Sat & Sunday : Monday : Tuesday : Wednesday : Thursday : Friday

Thermal physiology as a biogeographic determinant: historical and mechanistic perspectives
Thursday, August 10, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Sarah Gilman, Jonathon Stillman, Joshua Tewksbury

Temperature is considered an important determinant of species' geographic distributions; thus, geographic range shifts are frequently predicted in response to climate change related temperature shifts. Yet, surprisingly few studies have demonstrated a mechanism by which temperature controls a species' distribution. Simply put, an organism's upper and lower thermal limits can be definitively measured in a laboratory, but the relevance of these temperatures at an organism's range boundaries is less clear. This symposium aims to address limitations in our current ability to predict species' responses to temperature changes by initiating a dialogue among physiologists, ecologists, and biogeographers. Speakers from each of these fields will review the state of knowledge in their field and suggest ways for increasing the connection of information across fields to develop a more mechanistic understanding of the role of temperature in determining species distributions at both local and geographic scales.

Biodiversity, ecosystem processes, and human health
Thursday, August 10, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Alan Townsend, Osvaldo Sala

All major aspects of global environmental change have relevance for human health and, in many cases, the health issues are strongly affected by ecological processes. Examples include the controls over many infectious diseases, the role of biodiversity in providing and maintaining ecosystem services, the provision and discovery of drugs and treatments, the detoxification of soils, air and water, and even non-physical health matters related to quality of life. Ecologists therefore can play an important role in helping to understand and mitigate the human health problems that arise from environmental change. Several recent synthesis efforts, including a SCOPE Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) on biodiversity and health, have recognized the importance of ecological controls over human health in a rapidly changing world. This symposium will draw from the SCOPE-RAP and other related activities to present a broad overview of the connections between biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human health. We will highlight gaps in our understanding and stress the need for continued growth in the collaborations between ecologists and health scientists.

Large-scale studies: challenges in experimental design and analysis
Thursday, August 10, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: ShiLi Miao, Jamie Serino, Susan Carstenn

Traditional ecological studies have relied on a statistical paradigm of replicates, homogeneity, randomness, normal distributions, and controlled experiments. Increasingly, the subjects of ecological studies are complex, non-random, non-normal, not replicable, and, in general, violate most of the above conditions. Ecosystems with high temporal and/or spatial variability require large numbers of costly replicates to achieve adequate analytical power. Therefore, innovative tools are necessary to provide adequate quantitative and analytical techniques to address these large-scale, unreplicated manipulations, such as climate change and watershed eutrophication. This symposium will review the development and current status of a variety of approaches to experimental design and statistical analysis, including Bayesian, BACIPS assessments and dynamic models, and time series analysis, by highlighting their application in the Florida Everglades, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Finnish lakes, Jemez Mountains , and Indo-Pacific Marine Protected Areas.

The devil is in the detail: theory for empirical model systems
Thursday, August 10, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Ottar Bjornstad, Priyanga Amarasekare

The foundational theory of ecology, epidemiology and behavioral ecology has been taught to every undergraduate and graduate student during the last half century. The underlying models have also motivated numerous historical and recent experiments and detailed observations on particular empirical systems. Encouragingly, the classic strategic models, many of which date back to the 1920s through 1960s, offer qualitative predictions that match data. However, many of the recent strides forwards in theoretical ecology have come from very specific case studies involving clever experimentation and/or detailed field studies. This symposium will: 1) explore the utility of the foundational models in understanding the ecological dynamics of specific systems; and 2) discuss how many recent conceptual and theoretical insights have been reached by embracing the 'idiosyncrasies' of any particular system. The individual presentations detail these issues using case studies from behavior, biocontrol, epidemiology, and community ecology.

Rhizosphere functioning in carbon and nitrogen cycles
Thursday, August 10, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Wendy Silk, Gretchen North

A boundary layer of soil surrounding plant roots is the “rhizosphere,” the site of complex ecological interactions among roots, soil particles, microbes, and insects. It has long been known that a large fraction of carbon recently fixed in leaves is rapidly (on the time scale of minutes to hours) released to the rhizosphere. Release of carbon from living roots is only part of the complex carbon cycle. Myriad processes interact to produce carbon sequestration in soils and carbon flux to the atmosphere. Root death is an important source of soil carbon, as is microbial activity. Bacteria and fungi degrade the root exudates, and the associated soil respiration competes with microbial mineralization of the available carbon. Recent discoveries from a number of laboratories are revealing mechanisms of transport processes coupled with complex chemical signaling among the biotic components of the rhizosphere. Many questions need to be addressed in order to understand biogeochemical cycles in soil and the crucial role of the rhizosphere. For example, how is the rhizosphere organized spatially and temporally, and how can we characterize the effects of environmental perturbation on its structure? What are the rates of fine root production and death? How do older parts of roots affect their rhizospheres? What is the role of rhizosphere moisture in stimulating carbon and nitrogen deposition and root decomposition? What is the capacity of soil to store carbon? Thus, rhizosphere studies are of fundamental importance to ecology on spatial scales ranging from the microbial to the global. In the spirit of the “upstart and icon” theme of the Memphis meeting, we are featuring talks by graduate students as well as professors.

Building an interactive database for classroom assessment
Thursday, August 10, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Everett Weber, Kathy Williams, Diane Ebert-May

The objective of this workshop is to cultivate a community of ecological educators to help design and implement a database of assessment items (e.g., probing questions and rubrics for assessing responses), including associated metadata (e.g., class size and level) and student responses. With the growing number of faculty developing and using multiple forms of assessment to quantify student learning gains, there is a clear need to share and build on what others have done. In this workshop, participants will learn to use and contribute to an interactive database for student assessment instruments and data. Participants will explore a sample database of existing assessment instruments and student performance results. Participants also will review ways to contribute to the database using a variety of file formats so their items and results can be used and cited. For example, faculty might search and download questions and student responses to evolution multiple choice items or extended response questions. An important part of this workshop will be to gather information from attendees about how they might use this tool to further develop effective education metadata standards. Lunch is provided.

How to get a post-doc
Thursday, August 10, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Candan Soykan, Rohan Sadler

Many graduate students stress over finding a post-doc position after graduation. Numerous factors contribute to this stress including a need to focus on one's dissertation work in order to graduate, competition for positions, family/significant other considerations, a lack of knowledge of available opportunities, and limited understanding of how to apply for a position. This workshop aims to alleviate some of that stress by highlighting the range of available post-doc opportunities, providing basic guidance on how to apply for a post-doctoral position, and offering general information on expectations, timelines, and other considerations. The workshop will include a panel of individuals representing different career stages and employment opportunities. The panelists will open with a series of brief presentations to be followed by a question and answer period. Participants will come away with a better understanding of the post-doctoral application process, the range of post-doctoral positions available to ecologists, and realistic goals in terms of publications, research, teaching, and other experiences. Lunch is provided.

Bridging the worlds of science and journalism: working with the media
Thursday, August 10, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Cynthia Barakatt, Jessica Brown, Diana Wall

Learn to be an effective communicator when talking to journalists about your science. Understanding how to translate your science for different audiences is a key to success—whether talking to journalists, submitting a paper to a scientific journal, preparing a grant proposal, presenting to a public official, collaborating with a natural resource management staff, or writing an op-ed for your local paper. This interactive workshop will help you hone your ability to get the results you seek by developing clear and concise messages tailored for specific audiences and offer practical advice for interacting specifically with the media. Workshop trainers include senior scientists experienced in interacting with journalists who will share their insights and provide individual feedback on how to strengthen your message. Topics covered will include: What Do Journalists Want, Do's and Don't's, and Managing Your Message. This workshop is presented by the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program (www.leopoldleadership.org) which provides communications and leadership training fellowships for mid-career scientists. This session is appropriate for graduate students, post-docs, and early career environmental scientists as well as scientists at mid-career. The workshop trainers are from the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and SeaWeb/COMPASS. Lunch is provided.

Integrated approaches for agroecosystem management in the 21st Century
Thursday, August 10, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Patrick Bohlen, Laurie Drinkwater, Richard Lowrance

The sustainable management of agroecosystems in the 21st century will face unprecedented challenges. The human population may reach 9 billion by mid-century and the need to feed this burgeoning population, while protecting the environment, preserving the world's biodiversity, and sustaining agriculture in an increasingly urban world, will be a massive undertaking. Meeting these unprecedented challenges will require integration of information from numerous scientific fields, especially the convergence of the ecological, agricultural, and social sciences. This symposium will contribute to a new synthesis of basic principles of agroecosystem ecology and will highlight efforts to integrate the ecological, social, and economic aspects of agricultural systems. It will bring together elder icons and younger upstarts from various fields who have worked to bridge the gap between ecology and agriculture. The symposium is also a tribute to Ben Stinner, one of the pioneers of agroecosystem ecology. The majority of the presentations will focus on temperate and subtropical agroecosystems in developed countries, but the concepts presented have global relevance.

Multiple resource limitation in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
Thursday, August 10, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Adrien Finzi, Lars Hedin

The study of carbon-nitrogen interactions has dominated ecosystem science for the last several decades. Yet conceptual models suggest that the efficiency of primary production is maximized when multiple resources are simultaneously limiting. More generally, this raises the possibility that ecosystem function is simultaneously limited by multiple resources. The objective of this symposium is to bring together a diverse group of scientists working in very different systems to explore the nature and extent of multiple resource limitation to ecosystem function. We define 'ecosystem function' broadly to include the effect of multiple resources on community structure or composition, primary production, decomposition, soil development, trophic interactions, and nutrient retention. The symposium will demonstrate that a fundamental understanding of ecosystem function can only occur through the analysis of multiple element cycles.

Revisiting the "stability" icon: upstart approaches to modeling resilience
Thursday, August 10, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Donald DeAngelis, Steven Railsback, Volker Grimm, Uta Berger

Stability is one of the oldest and most important icons of ecology. Understanding stability properties is key to maintaining ecosystems and natural resources sustainably. Recent advances in our understanding of ecosystems have replaced the fuzzy concept of stability as static equilibria with the concept of resilience—the ability of ecosystems to dynamically absorb disturbances and provide services under a wide range of environmental conditions. Bottom-up simulation models (e.g., grid- and individual-based models) allow the study of how resilience emerges from lower-level interactions and how system-level properties feed back to the behavior of low-level entities. The resulting models have a high degree of realism and deliver independent, secondary predictions for validation. This symposium will demonstrate how this upstart modeling approach can be applied to the stability icon and underpin the new notion of resilience with mechanistic understanding. This integration will promote understanding of how ecosystems maintain their function.

Bottomland hardwood forest restoration and management for wildlife
Thursday, August 10, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Randy Wilson, Daniel Twedt

Hardwood forests within river floodplains provide a myriad of ecological benefits: flood abatement, enhanced water quality, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and merchantable forest products. Throughout the world, and specifically within the southeastern United States , millions of hectares of forested wetlands have been converted to agriculture but financial incentives, combined with marginal profitability of farming these converted forest lands, have induced widespread restoration of bottomland forests. In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley , approx. 200,000 ha have been planted with hardwood trees with an additional 200,000 ha expected to be restored during the next 10 years. Success of restoration has varied among sites, but creating and sustaining full ecological benefits of these bottomland hardwood forests is conditioned upon appropriate restoration and management. Wildlife habitat on restored and extant forested wetlands is influenced by their landscape placement, vegetative conditions, and the temporal status of habitat manipulations (restoration or management). Recently, restoration techniques have been developed that hasten colonization by silvicolous wildlife. Additionally, silvicultural management that promotes sustainable desired forest conditions within extant forested wetlands has been embraced by the conservation community. In this session, we present an assessment of wildlife response to bottomland restoration and management.

Ecological stoichiometry of terrestrial animals
Thursday, August 10, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Adam Kay, Susan Bertram, John Schade

Ecological stoichiometry, the study of element balance in ecological systems, provides a framework for linking biochemical characteristics of organisms to ecosystem processes. A key nexus of integration in this framework is the balance of elements in organisms, which can reflect a consumer's physiological characteristics and life history attributes, its potential for growth limitation under nutrient scarcity, its impact on lower trophic levels, and the relative rate at which it retains ingested materials. These linkages are mechanisms by which individual-level attributes can influence population and community dynamics, food web structure, and the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients. Although the ecological relevance of element balance is firmly established in autotrophs and aquatic consumers, research on terrestrial animals has instead been based primarily on models using energetic or demographic currencies. As a result, there is still relatively little known about the degree, causes, or ecological consequences of taxonomic- and environmentally-induced differences in elemental composition among terrestrial animals. Speakers in this session represent a variety of disciplines and approaches that extend from physiological to ecological to ecosystem-level analyses. As a result, talks will highlight the importance of animal stoichiometry for processes at multiple levels of biological organization. Our goals are: 1) to illustrate how a focus on elemental composition in animals can reveal novel resource-based influences on ecological interactions; and 2) to encourage the application of ecological stoichiometry to systems and resource questions previously studied in a single-resource framework.