OOS 26 - Nutrient Additions Alter Community and Ecosystem Processes: Lessons Learned From the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network

Wednesday, August 8, 2012: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
B110, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Kimberly J. La Pierre, UC Berkeley
Co-organizer:
Sally E. Koerner, Duke University
Moderator:
Kimberly J. La Pierre, UC Berkeley
Community and ecosystems processes in systems around the world are controlled by a variety of abitoic factors, including nutrient limitation. Although extensive research has been conducted examining how nutrient additions affect ecosystem structure and function, this remains an important objective for the field of ecology. In particular, the need for long-term experimental work examining how nutrient additions impact a variety of systems has become exceedingly clear. The goal of this session will be to bring together scientists studying the effects on nutrient additions on both community and ecosystem level processes within the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. The long-term nature of LTER studies within the network puts us in an ideal position to examine the long-term effects of chronic nutrient additions in a variety of systems. This session will be sponsored by the LTER Graduate Student Committee in order to facilitate communication on this important issue between scientists at several different stages of their careers. Speakers will be a combination of both lead PIs and graduate students from LTER sites in order to encourage discussion between these groups. In addition to direct nutrient effects, we aim to consider (1) the interactive effects of multiple nutrient additions, (2) how other global change drivers, such as changes in temperature, salinity, and CO2, as well as urbanization, potentially interact with the effects of nutrient additions, and (3) how systems recover from chronic nutrient additions. This session will include speakers from a wide variety of study systems, including oceans, streams, lakes, grasslands, forests, and urban systems. By examining the long-term effects of nutrients on wide range of ecosystem processes, in many habitat types, and by a diverse group of scientists, we will facilitate communication across boundaries.
8:00 AM
 Plant and ecosystem response to long term experimental warming and nutrient additions in arctic shrub tundra
Jennie DeMarco, New Mexico State University; Michelle C. Mack, University of Florida; M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Gaius R. Shaver, Marine Biological Laboratory
8:20 AM
 Alpine plant community response to long-term moisture and nitrogen accumulation along an elevational gradient, Niwot Ridge, CO
Eve I. Gasarch, University of Colorado; Tim Seastedt, University of Colorado at Boulder
8:40 AM
 Nutrient cycling in glacial meltwater streams of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Antarctica is strongly dependent on stream-sediment interactions
Emily D. Bernzott, Pennsylvania State University; Michael N. Gooseff, Pennsylvania State University; Diane M. McKnight, University of Colorado
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 Long-term nutrient additions cause divergence in tallgrass prairie plant communities
Sally E. Koerner, Duke University; Meghan L. Avolio, University of Utah; Kimberly J. La Pierre, UC Berkeley; Kevin R. Wilcox, Colorado State University; Melinda D. Smith, Colorado State University; Scott L. Collins, University of New Mexico
10:10 AM
 Are arid ecosystems resistant to nutrient enrichment? Curious results from an urban-rural gradient in the Phoenix metro area
Sharon Hall, Arizona State University; Elizabeth M. Cook, Universidad Austral de Chile; Michelle K. Schmoker, Arizona State University; Ryan A. Sponseller, UmeƄ University
10:30 AM
 The effects of nutrient addition on seagrass beds in sub-tropical oligotrophic systems
Alex Perez, Florida International University; Glauco Puig-Santana, Florida International University; James W. Fourqurean, Florida International University; Ligia Collado-Vides, Florida International University
11:10 AM
 Root endophyte communities are affected by nitrogen differentially in two co-dominant alpine tundra plants from Niwot, LTER
Sarah Hicks, University of New Mexico; Emily Farrer, University of California at Berkeley; Robert L. Sinsabaugh, University of New Mexico; Katharine N. Suding, University of California at Berkeley; Andrea Porras-Alfaro, Western Illinois University
See more of: Organized Oral Session