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2018 ESA Annual Meeting Presentations

In the past year alone, extreme events including hurricanes, droughts, and extensive fires have impacted significant regions of the United States—affecting the health of both natural habitats and human communities. Fittingly, the theme of this year’s Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting is ‘Extreme events, resilience and human well-being.’ The meeting takes place August 5-10 in New Orleans, LA—a city still rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which hit more than a decade ago.

Over 120 presentations and posters at the August meeting will feature research from 17 of the 28 National Science Foundation funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and are listed below.  In addition, a Monday afternoon symposium, titled “Innovative Continental-Scale Ecological Research Enabled By NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network)” will include examples of developing synergies between NEON and other continental-scale observation networks such as the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) Networks.

For a listing of NSF-funded research in the LTER, CZO and NEON programs, see the NSF’s news release on the meeting.

NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, with their sustained observations, are ideal for capturing the impact of extreme and unexpected events. Long term ecosystem experiments, like those carried out at many LTERs, provide an opportunities to ask (and answer), “what conditions foster resilience?”

With LTER sites in Florida, Georgia, and Puerto Rico hit hard by the 2017 hurricane season, resilience in the face of repeated salt-water flooding and forest damage is a frequent motif. Changing snowmelt and permafrost regimes—and their impacts on plant and animal communities—are also frequently-explored topics.

The range of natural precipitation at LTER sites provides a canvas for rainfall manipulations—both drying and wetting experiments—that offer insight into the role of rainfall timing and variability as well as absolute amount. Nutrient and temperature manipulation experiments at many LTER sites, combined with naturally-occurring extreme events, provide information about the interactions between short-term and long-term stresses.

Data Help Desk

Ecological data repositories and data specialists will collaborate at the ESA 2018 meeting in New Orleans to add a Data Help Desk to the Poster/Exhibition Hall. The Environmental Data Initiative (EDI), iDigBio, Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), DataCite, DataONE, and Arctic Data Center will offer three types of assistance:

  1. Data Reference Desk – For general information management and data discovery and use questions.
  2. Meet the Expert – One-on-one sessions. Stop by the Help Desk and make an appointment!
  3. Presentations/Software demos – About ecological data topics ranging from data repositories to analytical tools to creating metadata.

LTER Mixer

In addition to the many research presentations, the LTER Network Communications Office is co-hosting a Science Storytelling mixer with the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The event will feature three professional storytellers as well as an open mic for ESA attendees to tell their own short science stories.

Science Communications

In a similar vein, the Florida Coastal Everglades LTER is hosting a half-day workshop at ESA entitled Story-Tell Your Science with ComSciCon: The Communicating Science Workshop for Graduate Students. The workshop will include discussions and hands-on activities to help train early career scientists to communicate effectively about their research to various audiences.

LTER Talks and Posters

Sunday, August 5th, 2018

Title Time Location
Story-Tell Your Science with ComSciCon: The Communicating Science Workshop for Graduate Students (Workshop) 12:00 PM‑5:00 PM Convention Center-354

Monday, August 6th, 2018

Title Time Location
Maximize your 2018 Meeting Experience: Orientation and Networking for Student Attendees (Special Sessions) 10:15 AM‑11:30 AM Convention Center-338
Experiential learning in subtropical ecology at the urban-wildland interface (Symposium 3) 2:30 PM-3:00 PM Marriott-River Bend 1
Putting streams and rivers on the map: Understanding aquatic ecosystem function at the continental scale (Symposium 2) 2:00 PM-2:30 PM Convention Center-352
Landscape variation in live forest carbon change explained by elevation and disturbance history (Contributed Talks 18) 2:30 PM-2:50 PM Convention Center-353
Do macroalgal mats limit microphytobenthos on mudflats? (Contributed Talks 9) 2:30 PM-2:50 PM Convention Center-R06
Multiple dimensions of experiential learning at El Verde Field Station, Puerto Rico (Symposium 3) 2:30 PM-3:00 PM Marriott-River Bend 1
Above- and belowground litter decomposition responds differently to nutrient enrichment in a Chihuahuan desert grassland (Contributed Talks 2) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-338
Increased soil salinity delays regeneration of maritime forest tree species (Contributed Talks 11) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-340-341
Novel disturbance regimes in a warming Arctic (Inspire 4) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-244
Mapping biodiversity in manipulated and natural grasslands using spectral diversity (Contributed Talks 18) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-353
Multi-year rainfall manipulation effects on grass and shrub phenology (Contributed Talks 15) 4:20 PM-4:40 PM Convention Center-R05
Plant metabolite production and the rhizosphere microbiome: Interactions between Populus root salicylates and their microbial consortia (Contributed Talks 11) 4:20 PM-4:40 PM Convention Center-340-341
Searching for process: microbial drivers of plant-soil feedbacks in the greenhouse and field (Contributed Talks 4) 4:20 PM-4:40 PM Convention Center-333-334
Regional telecoupling and impacts of wet periods across the Chihuahuan Desert of the United States and northern Mexico (Contributed Posters 3) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Shrub (Prosopis velutina) recruitment in a semi-arid grassland: Precipitation-herbivory interactions reveal few constraints (Contributed Posters 3) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Are commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi an effective restoration investment? (Contributed Posters 9) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall

Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

Title Time Location
Plant-soil history has lasting effects on belowground SOM decomposition (Contributed Talks 20) 8:40 AM‑9:00 AM Convention Center-338
Microbial responses to extreme drought after ten years of elevated rainfall and nitrogen (Organized Oral Session 10) 9:00 AM-9:20 AM Convention Center-346-347
Barrier island response to extreme events: The role of woody vegetation (Organized Oral Session 6) 9:00 AM-9:20 AM Convention Center-343
Unpacking the black box of disease models by coupling within- and among-host dynamics (Contributed Talks 26) 9:20 AM-9:40 AM Convention Center-335-336
Extreme events alter C dynamics across the Florida Everglades (Organized Oral Session 6) 9:50 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-343
Intra-community diversity of invasive species impacts in space and time: Scaling up to ecosystem function (Contributed Talks 29) 9:50 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-235-236
Soil and plant-induced heterogeneity effects on soil microbial community structure (Contributed Talks 35) 10:30 AM‑10:50 AM Convention Center-339
Determinants of ecological responses to extreme precipitation events (Symposium 4) 10:40 AM‑11:10 AM Convention Center-350-351
Landscape-scale marsh dynamics in an Atlantic barrier island system (Organized Oral Session 6) 10:50 AM‑11:10 AM Convention Center-343
Role of extreme rain events and priority effects in the assembly of leaf microbial communities (Organized Oral Session 10) 11:10 AM‑11:30 AM Convention Center-346-347
Linking weather and recent mountain pine beetle epidemics using physiological and agent based models (Contributed Talks 52) 1:50 PM-2:10 PM Convention Center-355
Can top-down control of algal and detrital resources by crayfish mediate the effect of removing a dense riparian shrub, Rhododendron maximum, in headwater streams? (Contributed Talks 36) 1:50 PM-2:10 PM Convention Center-252
Responses of headwater-riparian food webs to multiple disturbances in tropical riverscapes (Contributed Talks 36) 2:10 PM-2:30 PM Convention Center-252
Ecological responses to a changing climate: Do observations and experiments tell us the same thing? (Organized Oral Session 15) 2:50 PM-3:10 PM Convention Center-346-347
The response of the mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) community in a tropical forest to large disturbance events (Contributed Talks 42) 2:50 PM-3:10 PM Convention Center-356
Distributed collaborative experiments as synthesis: Using the Nutrient Network to test theory and understand ecosystem resilience (Symposium 8) 3:10 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-352
Remote sensing of plant spectral diversity to predict ecosystem function (Organized Oral Sesion 11) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-348-349
Soil microbial community responses to US grassland management in continental and humid subtropical climates (Inspire 12) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-244
Alterations in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal abundance during tallgrass prairie restoration: Implications for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Inspire 12) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-244
Inhibition or facilitation of dune development on barriers: The influence of back-beach vegetation on barrier island stable states (Contributed Talks 42) 4:00 PM-4:20 PM Convention Center-356
Precipitation controls above-belowground partitioning of net primary production across biomes (Contributed Posters 38) 4:20 PM-4:40 PM Convention Center-338
Simultaneous global change pressures mitigate species loss (Contributed Posters 13) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Land-use legacies and extreme events interact to shape species composition in a secondary tropical forest (Contributed Talks 14) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Dune building grasses and disturbance: distribution and response to burial (Contributed Talks 14) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Potential facilitation by grasses of a rapidly expanding shrub in coastal grassland (Contributed Posters 19) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall

 

Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

Title Time Location
Chronic resource additions increasingly alter plant community composition through time (Contributed Talks 62) 8:00 AM‑8:20 AM Convention Center-252
Incorporating environmental heterogeneity in estimates of ecosystem greenhouse gas emissions: Why species and topography matter (Contributed Talks 55) 8:20 AM‑8:40 AM Convention Center-354
The human factor in big data and ecoinformatics (Symposium 9) 8:30 AM‑9:00 AM Convention Center-353
The roles of host tree genetics and environment in structuring arthropod communities: A macrosystems approach to community ecology (Contributed Talks 58) 10:10 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-356
Which Matters More: Herbivory, Nitrogen, Climate or Metacommunity Effects In A Long-Term Grassland Experiment (Contributed Talks 62) 10:10 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-252
Which matters more: Herbivory, nitrogen, climate or metacommunity effects in a long-term grassland experiment (Contributed Talks 62) 10:10 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-252
EDI-addressing accessibility and re-usability of highly variable ecological data (Symposium 9) 10:10 AM‑10:40 AM Convention Center 352
Integrating stakeholder feedback with land use change models to predict future scenarios of forest loss and landscape configuration (Contributed Talks 59) 10:30 AM‑10:50 AM Convention Center-240-241
Use of a tower gradient to determine thresholds of response and recovery from severe drought across a range of semi-arid biomes (Organized Oral Sessions 16) 10:30 AM‑10:50 AM Convention Center-346-347
Effects of changes in rainfall seasonality and amount on community composition and structure in two semi-arid grasslands (Contributed Talks 56) 10:50 AM‑11:10 AM Convention Center-340-341
Plant water uptake along a diversity gradient: Evidence for complementarity in hydrological niches? (Organized Oral Sessions 16) 11:10 AM‑11:30 AM Convention Center-346-347
Estimating basal energy sources in an aquatic food web (Contributed Talks 98) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-254
How does well-curated data aid long-term socioecological research? (Inspire 17) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-243
A tale of two thresholds: Mistakes and serendipity in a desert grassland (Inspire 18) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-244
Citizen science tools for predicting landscape-scale variability in drought resilience (Inspire 18) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-244
Publishing your ecological data is easier than you think (Inspire 17) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-243
What Is Keeping You from Publishing Your Data? (Inspire 17) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-243
Extreme events in drylands: We’re skewed (Inspire 18) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-244
An experimental investigation of the hydrology of an ephemeral wetland in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica and the hydroecological consequences (Contributed Talks 75) 1:50 PM-2:10 PM Convention Center-339
Light availability, leaf chemistry, and canopy structure in a tree diversity experiment (Organized Oral Session 23) 2:30 PM-2:50 PM Convention Center-348-349
Manganese limitation as a mechanism for reduced decomposition in soils under atmospheric nitrogen deposition (Contributed Talks 74) 2:50 PM-3:10 PM Convention Center-354
Long term studies reveal relative importance of plants and soil on microbial C-N cycling (Contributed Talks 75) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-339
The all singing all dancing ecologist? Forming communities of practice by cross training graduate students in empirical and modelling approaches (Contributed Talks 82) 3:20 PM-3:40 PM Convention Center-245
Natural hydrological disturbances in tropical stream ecology (Inspire 20) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-244
Nitrogen deposition alters plant-soil microbe interactions across congeneric grasses (Organized Oral Session 24) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-345
Coupling ecosystem complexity with leaf to canopy light and carbon cycling dynamics (Organized Oral Session 23) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-348-349
Influence of freshwater induced habitat changes on the movement and trophic dynamics of common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) (Contributed Posters 25) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hal
Invasive plant expansion on spatially heterogeneous landscapes: hot spots and hot moments (Contributed Posters 30) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hall
Environmental Data Initiative (EDI): Enabling reproducible ecology and environmental science (Contributed Posters 29) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hall

 

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

Title Time Location
Resiliency of developing grasslands to drought indicated by experimental restorations spanning space and time (Symposium 14)  8:00 AM‑8:30 AM Convention Center‑352
Mesofauna, observation networks and ecogenomics (Inspire 22) 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Convention Center-244
Woody-plant encroachment in the Chihuahuan Desert: Precipitation, Herbivory and Precipitation effects on Prosopis glandulosa recruitment (Contributed Talks 90) 8:20 AM-8:40 AM Convention Center-355
Land-use regimes and the future of New England’s forest carbon (Contributed Talks 98) 9:20 AM-9:40 AM Convention Center-240-241
Temperature drives patterns of seagrass restoration and resilience across spatial scales (Symposium 14) 9:40 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-352
Species responses to nutrient addition depend on abundance and persistence (Contributed Talks 92) 9:50 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-254
The response of soil biogeochemistry to drought and hurricanes in a wet tropical forest in Puerto Rico (Contributed Talks 93) 10:10 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-357
Soil carbon and nitrogen elemental content and isotopic composition in residential lawns across six U.S. cities (Contributed Talks 107) 10:30 AM‑10:50 AM Convention Center-235-236
Effects of large wildfires on water quality and water quantity in mesophytic forests of the Eastern US (Organized Oral Sessions 28) 11:10 AM‑11:30 AM Convention Center-344
Nitrogen fixation facilitates dominance of arbuscular mycorrhizal trees (Contributed Talks 112) 1:30 PM-1:50 PM Convention Center-338
Can connectivity-mediated feedbacks to vegetation explain surprising ecological responses to catastrophic events? (Organized Oral Session 31) 1:30 PM-1:50 PM Convention Center 346-347
Remotely detected chemical composition and the spectral, functional and phylogenetic diversity of plant communities in a manipulated prairie grassland experiment predict belowground processes (Inspire 26) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-244
Patterns in ecosystem C dynamics in Everglades Freshwater Marsh (Inspire 25) 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Convention Center-243
State change and connectivity: Essential linkages in drylands (Organized Oral Session 31) 1:50 PM-2:10 PM Convention Center-346-347
Testing microclimate effects of shrub encroachment and legacy influence of species composition (Contributed Talks 113) 1:50 PM-2:10 PM Convention Center-245
High asymbiotic N2 fixation rates in woody roots from a long-term decomposition experiment: abiotic and biotic controls (Contributed Talks 112) 2:10 PM-2:30 PM Convention Center-338
Moving from detecting past regime shifts to diagnosing critical transitions (Contributed Talks 114) 2:10 PM-2:30 PM Convention Center-333-334
The role of plant-microbe-soil interactions in determining the biogeochemical response of ecosystems to fire (Contributed Talks 112) 2:50 PM-3:10 PM Convention Center-338
Consequences of extreme rainfall patterns on nitrous oxide fluxes in Midwest cropping systems (Contributed Talks 111) 2:50 PM-3:10 PM Convention Center-357
Are plants just the salt of the Earth? (Inspire 27) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-243
Sodium as a catalyst for herbivore performance: A geographical perspective (Inspire 27) 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-243
Elevated CO2 and N addition alter rhizosphere priming of soil organic matter decomposition (Contributed Talks 111) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-357
Plant diversity mediates leaf endophyte fungal diversity response to nutrient addition (Contributed Talks 110) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-240-241
Changing drivers of microbial community assembly along a high elevation successional gradient (Contributed Talks 123) 3:40 PM-4:00 PM Convention Center-252
Loaded but leaky: Chronic nutrient enrichment results in reduced and seasonally variable nutrient storage in detritus-based streams (Contributed Talks 111) 4:00 PM-4:20 PM Convention Center-357
Determining changes to landscape connectivity with “too much summer” at Niwot Ridge LTER (Organized Oral Session 31) 4:00 PM-4:20 PM Convention Center-346-347
Nutrient addition affects coastal grassland productivity and species dominance (Contributed Talks 56) 4:00 PM-4:20 PM Convention Center-340-341
The legacies of waxing and waning connectivity in a polar desert ecosystem (Organized Oral Session 31) 4:20 PM-4:40 PM Convention Center-346-347
Hydrochemical responses of an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest to future climate change under the Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (Contributed Posters 38) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Long-term nutrient addition in arctic tundra alters decomposition rates through multiple mechanisms (Contributed Posters 37) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
The Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Microbial Communities in Desert Soils (Contributed Posters 37) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Photosynthetic responses of 14 grassland species to 19 years of free-air CO2 enrichment and nitrogen addition (Contributed Posters 37) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Mixed-severity fires in southern Appalachian forests (Contributed Posters 44) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Plant-parasitic nematodes response to changing precipitation regimes across a climatic gradient (Contributed Posters 13) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hall
Impact of changing rainfall patterns on denitrification nitrous oxide reductase lag (Contributed Posters 38) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Functional dominance, not functional diversity, drives ecosystem function in alpine tundra (Contributed Posters 42) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Reduction of growing season precipitation alters plant species composition across multiple grassland ecosystems (Contributed Posters 40) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Coastal grassland species vary in physiological response to salinity stress (Contributed Posters 46) 4:30 PM-6:30 PM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Social-ecological connectivity in urban ecosystems: What we have learned from 20 years of LTER research in Phoenix (Organized Oral Sessions 31) 4:40 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-346-347
Unexpected patterns of belowground production during and after multiple extreme droughts (Contributed Talks 113) 4:40 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-245
The effects of fire and fertilizer use on N-cycling soil microbes (Contributed Talks 111) 4:40 PM-5:00 PM Convention Center-357

Friday, August 10th, 2018

Title Time Location
Signatures of photodegradation in decomposing leaf litter within a temperate forest (Contributed Talks 130) 8:00 AM-8:20 AM Convention Center-338
Moving uphill: The role of early snowmelt and microbes in plant range shifts (Contributed Talks 131) 8:00 AM-8:20 AM Convention Center-245
Effects of rhododendron removal on stream macroinvertebrate community structure (Latebreaking Posters 49) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hall
Drivers and Mechanisms of Peat Collapse in Coastal Wetlands (Latebreaking Posters 74) 8:30 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Long term saltmarsh katydid (Orchelimum fidicinium) dynamics on Sapelo Island (Latebreaking Posters 74) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Hurricanes, forests, and water: Relationships between remotely-sensed vegetative damage, biomass, and streamflow in Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria (Latebreaking Posters 59) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Hurricanes Irma and María drove a pulse of salts through soils and streams of a tropical watershed (Latebreaking Posters 52) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Remote multispectral imaging and ground-based characterization of microbial mat communities in Taylor Valley, Antarctica (Latebreaking Posters 70) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Stream nutrient cycling along N and P gradients in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica (Latebreaking Posters 49) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Soil pH influences the overall interior root microbiome structure, but not its dominant phylotypes (Latebreaking Posters 54) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Density-dependent demography in encroaching populations of the shrub Larrea tridentata (Latebreaking Posters 65) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
The fate of relic barrier island maritime forest (Latebreaking Posters 60) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-Exhibit Hall
Soil microbial response to Rhododendron maximum removal in Appalachian forests (Contributed Talks 141) 8:40 AM-09:00 AM Convention Center-252
Land managers drive plant community dynamics: A case study of change over time in Phoenix residential neighborhoods (Contributed Talks 143) 9:50 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center‑235‑236
Capacity of root endophytes to buffer dominant grass species against heat and drought (Organized Oral Sessions 40) 9:50 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-345
Drought suppresses nematode predators and promotes root herbivores and microbivores in mesic, but not in arid grasslands (Contributed Talks 141) 10:10 AM‑10:30 AM Convention Center-252
Prolonged inundation turns a short-hydroperiod freshwater marsh from a CO2 sink to a source (Latebreaking Posters 74) 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Convention Center-ESA Exhibit Hall
Spatio-temporal forecasting pulsed-resource masting and its implications for wildlife (Symposium 5) 9:40 AM-10:10 AM Convention Center-352