Wednesday, August 4, 2010: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
315-316, David L Lawrence Convention Center
OOS 34 - What is the Fate of Tropical Forests Under Climate Change?  Integrating Remote Sensing, Micro-Meteorology, Forest Plots, and Ecological Models
Tropical forests are key components of the global carbon and water cycles, and understanding their large-scale ecology is critical to understanding terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks to global climate. The integration of cutting edge tools such as LIDAR and multi-spectral remote sensing, with classical methods such as forest plot inventories, is providing new insights into tropical forest function at multiple scales. For example, airborne or spaceborne LIDAR in combination with large-scale plot studies and eddy flux towers allow plot-scale forest demography to be linked to landscape-scale forest structure and to ecosystem-atmosphere carbon exchange. At the same time, combining long-term space-borne observations of vegetation (e.g. via MODIS) with high temporal resolution eddy flux measurements gives new insights into forest responses to both seasonal and interannual climate variability. The latest vegetation models aim to predict the response of tropical forests to climate change by scaling concepts of individual tree performance, resource use and competition to the landscape. This symposium aims to foster two important emerging trends: (1) the integration of diverse methods to provide new insights and strengthen ecological understanding of the problem, and (2) the integration of ecological theory with applied studies of tropical forests and climate change. Examples of '1' include resolving apparent contradictions between the findings of remote sensing and plot-based studies for the response of forests to droughts while examples of '2' include testing competing large-scale mechanistic models of forest structure against data with modern model comparison techniques. Speakers represent a wide variety of approaches to the question of tropical forest responses to global change, and all speakers have been challenged to directly address syntheses between diverse methods and between theory and applied global change research.
Organizer:	Scott R. Saleska, University of Arizona
Co-organizers:	Alfredo R. Huete, University of Arizona Scott C. Stark, University of Arizona
Moderator:	Scott R. Saleska, University of Arizona
1:30 PM	OOS 34-1		Restoring the earth’s forests in the twenty-first century as a solution to global warming Douglas H. Boucher, Union of Concerned Scientists
1:50 PM	OOS 34-2		Gap phase influences deep soil moisture dynamics in a moist tropical forest Bradley J. Christoffersen, University of Arizona, Tara Woodcock, University of Arizona, Daniel Amaral, LBA Escritorio, Raimundo Cosme de Oliveira, Embrapa, Scott R. Saleska, University of Arizona
2:10 PM	OOS 34-3		Divergent responses of tropical rainforest net primary production to shifts in rainfall: Results from a new tropical forest carbon dynamics database Philip G. Taylor, University of Colorado, William R. Wieder, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, Alan R. Townsend, University of Colorado, Boulder, Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution, Cory C. Cleveland, University of Montana
2:30 PM	OOS 34-4		Climatic responses of aboveground net primary productivity of a tropical rain forest: A 12-yr study Deborah A. Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis & University of Virginia, David B. Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis & University of Virginia
2:50 PM	OOS 34-5		Tropical dry forest replacement by savannas on the southern edge of the Amazon Basin Joseph W. Veldman, University of Florida
3:10 PM			Break
3:20 PM	OOS 34-6		Cloud-free and stripe-free mosaics from landsat data in the humid tropics Jeffrey Cardille, Université de Montréal, Manh Kong Nguyen, Université de Montréal, Rodolphe DeKoninck, Université de Montréal, Alexis Dorais, Université de Montréal
3:40 PM	OOS 34-7		Quantifying the importance of increased disturbance rates and drought for the carbon stocks of Amazonian forests Timothy Baker, University of Leeds, Oliver Phillips, University of Leeds, Network Rainfor, Multiple Institutions
4:00 PM	OOS 34-8		Transient canopy dynamics and the future of tropical forests James R. Kellner, Carnegie Institution, Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution
4:20 PM	OOS 34-9		Integrating LiDAR and plot studies to asses light limitation in tropical forests Scott C. Stark, University of Arizona, Veronika Leitold, University of Arizona, Juliana Schietti, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Diego Brandão, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Carol Castilho, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Yosio E. Shimabukuro, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Brian J. Enquist, University of Arizona and The Santa Fe Institute, Flávia R. C. Costa, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Scott R. Saleska, University of Arizona
4:40 PM	OOS 34-10		Seasonal and inter-annual variability of climate and vegetation indices across the Amazon Paulo M. Brando, University of Florida - IPAM, Scott Goetz, Woods Hole Research Center, Alessandro Baccini, Woods Hole Research Center, Daniel C. Nepstad, Woods Hole Research Center, Pieter S. A. Beck, Woods Hole Research Center, Mary Christman, University of Florida

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