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Symposium
19: Spatial nonlinearities and cross scale interactions: Cascading effects in
the Earth system
Thursday,
August 11, 1:30 PM - 5 PM, Meeting Room 517a, Level 5, Palais
des congrès de Montréal
Organizers:
Debra Peters(debpeter@nmsu.edu), Brandon Bestelmeyer
Description: Spatial
nonlinearities (i.e., acceleration or deceleration in the rate of change as the
spatial extent expands) challenge the ability of ecologists to understand and
predict system behavior at one scale based on information obtained at finer or
broader scales. These cross-scale interactions often result in “surprises”
with severe consequences for the environment and human welfare. Alternatively,
cross-scale interactions may be beneficial, such as accelerated recovery of
vegetation following fire. In both cases, fine scale processes propagate
nonlinearly to have unexpected effects at broader spatial scales. In this
symposium, a synthetic group of talks will be presented to demonstrate: (1) the
generality of cross-scale interactions among components of the Earth System; (2)
the importance of understanding these interactions and feedbacks in an
interdisciplinary framework; and (3) the relevance of cross scale interactions
to identifying key processes and forecasting future system dynamics.
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