Ecological Society of America

Need a missing journal replaced or an address updated?  Having login issues?  Just curious about  ESA membership benefits?  Membership Manager, Rachel Dellon, will be on hand at the registration desk located in the lobby of the McEnery Convention Center, Wednesday afternoon, 1-5 pm, to take your questions and feedback without interruption.

The 2007 ESA /SER Joint Meeting Opening Plenary will be held Sunday, August 5 from 5–6:30 pm at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. Prior to the Opening Plenary, and immediately following the session, cash bars will be set up in the lobby of the Auditorium. Meet up with old friends, have a drink, and listen to the Honorary Speaker, Don Kennedy. After the Opening Plenary, socialize a little more and then head off to experience a wonderful dinner at one of the numerous San Jose restaurants, within close proximity to the Auditorium.

ESA is trying something new this year—we are modifying the schedule for Monday, August 6, 2007 ! The new schedule is as follows:

8-10 am : Opening Plenary, Awards Ceremony, and MacArthur Lecture
10-11:30 am : Special Sessions
11:30 am : Exhibits Opening with complimentary snacks (first come first served)
11:30 am -1:15 pm : Workshops and lunch break
1:30-5 pm : Symposia, Organized Oral Sessions, and Contributed Oral Sessions

The remainder of the day will be similar to previous years.

Monday, August 6 at 11:30 am , ESA and SER will have the kick-off for the opening of the ESA /SER exhibits in the Exhibit Hall of the San Jose Convention Center . Make your way through the exhibit hall while having complimentary “snacks, first come, first served.” Explore this year's ESA /SER City and view all the other exhibits in this year's show. Lunch is first come, first served.

The 2007 ESA /SER Joint Meeting will feature the first “Recent Advances” lecture. With the rapid expansion of our discipline, it becomes ever more challenging to stay abreast of what's exciting and current across the field of ecology. No one can track the full primary literature of ecology, yet most of us would like to have some sense of what is current and important in areas outside our own particular expertise. The Recent Advances talks are designed to address this need by providing current, high-level synopses of timely issues, precisely for the broad community of professional ecologists. Topics will be different each year, and speakers will be selected for their capacity to offer a synthetic and up-to-date perspective for their colleagues.

Guest Lecturer
F. Stuart Chapin, III, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

F. Stuart Chapin, III is Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he directs the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program and an interdisciplinary (IGERT) program in Resilience and Adaptation.

He received a BA in biology from Swarthmore College and a PhD in Biology from Stanford University. Chapin’s research focuses on ecosystem ecology and on the resilience of social-ecological systems. His ecological research addresses the consequences of plant traits for ecosystem and global processes, and focuses particularly on vegetation-mediated feedbacks to high-latitude climate warming. His research on social-ecological systems emphasizes the resilience of northern regions to recent changes in climate and fire regime, and resulting effects on ecosystem services, wages, cultural integrity, and the effects of local opinions about fire. Chapin has served on many national and international advisory boards and committees and received wide recognition for his research in both pure and applied ecology. He is an author of over 300 peer-reviewed research publications and several books, including an influential textbook in ecosystem ecology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Abstract

Multiple feedbacks link changes in climate and ecosystems
Authors: F. Stuart Chapin, III, James Randerson, Jon Foley, and David McGuire

Changes in climate are linked with changes in ecosystems through multiple feedbacks. Climatic change affects ecosystems primarily through changes in availability of soil resources and in disturbance regime, with multiple indirect effects that propagate through food webs and biogeochemical cycles. Changes in ecosystems, in turn, affect the climate system through changes in fluxes of trace gases, which are globally dispersed, and of water and energy, which affect climate more locally. The net effect of these multiple feedbacks often differs from effects expected from studies of a single process such as carbon exchange. For example, water-logged conditions that reduce CO2 emissions from soils enhance methane and nitrous oxide emissions; fire can increase CO2 release but alter vegetation structure in ways that reduce heat transfer to the atmosphere. When the long-term net effect of all climate feedbacks is considered, ecosystem changes that augment carbon storage do not necessarily reduce the warming potential of the atmosphere, and we cannot assume that ecosystems will “fix the problems” caused by fossil-fuel emissions. Ecosystems and the climate system are most tightly coupled through changes in water and energy exchange because of the local nature of this coupling. Frequently, changes in vegetation alter the climate system in ways that stabilize the altered vegetation, making these changes less reversible than might be expected from studies of competitive interactions. Consequently, large-scale changes in land-cover may be less amenable to reclamation than plot-scale studies would suggest. Attention to long-term net effects of multiple climate feedbacks provides a more informed basis for assessing both positive and negative consequences of large-scale changes in land cover and land use.

Don't forget to bring last year's annual meeting ESA tote bag to San Jose . This will allow you to recycle your tote bag and save natural resources. These tote bags were made from recycled cotton garments. We will give you the new 2007 annual meeting patch, which you can add to last year's tote bag. We will have a supply of bags again this year to hand out, should you no longer have your old bag. Or, if you like, you need not even take a bag—it's your choice. The tote bag recycling program is one of many ongoing efforts to make the ESA Annual Meeting more environmentally friendly.