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Conference Organizers:
Dr. Diana H. Wall (PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Diana is actively engaged in research exploring how life in soil
(microbial and invertebrate diversity) contributes to productive
soils and ecosystems and the consequences of human activities
on soil globally. Her interests extend to determining the influence
of nematodes on carbon cycling in low diversity ecosystems (hot
and cold deserts) and how global changes impact soil biodiversity,
ecosystem processes and ecosystem services.
- Suggested Readings:
•Wall, D.H. 2007. Global Change tipping points: Above- and below-ground
biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences,
362:2291-2306, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1950.
•St. John, M. G., D. H. Wall and H. W. Hunt. 2006. Are soil mite
assemblages structured by the identity of native and invasive
alien grasses? Ecology, 87: 1314-1324.
•Robertson, G. P., and D. W. Freckman. 1995. The spatial distribution
of nematode trophic groups across a cultivated ecosystem. Ecology
76: 1425-1432.
Dr. Edward Ayres (Co-PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Ed Ayres studies interactions among plants, soil, and soil biota,
with an emphasis on carbon and nitrogen dynamics and community
composition. Recently he has been studying soil biodiversity at
large scales (global patterns of soil animal biodiversity) and
small scales (the functional significance of differences in soil
community composition beneath different tree species). Other interests
include the impact of herbivory and climate change on plant-soil
interactions.
- Suggested Readings:
•Heath J, Ayres E, Possell M, Bardgett RD, Black HIJ, Grant H,
Ineson P, Kerstiens G (2005) Rising atmospheric CO2 reduces sequestration
of root-derived soil carbon. Science 309, 1711-1713.
•Fierer N, Jackson RB (2006) The diversity and biogeography of
soil bacterial communities. PNAS 103, 626-631.
Dr. Breana Simmons (Co-PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Breana Simmons conducts multi-taxa studies to understand how
soil biota interact with each other and their environment, and
how this affects ecosystem function. Simmons is interested in
the effects of land management on soil biota and associated feedbacks
to ecosystem processes, particularly resolving small spatial scale
biotic interactions with large landscape scale processes.
- Suggested Readings
•Simmons, B.L., Niles, R.K., and D.H. Wall. 2008. Distribution
and abundance of alfalfa-field nematodes at various spatial scales.
Applied Soil Ecology, 38: 211-222.
•Minoshima, H., L. E. Jackson, T. R. Cavagnaro, S. Sanchez-Moreno,
H. Ferris, S. R. Temple, S. Goyal, and J. P. Mitchell. 2007. Soil
food webs and carbon dynamics in response to conservation tillage
in California. Soil Science Society of America Journal
71:952-963.
•Smith, P., O. Andren, L. Brussaard, M. Dangerfield, K. Ekschmitt,
P. Lavelle, and K. Tate. 1998. Soil biota and global change at
the ecosystem level: describing soil biota in mathematical models.
Global Change Biology 4:773-784.
Tracy Smith (Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Tracy is interested in studying plant community ecology, particularly
in how community structure and dynamics relate to and impact ecosystem
processes and functioning. She is also interested in integrating
the knowledge about these interactions with land-use management
and policy decisions. She received her BA from the University
of California in Santa Barbara in Environmental Studies with a
concentration in Ecology and Ecosystem Management.
CSU Participants:
Sarah Atherton (Undergraduate)
- Research Interests:
•Sarah is currently developing a method to reliably induce the
protective state of anhydrobiosis in the Antarctic nematode Plectus
spp. This method will provide insight into the survival adaptations
that allow Plectus spp. to inhabit the McMurdo Dry Valleys
of Antarctica and will aid in further research about the relationship
between species of terrestrial and aquatic nematodes.
- Suggested Readings:
•Crowe, J., and K. Madin. (1975) Anhydrobiosis in nematodes: Evaporative
water loss and survival. J. Exp. Zool. 193: 323-334.
•Treonis, A., D. Wall and R. Virginia. (2000) The use of anhydrobiosis
by soil nematodes in the Antarctic dry valleys. Funct. Ecol.
14: 460-467.
•Treonis, A., and D. Wall. (2005) Soil nematodes and desiccation
survival in the extreme arid environment of the Antarctic dry
valleys. Integr. Comp. Biol. 45: 741-750.
Dr. John C. Moore
- Research Interests:
•Dr. Moore has studied soil food webs and the role of detritus
in governing shaping the structure and dynamic stability. Current
efforts are aimed at understanding the role of soil organisms
in soil organic matter dynamics in grassland and Arctic soils.
His approach balance field and laboratory research with modeling.
- Suggested readings:
•Rooney. N., K. McCann, G. Gellner, and J.C. Moore. 2006. Structural
asymmetry and the stability of diverse food webs. Nature
442:265-269.
•Moore, J.C., E.L. Berlow, D.C. Coleman, P.C. de Ruiter, Q. Dong,
A. Hastings, N. Collins-Johnson, K. S. McCann, K. Melville, P.J.
Morin, K. Nadelhoffer, A.D. Rosemond, D.M. Post, J.L. Sabo, K.M.
Scow, M.J. Vanni, and D. Wall. 2004. Detritus, Trophic Dynamics,
and Biodiversity. Ecology Letters 7:584-600.
•Moore, J.C., D.E. Walter, and H.W. Hunt. 1988. Arthropod regulation
of micro-and mesobiota in belowground detrital food webs.
Annual Review of Entomology 33:419-439
•Moore, J.C., P.C. de Ruiter, and H.W. Hunt. 1993. The influence
of productivity on the stability of real and model ecosystems.
Science 261:906-908
Karen Seaver (Graduate Student)
- Research Interests:
•Karen is interested in how soil biota adapt to extreme environments.
Currently, she is investigating the molecular mechanisms of anhydrobiosis
and desiccation tolerance in nematodes of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys
and Colorado’s Shortgrass Steppe.
- Suggested readings:
•Adhikari BN, Ayres E, Simmons B, Wall DH, and BJ Adams. (2007)
A study of the molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in
Antarctic dry valley nematodes using Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs).
Journal of Nematology 39:102.
•Nkem JN, DH Wall, RA Virginia, JE Barrett, EJ Broos, DL Porazinska,
and BJ Adams. (2006) Wind dispersal of soil invertebrates in the
McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Polar Biology 29: 346-352.
•D. Wall-Freckman and SP 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.
Cecilia Tomasel (Wall Lab Manager)
- Research Interests:
•I am interested in the study of the interaction between organisms
and their environment for the regulation of different ecosystem
processes. My areas of interest are nematodes communities, soil
ecology and soil biodiversity. My previous professional work has
been mainly focused in the study of nematodes. I earned a Degree
in Biology from the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
working with Meloidogyne in potato cultivars and later
a M.Sc. in Plant Pathology at CSU working with Ditylenchus dipsaci
and Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi in alfalfa. Before joining Diana
Wall's group as Lab Manager, I worked as head nematologist/pathologist
at a private plant disease diagnostic laboratory.
- Suggested Readings:
•M.C. Milano De Tomasel and McIntyre, G. 2001, "Distribution
and biology of the alfalfa stem nematode (Ditylenchus dipsaci)
and the chrysantemum foliar nematode (Aphelenchoides
ritzemabosi) in alfalfa grown in Colorado" Nematropica
31 (1): 11-16.
Rosemary Townshend (CSU-Pueblo Graduate Student)
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