INDEX
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Kay McElwain, formerly manager of publications, who worked
at NREL for 24 years, has left the lab to move to Wisconsin. We miss
her and wish her all the best! Karen Shibuya assumed the position
on April 13. Karen previously worked as the proposal submission specialist
at Sponsored Programs; before that, she held positions at Cornell
University and Ithaca College.
Dave Schimel was elected a member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
society, which corresponds to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
for Germany. In addition, he is now a member of the Ecology Institute,
an international organization based in Germany. The Institute gives
out the Excellence in Ecology Award. Bob Niles is serving as project manager developing a database
of research and extension projects for the CSU Agricultural Experiment
Station. FELLOWSHIPSMEETINGSThe Vegetation Ecosystem Modeling Analysis Project (VEMAP) Phase 2 experimental design workshop was hosted by Dennis Ojima and Bill Parton at NREL April 27-29. The meeting attracted over 30 scientists from nine institutes, including Tim Kittel and Dave Schimel of NREL, Jerry Melillo, NREL's recipient of the 1997 Distinguished Ecosystem Scientist award, and research groups from Sweden and Germany. The meeting defined the analytical protocol for the analysis of ecosystem and biogeographical changes under a transient climate in support of the ongoing National Climate Assessment Project of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. VEMAP is supported by NASA, USFS, EPRI, and NSF. Following the VEMAP meeting, Oregon State University and USFS researchers of the MAPSS modeling group met with Dennis Ojima, Bill Parton, Robin Kelly, Timothy Kittel, Melannie Hartman, and Becky McKeown at NREL to discuss the linked MAPSS-Century model. This modeling effort will dynamically link biogeochemistry and biogeography of ecosystems, to form a new class of models: Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVM). From April 22-24, the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS LTER) project at NREL and its PI, Indy Burke, hosted the LTER Coordinating Committee. Representatives from the twenty-one LTER sites, the LTER Network Office, and NSF directors were in attendance. Discussions centered on new opportunities within the LTER research community, such as microbial observatories and integration of K-12 education. The group took a trip to the field station to see the exciting research being done at the SGS LTER. Chris Wasser is the SGS LTER project/data manager. At the LTER coordinating committee meeting, Dave Bigelow was invited to describe the CSU USDA UVB monitoring program. Some LTER sites are interested in implementing a UVB radiation monitoring program, with guidance and possibly data management performed by the CSU team. National Jill Baron attended an Ecological Society of America Governing Board meeting March 6-8 in Logan, UT. She proposed, and the President and Board approved, the preparation of an ESA White Paper on "Issues of Freshwater Equity and Ecosystems: Balancing Environmental and Human Needs for Water." Jill also participated in the annual evaluation of the USGS-BRD watershed studies research programs in Sequoia National Park, March 30-April 3. Ted Elliott participated in the Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change (TECO) peer review panel which met in Washington, DC May 11-12. The panel reviewed approximately 140 proposals and made funding recommendations to NASA, who ran the panel this year for the other participating agencies: NSF, DOE, USDA and NOAA. TECO was organized to support research in terrestrial ecology as it relates to global environmental changes. While in Washington, Ted also participated in a review of the Ecological Studies Cluster (Ecology and Ecosystem Studies programs) as a member of the Committee of Visitors May 13-15. The committee evaluated the quality of the Cluster's management over the past three years and presented its report to the Assistant Director and Deputy Assistant Director of the Biological Sciences Directorate and the Director of the Division of Environmental Biology. Jim Gibson and Jim Slusser were invited to provide an update on the CSU USDA UVB Monitoring program to a meeting of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) Interagency UV Panel in Washington, DC on April 24. Network status, future plans, data availability, and research were discussed. Tim Kittel and Dave Schimel took part in the Department of Energy National Institute of Global Environmental Changes (NIGEC) National Technical Advisory Committee Panel, April 20-21, in Gaithersburg, MD. Dave Schimel also attended the U.S. National Assessment Synthesis Team in Washington, DC and the Gulf Coast Regional Assessment Workshop. Keith Paustian was invited to participate in a planning workshop on "Carbon Sequestration in Managed Terrestrial Ecosystems," organized by Pacific Northwest and Oakridge National Laboratories in Washington, DC April 23-24. The workshop participants sent a letter to the Council of Economic Advisors with current information on C sequestration in soils with respect to mitigation of CO2 emissions. Diana Wall attended a Science Advisory Board meeting at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis March 3-5 in Santa Barbara, CA. She returned to California for the April 1-3 meeting of the National Research Council (NRC) Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology in Irvine. On the 5th, she was invited to Stanford University to participate in "A Report Card on the Health of the Nations' Ecosystems" review sponsored by the Heinz Center for Science, Policy and the Environment. International Dan Binkley and Keith Paustian were "opponents" on Ph.D. defenses at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, on April 3. In the Swedish system, the external examiner is responsible for presenting a summary of the student's work, and then grilling the student with insightful questions for 2 hours. In addition, Keith Paustian presented a seminar at the Department of Soil Sciences on "Modeling Regional Soil C Dynamics." Kathy Galvin met with Tanzanian government officials, University
of Dar es Salaam faculty, and non-government stakeholders regarding
the logistics of research for her U.S. AID Global Livestock-Collaborative
Research Support Program funded project entitled " Integrated Modeling
and Assessment Project (IMAP)" in Tanzania March 3-April 15. PAPERS PRESENTED AND SEMINARSTed Elliott presented information pertaining to C storage in soils as an invited speaker at the USDA Air Quality Task Force meetings April 6-9 in Amarillo, TX. April 28-30 saw Ted and Dennis Ojima at the NIGEC annual Principal Investigators meeting in Lincoln, NE. Tom Hobbs gave demonstrations of the Natural Diversity Information Source to the Department of Natural Resources Information Summit in Denver on April 14, the Thorne Ecological Institute in Glenwood Springs on April 20, the Colorado Mountain Backdrop Conference in Denver on April 24, and the Colorado Realtors Land Institute in Breckenridge on April 30. Mohammed Kalkhan gave a presentation at the Annual Meeting of American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing-Resource Technology Institute (ASPRS-RTI) entitled "Assessing the Accuracy of Vegetation Diversity Map Classification Using Double Sampling" March 31-April 3 in Tampa, FL. Dennis Ojima attended the 2nd NASA Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) Science Team meeting in Airlie, VA, March 30-April 2. The title of his presentation was "The Current Status of the Great Plains Assessment." Dennis Ojima, Diana Wall and Indy Burke attended the Open Science meeting for IGBP GCTE/LUCC on the theme: "The Earth's Changing Land" in Barcelona, Spain March 14-18. Dennis presented a plenary paper on "The Role of the SysTem for Analysis, Research, and Training (START) Program in Global Change Research" with Roland Fuchs, and a paper on "The Regional Study on Land Use in Temperate East Asia (LUTEA)." He also presented two posters, on "Land Use Change Impacts on Biosphere-Atmosphere Exchange and Regional Climate: Terrestrial Ecosystem Feed Back to Regional Climate in Central United States," and on "Integrated Analysis of Climate Change Impacts on Agroecosystems of the Great Plains: Integration of Ecosystem and Economic Factors Determining Land Use Under Climate Change." Diana presented an invited paper "Biodiversity in Sediments and the Effects on Ecosystem Functions." The paper was co-authored with Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland and P.R. Snelgrove of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Indy, a GCTE steering committee member, presented a talk entitled "Landscape to Regional Scale Complexity and Ecosystem Functioning." Dave Theobald presented a talk entitled "Using GIS to Support Conservation Planning" to the Department of Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation, Humboldt State University, on March 27. Dave Theobald and Tom Hobbs (with D. Schrupp and L. O'Brien) presented a poster entitled "An Assessment of Imperiled Habitat in Colorado" at the U.S. meeting of the International Association for Landscape Ecology in East Lansing, MI, March 17-21. Diana Wall presented an invited lecture at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC entitled "Laboratory on Ice: Polar Connections" as part of the NSF-managed National Science and Technology week April 15-18. VISITORS TO NRELApril 20-22, Dr. Liu Chuang of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and a Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START) visiting research scholar worked with Dennis Ojima, Steve Knox, and Laura Stretch in developing a Chinese data base for land use studies. This research supports the LUTEA study, in association with IGBP core projects, GCTE and LUCC. Dr. Chuang returned to NREL May 11-15. NREL will have three START visiting scholars this year working
with Dennis Ojima: Dr. Liu Chuang from CIESIN, Dr.
Chuluun Togtohyn, NREL, and Dr. Jiong Jia from Beijing
Normal University. The fellows will pursue research on land use
dynamics in the Temperate East Asian region. RESEARCH ACTIVITIESLand Use in Temperate East Asia (LUTEA) Training Workshop: A two-week training workshop organized by Dennis Ojima and Chuluun Togtohyn of NREL will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, June 1-12 with about 20 Mongolian, Chinese, Russian, and U.S. students. The workshop will provide training for land use and natural resource studies in Temperate East Asia; it is sponsored by START and the Asian Pacific Network and is hosted by the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. The Call of the Wild Mongolian Steppe: This summer the Mongolian Express will be active again with a month long research study that will cover large regions of steppe and desert steppe ecosystems in China and Mongolia. Dennis Ojima and Chuluun Togtohyn will lead this expedition of a dozen scientists from China, Mongolia and the U.S. Students will include Meg Walsh of NREL and Nicole Berger, an incoming NREL graduate student. The research study will begin June 17 and collaborate with the Inner Mongolian grassland study of land atmosphere exchange (IMGRASS) at the Inner Mongolian Grassland Ecosystem Research Station. It will include a two week field survey to collect soil and plant samples for evaluation of land cover and land use patterns, and develop a western counterpart to the North East China Transect (NECT) and an extension of the IGBP terrestrial transects. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Vegetation Inventory: Tom Stohlgren and Robin Reich's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument vegetation inventory crew, led by Cindy Villa and Yuka Otsuki, has completed two trips to the Monument. The first trip, April 5-11, involved a fly-over of the eastern portion of the Monument and the location of random points in the 50-mile Bench area. On the second trip, May 5-12, the team began vegetation sampling and tested their new data entry and analysis software. GRADUATE STUDENT NEWSGeneva Chong, an NREL/Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (GDPE) student and one of the USGS employees at NREL, recently taught Tropical Forest Ecology to twenty-five undergraduate students at Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in Belize, Central America. The course was part of the American Universities International Program "Belize: Multi-Cultural Field Study" and was co-taught with Sara Simonson, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, CSU. They led the students through multi-scale field sampling of plants and insects to compare biodiversity between pine and broadleaf forests and develop recommendations for forest management. Doug Grant presented a paper entitled "Ecological Importance of Allelopathy in Russian Knapweed Invasions" at the Western Society for Weed Science conference in Kona, Hawaii, in March. Tamara Hochstrasser attended the United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) conference in East Lansing, MI, March 17-21. She presented a poster, co-authored by her advisor, Deb Coffin, entitled "Coexistence Pattern in Respect to the Dominant Species in a Desert Grassland-Shrubland Ecotone: From the Individual Plant to the Landscape Level." GRANTS FUNDEDGina Adams and Diana Wall received funding to hold a steering committee meeting of the SCOPE Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (SSBEF) June 15-19. The chair (Diana), domain chairs and scientific advisory committee of the SSBEF will hold a two day workshop at Rutgers University, and will attend the SCOPE General Assembly at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) in Piscataway, NJ. $16,000 was received from an anonymous donor, and $5,000 was received from the EOHSI. NSF The Office of Polar Programs funded "The Role of Natural Legacy on Ecosystem Structure and Function in a Polar Desert: The McMurdo Dry Valley LTER Program." The PI on the project is Berry Lyons of the University of Alabama. Co-PIs are Diana Wall, Peter Doran of the University of Illinois, Chicago, Andrew Fountain of Portland State University, Diane McKnight of the University of Colorado, Daryl Moorhead of Texas Tech University, John Priscu of Montana State University, and Ross Virginia of Dartmouth College. The total award was for $4,200,000; the CSU award was for $543,000. NSF Ecosystems funded Diana Wall's collaborative research project entitled "Identifying Ecosystem Controls on Biodiversity: a US/UK Project." Co-PIs on the project are Bill Hunt, Andy Parsons, Tim Seastedt of the University of Colorado, and Tom Powers of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Research will be carried out at the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, the site of the Konza Prairie LTER, the Cedar Creek LTER, and at a site in Scotland in collaboration with scientists funded by an $8 million UK program. The total NSF award is for $1,809,694; the NSF award to CSU is for $1,193,825. USGS The USGS awarded Jill Baron a five year grant to study air quality effects in the Rocky Mountains. Baron will be working with Dr. Brett Johnson, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Biology, CSU, and two new master's level graduate students to explore biological consequences of elevated nitrogen deposition to alpine lakes. Dan Binkley received a grant from the USGS/BRD to work with Doug Andersen on a project that examines the effect of flow regulation of rivers on the nitrogen cycling of riparian ecosystems. PROPOSALS SUBMITTEDMike Coughenour, "Model-Based Synthesis of Serengeti Nutrient Cycling at Site, Landscape, and Ecosystem Spatial Scales," Syracuse University/NSF. Kathy Galvin and Jim Ellis, "Uses of Climate Forecast Information in the Livestock Sector of the Arid Regions of South Africa," revision, NOAA. Brett Johnson and Jill Baron, "Air Quality Effects," USDI/USGS/BRD. Dennis Ojima and Tom Stohlgren, "Developing an Inventory and Monitoring Plan for Rocky Mountain National Park," USGS/BRD. William Parton and Dennis Ojima, "Software Tools Supporting Ecological Modeling and Decision Making," Oregon State University/NSF. Keith Paustian and Ted Elliott, "Quantifying Carbon Sequestration Potential through Improved Pasture Management," EPA. MANUSCRIPTS PUBLISHEDBigelow, D.S., J.R. Slusser, A.F. Beaubien and J.H. Gibson. 1998. "The USDA Ultraviolet Radiation Monitoring Program." Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 79, 601-615. Diana Garcia-Montiel (now at the Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, MA) and Dan Binkley published a paper from Diana's Ph.D. thesis in the Forest Sciences Department, CSU: "Effect of Eucalyptus saligna and Albizia falcataria on soil processes and nitrogen supply in Hawaii," (Oecologia 113:547-556). They found that nitrogen-fixing albizia increased soil N by about 1 Mg/ha in 12 years, and increased N availability by several-fold. Soil fungal biomass was higher under Eucalyptus, whereas soil bacterial biomass was higher under Albizia. Powers, L. P., Ho, M., D. W. Freckman, and R. A. Virginia.
1998. "Distribution, community structure and microhabitats of soil
biota along an elevational gradient in Taylor Valley, Antarctica."
Arctic and Alpine Research 30:133-141. OUTREACHSerita Frey, with the help of Sigrid Resh, taught a 6-week After-School Ecology Program. Serita spent her Wednesday afternoons from 3:00-4:15 p.m. at Irish Elementary helping a group of students in environmental studies. Her expertise and knowledge made it a success! NEW STUDENTSShurentuya Begzsurengiin, a Master's student, joined the
NREL in January. She is working with Jim Ellis in Mongolia.
Welcome, Shuree! "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS..."
Vern Cole, Canada |
May
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Natural
Resource Ecology Laboratory |