Thursday, August 6, 2009: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
San Miguel, Albuquerque Convention Center
OOS 34 - Disturbance Ecology, Biogeochemistry and Resilience: Three Decades of Inquiry
It has been several decades since the publication of several seminal papers in ecology that synthesized interactions between disturbances and biogeochemistry. The past 30 years has also been a period of intense change in human- nature interactions, in which humans have dramatically altered ecosystem health at multiple scales. Due to climate change and other direct human activities, the next 30 years are likely to bring increases in disturbance severity, extent, and frequency which are likely to result in feedbacks to global biogeochemistry. Understanding the context of these future changes has re-intensified scientific inquiry focused on understanding the resilience of ecosystems to perturbation. In this session, we revisit ecological concepts developed over the past 3 decades focused on the interaction of disturbance, biogeochemistry, and resilience in terrestrial systems. We are interested in developing a framework to explain how shifts in system state can be explained in terms of disturbance and biogeochemical cycles (including both carbon and nutrients). We begin by proposing that this framework needs to incorporate spatial and temporal contingencies in a hierarchical framework. Then, we use empirical studies from multiple, forested-woodland systems to examine how ecological concepts of disturbance, biogeochemistry and/or resilience remain valid for specific systems, or need to be altered in this new context. Specifically, speakers will address the following questions, as appropriate: How do your research results fit into early and contemporary conceptual models of resilience, disturbance and/or biogeochemistry? Does system biogeochemistry in your location reflect disturbance-induced shifts in vegetation state and/or a direct response of disturbance events? Do disturbance modifications of biogeochemistry reflect a bottom-up control on ecosystem resilience? To what degree do your results reflect concepts of hierarchy & complexity (cross-scale interactions, thresholds, non-linearities) and spatial-temporal contingencies? Our ultimate goal is to elucidate the consequences for altered disturbance regimes on terrestrial biogeochemistry. In this effort, we aim to contrast disturbance types and ecosystems in terms of the magnitude of modification of post-disturbance biogeochemistry and their potential for regime shift.
Organizer:Erica A.H. Smithwick, The Pennsylvania State University
Moderator:Elizabeth Crisfield, The Pennsylvania State University
8:00 AMOOS 34-1Homogenizing the landscape:  Multiple scale assessment of human disturbance impacts in wetland ecosystems
Denice H. Wardrop, Pennsylvania State University, Jessica B. Moon, Pennsylvania State University, Sarah J. Miller, Pennsylvania State University
8:20 AMOOS 34-2Seeking a framework for linking biogeochemistry with ecosystem dynamics
William Reiners, University of Wyoming
8:40 AMOOS 34-3Impacts of multiple disturbances and their interactions on ecosystem recovery in a subalpine landscape
Carol A. Wessman, University of Colorado, Kendra Morliengo-Bredlau, University of Colorado, Kerry Kemp, University of Colorado, Julie Hayes, University of Colorado, Cristina Rumbaitis-del Rio, Rockefeller Foundation
9:00 AMOOS 34-4Novel disturbance on Alaska's North Slope: Wildfire emissions and consequences for ecosystem structure in arctic tundra
Michelle C. Mack, University of Florida, M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Randi R. Jandt, Alaska Fire Service, Edward A. G. Schuur, University of Florida, Gaius R. Shaver, Marine Biological Laboratory, David L. Verbyla, University of Alaska Fairbanks
9:20 AMOOS 34-5Resilience of carbon storage to fire-regime change: Contrasting examples from woodlands in Arizona and Spain
Jason P. Kaye, Pennsylvania State University, Joan Romanyŕ, Universitat de Barcelona, Margot W. Kaye, Pennsylvania State University, Ramón Vallejo, Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo, Stephen C. Hart, University of California, Merced, Peter Fule, Northern Arizona University, Valerie Kurth, Northern Arizona University, Christopher Ross, Pennsylvania State University
9:40 AM Break
9:50 AMOOS 34-6Disturbance effects on nutrient limitation of primary productivity in Florida scrub
Jennifer L. Schafer, University of Florida, Michelle C. Mack, University of Florida
10:10 AMOOS 34-7Soil, vegetation, and nitrogen dynamics following mountain pine beetle outbreak in lodgepole pine forests of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Jacob M. Griffin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Martin Simard, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Monica G. Turner, University of Wisconsin-Madison
10:30 AMOOS 34-8Climate impacts on multiple disturbance interactions in Yellowstone National Park: consequences for resilience
Erica A.H. Smithwick, The Pennsylvania State University, Robert E. Keane, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Donald McKenzie, University of Washington, Carol Miller, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Martin Simard, University of Wisconsin- Madison, Daniel M. Kashian, Wayne State University, Rachel Loehman, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Donald A. Falk, University of Arizona
10:50 AMOOS 34-9Spatial resilience: Scale-dependent repair or collapse of locally perturbed ecosystems
Egbert H. Van Nes, University of Wageningen, Marten Scheffer, University of Wageningen
11:10 AMOOS 34-10Pyrodiversity and pyrocomplexity in the forest carbon budget: Perspectives from the Eastern Cascade Range, Oregon
Garrett W. Meigs, Oregon State University, Beverly E. Law, Oregon State University

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