OOS 7 - Ecosystem Consequences of a Changing Water Cycle in the Southwest

Tuesday, August 9, 2016: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Grand Floridian Blrm E, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Anne E. Kelly, US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center
Co-organizer:
Daniel L. Potts, SUNY Buffalo State
Moderator:
Anne E. Kelly, US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center
Altered hydrology — including changing patterns of precipitation, river flow, and evapotranspiration — has profound effects on ecosystem dynamics. Such effects are especially pronounced throughout the forests, rangelands, rivers, and cities of the arid and semi-arid American Southwest, where climate change and direct human appropriation radically alter water fluxes. A warming, drying climate combined with highly regulated surface flows and variable groundwater pumping result in novel hydrologic regimes that can reshape the nutrient cycles, species compositions, and biotic interactions in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, changes in the amount, timing, and spatial extent of precipitation, stream flow, and water availability can create new natural resource management challenges and influence socio-economic drivers on ecosystems in both rural and urban areas. To what extent can we predict the ecological changes arising from altered hydrological patterns in the Southwest? This session will bring together scientists examining the ecological effects of a changing water cycle in the Southwest to develop a more integrative understanding of altered hydrology across ecosystems, and the consequences for community dynamics and ecosystem processes.
8:00 AM
 Drought variability in the Southwest US, from seasons to millennia
Julia Cole, University of Arizona; Melissa Harrington, University of Arizona; Sarah Truebe, University of Arizona; Jonathan T. Overpeck, University of Arizona; Stephan Hlohowskyj, University of Arizona; Jon Woodhead, University of Melbourne; R. Lawrence Edwards, Univ of Minnesota; Gideon Henderson, Oxford University
9:20 AM
 Temporal and spatial distributions of exotic invasive grasses in arid shrublands are controlled by precipitation timing, soil heterogeneity, and fire history
Tara B.B. Bishop, Brigham Young University; Kevin J. Horn, Virginia Tech; Samuel B. St. Clair, Brigham Young University
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
10:10 AM
 Urban landscapes and water use in the Southwest
Elizaveta Litvak, University of Utah; Heather R. McCarthy, University of Oklahoma; Diane E. Pataki, University of Utah
10:30 AM
 The ecohydrology of forest thinning in a warming Southwest climate
Christina L. Tague, University of Calfornia, Santa Barbara
10:50 AM
 Evaluating the temporal lags and influence of past climate on tree growth in the Southwest: Implications for responses to climate change
Drew M. P. Peltier, Northern Arizona University; Jarrett Barber, Northern Arizona University; Kiona Ogle, Northern Arizona University
11:10 AM
 Vegetation dynamics lead to compensatory responses in ecosystem-scale water fluxes in forests affected by beetle mortality
David Millar, University of Wyoming; Brent E. Ewers, University of Wyoming; D. Scott Mackay, SUNY-Buffalo; Bujidmaa Borkhuu, University of Wyoming; Adewale Sekoni, University of Wyoming; Scott D. Peckham, University of Wyoming; David Reed, University of Wisconsin; John M. Frank, Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service; William J. Massman, Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service; Elise Pendall, University of Western Sydney; Urszula Norton, University of Wyoming