OOS 34 - Microbial Responses to Climate Changes and Predictability of Ecosystem Functioning

Thursday, August 11, 2016: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Grand Floridian Blrm F, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Lauren Hale, University of Oklahoma
Moderator:
Zhili He, University of Oklahoma
Microorganisms are the most diverse group on Earth and play critical roles in various biogeochemical and ecosystem processes. However, microbial responses to climate change and these effects on ecosystem functioning remain elusive. Recent advanced technologies makes it possible for us to analyze microbial communities affected by human-influenced factors, such as decreased biodiversity, global warming, elevated CO2, and reduced precipitation. Current high throughput data have revealed that microbial communities may be sensitive, resilient, and/or resistant to anthropogenic environmental changes. However, little is known as to whether such responses are consistent across disparate ecosystems, or ecosystem-specific as well as their relationships with macroorganisms and ecosystem functioning. In the Big Data era, continuously increased microbial data coupled with available metadata may allow us to address those challenges. This special section will focus on fundamental questions in microbial ecology: How do microbial communities respond to climate changes? What are interactive responses of microbial communities to multiple climate change factors? Are there consistent or common patterns of microbial responses to a particular climate change factor across disparate ecosystems/sites? How can we predict ecosystem functioning using microbial community information? How do microorganisms and macroorganisms interact in a natural and man-made ecosystem? Thus, we propose to organize a special section at the 2016 ESA Annual Conference by inviting ecologists and microbiologists and to discuss the following topics: 1) microbial community responses to climate changes; 2) consistent and specific patterns of microbial responses to climate changes; 3) prediction of ecosystem functioning using microbial information; 4) community dynamics and succession; and 5) interactions among community members. Idea exchanges between speakers and attendees will be highly encouraged during this session.
1:30 PM
 Life in dry soils: The interface between biology, chemistry, and physics
Joshua P. Schimel, University of California, Santa Barbara
2:10 PM
 Discovering, understanding and modeling the influence of key microbial traits on community succession and function
Eoin L. Brodie, University of California, Berkeley; Eric King, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Yiwei Cheng, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Kateryna Zhalnina, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Ulas Karaoz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; HeeJung Cho, University of California, Berkeley; Harry Beller, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Talia Jewell, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Sergi Molins, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Nicholas J. Bouskill, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Haifeng Geng, Sandia National Laboratories; Todd Lane, Sandia National Laboratories; Mary K. Firestone, University of California, Berkeley; Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Trent R. Northen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Xavier Mayali, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Carl I. Steefel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2:30 PM
 Combinomics to understand microbiomes
Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Arizona State University
3:10 PM
3:40 PM
 Incorporating microbial mechanisms into the ACME land model
Gangsheng Wang, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Peter E. Thornton, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Fengming Yuan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Guoping Tang, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Xiaojuan Yang, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Melanie A. Mayes, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Forrest M. Hoffman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
4:20 PM
 Temperature sensitivity of organic matter decomposition of permafrost-region soils during laboratory incubations
Rosvel Bracho, University of Florida; Edward A. G. Schuur, Northern Arizona University; E. F. Pegoraro, Northern Arizona University; Cesar Plaza, Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias; Lauren Hale, University of Oklahoma; Konstantinos Konstantinidis, Georgia Institute of Technology; Liyou Wu, University of Oklahoma; Jizhong Zhou, University of Oklahoma; Yiqi Luo, University of Oklahoma; James Tiedje, Michigan State University
4:40 PM
 Soil microbial community responses to warming as revealed by comparative metagenomics
Konstantinos Konstantinidis, Georgia Institute of Technology