Tuesday, August 5, 2008: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
104 A, Midwest Airlines Center
SYMP 8 - Tracking Ecological Change: Using Large-Scale, Long-Term Datasets
Global climate change is arguably the largest ecological and societal issue of the 21st century. Our world is experiencing rapid changes of many kinds occurring at various scales, including climate change, carbon dioxide and nitrogen enrichment, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the subsequent species losses, invasions, and homogenization that these changes often cause. Because many of these large-scale changes occur slowly, it is often difficult for scientists to document short-term ecological shifts and for the public to appreciate the scope and significance of ecological change. This symposium seeks to address these issues. Ecologists seeking to understand their systems often benefit by having access to long-term datasets. Datasets that extend over many years and/or many sites enrich our understanding of intrinsic ecological dynamics and interactions, as well as how these dynamics and interactions are affected by extrinsic anthropogenic forces. Long-term data can thus inform us both about the drivers of ecological change and about how these drivers interact with intrinsic dynamics. Such data also provide statistical power for testing theory, including the relative force of deterministic versus stochastic forces in driving community dynamics. Presenters are ecologists who use long-term data in terrestrial ecosystems to address questions that range from the individual level (aspens), to the guild (lianas), to temperate and tropical plant communities and ecosystems. Our focus is on terrestrial plants, but the topics we confront are universal and extend to nearly all ecosystems.
Organizer:	Stefan A. Schnitzer, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Co-organizer:	Donald M. Waller, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Moderator:	Erika Mudrak, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1:30 PM			Introductory Remarks
1:40 PM	SYMP 8-1		Climatic controls of tropical rainforest productivity: Results from long-term forest monitoring David Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Deborah A. Clark, University of Misouri
2:00 PM	SYMP 8-2		25 years of forest change in Panama S. Joseph Wright, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
2:20 PM	SYMP 8-3		The role of species interactions on the diversity and dynamics of arid grass- and shrub-lands in the southwestern US Selene Baez, University of Florida, Scott L. Collins, University of New Mexico
2:40 PM	SYMP 8-4		Long-term responses of a grassland ecosystem to CO2, nitrogen, diversity, and composition Peter B. Reich, University of Minnesota
3:00 PM			Break
3:10 PM	SYMP 8-5		Are lianas increasing in tropical forests? Synthesizing the results of multiple studies Stefan A. Schnitzer, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Ronald Londre, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, M. Henry. H. Stevens, Miami University, Suzanne Rutishauser, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Walter P. Carson, University of Pittsburgh
3:30 PM	SYMP 8-6		How rising CO2 levels are affecting tree growth and inbreeding effects in quaking aspen Christopher Cole, University of Minnesota - Morris, Richard L. Lindroth, University of Wisconsin, Jon E. Anderson, University of Minnesota - Morris
3:50 PM	SYMP 8-7		Drivers of long-term ecological change and hysteresis in midwestern forest communities Donald M. Waller, University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Rogers, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sarah E. Johnson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
4:10 PM			Panel Discussion

See more of Symposium

See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)