SPECIAL RECOGNITION The NREL Audit Resource Committee received the annual Environmental Stewardship Award from the Larimer County Board of Commissioners and the Environmental Advisory Board. Last year, the committee wrote a report which reviewed NREL's environmental footprint, and made recommendations to improve recycling, paper use, water use, and energy (see http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/reports/NREL-Environmental-Review.pdf) This recognition for NREL, shows our continuing commitment to contributing to environmental sustainabilty. We congratulate the NREL Audit Resource Committee, Gina Adams, Jill Baron, Geneva Chong, Steve Del Grosso, Nancy Gus, Kristen Howerton, Dan Manier, Andy Parsons , and chaired by Mark Easter . Mark was presented the award on behalf of the NREL committee on December 15 at the Larimer County Courthouse Offices. Diana Wall received the Soil Ecology Society's highest honor "The Professional Achievement Award for 2003" in Palm Springs, California from President Edie Allen and President Elect Jayne Belnap. Diana was honored (and roasted) by David Coleman, Walt Whitford, Johan Six (NREL and UC-Davis) and former NREL grad students: Amy Treonis (Creighton Univ.) and Serita Frey (Univ. of NH), and current: Mark St. John, Kathy Stewart. Emma Broos and Johnson Nkem from Diana Wall's lab at NREL were also present.
Meeting Honors Jim Ellis The UN Foundation, it's president, Timothy Wirth, and partners, organized a series of debates entitled "The People Speak - America Debates its Role in the World," across the USA. NREL lead a debate entitled, "Should the U.S. use preemptive military force to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction?" The panel, which included CSU faculty and distinguished guests, was held on October 14, 2003. For results of the debate visit our website at http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/events/debate.html. NREL Seminar Series PBS Television National Geographic News NREL Well-Represented at NSF Biocomplexity Workshop Diana Wall , with Eldor Paul (NREL) and A. Fitter (York University), gave the Invited Plenary Address, entitled "Developing New Ecological Perspectives from Advances in Soil Biodiversity Research," at the British Ecological Society Annual Symposium on Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, Lancaster, UK, in March. Diana Wall and Holley Zadeh organized the Global Litter Invertebrate Decomposition Experiment (GLIDE) Data Synthesis Workshop, hosted by Dr. Volkmar Wolters in Giessen, Germany in March. Emma Broos (NREL) was a participant. Dennis Ojima presented a talk entitled: "Vulnerability of Steppe Ecosystems of Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Climate and Land Use Changes under Transitional Social Pressures" at the Northern Eurasian Ecosystems Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) Science Plan Workshop, Suzdal, Russia in April. The purpose of this workshop was to develop a network of research activities to better understand the role of the Northern Eurasian region in global change dynamics. This region has been noted for a high rate of climate warming resulting in rapid glacier melting, dramatic permafrost thawing, and extended droughts. In addition, the recent social and economic upheavals have affected the human dimensions of the region and contributed to changes in land use affecting the vulnerability of people to global change and the feedback to the earth's system. An international partnership between countries of Northern Eurasia with the US, EU, China, Mongolia, and Japan is being developed. In October 2003, a meeting of African and international researchers with interest in the study of African ecosystem dynamics using micrometeorological methods was held following the IGBP-International Land Ecosystem Atmosphere Pilot Study (ILEAPS) meeting in Helsinki, Finland. The workshop, funded in part by an IGBP-START grant to Niall Hanan and Robert Scholes, discussed plans to form a new network called "Afriflux" as a resource for collaboration among researchers in Africa and to promote synthetic and integrative studies across African systems. The IGBP-START funds will support participation of researchers from several African countries in a flux-measurement training workshop to be held in South Africa in April 2004. Keith Paustian and Mark Easter are collaborating with scientists from the UK, Netherlands, Austria, France, Brazil, Jordan, Kenya, and India to develop advanced methods for soil carbon and greenhouse gas inventories in developing countries. Keith and Mark attended a project meeting in Aquas de Sao Pedro, Brazil in April to review country-level databases and modeling methodologies. Together, with UK scientists, they hosted a modeling training session at NREL in July to train post-doctoral scientists from Brazil, Jordan, and Kenya in using soil carbon and ecosystem simulation models. Ken Killian and Steve Williams (NREL) also contributed to the modeling instruction. Keith also attended a project PI planning meeting in Uzes, France in July. Keith Paustian served on a panel with scientists from Brazil, India, Australia, and Kenya, at a meeting in Igausu Falls, Brazil in August, to develop a new research program on Conservation Agriculture for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA sponsors research involving the use of stable and radioactive isotopes for ecological investigations. The new program will be launched in 2004. Dennis Ojima presented talks entitled: "Interactions Between Models and Data (including Data Uncertainty Issues)" and "Data Integration at Different Scales in Support of Biogeochemical Analysis" at the Terrestrial Carbon Observation-Global Carbon Project Workshop on Terrestrial Carbon Observations and Model-Data Fusion in Sheffield, UK in June. The purpose of this workshop was to develop methods of integrating observations of terrestrial ecosystem and model calculations to better estimate carbon stocks and fluxes around the world. The sponsors of the meeting included FAO and the Global Carbon Project. Tom Hobbs, Kathy Galvin, Mike Coughenour, Randy Boone , and Shauna BurnSilver attended a pre-International Rangeland Congress workshop on nonequilibrium in rangeland systems in July in Durban, South Africa. Dennis Ojima and Chuluun Togtohyn also presented posters entitled "Climate Change Impact on Rangeland Productivity in Mongolia" from their research conducted in Mongolia. Immediately following was a SCALE (Biocomplexity, Spatial Scale and Fragmentation: Implications for Arid and Semi-arid Ecosystems) project meeting held at the Ithala Game Reserve in South Africa. Other attendees to that meeting were Jill Lackett (NREL) and project collaborators from Australia, Kenya, Kazakstan, Scotland, and the UK. Bill Parton and Keith Paustian were invited lecturers at the Summer School for the Swiss National Science Foundation Climate Change Research Program, August/September, in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Sessions on climate science, climate change impacts, and climate change mitigation were attended by 65 students from many different countries. Heidi Steltzer and Jeff Welker made a presentation to the military and civilian personnel at Thule Air Base in late August on the nature and early results from their NSF Biocomplexity project. Stephen Ogle was an invited participant of the CarboEurope-GHG Meeting in Clermont-Ferrand, France in September. The purpose of this meeting was to deal with the synthesis of the European Greenhouse Gas Budget. Steve presented an update on the U.S. agricultural soil C inventory, which is an assessment of land use and management impacts on soil C storage and is used for reporting purposes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. While there, he also participated in a COST Action 627 meeting which focused on carbon sequestration opportunities in European grasslands. He presented results from a literature review of grassland management impacts on soil C storage. This research (collaborated with Keith Paustian and Richard Conant ) was incorporated into the IPCC LUCF Good Practice Guidelines of which Keith is a coordinating lead author. Keith also attended IPCC meetings in Washington D.C. in April and in Sydney, Australia in July and August. Randy Boone attended a workshop in Wageningen, the Netherlands, in November. An international group of scientists presented results related to effects of landscape fragmentation on large herbivores. A book from Wageningen University and Research Centre is in production that will include a chapter by Boone, Shauna BurnSilver, Jeff Worden, Kathy Galvin , and Tom Hobbs . Diana Wall is co-chair, with Dr. Rudy Rabbinge, The Netherlands, of the Millennium Development Goals Committee of the Millennium Assessment. She attended their 3rd Global Scenarios Biodiversity Workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica. Tom Hobbs was an international opponent for the dissertation defense of Inga-Lill Person in the Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish Agricultural University, Umea, Sweden. Jill Baron attended a meeting to plan future
climate research in mountain ecosystems in Entlebuch Switzerland
in November 2003. Jill Baron was one of three invited plenary speakers at St. Olaf College Science Day in May in Northfield, MN. The topic of the 2003 event was Global Change. Rich Conant and Keith Paustian attended a Principal Investigators meeting on the Implementation Plan for the North American Carbon Program (NACP) in Washington, D.C. in May sponsored by NSF and the US Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group. Rich gave three poster presentations. Keith is presently working on the writing team charged with revising the NACP Implementation Plan. Dennis Ojima presented "Is There a Dust Bowl in Our Future? Projections for the Eastern Rockies and Central Great Plains: Lessons Learned from the Great Plains Assessment" at the Symposium on Water, Climate, and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management at the University of Colorado in June. Dennis was also part of the organizing committee for the Chapman Conference on Ecosystem Interactions with Land Use Change, in Santa Fe, NM in June where he presented a talk on "Land Use Impacts on Rangeland Productivity in Mongolia." Other NREL scientists present at the Chapman Conference included Jill Baron and Jeff Hicke . An AGU Monograph is in preparation from the conference. Jim Slusser and Wei Gao (NREL, UVB), along with Jay Hermann of NASA, were co-chairs of the conference session on Ultraviolet Ground- and Space-based Measurements, Models, and Effects. III held in San Diego in August. Slusser and Gao presented papers at the session along with George Janson and Dan Milchunas. Diana Wall is co-chair of Leopold Leadership Program Steering Committee, funded by the Packard Foundation, with Jane Lubchenco, Oregon State Univ. The LL Program selects and trains 20 academic, environmental scientists to communicate their work effectively to media policy, business leaders, and other non-scientists. Dave Swift visited Andres Cibils (faculty member of the Department of Range and Animal Science, New Mexico State Univ. and former NREL graduate student) at the NMSU research ranch near Corona, NM. They reviewed current, and considered the direction of future, research. Much of the past research in this area has focused on juniper control to improve forage production. Questions regarding the interactions between the trees and the herbaceous species remain to be answered. Diana Wall presented a talk on Antarctica to the Estes Park Rotary Club in August. Todd Wojtowicz (NREL grad student), and Nicole DeCrappeo (former NREL grad student, now at USGS in Oregon) attended a class on nematode identification at UC Riverside in August. Diana Wall, Emma Broos, Johnson Nkem, Bill Parton, Greg Newman (NREL), Indy Burke and Bill Lauenroth (Forest Rangeland Watershed Stewardship), and Deb Peters (New Mexico State University, NREL) attended the biennial Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) All Scientist Meeting, "Embarking on a Decade of Synthesis," in Seattle, WA in September. Scientists from the ILTER (International LTER) were also in attendance to discuss findings from individual LTER sites and to determine future directions with an emphasis on synthesis. Diana Wall, Emma Broos, and Johnson Nkem also attended the McMurdo LTER Meeting in Chicago, IL in June. In November, Tom Hobbs, Randy Boone , and Guiming Wang attended the last of three annual workshops held at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. In the workshop, the team from NREL worked to relate environmental differences in areas around the world to changes in large herbivore populations available from long-term surveys. The NREL Agroecosystems group made a strong showing at the American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America Meeting in Denver, November 2-6. Keith Paustian presented a symposium paper entitled "Carbon Sequestration and Sustainability - The Role of Conservation Agriculture." John Brenner (with co-authors Keith Paustian and Steve Ogle ) presented a poster entitled "Carbon Sequestration Assessment for U.S. Croplands, Pasturelands and Rangelands based on Land Resource Regions." A Soil Carbon Management session was dominated by the NREL group with presentations by Karolien Denef (presented by Johan Six and co-authored with Keith Paustian and Roel Merckx); "Carbon Seqeustration at the Microaggregate Level within No-tillage Soils with Different Clay Mineralogy," by Rich Conant (co-authored with Johan Six and Keith Paustian); "Modeling Measureable Soil Carbon Fractions: Field and Incubation Evaluation of the Soil Carbon Saturation Hypothesis," by Alain Plante (co-authored with Cathy Stewart , Johan Six, Rich Conant and Keith Paustian); "Impact of Soil Texture on the Distribution of Soil Organic C in Modelable Physical Fractions," by Cathy Stewart (co-authored with Alain Plante, Rich Conant, Keith Paustian and Johan Six); and "Determining Rates and Limits of Carbon Sequestration in Soil: Tracing C Additions." Bill Parton gave a talk, "Sustainability of Agriculture in Eastern Colorado" for the Colorado County Commissioner's Winter Meeting in December. He was the only speaker from CSU. Ecological Society of America Conference Steve Ogle and Keith Paustian contributed the estimates for CO 2 emissions and sinks from agricultural soils to the U.S. national greenhouse gas inventory compiled annually by EPA. The inventory estimates included a revised methodology and statistical uncertainty estimates, indicating that agricultural soils are presently acting as a small sink for atmospheric CO 2 , due to improved agricultural practices and the Conservation Reserve Program, but cultivated organic soils remain a significant source of CO 2 . They also contributed to a forthcoming USDA compilation of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. The methodology and results are also being published in a forthcoming issue of Global Change Biology. Tom Hobbs and Dennis Ojima gave presentations in April on findings of their multi-year EPA-funded study on global climate change entitled "Effects of Climate Change on Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park" to citizens of Estes Park and the staff of Rocky Mountain National Park. John Loomis and Stephan Weiler of CSU also presented economic research findings based on the EPA study. Tom Hobbs gave a presentation from this study in May to the Rocky Mountain National Park Lyceum Society. In April, the Global Change Forum, Kansas City, Kansas Community College, invited Dennis Ojima to give an overview of global change science and the impact assessment carried for the Great Plains. He was also invited by the Golden K Kiwanis Club to provide a lecture on the scientific basis of global warming at the Fort Collins Senior Center. The lecture was organized by long-time NREL friend, John Reuss, who wanted an alternate perspective given in contrast to a skeptical presentation earlier in the year. A three-day course "Land C Data Model Fusion Short Course for PRIMES," organized by Dennis Ojima and Becky McKeown (NREL), David Schimel (NCAR, NREL), Don Estep (Mathematics Dept., CSU), Richard Smith (Statistics Dept., CSU), and Scott Denning (Dept. of Atmospheric Science, CSU) was held at CSU in June. The course was attended by 30 students who took part in lectures on carbon science, modeling techniques, time series analysis, and numeric approaches to error analysis. Hands-on tutorials were given in addition to the lectures. A half-day field excursion and barbeque provided students and faculty the opportunity to visit the SGS-LTER field site and to observe an eddy-covariance tower installation run by Niall Hanan (NREL). Niall kindly gave of his time to describe the intricacies of eddy-covariance tower equipment and the objective of his study of ecosystem fluxes in grassland and croplands in the region. Jill Baron gave a talk in July to the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP), a branch of the Western Council of Governors (WCG), on ecological effects of atmospheric deposition. The WCG was headed by Mike Leavitt, former governor of Utah and incumbent EPA administrator. The WRAP is a group of agency, industry, and non-governmental organizations who meet on a regular basis to work on possible resolutions for damaging air quality effects on humans, ecosystems, and visibility, etc. Tom Hobbs led a workshop sponsored by NSF on the "Alternatives to statistical hypothesis testing for the analysis of ecological data" in Jackson, Wyoming, Dec 3-6. David Theobald is in the process of forming a group of researchers at NREL, initially called the Geospatial Information, Analysis, and Modeling (GIAM) group. A couple of important points to note:
International Science Development GLP Gets A Grand Kick-Off: A U.S. Nitrogen Science Plan Tom Hobbs , PI, with M.W. Miller (CDOW) and B.A. Wunder (Dept. of Biology, CSU), co-PIs, received a grant from the National Science Foundation, Small Grants in Exploratory Research for "Development of Technology for Remote Monitoring of Contact Processes in Animal Populations and Communities," for $49,964 to develop technology for measuring contact rates between animals in the field. Mike Coughenour was awarded two grants from NSF. One as PI, with Robin Reid as Co-PI, for one year for $49,921 entitled "FIBR: Planning a Study of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Livestock and Wildlife Dominated Savannas of East Africa - Using Genomic, Molecular, Species, and Ecosystem Approaches." The second was as a three-year NSF Biocomplexity sub-contract with Univ. of Minnesota for $598,133 entitled "Biocomplexity of the Greater Serengeti - Humans in a Biologically Diverse Ecosystem." Steve Ogle was awarded a one-year grant from EPA for $24,949 entitled "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Tasks for 2003." Niall Hanan and collaborators at CSU and other universities in the USA and Africa received joint funding from NASA and NOAA for a project investigating the carbon dynamics of the African continent. The three-year project will include site-based measurements of carbon, water and stable isotope fluxes, models of the carbon cycle using satellite data, and inversion of atmospheric CO 2 and 13C concentration measurements to estimate the spatial and temporal variability in carbon uptake and release for the whole of Africa. Jill Baron and Jeff Hicke are recipients of a five-year grant from the USGS Global Change Program to explore the response of high elevation western ecosystems to climate variation. They are co-PIs along with scientists from four other institutions for the project, called the Western Mountain Initiative. Diana Wall , PI, received funding for a four-year project from NSF DEB Ecosystems, "Collaborative Research: Global Patterns of Soil Biodiversity: Implications for Ecosystem Function" for $1.22 M. Collaborators on the project are Jim Garey, Univ. South Florida and Richard Bardgett, Lancaster Univ Diana has also been awarded one year of funding for $51,677 as PI from NSF-OPP for "Synthesis of Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Victoria Land, Antarctica: A Workshop." Co-PIs are Bryan Adams, Brigham Young Univ. and Ross Virginia, Dartmouth College. Diana is Co-Investigator, with W. Berry Lyons (Ohio State University) as PI for an NSF OPP funded project, "Soil Biodiversity and Response to Climate Change: A Regional Comparison of Cape Hallett and Taylor Valley, Antarctica." Carbon Data Assimilation Model Project funded by NASA-IDS
and NSF Baron, J.S. and L. Poff. Issues in Ecology #10 Sustaining Healthy Freshwater Ecosystems. Now available in Spanish: Número 10, Invierno 2003, Ecosistemas de Agua Dulce Sustentables and can be downloaded at http://www.esa.org/sbi/sbi_issues/indexSP.php. Fenn, M.E., R. Haeuber, G.S. Tonnesen, J.S. Baron , S. Grossman-Clarke, D. Hope, D.A. Jaffe, S. Copeland, L. Geiser, H.M. Rueth , and J.O. Sickman. 2003. Nitrogen Emissions, Deposition and Monitoring in the Western United States. BioScience 53:391-403. Fenn, M.E., J.S. Baron , E.B. Allen, H.M. Rueth, K.R. Nydick, L. Geiser, W.D. Bowman, J.O. Sickman, T. Meixner, and D.W. Johnson. 2003. Ecological Effects of Nitrogen Deposition in the Western United States. BioScience 53:404-420. Moorhead, D.L., J.E. Barrett, R.A. Virginia, D.H. Wall and D. Porazinska . 2003. Organic matter and soil biota of upland wetlands in Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Polar Biol. 26:567-576. Porazinska, D.L ., R.D. Bardgett, M.B. Blaauw, H .W. Hunt, A.N. Parsons , T.R. Seastedt, and D.H. Wall . 2003. Relationships at the aboveground-belowground interface: plants, soil microflora and microfauna, and soil processes. Ecological Monographs 73: 377-395. Rueth, H.M., J.S. Baron , and E.J. Allstott. 2003. Responses of old-growth Engelmann spruce forests to nitrogen fertilization. Ecological Applications 13:664-673. Welker, J ., R.Sletten, B. Hallet and J. Schimel. 2003. Biocomplexity in the High Arctic-Kap Atholl, NW Greenland. VECO Polar Resources 1(16) July 27, 2003, http://www.vecopolar.com. NREL has recently recruited two new Research Scientists II positions, the most recent being Dr. Jeff Hicke . He will collaborate with Dennis Ojima in the investigation of vegetation responses to land use and climate change in Mongolia. He is currently researching the changes in Eurasian vegetation derived from satellite imagery and U.S. cropland production during the past several decades. Jeff received his PhD in atmospheric science from Univ. of Colorado, Boulder and worked as a Post-Doc at CU and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA. Dr. Guiming Wang has returned to NREL as a Research Scientist II working with Tom Hobbs on the modeling of the dynamics of ungulate populations and with Bill Parton to assess the impact of elevated atmospheric CO 2 levels on the biogeochemical cycling and production of the short-grass prairie using ecosystem model DAYCENT. Wang, originally from China, received his B.S. in biology from Nanjing Normal Univ., China, in 1983, his M.S. in ecology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1990, and his Ph.D. in wildlife science from Oregon State University in 2000. He has worked at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as an Assistant Professor doing research on the population and community ecology of small mammals in Inner Mongolian grasslands. He originally came to NREL to work with Tom on his EPA project to assess the impact of climate change on the dynamics of elk and white-tailed ptarmigan populations in Rocky Mountain National Park. He left NREL for a brief time to accept an Assistant Professor position in Wildlife Biology at Arkansas Tech Univ. Patti Orth is working as a research associate on several projects with Diana Wall and on the International LAND project with Dennis Ojima and Kathy Galvin . Patti has lived in Fort Collins for 13 years and received a B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Biology from CSU. She has a background in conservation biology and landscape ecology, information transfer, and threatened and endangered species policy. Nate Peterson was recently hired as a research associate working with David Theobald on Wildland Fire Interface issues in Colorado. They produced the Colorado Vegetation Model, which has one hectare resolution and detailed vegetation classification for the entire state. They are currently working on a land ownership, management, and protection data set for Colorado and on the development of the Fire Learning Network, a cooperative effort between the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service to model current and historical forest conditions in the Cache la Poudre watershed. Nate completed his B.S. in Forestry at CSU in 1997, and his M.S. in GIS/Remote Sensing at CSU this fall. His Masters work focused on using Geospatial sciences to predict potential Mexican spotted owl habitat at Fort Carson Military Reservation. Nate has now received an Admin-Pro/Academic joint appointment as an assistant professor in the Dept. of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship. SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS The NREL Scholarship
FRANCIS CLARK SCHOLARSHIP
Moffatt Ngugi is a part of the CSU Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Rich Conant , advisor, owing to his interests in ecosystem level dynamics and function of nature. His current research area involves the use of remote sensing of rangelands/grasslands to better understand the role land management plays on the structure and function of these ecosystems. Moffatt received a B.S. in Range Management at the Univ. of Nairobi, Kenya followed by a M.S. in Physical Land Resources from Ghent Univ., Belgium. He plans to pursue a career as an ecosystems scientist. He is particularly interested in studying and exploring solutions to landscape level concerns of the terrestrial environment, especially those due to human impacts. Moffatt is also presently one or NREL's graduate student representatives. Sanjay Advani (MS grad student, Jill Baron advisor) is using his scholarship award to set up equipment in six nitrogen fertilized plots and six controls in the Loch Vale Watershed in Rocky Mountain National Park and Fraser Experimental Forest. He will be measuring CO 2 flux out of these forested plots and asking how increased nitrogen affects the flux of microbially-mediated CO 2 . Sanjay received his B.S. in Biology at Middlebury College, Middlebury VT in 1996. He has been at NREL since 2001. His wife, Rachel Advani, is a special education teacher in the Poudre School District. NREL's other graduate student representative is Tracy Davern . Tracy received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. She then worked on biological control issues in the Southeastern United States with Americorps in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Traci then traveled around the world absorbing new cultures and experiences for a year before coming to CSU where she is a master's student at NREL. Her current research attempts to pinpoint the potential habitat of the invasive shrub Tamarix sp. using spatial statistical modeling, working with Tom Stohlgren . Congratulations to the Following NREL Grad Students Who Have Successfully Defended Nichole Barger , Ph.D. student, Dennis Ojima , advisor, defended April 16, "Nitrogen Dynamics of Biological Soil Crusts in a Semi-arid Ecosystem." Nichole is now a post-doc at CU National Park Fellowship supporting some of her research. She and her husband, Jason Neff (former NREL scientist and now assistant professor, CU) have become the proud parents of a baby girl, Sophia. John Brenner , a USDA/NRCS cooperation scientist at NREL completed his MSc thesis on "Integration of Soil C modeling to Estimate Carbon Sequestration on Agricultural Croplands in Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska." Keith Paustian acted as major advisor. John continues working with NREL staff integrating research into NRCS conservation activities. Rodolfo Delgado , from Venezuela, completed his PhD dissertation, "Soil-Plant Dynamics Related to N Uptake and Soil N Availability," under the direction of Keith Paustian. He continues to work for the Venezuelan government in agricultural research. Kate Muldoon , MS student, Jill Baron , advisor, defended August 20, "A Hydrologic and Nitrogen Mass Balance for Embryo Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado." Jorge Alvero, visiting PhD student from Zaragoza, Spain, spent August-October at NREL learning and applying soil aggregate and organic matter fractionation techniques with Keith Paustian and Karolien Denef . Alycia Waters , MS student, Tom Stohlgren, advisor, defended June 18, "Productivity and Disturbance as Indicators of Non-Native Species Richness: A Case Study in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah." Alycia is presently working for Tom writing technical reports based on field work, summary data analysis, and management implications for his Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and global change projects. Her main interests are in invasive species science and the preservation of natural areas. Dazhi Wu , MS student, Dennis Ojima advisor, defended July 18, "Early Error Detection in Ecology Model Simulations Using Pattern Recognition."
PAST GRAD STUDENT NEWS Gericke Sommerville (Mike Coughenour's grad student) will begin a Post-Doc appointment this fall with PRIMES, a new interdisciplinary program at CSU which focuses on training PhD students in quantitative ecology ( www.primes.colostate.edu ). She will be responsible for leading a special recitation for math and statistic students making the transition to ecology, as well as leading research-based labs and exercises for a mixture of math, statistics, and ecology students next spring. Gericke will spend the rest of her time researching remote sensing and carbon cycling of different landuse types in the shortgrass steppe, in collaboration with Ingrid Burke, Bill Lauenroth (FRWS, CSU), Alexander Goetz (CU Boulder), Bill Parton (NREL), and Jack Morgan (USDA-ARS). Tamara Hochstrasser , former PhD grad student of Deb Peters , is now working with the Dept. of Environmental Resource Management at the Univ. College of Dublin in November. NEW GRAD STUDENT NREL welcomes M.S. graduate student Jill Oropeza ( Jill Baron , advisor). She is a GK-12 fellow focusing her research on the effects of nitrogen deposition on soil chemistry and soil invertebrate communities. In 1998, she received a B.S. in Environmental Science from the Univ. of Kansas. She worked for two years as an environmental consultant on soil and groundwater remediation projects on the Front Range. She also spent time working as a biological technician in the Resource Management Division at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Rocky Mountain Research Station here in Fort Collins. Wycliff Mutero, Head of GIS at the Kenya Wildlife Service, spent five months at NREL working with Michael Coughenour and others learning how integrated assessments have been conducted in East African pastoral areas and how the tools used in a project supported by the Global Livestock CRSP may aid the KWS in managing their conservation lands. The following were visitors to Diana Wall's lab
and NREL: This seems to be the year for NREL weddings. We want to congratulate: Geneva Chong and Dave Barnett (both past NREL grad students of, and now working with, Tom Stohlgren ) were married on August 16th in a gorgeous outdoor ceremony overlooking the Grand Tetons in Jackson, Wyoming where they now reside. Many NREL co-workers were able to help them celebrate their special day. Paul Evangelista smoked 85 lbs. of bison meat for the reception and Bluegrass band Victor Barnes, including NREL's own Holley Zadeh, played at the reception. Two weeks later, on August 30th, Holley Zadeh (of Diana Wall's lab) married Brian Gardel in a beautiful, yet somewhat damp, outdoor wedding held in Red Feather with many out-of-town family and friends attending. Sara Simonson from NREL was part of the wedding party. Laura Landrum (Research Scientist working with Jill Baron ) and Mike Doerfler were married on Sept. 7th at the Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA of the Rockies) in Tabernash, CO (just outside of Winter Park). The weather was again quite damp, yet it did not spoil the ceremony held in spectacular surroundings at a spot called Columbine Point. Sanjay and Rachel Advani, Karolien Denef and Jorin Botte were in attendance from NREL. Another wedding united two NRELians on September 27 th . NREL graduate student, Moffatt Ngugi and past research associate, Karin Wirthlin were married at Loch Haven near Salt Lake City. |
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Jim Gibson Receives SPIE Excellence Award
DeAna Nasseth is a Doctoral Candidate in the
Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, and the Forest, Rangeland,
and Watershed Stewardship Department. Mike Coughenour and Debra
Peters are her advisors. DeAna's research focuses on
interactions of residential development with landscape structure,
and implications of that interaction for ecological integrity
in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. In July 2003, she presented
the first phase of her research in a poster at the International
Association of Landscape Ecologists World Congress in Darwin,
Australia. DeAna holds a M.S. in Environmental Biology from Baylor
University and a B.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
from Texas A&M University. She is a "non-traditional" student,
married, mother of two teenagers and three dogs, and commutes
to CSU from her home in Colorado Springs. DeAna is flexible about
her post-Ph.D. plans, but is dedicated to continuing her participation
in ecological research and applications. 
Jee H. Shim is a PhD candidate in the Forest,
Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship Department at CSU, Dennis
Ojima and Elise Pendall, advisors. She began her doctoral
training in August 1999 after obtaining her M.S. from Seoul National
Univ., Korea. Jee feels she has been provided excellent opportunities
through classes, seminars, and the communication of academic
ideas with a circle of scholars, both on and off campus, who
possess great talent in teaching and research. Her interaction
with scientists and students at NREL has been particularly stimulating
and supportive of her research, academic, and career goals. Jee's
interests focus on trace gas biogeochemistry, application of
stable isotopes to ecosystem ecology, nutrient cycling, and ecological
modeling. Her research has been funded by NIGEC and NASA-EOS
projects. She plans to graduate in May 2004 and then pursue an
academic career, first in a postdoctoral position, and then as
a research scientist. 
NREL graduate students Shauna BurnSilver and Jeffrey
Worden along with Randy Boone conducted
dissemination meetings with Maasai pastoralists, sponsored
by the Global Livestock CRSP. In a series of six meetings,
more than 500 Maasai learned how fragmentation of their communally
shared lands into individually owned parcels could have negative
effects on livestock production and wildlife conservation.
Ways of reducing these negative effects were presented.|
Natural
Resource Ecology Laboratory |