Wednesday, August 4, 2010: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
403-405, David L Lawrence Convention Center
SYMP 11 - Ecological Responses to Abrupt Climate Changes: Looking Back to See Ahead
Global climate change poses threats to ecosystems and the goods and services they provide not only by its magnitude but by its rapidity. Geohistorical records provide abundant evidence for abrupt changes in climate and other aspects of the earth system during the distant and even recent past. In fact, vulnerability of the earth system to abrupt change was first recognized from geohistorical records of such phenomena as the late-glacial Younger Dryas, glacial-age Heinrich Events, Holocene megadroughts, and Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Much attention has been paid to what these and other abrupt changes reveal about the mechanisms underlying climatic regime shifts and the accompanying risks for the future. Paleoclimatology played a prominent role in the 2007 Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), focusing particularly on abrupt change. In contrast, geohistorical records of ecological responses to abrupt changes have been underutilized in the global change dialogue, despite rich and detailed records. These records provide the only direct means – short of awaiting abrupt changes of the future – to learn what happens to ecosystems when climate undergoes rapid change. The proposed symposium brings together scientists studying abrupt changes of the past in a variety of ecosystems (tropical to arctic, terrestrial to marine) and in periods ranging from the past few centuries to tens of millions of years ago. The first speaker will discuss abrupt changes of the past from an IPCC perspective, outlining the risks of abrupt change in the future. Two talks will respectively cover terrestrial and marine impacts of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, an event that included rapid temperature increase, atmospheric CO2 increase, and ocean acidification. Two speakers will concentrate on terrestrial consequences of rapid glacial-to-interglacial transitions. One will discuss the Eemian and earlier transitions using a new record from Lake Urmia in Iran and integrating it with other records from Europe. The following speaker will review the European and North American records of rapid warming events (Bölling-Alleröd and Younger Dryas termination). Three speakers will discuss consequences of rapid mid-Holocene hydrological excursions in eastern North America, the role of vegetation-atmosphere feedbacks in the termination of the African mid-Holocene humid period, and recent and ongoing changes in the boreal forest. The Workshop will conclude with a 30-minute panel discussion on the ecological risks of abrupt changes of the future.
Organizer:Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming
Co-organizers:Scott L. Wing, National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian Institution
Simon C. Brewer, University of Wyoming
Moderator:Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming
Endorsement:ESA Paleoecology Section
8:00 AM Introductory remarks by S.T. Jackson
8:10 AMSYMP 11-1Abrupt change in Earth's climate system
Jonathan T. Overpeck, University of Arizona
8:30 AMSYMP 11-2Disruption of terrestrial ecosystems during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Scott L. Wing, National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian Institution
8:50 AMSYMP 11-3Effects of ocean warming and acidification during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on deep and shallow marine communities
Linda C. Ivany, Syracuse University, Jocelyn A. Sessa, Syracuse University
9:10 AMSYMP 11-4Rapid glacial-to-interglacial transitions in Europe and southwestern Asia during the Quaternary
Morteza Djamali, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Hossein Akhani, University of Tehran, Valérie Andrieu-Ponel, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Simon Brewer, University of Wyoming, Frédéric Guibal, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Philippe Ponel, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP)
9:30 AMSYMP 11-5Vegetation responses to abrupt warming during the Bölling/Alleröd and the Younger Dryas
Simon C. Brewer, University of Wyoming, Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming
9:50 AM Break
10:00 AMSYMP 11-6Vegetation/precipitation feedbacks and the end of the mid-Holocene African humid period
James Russell, Brown University
10:20 AMSYMP 11-7Ecological consequences of abrupt drought events of the late Holocene
Robert K. Booth, Lehigh University, Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming, Alex W. Ireland, Lehigh University
10:40 AMSYMP 11-8Divergence, inertia, and change: what variability in the response of boreal forest trees to recent warming tells us about ecological sensitivity to abrupt climate change
Andrea H. Lloyd, Middlebury College
11:00 AM Panel discussion

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See more of The 95th ESA Annual Meeting (August 1 -- 6, 2010)