No. 33                                                                                               June 2002

DR. JAMES ELLIS

EVELYN CLARK

NREL IN THE LIMELIGHT

AWARDS

HAPPENINGS

CONGRATULATIONS

GRAD STUDENT NEWS

VISITORS

PEOPLE - WELCOME TO NREL    

GIFTS TO NREL

DR. JAMES ELLIS
James Ellis, 63, an ecosystem scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory of Colorado State University, died in an avalanche in western Colorado on March 14, 2002. The world is diminished by his loss.
Dr. Ellis' preeminent work on understanding the interplay between people and natural processes in arid ecosystems set a global standard for novel research spanning scientific disciplines. He applied integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding pastoral ecosystem ecology throughout the world - in Africa, the Mideast, Asia, and North America. His work exerted broad impacts on contemporary science, but more, played a fundamental role in supporting wise management and policy in the developing world. Particularly notable was his extensive research on the ecology of pastoralism in the Turkana District of Kenya during the 1980s; studies supported by three major grants from the Ecosystem Studies Program and the Anthropology Program of the National Science Foundation. This project produced over 200 scientific publications. It was the first example of a major research project integrating social and ecosystem science; an example that has been frequently imitated.

Dr. Ellis was a Senior Scientist at CSU's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory since 1971, serving as its' Associate Director from 1986-1992. During 1989-1995, he was a Professor in the Range Science Department. From 1993-1995, he served as director of the Center for Environment and Sustainable Agriculture for Winrock International Livestock Research and Training Center, an organization that works with people around the world to increase agricultural productivity and rural employment while protecting the environment. From 1995-1996, he served as a program leader for the Conservation and Development Center for African Ecology at the University of Witswatersand, South Africa.

Jim lived in a house in the foothills northwest of Fort Collins that was built largely by his own hands. He was an active outdoorsman and a superb athlete, running marathons when he was 60. He is survived by his wife and longstanding scientific colleague, Dr. Kathleen Galvin, and four sons, Gregory, Eric, Ian, and Stefan.

A memorial service was held and attended by over 250 family members, friends, and colleagues on Friday, March 22, 2002 in the CSU Lory Student Center. The James E. Ellis Humans and the Environment Fellowship has been established at NREL as a memorial to remember and honor Jim's life. If you would like to contribute to this fund, donations may be sent in care of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499. Your gift will help us continue to realize the maximum benefits of NREL's educational and research mission by supporting future students who hold the same values that Jim held and shared with us at NREL. This fund was established in his memory to celebrate his life and perpetuate his work by supporting the NREL in a very meaningful way. We want to thank the many people who have already contributed to this fund.

LOSS OF EVELYN CLARK
Evelyn Clark passed away on Monday, Jan 21 in her home. She was 96 years old. She and Francis Clark were married on Aug. 15, 1933. Both are friends and colleagues who care for and have contributed greatly to NREL's future. They established the Francis Clark Soil Biology Scholarship in 1997 out of their belief in the importance of continued research in soil biology and keeping the NREL on the cutting edge of science. The purpose of this fund is to benefit students at Colorado State University who are desirous of pursuing studies in Soil Biology and it is restricted to students whose major professor is a member of the scientific staff of the NREL. We all will greatly miss Evelyn's lively sense of humor and caring spirit.

NREL'S 35th Anniversary Reunion and Symposium
The NREL and the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University will be holding NREL's 35th Anniversary Reunion and Symposium entitled "Our Vision For The Future Of Ecosystem Science" on October 30, 2002 in the Cherokee Park Room, Lory Student Center, CSU. This event will provide an opportunity for former colleagues and friends who have worked and studied at NREL, from its beginning as the headquarters of the Grassland Biome Program to the present, to visit and reflect on NREL's challenges for continuance as a global leader in ecosystem science. The Symposium will conclude with a lecture given by the past recipient of NREL's Award of Excellence in Ecosystem Science, Dr. David C. Coleman, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia. Immediately following Dr. Coleman's talk, a reception will be held at Ammons Hall where Dr. Thomas Rosswall, Executive Director, International Council for Science, Paris, France, will be presented with the 2002 Award of Excellence in Ecosystem Science.

NREL IN THE LIMELIGHT

The International Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY) Symposium
The IBOY Symposium, "Biodiversity Science and Global Research," at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting and Science Innovation Exposition was held in Boston in February. The symposium, organized by Diana Wall and by Andrew Dobson from Princeton University, attracted a capacity audience and the speakers, each leaders of IBOY projects, were interviewed by media including the USA National Public Radio, National Geographic, Nature Magazine, and Radio Netherlands International. The speakers presented findings across issues as varied as biodiversity itself, but their unifying message was that Information Technology (IT) has become a vital tool for understanding global biodiversity issues that are crucial for sustainability.

IBOY Announces the Launch of Explore Your World! Biodiversity Month - May 2002
Biodiversity Month is a result of a November 2001 meeting sponsored by the US National Committee for DIVERSITAS and organized by IBOY. Explore Your World! Biodiversity Month is a national contribution to the IBOY and marks the United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22. Celebrations are being coordinated by IBOY, which is based at NREL and is an initiative of DIVERSITAS, the international program on biodiversity science. For more information, visit http://www.biodiversitymonth.org. NREL participated in one such event, "Amoebas to Zebras: A Celebration of Biodiversity" coordinated by the IBOY Secretariat and held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on May 18, 2002. Using interactive displays and demonstrations, NREL's scientists and students who work on ecosystems ranging from Colorado lakes and prairies to African savannahs and Antarctic deserts will be on hand to explain how state of the art science is being used to help understand biodiversity.

AWARDS

National
Bill Parton, Eldor Paul, and Dave Schimel received the World's Most Cited Authors' Award from the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ISI), 2001. ISI has created a new list of Highly Cited Researchers based on the important scientific developments of the last two decades. The recognition of their contributions by fellow scientists, reflected in the outstanding number of references their papers have garnered, has placed Bill, Eldor, and David in this group.

Jill Baron received the USGS Biological Resources Division Award for outstanding contributions in 2001.

Bill Parton received a special award from the American Meteorological Society as a member of the Editorial Board, Glossary of Meteorology, Second Edition, in January 2002.

Tom Stohlgren was selected as University of Washington's Jill Adams Distinguished Lecturer in Botany, 2001 and received the USGS Outstanding Performance Award for quality of work.

CSU
Ingrid Burke received CSU's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award in 2001.

Mark Easter was one of two recipients of the Campus Sustainability Award in 2002. In the fall of 2001, NREL formed an ad hoc committee of scientists and staff, chaired by Mark, to review environmental impacts and evaluate ways to reduce these impacts through reduced consumption of materials and energy. The committee included Gina Adams, Andy Parsons, Dan Manier, Geneva Chong, Nancy Gus, Steve Del Grosso, and Kristen Howerton. Through the audit, the most significant environmental impacts in NREL's business and research practices were identified, as were the solutions that will reduce NREL's ecological footprint.

Kathy Galvin received the Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the Internationalization of CSU, Office of International Programs, 2001.

Dave Theobald received the Exceptional Service Award, Graduate Discovery Internship Program of the College of Agricultural Sciences, 2001.

HAPPENINGS

USAID/GL-CRSP PROJECT IN EAST AFRICA
The NREL, along with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi are the lead organizations in a project conducted in East Africa, which maintains a strong outreach activity. The project, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development/Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program, provides information on policy and management options for promoting wildlife conservation and livestock-based livelihoods for pastoral people who reside in or near wildlife reserves or protected areas in Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa. During 2001 and early 2002, project scientists from NREL (Jim Ellis, Randy Boone, and Shauna Burnsilver), ILRI, and other African collaborating institutions conducted 10 mini-workshops for Maasai communities and 8 full workshops for Maasai community members, and personnel representing agencies responsible for parks management, wildlife conservation, or livelihoods and development for pastoral people. In total, these workshops and conferences reached over 300 agency representatives and community members, providing information on options for conservation and development.

CPR INTERVIEW
Dan Manier was interviewed by Colorado Public Radio in December 2001 on the role of fire and habitat change in mule deer population declines in western Colorado with the host of "Colorado Matters." The educational interview was broadcast throughout the state.

NREL WORKSHOP - GLOBAL CHANGE STUDIES
Dennis Ojima co-chaired a NREL-hosted workshop in January 2002 to define the new science plan for terrestrial focused global change studies. The planning process is being referred to as the People-Atmosphere-Land (PAL) Scoping Activity. The charge to this group has come from the IGBP and the IHDP secretariats for consultation with various scientists to develop a science plan for global change research that takes into account the rich research progress of the past decade, and to provide a vision of the research needed in the coming decade. The plan developed during this meeting was accepted at the IGBP 17th Scientific Committee Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.

CONGRATULATIONS

The Provost has announced that Jim Slusser has been promoted to Senior Research Scientist.

The NREL Executive Committee has approved David Merritt as a new NREL Scientist. We are delighted to have Dave at NREL because he brings expertise and interest in riparian plant ecology and focus on species invasions along river corridors. Dave will be moving to NREL in the Fall of 2002 and will be working with Dave Theobald and others. He is also a Riparian Plant Ecologist with the US Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, a member of NREL's Executive Advisory Committee and past Chief Biodiversity Advisor for the World Bank, is the new President of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Washington DC.

GRAD STUDENT NEWS

Awards
Mark St. John received a Graduate Fellowship with Diana Wall, PI, from a NSF Ecological Circulatory Collaborative (ECC) Grant, "Identifying Ecosystem Controls on Soil Biodiversity," for 2001-2003. Mark will attend workshops, with other ECC graduate student awardees, at the of Institute of Ecosystem Studies, which Peter Groffman coordinates.

Todd Wojtowicz (Diana Wall, advisor) was awarded the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Scholarship. He will use this scholarship to receive training with mite taxonomists.

New
Moffatt Ngugi, a PhD student from Kenya, is working with Rich Conant and Mike Coughenour (advisors) on a project funded by NASA entitled "An Integrated Multi-scale Investigation of Grassland Management: Implications for Carbon Cycling."

Defended/Graduating
Tamara Hochstrasser (Deb Peters, advisor) successfully defended her PhD, "Pattern and process at a grassland-shrubland ecotone." Tamara works with Deb in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the Jornada Experimental Range.

Kris Metzger (Mike Coughenour, advisor) successfully gave her PhD defense, "Relationships among species richness, productivity and scale along a precipitation and nutrient availability gradient in Serengeti, East Africa." Kris is a post-doc with Monica Turner, University of Wisconsin.

Lindsey Christensen (Mike Coughenour, advisor) received her PhD degree in May. She is a post-doc with Pam Matson at Stanford University. Shuree Begzsuren (Jim Ellis, past advisor) successfully defended her MS thesis, "Herbaceous Forage Variability and Carrying Capacity in the GTBNP, Mongolia" in April 2002.

Jerry Hudson (Kathy Galvin, advisor) successfully defended his MS thesis, "Responses to Climate Variability of the Livestock Sector in the North-West Province, South Africa," for a Master of Arts in Anthropology. His research was funded by NREL's NOAA grant.

Andres Cibils, former NREL graduate student advised by Dave Swift, obtained a post doctoral position at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Nicole DeCrappeo, MS, (Diana Wall, advisor) is running the soil lab for Monica Turner in Yellowstone National Park for the summer.

VISITORS

Roy Behnke and Carol Kerven (MLURI, Aberdeen, Scotland), Jim Reardon-Anderson (Georgetown University), Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO, Alice Springs, Australia), and Philip Thornton (ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya) visited NREL February 20-22, 2002 for a PI and social scientist's meeting for the "Biocomplexity, Spatial Scale, and Fragmentation: Implications for Arid and Semi-arid Ecosystems" (SCALE) project. This is a NSF Biocomplexity project.

B. Bolortsetseg, Research Scientist from the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Mongolia, is studying climate change and grazing impacts on the Mongolian rangeland ecosystems using CENTURY model. Her 3-month fellowship was funded through the START program. She is working with Dennis Ojima and Togtohyn Chuluun.

Carlos Cerri, a visiting PhD student from Brasil, is doing modeling work with Keith Paustian investigating soil carbon changes across a pasture chronosequence.

Xueyong Zhao, on a 6-month sabbatical from the Cold and Arid Area Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Lanzhou, China is researching degraded grassland ecosystems in Eastern Inner-Mongolia. He is studying theory and ecological research methods with Dennis Ojima to enhance his work in China.

PEOPLE - WELCOME TO NREL 

Derek Esposito, a research associate working with Jeff Welker on the isotopic characteristics of precipitation across the US.

Xiu Ou is a modeler working on several projects with Keith Paustian's group.

Amy Randell is a temporary research associate working with Tom Stohlgren.

Mahesh Sankaran is a Post-Doc working on the "Biocomplexity in African Savannas" project with Niall Hanan, Mike Coughenour and others at CSU and in Africa. Mahesh received his PhD from the University of Syracuse with Sam McNaughton and worked at Imperial College London (Silwood Park).

Amy Swan is working with Keith Paustian filling Kristen Howerton's position Kristen has moved to Tennessee.

Leaving NREL
Sander Bruun, visiting PhD student from Denmark, is leaving after 6 months at NREL doing modeling work with Keith Paustian (soil C, soil respiration).

Marlen Eve is now working in the Middle East as a consultant. He and two friends have started a company to help with agricultural development.

Zhiqiang Gao has been at NREL for two years working as a Post-doc for Dennis Ojima. He helped develop NDVI relationships to climate factors and land surface parameters from NDVI for ecosystem-climate modeling. This research was funded by a grant from EROS Data Center and USGS. He will return to China in July.

Rebecca Lavier has left her position as part of Diana Wall's lab to pursue graduate school.

Mark Pagani, NREL Scientist, is joining Yale University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. He will remain affiliated with NREL as a Scientist. While at Yale, he will work with the new Center for Light Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry in Environmental Studies, which houses his primary instrument designed to measure stable isotopic compositions of compound specific organic molecules (biomarkers).

Johan Six, Research Scientist, is moving to Davis, California to work as a professional researcher in the Agronomy and Range Science Department at the University of California, Davis. He will also still be affiliated with NREL as a research scientist.

GIFTS TO NREL

NREL Discretionary Fund-Karen Bradley, David Coleman, Dr. Colbert E. Cushing, Orie L. Loucks, Thomas E. Lovejoy III, Vince McElligott, Nancy E. Miller, Thomas Hughes Peck, Hubert Soika. IBOY Program-Andrew P. Dobson, Stuart L. Pimm, World Wildlife Fund-UK. James E. Ellis Humans and the Environment Fellowship-Numerous donations.