Workshop 7: Global Ecology (June 26-30, 2006)
Organizers: John Pastor, John Harte, and David Schimel
The globe is warming because humans are altering the global cycling and distribution of carbon. Fossil fuel burning, land management transfer carbon, and other nutrients formerly in relative stable pools into the atmosphere as CO2 and other gasses. These gasses in turn trap heat and alter the heat/energy budget of the earth, which in turn feeds back and alters element cycles further.
Global element cycles and energy flows present several problems to both ecologists and mathematicians. The most salient feature of the globe as a system is that it is closed to element cycles but open to energy fluxes. What happens when we close a dynamical system by coupling component open systems and still maintain the constraint of conservation of matter?
Element cycles are also not independent of one another but are coupled through relatively constant stoichiometries of elements for specific fluxes or specific compartments. How do changes in these constants alter the stabilities and trajectories of the closed global ecosystem as opposed to the more open sub-ecosystems that comprise it?
Feedbacks between ecosystem components can result in alternative stable states of material cycles. Changes in global control parameters (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and their spatial distributions) could cause rapid shifts between these stable states. What kind of bifurcations might underlie a closed system like the globe?
These are a few of many representative problems of global ecology with interesting biological and mathematical aspects. This workshop will bring together ecologists and mathematicians to explore these or other problems.
Schedule |
|||
| Monday, June 26 | |||
| 8:45-9:00am | Welcome to the MBI and the Workshop: Avner Friedman | ||
| 9:00-9:45am | Introduction: John Pastor Mathematical Challenges of Global Change | ||
| 9:45-10:30am | John Harte: Biotic Feedbacks to Global Climate Change | ||
| 10:30-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
| 11:00-11:45pm | Rob Armstrong: Carbon Fluxes in the Ocean: From Productivity at the Surface to Fluxes in the Deep Layers | ||
| 11:45-2:00pm | Lunch break | ||
| 2:00-5:00pm | Reconvene to organize and break out for afternoon discussions: -Discussion 1: Outlining a Curriculum for Training Students in the Mathematics Required for Global Ecology -Other discussions to be decided at workshop. |
||
| 5:00-7:00pm | Reception held in Math Tower, Room 724 | ||
| Tuesday, June 27 | |||
| 9:00-9:45am | Raymond Pierrehumbert: Snowball Earth and a Warm Earth | ||
| 9:45-10:30am | Bruce Peckham: Bifurcations, Alternative States, and Nutrient Fluxes in Peatlands | ||
| 10:30-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
| 11:00-11:45am | Barbara Bailey: Noise and Ecosystem Dynamics | ||
| 11:45-1:30pm | Lunch break | ||
| 1:30-5:00pm | Reconvene for afternoon sessions: -Further discussion of Curriculum for Global Change -Tutorial session: Yosef Cohen Modeling Evolutionary Processes and Global Change |
||
| 5:00-6:00pm | Social hour | ||
| 7:00pm | Public Lecture Series: John Harte Global warming: Why the skeptics are wrong | ||
| Wednesday, June 28 | |||
| 9:00-9:45am | Robert Sterner: Stoichiometry at Global Scales | ||
| 9:45-10:30am | Chris Klausmeier: The Origin and Stability of Redfield Ratios | ||
| 10:30-11:00am | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00-11:45am | Irakli Loladze: Stoichiometry of wild plants and crops in the high CO2 world | ||
| 11:45-1:30pm | Lunch break | ||
| 1:30-5:00pm | Reconvene for afternoon sessions: -Discussion groups -Tutorial session: John Nagy and Yang Kuang Modeling the Effects of Climate Change on Predator-Prey Cycles and Population Dynamics |
||
| 5:00-6:00pm | Social hour | ||
| Thursday, June 29 | |||
| 9:00-9:45am | David Schimel: Time and Space Scale Issues in Global Carbon Cycles | ||
| 9:45-10:15am | Coffee break | ||
| 10:15-11:00am | Gabriel Katul: Scaling and the Analysis of Long Time Series | ||
| 11:00-12:00pm | Discussions | ||
| 12:00-1:30pm | Lunch break | ||
| 1:30-5:00pm | Discussion sessions continue | ||
| 5:00-6:00pm | Social hour | ||
| 6:00-9:00pm | Banquet at the Holiday Inn on the Lane | ||
| Friday, June 30 | |||
| 9:00-12:00am | Discussions: -Reports from discussion groups -Possible papers summarizing workshop: authors, venue, etc. |
||
| 12:00pm | Departures | ||
