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OOS-26: From microbes to ecosystems: How do we really make the connections?
Endorsed
by the ESA Soil Ecology Section and the Soil Ecology Society
Wednesday,
August 10, 8 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Rooms 510a and 510c, Level 5, Palais
des congrès de Montréal
Organizers:
Josh
Schimel
(schimel@lifesci.ucsb.edu), Serita
Frey
Description:
It
has long been known that key biogeochemical processes are microbial, but it was
rarely seen as necessary to understand microbial community dynamics to
understand the processes. That perception is changing and there is now a mix of
information, theorizing, and ongoing controversy about when and how microbial
community composition plays a role in whole ecosystem function, and how to
assess that role. This requires studies that are effectively focused on making
the linkage of scale from microbes to ecosystems, rather than on relying on
post-hoc synthesis of studies done at different scales. This session will
present talks that discuss different approaches to effectively integrate
information from microbial community composition and ecosystem function in
different ecosystem types, including both experimental and modeling approaches.
Modeling is important in this work, because models are a tool for bridging
scales, yet ecosystem scale models have not yet incorporated microbial community
information.
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