OOS 55
Head in the Clouds: Advancing Our Understanding of How Fog and Dew Affect Plants in Ecosystems Around the World

Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
340, Baltimore Convention Center
Organizer:
Nathan C. Emery, University of California Santa Barbara
Co-organizer:
Z. Carter Berry, University of New Hampshire
Moderator:
Z. Carter Berry, University of New Hampshire
Water is an essential component to any ecosystem and for much of the terrestrial world, the majority of water needed for survival is supplied from rain and snow. However, recent advances across ecosystems suggest that many plants are relying on fog and dew as a critical water source. Only recently have scientists begun to understand that fog and dew contribute significantly to global hydrological cycles, climate, and plant water and carbon relations from tropical cloud forests to arid deserts. Research in the last twenty years has utilized new methods and creative approaches to examine how fog and dew affect ecosystems. Within many types of ecosystems, fog and dew alter the abiotic environment by providing an additional moisture resource, reducing the vapor pressure gradient from the leaf to the air, thereby ameliorating extreme sunlight, temperatures, and thus water loss. The relative contribution of this water subsidy can vary across seasons and ecosystems and in many instances serves as the primary water source for entire ecosystems. In an era when there is a growing concern as to how plant communities will respond to changes in precipitation, there is still much to learn about the influence of fog and condensation in ecology. The scientists in this session are conducting cutting-edge research that examine how species and communities interact with this ambient vapor, how important it is to the ecosystem, and what happens when fog or dew inputs are altered or taken out of the equation. This session brings together scientists working at multiple scales from water vapor nucleation at the leaf level to ecosystem modelling of fog patterns. Additionally, the speakers conduct their research in many different ecosystems providing a more holistic perspective on the relative influences of fog and dew. This session will provide new connections, conversations, insights, and ideas to our current state of knowledge about how fog and dew interact with organisms and their environment.
1:30 PM
 The value of wet leaves
Todd E. Dawson, University of California Berkeley
1:50 PM
 Hydraulic activation: Establishment and effects of liquid water bridges across the stomata
Juergen Burkhardt, University of Bonn; Shyam Pariyar, University of Bonn; Mauricio Hunsche, University of Bonn
2:10 PM
 If a dew falls in a forest and no one is around, how do we sense it?
Max Berkelhammer, University of Illinois at Chicago
2:30 PM
 Radiative cooling and latent dew formation in plant canopies
Brent Helliker, University of Pennsylvania; Christopher J. Still, Oregon State University; Youngil Kim, Oregon State University; Andrew D. Richardson, Harvard University; Donald Aubrecht, Harvard University
2:50 PM
 Life in the treetops: Ecophysiological strategies in canopy epiphyte communities along a microclimate gradient in the tropical montane cloud forest
Sybil Gotsch, Franklin and Marshall College; Nalini Nadkarni, University of Utah; Alexander Darby, Franklin and Marshall College; Andrew Glunk, Franklin and Marshall College; Mackenzie Dix, Franklin and Marshall College; Kenneth Davidson, Franklin and Marshall College; Todd E. Dawson, University of California Berkeley
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
 Fog effects on carbon and water balance of tropical cloud forest trees
Rafael Oliveira, Universidade Estadual de Campinas; Cleiton B Eller, Universidade Estadual de Campinas; Paulo R. Bittencourt, University of Campinas; Fernanda V. Barros, University of Campinas; Caroline S. Müller, University of Campinas; Stephen O. Burgess, University of Western Australia
3:40 PM
 Ecophysiological cloud-vegetation linkages in southern Appalachian mountain cloud forests at leaf to ecosystem scales
Keith Reinhardt, Idaho State University; Z. Carter Berry, University of New Hampshire; Ryan E. Emanuel, NC State University; Daniel M. Johnson, University of Idaho
4:00 PM
 Summer fog and plant flammability along the California coast
Nathan C. Emery, University of California Santa Barbara; Carla D’Antonio, University of California
4:20 PM
 Investigating the hydrology of tropical cloud forest and coastal fog ecosystems using water stable isotopes
Martha Scholl, U.S. Geological Survey; Maoya Bassiouni, U.S. Geological Survey; Jaivime Evaristo, University of Saskatchewan
4:40 PM
 Cloud and fog interactions with coastal forests in the California Channel Islands
Christopher J. Still, Oregon State University; Sara A. Baguskas, University of California; Park Williams, Columbia University; Bharat Rastogi, Oregon State University; Mariah Carbone, University of New Hampshire; Doug Fischer, ARCADIS-US