomonitoring
of Environmental Status and Trends (BEST) Program.
Paustian, K., G.P. Robertson, and E.T. Elliott. 1995. Management
impacts on carbon storage and gas fluxes (CO2, CH4)
in mid- latitude cropland. Chapter 6 in: R. Lal, J. Kimble, E. Levine,
and B.A. Stewart (eds.) Soil Management and Greenhouse Effect. Advances
in Soil Science, Lewis Publishers, CRC Press, London.
Poiani, K.A., W.C. Johnson, and T.G.F. Kittel. 1995. Sensitivity
of a prairie wetland to increase temperature and seasonal precipitation
changes. Water Resources Bulletin 31:283-294.
Powers, L.E., D.W. Freckman, and R.A. Virginia. 1995. Spatial
distribution of nematodes in polar desert soils of Antarctica. Polar
Biology 15:325-334.
Robertson, G.P. and D.W. Freckman. 1995. The spatial distribution
of nematode trophic groups across a cultivated ecosystem. Ecology
76:1425- 1433.
Stohlgren, T., D. Binkley, T. Veblen, and W. Baker. 1995. Attributes
of long- term landscape-scale studies: malpractice insurance for
landscape ecologists. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 36:1-25.
Vinton, M.A. 1995. Interactions between individual plant species
and soil nutrient status in shortgrass steppe. Ecology 76:1116-1133.
Susan Smith and Bob Gilpin were married on Saturday, July 22.
They had a beautiful ceremony and hosted a reception at their home
north of Fort Collins. Congratulations and may you have many years
of happiness together!!
In June, Judy Lindquist's (Judy is the wife of the LTER Site Manager
- Mark) horse, a registered Morgan mare, was bitten by a rattlesnake
and died of complications.
At the ESA Meeting in Snowbird, Utah, July 30-August 30, Melannie
Hartman won the women's division of the 5-km Fun Run sponsored by
the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) grad students. Her prize
was a gift certificate to a health food store. Way to go, Melannie!!
Paul Anliker will be leaving NREL at the end of August. Paul is
moving to Minneapolis, MN to be with friends and will be exploring
new horizons. We'll miss you, Paul.
Jean Schmid, who has worked in the laboratory at NREL since 1983
will be moving to Rock Island, Illinois. Jean plans to continue
her education in computers. Good luck to you Jean, we will miss
you.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
(Laboratory Manager)
POSITION:
Research Associate, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and Department of
Rangeland Ecosystem Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
Research projects are focussed on elucidating the function of nematode
biodiversity in managed and unmanaged ecosystems (for example, Antarctic Dry
Valleys, Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER)-Long Term Ecological
Research (LTER) site, and Michigan State University-Kellogg Biological
Station LTER).
QUALIFICATIONS:
M.S. preferred in ecology, microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, plant
pathology, or a related field. Background in soil ecology or nematology
desired, but not required.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Supervision, coordination, and maintenance of soil ecology laboratory.
Responsibilities include the establishment and maintenance of field,
laboratory, and greenhouse experiments, in addition to:
- Supervision of research associates and student workers
- Collecting and processing soil samples to determine biotic, chemical and
physical properties
- Identify and enumerate free-living and plant parasitic nematodes
- Maintain laboratory equipment
- Coordinate data entry, assist with data analysis
- Participation in preparing research proposals and papers
The successful applicant must have supervisory experience and strong
organizational skills. Further, it is essential that the candidate possess
interpersonal and communication skills for working with other members of the
laboratory in a team effort. Additional preferred skills include
experience in one or all of the following:
- Nematode and/or soil microbial extraction methods.
- Statistical analysis.
- Isolation, purification, and maintenance of laboratory microbial
cultures.
- Utilization of computer software for spreadsheet analysis, word
processing, routine statistical analysis, graphics, and
communications.
- Biogeochemical soil analysis.
- Molecular applications in soil ecology
BEGINNING DATE: Fall, 1995
SALARY RANGE: $22,000 - 26,000
APPLICATIONS:
Applications must be postmarked by August 25, 1995. Forward complete
curriculum vitae, including academic transcripts, description of research
interests and goals, and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three
references to:
Dr. Diana Freckman / Dr. Robert Niles
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499
(970) 491-1965 FAX
Additional information may be obtained by contacting Dr. Freckman at (970)
491-1982 or Dr. Robert Niles at (970) 491-1964.
CSU is an AA/EEO employer. EO Office: 21 Spruce Hall.
The NREL NEWS NOTES will be published every two months. Please
give your news items to Kay by the last Monday of each month.
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