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Alan Covich has been elected President of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). Alan will become president-elect on January 1, 1999. Congratulations and well-deserved!

Kathy Galvin was tenured and promoted this past summer to Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology.

Benjamin Balk, Serita Frey and Amy Treonis were honored at the College of Natural Resources Scholarship Awards Ceremony on October 23. Ben is the recipient of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Graduate Student Fellowship, while Serita and Amy received the Francis Clark Soil Biology Scholarship. Diana Wall presented the awards, along with Francis and Evelyn Clark, for whom the biology scholarship is named.

Tammy Bearly, a programmer for Tom Hobbs on the System for Conservation Planning (SCoP) project, was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame on October 9, 1998. Tammy was a pitcher on the CSU softball team from 1983 to 1987 and was the first softball player in CSU history to win a full-ride scholarship. She still ranks in the top five in several career pitching categories, with her earned-run average of 2.21 ranking fourth and her 205 strike-outs number 2.

Tom Hobbs, Dave Theobald, Chris Johnson, and Tammy Bearly were honored by the Division of Wildlife leadership team at a barbecue held October 2 in Denver. They were recognized for their exceptional work on the Natural Diversity Information Source, an information system that provides data on the World Wide Web about wildlife populations, habitats, and natural communities. The URL is http://blueberry.nrel.colostate.edu.

Beth Holland has been appointed a C-3 professor at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) fuer Biogeochemie in Jena, Germany, and is now "tenured" there. David S. Schimel is one of three directors of the MPI fuer Biogeochemie. The other directors are E.D. Schulze, the current managing director, and Colin Prentice. Beth and Dave attended the inaugural workshop for the MPI fuer Biogeochemie, held September 23-26. Their anticipated move is summer 1999.

Tamera Minnick started a new post-doc position with David Wedin at the University of Nebraska. She'll be doing ecosystem modeling in oak savannas at Cedar Creek in Minnesota and in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Francis Singer has been appointed as a faculty affiliate in the Department of Rangeland Ecosystem Science.
 

COLORADO

In late October, Alan Covich participated in the South Platte Forum in Longmont, which was organized by CSU's Water Center. Alan was part of a three-person panel that discussed how different water users and researchers could cooperate with various agencies and private groups to provide an ecosystem perspective on water allocations. The project was funded by the NSF/EPA Program on Water and Watersheds and was a collaborative project with John Loomis, Kurt Fausch, Liz Strange, and Paula Kent. Alan also participated in the Board of Directors meeting of the Rocky Mountain Hydrologic Research Center in Fort Collins to discuss plans for funding research at the Rocky Mountain Hydraulic Laboratory in Allenspark, Colorado. Alan is currently on the Life Sciences Steering Committee that is reviewing the undergraduate curriculum, as well.

C.E. (Bert) Cushing was the keynote speaker of the second annual Water Symposium, held November 3-5. Bert's keynote presentation was entitled "The Living Stream." He developed the stream continuum concept, which has become basic to understanding riverine systems, and the natural resource, social and economic impacts and implications of water resource development, adaptive management, and other approaches to resource protection, enhancement and restoration. Bert generously donated 31 volumes of the series "Ecosystems of the World" to NREL, and is a member of the NREL Endowment/Development Committee.

Kathy Galvin presented a talk on "Issues of sustainability of pastoralism in East Africa" at the International Connections Seminar Series, here at CSU in October.

Tom Hobbs gave a presentation on the Natural Diversity Information Source to the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Council on September 25.

DeAna Nasseth participated in the Environmental Sustainability panel discussion at the Partnership for Community Design Forum II at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs on October 22.

Dennis Ojima and Jill Lackett held their second steering committee meeting for the Great Plains Assessment, November 6, on campus. Attendees from CSU included Lenora Bohren, Dennis Child, Jack Morgan, Gary Peterson, and Lee Sommers.

Tom Stohlgren, Roger Pielke and Jill Baron presented overviews of global change research and applications of ecosystem research to resource management to a National Research Council Committee that visited the U.S. Geological Survey offices in Fort Collins on September 16. The NRC committee is charged with advising the USGS on future directions for the agency.

NATIONAL

Vern Cole, Ted Elliott and Keith Paustian met with groups from Texas A&M, Iowa State University, and Batelle Northwest National Labs, September 10-11, in Washington, D.C., to develop a joint proposal and brief officials from USDA, EPA and DOE on a baseline estimation of soil CO2 emissions for the U.S.

In October, Alan Covich was invited to visit Southwest Texas State University's Aquatic Research Station in San Marcos, Texas, to review their research program.

NREL members attending and presenting papers at the annual meetings for American Society of Agronomy (ASA) CSSA-SSSA in Baltimore, Maryland, October 18-22, were Rodolfo Delgado, Ted Elliott, Serita Frey, Keith Paustian, Johan Six, Diana Wall and Arvin Mosier. Keith was interviewed for an article on soil science research and global change for the convention issue of the Agronomy News. Ted, Keith, Johan and Serita participated in a symposium on soil C sequestration at the meeting. The presentations were: "Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils. I. Microbial Community Composition" by Serita, Ted, Keith, Johan and G. Guggenberger; "Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils. II. Aggregation and Particulate Organic Matter Fractions" by Johan, Ted and Keith; "Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils. III. Cultivation Effects in Site-Level Experiments" by Ted, Keith, E.A. Paul, Vern Cole and Serita; and "Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils. IV. State-level Analysis in the Corn Belt" by Keith, J. Cipra, K. Killian and Ted. Arvin Mosier presented two posters. The first was written with Bill Parton, Mike Coughenour, J.A. Morgan, and Dennis Ojima, and was entitled "Simulated Impact of 2xCO2 Levels on Great Plains Grassland Soils." He also presented "Trace Gas Exchange in the Colorado Shortgrass Steppe Under Elevated CO2," written by himself, J.A. Morgan, Bill Parton, Dan Milchunas and Dennis Ojima. Diana attended a meeting for the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science while in Baltimore.

Kathy Galvin presented a paper titled "A test case using integrated assessment in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania" at the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Williamsburg, Virginia, in July. Kathy, Mike Coughenour and Jim Ellis presented a poster titled "Ecology and Economy of Pastoral Nutrition. A test case using integrated assessment in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania." The poster was presented at Heifer Project International 1998 Symposium on Human Nutrition and Livestock, October 14, in Morrilton, Arkansas.

Beth Holland, Bill Parton and Dennis Ojima attended the third NCEAS "Development of a Consistent Worldwide Net Primary Production (NPP) Database" workshop, October 14-19, in Santa Barbara, California. Beth and Bill also attended the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) NRSP-3 1998 Technical Committee meeting workshop, October 26-28, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bill represented the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station at the NADP meeting.

Mohammed Kalkhan, Tom Stohlgren and Geneva Chong presented two papers at the Ecological Society of America 83rd Annual Meeting, August 2-6, in Baltimore, Maryland: "Linking Multiphase, multiscale, and spatial cross-correlation to investigate biodiversity pattern of plant species richness" and "Hot spots of native plant diversity: additional evidence of invasion by exotic plant species." Mohammed and Tom also presented a paper and poster titled "Using spatial cross-correlation and multiscale sampling to investigate patterns of diversity and plant species richness" at the 2nd Southern Forestry GIS Conference, October 28-29, in Athens, Georgia. Dennis Ojima and Jill Baron (along with their children, Kyle and Claire) also attended the ESA meeting. They did a little family sightseeing in the Washington, D.C. area after the meeting. Jill, as member-at-large of the ESA Board, and Diana Wall, new president elect, attended the ESA board meeting.

Tim Kittel, Dennis Ojima and Dave Schimel attended the VEMAP2 "Fast-Track Results" Workshop, October 21-22, Biosphere2, Oracle, Arizona.

Dennis Ojima and Jill Lackett held the first focus group meeting for the Central Great Plains Regional Assessment of Climate Variability and Change Impacts. The meeting was on ranching and rangelands systems and was held at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, September 24-25, in Clay Center, Nebraska. Dennis Child of Rangeland Ecosystem Science and Jack Morgan from the USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources also attended.

Dennis Ojima participated in the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Second Phase Planning Workshop, Concepts for Science and Applications Missions in the Post-2002 Era, August 24-26, in Easton, Maryland. Dennis also attended the 12th Meeting of the START Scientific Steering Committee and 10th Meeting of the START Bureau, September 20-23, in Washington, D.C. He gave a report on "Land Use Land Cover Change/Terrestrial Ecosystems in East Asia." Dennis attended the EOS Investigators Working Group (IWG) Meeting at the University of New Hampshire, October 19-21, and the Native Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, October 28-November 1, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He facilitated a meeting on October 18 in conjunction with the Central Great Plains Regional Climate Change Assessment in Baltimore, Maryland. Sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and funded by DOE, the meeting worked with crop modelers to see if they can develop a framework to conduct a cross-model comparison for site and regional climate modeling.

Keith Paustian attended a Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) sponsored scoping workshop on developing field-level methodologies to assess soil C sequestration in cropland, October 1-2, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Keith is also participating as a member of a workgroup to construct a "roadmap" for DOE's research and development priorities for the next 30 years in the area of C sequestration, including both enhancing biotic sinks and techniques for the capture and sequestration of CO2 from point source emissions.

Robert Sanford attended the Fulbright Senior Scholars Panel for Sub-Saharan Africa, October 15-16, in Washington, D.C.

Carol Simmons participated in the Water Resources Sector Workshop, September 14-16, in West Palm Beach, Florida, as part of her involvement in the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Carol also assisted with the program management for the USGS-BRD Global Change Research Program, October 28-November 6, in Reston, Virginia.

Tom Stohlgren and Roger Pielke attended the National Center for Ecological Assessment and Synthesis, September 9-12, in Santa Barbara, California. Tom and Roger also attended a climatology workshop as part of the National Assessment of Climate Change Affects in the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin Region.

Diana Wall, John Moore, and Amy Treonis attended the "Invertebrates as Webmasters in Ecosystems" symposium in honor of the retirement of David (DAC) Crossely, October 4-6, in Athens, Georgia. John presented a talk entitled "Invertebrates in detrital food webs along gradients of productivity."

INTERNATIONAL

Serita Frey presented a talk entitled "Carbon Assimilation in Two Microbial Communities of Differing Composition" at the International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, August 9-14, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ted Elliott and Keith Paustian were co-authors.

Bill Parton participated in the GCTE workshop on "Modelling Carbon-Nutrient Interactions of Forests Under Climate Change," September 4-9, in Vindeln, Sweden. Bill presented Century Model results in the session on "Application of ecosystem models to the Flakaliden experiment - modelling of long-term responses to CO2 and temperature." Bill also presented "Impact of increased CO2 levels on grassland decomposition rates and other ecosystem variables" at the GCTE-COST Workshop on Litter Quality and Decomposition Under Elevated Atmospheric CO2, September 24-27, in Capri, Italy.

Keith Paustian traveled to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, August 25-27, to meet with Canadian scientists conducting a study of C sequestration potential in the Canadian prairies. The purpose of the meeting was to develop collaborative links between the U.S. and Canada in evaluating and modeling soil C in agricultural systems.

Amy Treonis, along with co-authors Diana Wall and Ross Virginia, presented a poster "Soil and sediment invertebrate biodiversity in an Antarctic dry valley stream channel" at the VII Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) International Biology Symposium, August 31-September 4, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Diana Wall, Bill Hunt and Andy Parsons attended a workshop in York, United Kingdom, for their new NSF soil biodiversity project. Diana chaired and Gina Adams coordinated and attended, with Alan Covich, the SCOPE Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (SSBEF) 1998 Meeting, "Biodiversity Above and Below the Surface of Soils and Sediments: Mechanisms and Implications for Ecosystem Function and Global Change," October 12-16, in Lunteren, the Netherlands.

Chris Wasser attended the "Central European International Long Term Ecological Research Workshop," September 16-18, held in Warsaw, Poland. This was a working meeting to further the development of an LTER Network in Poland and also to strengthen ties between Central European LTER programs. Chris gave a presentation titled "LTER Site and Network Level Information Management: Challenges for the Future."

Harald Bugmann visited Jill Baron and other NREL scientists on September 2. Dr. Bugmann is a gap phase vegetation modeler on sabbatical to NCAR and INSTAAR from Switzerland.

Josef Eitzinger arrived at NREL in September to work for a year with Bill Parton. His work will include analysis of micro-climatic data from the short grass steppe research site in Eastern Colorado and on the further development of a soil water and temperature model including testing and modifying the model in accordance with model testing results. Josef is from the Department of Agrometeorology, Institute for Meteorology and Physics (IMP), University of Agricultural Sciences (BOKU), in Vienna, Austria.

Susan Grayston of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Scotland, visited NREL August 18-21. While here, she gave a presentation on "Biodiversity of soil microbial communities across a range of grasslands of differing management intensity - the SOAEFD Micronet Project."

Salvador Hernandez of the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, visited NREL October 18-28 under the sponsorship of Bill Parton. Salvador worked with the CENTURY model to try to determine the possibilities of adaptation for tropical grasslands, and for tree-grass inter-cropping. He also consulted on the development of a new model, the Silvopastoral model, and got feedback on the parameterization of plant and soil models.

Zou Hongfei, Luo Liyang, and Ma Jianzhang of the College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, China, visited under the sponsorship of Tom Stohlgren.

Alex Wolfe gave an informal seminar to the Loch Vale Watershed research team on September 17. Dr. Wolfe is at INSTAAR in Boulder, and has been exploring paleolimnological trends in chemistry and species in alpine and arctic lakes.

Johan Six received an ASA graduate student award from the Division of Soil and Water Management and Conservation at the annual ASA meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

DeAna Nasseth was invited by the City of Colorado Springs Department of Utilities, Water Division, to participate in a 2-day field tour of the city's water collection, storage, and distribution system, from Pikes Peak to the Western Slope. The tour included visits to reservoirs, pump stations, diversion corridors, hydroelectric generating facilities, and potential water development sites. Formal discussions of water conservation, environmental impacts, and water politics and law were integral to the trip, which was designed to make local community leaders and volunteers aware of the scope of the city's water operations. DeAna has been serving on the Citizens' Advisory Committee for the development of the Pikes Peak South Slope Master Plan and has been reappointed by the Colorado Springs Park Board to another 3-year term on the Garden of the Gods Technical Advisory Committee, which oversees and monitors the implementation of the Garden of the Gods Master Plan.

Amy Treonis won "Best Graduate Poster Presentation" for the Annual CSU Student Water Symposium for "Soil and sediment invertebrate biodiversity in an Antarctic dry valley stream channel" with co-authors Diana Wall and Ross Virginia, Dartmouth College.

Of the four graduate students working in Robert Sanford's labs, three are expecting to finish within the next nine months: Carol Dawson, "Ecosystem management and population biology of Astragalus osterhoutii, a federally listed, endangered species" (Ph.D. degree expected 6/99); Kristin Hanson, "Crytobiotic crusts and invasion of Bromus tectorum in the context of phosphorus limitation: (Ph.D. degree expected 6/99); and Karen Harrell, "The age and distribution of soil charcoal in lowland tropical forest: implications for tropical land use history" (M.S. degree expected 3/99). Two undergraduate students working in Robert's labs were also awarded Outstanding Senior Honor's Thesis: William Monahan, 1998, "Miombo soils of Zimbabwe; effects of fire frequency on soil organic matter" (B.S. with honors in Biological Sciences, 6/98), Outstanding Honor's Thesis Award, Department of Biological Sciences; and Aaron Shiels, 1998, "The effects of mobile tree islands on soil nutrients in an alpine ecosystem" (B.S. with honors in Environmental Sciences, 6/98), Outstanding Honor's Thesis Award, Department of Biological Sciences.

Robin Reich and Tom Stohlgren received $247,000 from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for year two of "Landscape assessment of native and exotic plant diversity and cryptobiotic crusts in Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah."

The NSF/LTER Program funded the "Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research" six-year project, on which Robert Sanford will serve as co-PI.

USDI/National Park Service (NPS) Dispro funded the "Nitrogen Deposition and UV Stressor Impacts in Canyonlands National Park as Affected by Climatic Pulse Events" three-year project, on which Robert Sanford will serve as co-PI.

Diana Wall received a grant of $45,000 from the Winslow Foundation for co-funding of a workshop of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. The workshop was October 12-16 in Lunteren, The Netherlands.

Niall Hanan, Bob Scholes and Mike Coughenour submitted a proposal entitled "Net carbon and energy balance of savanna ecosystems at EOS validation sites in Southern Africa" to NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program.

Niall Hanan, Jack Morgan (ARS, Fort Collins) and Dennis Ojima submitted a proposal to NIGEC Great Plains Regional Center with Tagir Gilmanov (South Dakota State University), Doug Johnson (ARS, Logan), Tony Svejcar (ARS, Burns) and Ray Angell (ARS, Burns) entitled "Carbon dynamics in the Great Plains and Great Basin regions using Bowen ratio flux measurements and ecosystem models."

Tom Hobbs and Dave Theobald submitted a proposal titled "Evaluating Conservation Subdivisions in Larimer County" to the Colorado Department of Wildlife (CDOW-GOCO).

Keith Paustian and Ted Elliott submitted a continuation proposal to DOE/NIGEC on "Agroecosystem Boundaries and C Dynamics with Global Change in the Central United States." Ted submitted a continuation proposal to DOE/NIGEC for coordination of the Central U.S. component of NIGEC's Integrated Assessment of the Consequences of Climatic and Atmospheric Changes.

Robert Sanford submitted a proposal to the Nature Conservancy/Ecosystem Research Program for three years, "Exotic Annual Grasses in Western Rangelands: Predicting Resistence and Resiliency of Native Ecosystems to Invasion."

Robert Sanford is co-PI on a proposal submitted to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for four years, "Comparative Land Use History in the New World Tropics: Reconstructing Regional Patterns."

Tom Stohlgren, Jill Baron, Bill Baker, Roger Pielke, Lawrence Band, Dave Schimel, Dan Binkley, Tim Kittel, and Tom Veblen, "Global change impacts in the Colorado Rockies biogeographical area: Phase II, "USGS Biological Resources Division.

Diana Wall and Gina Adams submitted a proposal to the USDA National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (NRICGP) for $10,000 co-funding for a workshop of the SCOPE Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity on "The Role of Biodiversity at Soil and Sediment Interfaces for the Functioning of Critical Transition Zones."

Belnap, J., and R.L. Sanford, Jr., and L. Lungu. 1997. Biological Soil Crusts: ecological roles and response to fire in miombo woodlands of Zimbabwe. Transactions of the Zimbabwe Scientific Association 70: 14-20.

Binkley, Dan, and Christian Giardina. 1998. "Why trees affect soils in temperate and tropical forests: the warp and woof of tree/soil interactions." Biogeochemistry 42:89-106. The article used a rug-weaving analogy to explore the evolutionary basis for why tree species differ in their effects on soils.

Brussaard L., V.M. Behan-Pelletier, D.E. Bignell, V.K. Brown, W.A.M. Didden, P.I. Folgarait, C. Fragoso, D.W. Freckman, V.V.S.R. Gupta, T. Hattori, D. Hawksworth, C. Klopatek, P. Lavelle, D. Malloch, J. Rusek, B. Söderström, J.M. Tiedje and R.A. Virginia. 1997. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Soil. Ambio 26(8):563-570.

Cibils, A.F, D.M. Swift, E.D. McArthur. 1998. Plant-herbivore interactions in Atriplex: current state of knowledge. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-14. Ogden, UT:U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 31 pp.

Cole, C.V., N. Rosenberg and K. Paustian (eds). 1998 Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by the Agricultural Sector. Special issue of Climatic Change, vol 40.

Denslow J., A. Ellison and R.L. Sanford Jr. 1998. Treefall gap size effects on above and below ground processes in tropical wet forest. Journal of Ecology 86:in press.

Frolking S.E., A.R. Mosier, D.S. Ojima, C. Li, W.J. Parton, C.S. Potter, E. Priesack, R. Stenger, C. Haberbosch, P. Dersch, H. Flessa, K.A. Smith. 1998. Comparison of N2O emissions from soils at three temperate agricultural sites: simulations of year-round measurements by four models. Nutr. Cycling Agroecosys. 55:77-105.

Ingram, J. and D. Wall Freckman. 1998. Soil Biota and Global Change-Preface. Global Change Biology 4:699-702.

Kalkhan, M. A., R. M. Reich, and T. J. Stohlgren. 1998. Assessing the accuracy of Landsat Thematic Mapper map using double sampling. International J. of Remote Sensing, 19:2049-2060.

Kershaw, A.P., M.B. Bush, G.S. Hope, K.F. Weiss, J.G. Goldammer, R.L. Sanford, Jr. 1997. The contribution of humans to past biomass burning in the tropics. Pages 413-442 In J.S. Clark, H. Cachier, J.G. Goldammer, and B. Stocks (eds.) Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.

Milchunas, D.G., W.K. Lauenroth, and I.C. Burke. 1998. Livestock grazing: animal and plant biodiversity of shortgrass steppe and the relationship to ecosystem function. Oikos 83:65-74.

Olsson, Ute, Dan Binkley, and Skip Smith. 1998. "Nitrogen supply, nitrogen use, and production in an age sequence of lodgepole pine." Forest Science 44:454-457. The paper examines the changes in N cycling and limitation in an age-sequence of odgepole pine--the cause of declining growth in old trees did not appear to be related simply to nutrition.

D.S. Ojima, X. Xiao, T. Chuluun and X.S. Zhang. Asian grassland biogeochemistry: factors affecting past and future dynamics of Asian grasslands. 1998. In: Asian Change in the context of global climate change / edited by James N. Galloway and Jerry M. Melillo, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, IGBP Book Series 3, 128-144.

Paustian, K., E.T. Elliott, M.R. Carter. 1998. Tillage and crop management impacts on soil C storage: Use of long-term experimental data. Soil Tillage Research, vol. 47:vii-xii.

Paustian, K., C.V. Cole, D. Sauerbeck and N. Sampson. 1998. CO2 mitigation by agriculture: An overview. Climatic Change 40:135-162.

Paustian, K., E.T. Elliott, M.R. Carter (eds) 1998. Tillage and Crop Management Impacts on Soil C Storage. Special issue of Soil Tillage Research, vol. 47.

Pielke Sr., R.A., J. Eastman, T.N. Chase, J. Knaff, and T.G.F. Kittel. 1998. 1973-1996 trends in depth-averaged tropospheric temperature. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 103 (D14): 16927-16933.

Rapport, D.J., C. Gaudet, J.R. Karr, J.S. Baron, C. Bohlen, W. Jackson, B. Jones, R.J. Naiman, B. Norton, and M.M. Pollock. 1998. Evaluating landscape health: integrating societal goals and biophysical processes. Jour. Environ. Management 53:1-15.

Rosenberg, N., C.V. Cole and K. Paustian. 1998. New technologies, policies and measures offer potential to mitigate emissions while improving productivity and ecosystem health: An introductory editorial. Climatic Change 40:1-5.

Sanford Jr., R.L. and E. Cuevas. 1997. Root growth and rhizosphere interactions in tropical forests. Pages 268-300 in: S.S. Mulkey, R. L. Chazdon, and A. P. Smith (eds.) Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology. Chapman and Hall, New York. USA.

Six, J., E.T. Elliott, K. Paustian, and J.W. Doran. 1998. Aggregation and soil organic matter accumulation in cultivated and native grassland soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62:1367-1377.

Stohlgren, T.J., K.A. Bull, Y. Otsuki, C. Villa, and M. Lee. 1998b. Riparian zones as havens for exotic plant species. Plant Ecology 138:113-125.

Togtohyn, Chuluun. 1998. "A Choice of economic development pathway in Mongolia." In: Civilization: Philosophy and Development, vol. 15, 137-149, Ulaanbaatar.

Wall D.H., L. Brussaard, P.A. Hutchings, M.A. Palmer, and P.V.H. Snelgrove. 1998. Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Nature and Resources 34(2) 41-51.

Wall-Freckman, D., and S.P. Huang. 1998. Response of the soil nematode community in a shortgrass steppe to long-term and short-term grazing. Applied Soil Ecology 9:39-44.

Wall Freckman, D. and R. A. Virginia. 1998. Soil Biodiversity and Community Structure in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. In: Pages 323-335, J. Priscu (ed). Ecosystem Dynamics in a Polar Desert: The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. American Geophysical Union.

Marlen Eve is a soil scientist with the USDA, Agriculture Research Service, and a new research associate/post-doc at NREL in August. Marlen is working with Keith Paustian and Ron Follett (ARS) on a project to determine current net C emissions from soils for the U.S. He arrived in August from Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was project coordinator for the Nebraska Gap Analysis Project, a statewide assessment of biological diversity. Marlen grew up on a farm in northcentral Montana, and received his B.S. degree in Soils at Montana State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico. His doctoral research emphasized the application of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) techniques to understand landscape change, specifically land degradation processes in the rangelands of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert.

Ric Hupalo is a new programmer at NREL working with Keith Paustian, Kendrick Killian, and John Brenner on state-level analyses of C dynamics and soil C sequestration. For the past year Ric has been working for a software development company in Greeley. Prior to coming to Colorado, Ric did ecological research in northcentral Florida, involving hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to evaluate hydroperiod requirements for wetland plant communities and stream fish assemblages, and artesian spring minimum temperature regimes for wintering manatees. His M.S. work dealt with evaluating dissimilarities between wetland plant communities, hydroperiod, and the landscape setting of several natural wetlands and an urban, man-created mitigation wetland.

Welcome to Alissa Klein, who is working for Jim Ellis and Mike Coughenour.

Jim Nelson has been hired as a research associate to support collaborative research with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. He will be working with Jack Morgan, Arvin Mosier, and Bill Parton, operating and maintaining the open-top chamber CO2 enrichment field facility at the Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER).

Mark Sperow started in September as a research associate/post-doc working with Keith Paustian on the Fund for Rural America project. Mark has degrees from West Virginia University and Duquesne University in History and Colorado State University in Agricultural and Resource Economics. His research areas include an economic analyses of the alfalfa stem nematode on irrigated alfalfa and the impact of drought on a Colorado river basin using mathematical modeling techniques. Mark spent ten years working for an aerospace company and a season in Antarctica before returning to school to continue his education.

Gwen Scott has been hired as a scientific programmer for the Ultraviolet Radiation Monitoring Program (UVB). Gwen previously worked at the NREL for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). Welcome back, Gwen!

Mark St. John arrived from Ottawa, Canada, to join Diana Wall's research group. Mark will be working with Andy Parsons from now until the new year. In January, he hopes to start a Ph.D. program as part of GDPE. Mark will be working on the new NSF soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning project, making trips to the Konza Prairie for field work. His focus on the project will be soil mites. He will be working with Diana, Andy and Bill Hunt (co-PIs), plus Val Behan-Pelletier, consultant on the project, who works in Canada.

Pilar Tillberg started work with Diana Wall's research group on October 26. Pilar will be the new manager of Diana's lab in CNR and responsible for processing soil samples, counting nematodes and carrying out field work. She has quickly been immersed in the life of the lab, with field trips to the CPER and Konza Prairie in Kansas. Pilar is a native of Newton, Kansas and has a B.S. degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Chuanguo Xu was hired as a research associate (postdoctoral fellow) to support collaborative research with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. He will work with Ted Elliott, Ron Follett, Marv Shaffer, and others to develop software for a nutrient management toolkit for use by Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in their national program.

Jill Baron participated in the Big Thompson Watershed Forum educational meeting at Sylvan Dale Ranch on September 25. This was the first public outreach meeting to inform people about water quality issues in the Big Thompson Watershed. About 100 middle and high school students and 30 water professionals attended. Jill and Eric Allstott presented a poster on "Top of the Thompson: Water Quality of High Mountain Lakes."

Kathy Galvin gave a presentation on wildlife--human conflicts in conservation areas in Africa to the Audubon Society on September 10.

Tom Stohlgren trained National Park Service trainees on inventory and monitoring techniques in Shanendoah National Park, Virginia, September 3-4. Tom, Geneva Chong, Lisa Schell, and John Mooney showed first graders at Werner Elementary School how to establish vegetation plots and calculate species accumulation curves on September 28. They loved the dissecting scope and the global positioning system. Two-thirds of the class want to become scientists.

Dave Swift met with the director of the Discovery Center Science Museum, Fort Collins, and the Division of Wildlife to discuss plans for an interactive display on Colorado. The display, occupying an entire room, will link Colorado's ecosystems and natural resources with human needs and activities. We expect that NREL will play a major role in developing this permanent exhibit, contributing ideas and information for displays that will demonstrate to children of all ages the important links between the people and ecosystems of Colorado.

At the Blevins Junior High School, Amy Treonis, Jeanine Junnel, Kevin Fisher, Nichole Barger, Todd Wellnitz and Ana Child, all from GDPE, taught an after school program on trophic pyramids to at-risk students. They demonstrated trophic pyramids from different parts of the world from the arctic to the urban ecosystem. Live animals such as a Burmese python, a marmot and a ground squirrel were displayed to the students to stimulate discussions and to grasp a better understanding of where animals fit in the trophic pyramid.

September

Elizabeth Sulzman gave birth to a nearly 7-pound baby girl, Serita, at approximately 1:30 a.m. on August 20.  Mother and daughter are dong fine.

Congratulations, Kelly and Elizabeth!