Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Sensitivity Of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) Terrestrial Primary Production To The Accuracy Of Meteorological Reanalyses, Maosheng Zhao, Steven W. Running, Ramakrishna R. Nemani

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA's satellites, Terra and Aqua, dramatically improves our ability to accurately and continuously monitor the terrestrial biosphere. MODIS information is used to estimate global terrestrial primary production weekly and annually in near-real time at a 1-km resolution. MODIS terrestrial primary production requires daily gridded assimilation meteorological data as inputs, and the accuracy of the existing meteorological reanalysis data sets show marked differences both spatially and temporally. This study compares surface meteorological data sets from three well-documented global reanalyses, NASA Data Assimilation Office (DAO), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) (ERA-40) and …

Aggregate Measures Of Ecosystem Services: Can We Take The Pulse Of Nature?, Laura A. Meyerson, Jill Baron, Jerry M. Melillo, Robert J. Naiman, Robin I. O'Malley, Gordon Orians, Margaret A. Palmer, Alexander S. P. Pfaff, Steven W. Running, Osvaldo E. Sala

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

National scale aggregate indicators of ecosystem services are useful for stimulating and supporting a broad public discussion about trends in the provision of these services. There are important considerations involved in producing an aggregate indicator, including whether the scientific and technological capacity exists, how to address varying perceptions of the societal importance of different services, and how to communicate information about these services to both decision makers and the general public. Although the challenges are formidable, they are not insurmountable. Quantification of ecosystem services and dissemination of information to decision makers and the public is critical for the responsible and …

El Niño-Southern Oscillation-Induced Variability In Terrestrial Carbon Cycling, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Michael A. White, William M. Jolly, Steve C. Piper, Charles D. Keeling, Ranga B. Myneni, Steven W. Running

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

We examined the response of terrestrial carbon fluxes to climate variability induced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We estimated global net primary production (NPP) from 1982 to 1999 using a light use efficiency model driven by satellite-derived canopy parameters from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and climate data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis project. We estimated a summed heterotrophic respiration and fire carbon flux as the residual between NPP and the terrestrial net carbon flux inferred from an atmospheric inversion model, excluding the impacts of land use change. We propose that …

Discovery Of The Centipede Scolopocryptops Gracilis Wood In Montana (Scolopendromorpha: Scolopocryptopidae), Rowland M. Shelley, Diana Six

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Genetic Relationships Among Leptographium Terebrantis And The Mycangial Fungi Of Three Western Dendroctonus Bark Beetles, Diana Six, Thomas C. Harrington, Joseph Steimel, Douglas Mcnew, T. D. Paine

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Morphology, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction fragment polymorphisms (RFLPs) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) fingerprinting were used to clarify relationships among the morphologically similar Ophiostoma and Leptographium species associated with mycangia of three Dendroctonus bark beetles (Ophiostoma clavigerum associated with both D. ponderosae and D. jeffreyi, and L. pyrinum associated with D. adjunctus), as well as a closely related nonmycangial bark beetle associate (L. terebrantis). Most isolates of O. clavigerum form long (40-70 μm), septate conidia, while all isolates of L. terebrantis and L. pyrinum form conidia less than 17.0 μm in length. The conidia of L. pyrinum are pyriform, with truncate …

Human Health Effects Of A Changing Global Nitrogen Cycle, Alan R. Townsend, Robert W. Howarth, Fakhri A. Bazzaz, Mary S. Booth, Cory C. Cleveland, Sharon K. Collinge, Andrew P. Dobson, Paul R. Epstein, Elisabeth A. Holland, Dennis R. Keeney, Michael A. Mallin, Christine A. Rogers, Peter Wayne, Amir H. Wolfe

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Changes to the global nitrogen cycle affect human health well beyond the associated benefits of increased food production. Many intensively fertilized crops become animal feed, helping to create disparities in world food distribution and leading to unbalanced diets, even in wealthy nations. Excessive air- and water-borne nitrogen are linked to respiratory ailments, cardiac disease, and several cancers. Ecological feedbacks to excess nitrogen can inhibit crop growth, increase allergenic pollen production, and potentially affect the dynamics of several vector-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, malaria, and cholera. These and other examples suggest that our increasing production and use of fixed nitrogen …

An Operational Remote Sensing Algorithm Of Land Surface Evaporation, Kenlo Nishida, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Steven W. Running, Joseph M. Glassy

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Partitioning of solar energy at the Earth surface has significant implications in climate dynamics, hydrology, and ecology. Consequently, spatial mapping of energy partitioning from satellite remote sensing data has been an active research area for over two decades. We developed an algorithm for estimating evaporation fraction (EF), expressed as a ratio of actual evapotranspiration (ET) to the available energy (sum of ET and sensible heat flux), from satellite data. The algorithm is a simple two-source model of ET. We characterize a landscape as a mixture of bare soil and vegetation and thus we estimate EF as a mixture of EF …

Soil Microbial Dynamics And Biogeochemistry In Tropical Forests And Pastures, Southwestern Costa Rica, Cory C. Cleveland, Alan R. Townsend, Steven K. Schmidt, Briana C. Constance

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Tropical rain forest ecosystems are currently undergoing unprecedented rates of land conversion and land use change. Recent research suggests these activities profoundly influence nutrient cycling, but the principal mechanisms driving variation in nutrient status following land conversion are still not well understood. In this study, we used soils of varying fertility (oxisols and mollisols) in Costa Rica to investigate how conversion of tropical rain forest to cattle pasture affects the size and function of the microbial community, and to explore possible relationships between microbial dynamics and biogeochemistry.

Our pasture sites are relatively lightly managed, and total pools of carbon (C), …

Unexpected Changes In Soil Phosphorus Dynamics Along Pasture Chronosequences In The Humid Tropics, Alan R. Townsend, Gregory P. Asner, Cory C. Cleveland, Margaret E. Lefer, Mercedes M. C. Bustamante

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Phosphorus (P) is widely believed to limit plant growth and organic matter storage in a large fraction of the world's lowland tropical rain forests. We investigated how the most common land use change in such forests, conversion to cattle pasture, affects soil P fractions along pasture chronosequences in the central Brazilian Amazon and in southwestern Costa Rica. Our sites represent a broad range in rainfall, soil type, management strategies, and total soil P (45.2–1228.0 μg P/g soil), yet we found some unexpected and at times quite similar changes in soil P in all sites. In the Brazilian sites, where rainfall …

Livelihood Security And Protected Area Management, Stephen F. Siebert, Jill M. Belsky

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Patterns Of Terrestrial Biological Nitrogen (N2) Fixation In Natural Ecosystems, Cory C. Cleveland, Alan R. Townsend, David S. Schimel, Hank Fisher, Robert W. Howarth, Lars O. Hedin, Steven S. Perakis, Erika F. Latty, Joseph C. Von Fischer, Adrien Elseroad, Matt F. Wasson

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Human activities have clearly caused dramatic alterations of the terrestrial nitrogen cycle, and analyses of the extent and effects of such changes are now common in the scientific literature. However, any attempt to evaluate N cycling processes within ecosystems, as well as anthropogenic influences on the N cycle, requires an understanding of the magnitude of inputs via biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Although there have been many studies addressing the microbiology, physiology, and magnitude of N fixation at local scales, there are very few estimates of BNF over large scales. We utilized >100 preexisting published estimates of BNF to generate biome- …

Consumption Of Atmospheric Isoprene In Soil, Cory C. Cleveland, Joseph B. Yavitt

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Natural vegetation annually emits 503 Tg yr⁻¹ of isoprene (2-methyl-1,3 butadiene) to the global atmosphere where it reacts very rapidly with hydroxyl radicals and strongly regulates atmospheric chemistry. Current models of the compound's chemical behavior assume the atmosphere is the only significant sink; however, there is evidence that soil may consume isoprene. Here we show through field and laboratory studies that soil exposed to isoprene at low mixing ratios removed isoprene to concentrations below those commonly observed in forest canopies, and that the removal of isoprene was biologically mediated. On the basis of laboratory studies with soil from several …

Ophiostoma Clavigerum Is The Mycangial Fungus Of The Jeffrey Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Jeffreyi, Diana Six, T. D. Paine

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Dendroctonus jeffreyi and D. ponderosae are sibling species of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolyti- dae) with few morphological and molecular genetic differences. The two species are believed to have di- verged relatively recently. Dendroctonus jeffreyi colo- nizes only Pinus jeffreyi, while D. ponderosae colonizes up to thirteen Pinus spp., but not P. jeffreyi. Adult beetles of both D. jeffreyi and D. ponderosae carry sym- biotic fungi in mycangia located on the maxillary car- dines. Dendroctonus ponderosae was known to carry two fungi, Ophiostoma clavigerum and 0. montium, in its mycangia. However, it was not known which fungi might be carried by …

Leptographium Pyrinum Is A Mycangial Fungus Of Dendroctonus Adjunctus, Diana Six, T. D. Paine

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Several species of Dendroctonus (Coleop- tera: Scolytidae) have cuticular invaginations, or my- cangia, in the integument which are specialized for carrying specific symbiotic fungi. The mycangium of Dendroctonus adjunctus, located under a callus that surrounds the prothorax, has been recognized but the mycangial fungus has not yet been identified. Fungi from mycangia of Dendroctonus adjunctus were isolated and compared with Leptographium pyrinum and Ophiostoma adjuncti, two species of fungi known to be present in trees colonized by Dendroctonus ad- junctus. Fungi isolated from Dendroctonus adjunctus mycangia were determined to be morphologically and genetically identical to Leptographium pyrinum