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SCHEDULEMonday, March 29, 2004 Friday, April 2, 2004
Friday, April 2, 2004 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM Parthenon Foyer
Friday, April 2, 2004 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM Athena Room Cities are rapidly expanding in both area and population on a global scale. Currently, about 80% of the US population lives in urban areas. Lower density urban development includes an assemblage of residential, commercial and industrial land use interspersed with residual agricultural and forest land, and other unmanaged vegetation. As heterogeneity in form and process is characteristic of all landscapes, we treat urban ecosystems as specific cases of general ecosystems, varying in the length scales and patterns of heterogeneity and in the degree of influence of specific ecosystem “agents.” We consider the activity of individual and institutional behavior on ecosystem mass budgets by both the direct addition and abstraction of water, nutrients and carbon, as well as the indirect effects of the built environment in altered land cover patterns, hydrologic flowpaths and civil infrastructure. Both direct and indirect effects contribute to a shift in the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of biogeochemical sources and sinks. We describe a hierarchical framework for representation of spatial ecosystem heterogeneity and the role of human activity within urban landscapes. We illustrate the framework with observations from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. Similar to other LTER sites, we concentrate on patterns and processes of water, carbon and biogeochemical storage and flux within the landscape, and their interactions with the ecological community. The joint influence of socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of a community on individual and institutional behavior is considered as an important feedback in the urban ecosystem. 1 Department of Geography, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 2 Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY 3 US Forest Service, Burlington, VT
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 10:40 AM Apollo Room 3
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 10:20 AM Apollo Room 5 The mission of the US Environmental Protection Agency includes the protection of ecosystems and human populations at regional scales. Key principles of landscape ecology have proven to be crucial for the development of new methodologies that shift from a traditional site-specific focus to a regional and landscape scale for environmental protection. This session will present work being done by EPA scientists who have incorporate these key principles into programs of investigation and action designed to protect the natural and human environment.
This session will highlight recent research that incorporates the use of multiple scales and innovative environmental accounting to better inform decisions that affect sustainability, resilience, and vulnerability at all scales. Effective decision-making involves assessment at multiple scales and quantification of the full range of environmental costs and benefits associated with multiple decision-criteria. Work on a Regional scale contributes to local decision-making by extending the horizon such that environmental stresses that progress across the landscape (e.g. land use change, atmospheric deposition, spread of non-indigenous species) can be evaluated within the context of current and future cumulative stresses. Similarly, small localized actions add up to regional impacts (e.g. permitting of small point sources of atmospheric pollutants, linking of green space to provide habitat for migratory species) and are therefore important for maximizing opportunities and heading off actions having only short-term benefits.
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Apollo Room 1-2
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Zeus Room B Although applications in landscape ecology traditionally have been restricted to the study of terrestrial systems, the questions defining the science are equally relevant for marine systems. Indeed, knowledge of spatial pattern and the scales at which ecological processes take place is essential for effective management of marine environments. However, scattered and widely disparate field or ship-based observations historically precluded quantification of large-scale marine patterns. Recent advances in remote sensing and other technologies are permitting assessments of pattern and process that never before were possible. It is still unclear how the principles of landscape ecology can be translated into the marine environment, a three-dimensional milieu with physical and biological characteristics that often vary rapidly in space and time. This session will bring together researchers who are attempting to adapt the tools of landscape ecology to address ecological questions within marine and coastal systems. The unique challenges facing the growing field of “seascape” ecology will be addressed.
Friday, April 2, 2004 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM Athena Room Devil's Hole is one of those special places on earth where landscape processes through geological time concentrate a huge storehouse of information. When human events focused attention on Devil's Hole, the knowledge produced validated the awe and wonder with which the place had been regarded by people for millennia. This smallest habitat in the world to contain the entire population of a vertebrate species (Devil's Hole pupfish), provides a window into the regional groundwater aquifer. Precipitation in the recharge area interacting with the geological characteristics of the aquifer produced carbonate deposition on the walls of Devil's Hole that gives us the longest known continuous continental climatic record on earth. Those deposits also reveal a wealth of information about the timing and suitability of the place as a habitat for plants and animals. Orientation of the geological fault that produced Devil's Hole strongly influences annual cycles of primary productivity, animal reproduction, and dynamic processes of habitat change. The Devil's Hole pupfish, interacting with the dynamic processes creating this unique environment, has managed to survive here for millennia, living on the edge of its ability to survive and reproduce. Each winter, when the limited sunlight stimulates precious little photosynthesis, food limitations dependably reduce population size to fewer than 200 individuals. Spawning substrate is created, maintained, or withheld by floods and earthquakes, and the size and suitability of this little corner of the world is ultimately determined by the tectonic stretching of the Earth's crust and the vagaries of climate.
This event provides an opportunity for students to meet with professionals in a small-group setting and fosters dialogue among senior and junior practitioners of the discipline. Pre-registration is required to attend.
Friday, April 2, 2004 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM Apollo Room 6
Friday, April 2, 2004 1:00 PM - 2:40 PM Apollo Room 3
Friday, April 2, 2004 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM Apollo Room 5 The mission of the US Environmental Protection Agency includes the protection of ecosystems and human populations at regional scales. Key principles of landscape ecology have proven to be crucial for the development of new methodologies that shift from a traditional site-specific focus to a regional and landscape scale for environmental protection. This session will present work being done by EPA scientists who have incorporate these key principles into programs of investigation and action designed to protect the natural and human environment.
This session will highlight recent research that incorporates the use of multiple scales and innovative environmental accounting to better inform decisions that affect sustainability, resilience, and vulnerability at all scales. Effective decision-making involves assessment at multiple scales and quantification of the full range of environmental costs and benefits associated with multiple decision-criteria. Work on a Regional scale contributes to local decision-making by extending the horizon such that environmental stresses that progress across the landscape (e.g. land use change, atmospheric deposition, spread of non-indigenous species) can be evaluated within the context of current and future cumulative stresses. Similarly, small localized actions add up to regional impacts (e.g. permitting of small point sources of atmospheric pollutants, linking of green space to provide habitat for migratory species) and are therefore important for maximizing opportunities and heading off actions having only short-term benefits.
Friday, April 2, 2004 1:00 PM - 2:40 PM Apollo Room 1-2
Friday, April 2, 2004 1:00 PM - 2:40 PM Apollo Room 8 Although applications in landscape ecology traditionally have been restricted to the study of terrestrial systems, the questions defining the science are equally relevant for marine systems. Indeed, knowledge of spatial pattern and the scales at which ecological processes take place is essential for effective management of marine environments. However, scattered and widely disparate field or ship-based observations historically precluded quantification of large-scale marine patterns. Recent advances in remote sensing and other technologies are permitting assessments of pattern and process that never before were possible. It is still unclear how the principles of landscape ecology can be translated into the marine environment, a three-dimensional milieu with physical and biological characteristics that often vary rapidly in space and time. This session will bring together researchers who are attempting to adapt the tools of landscape ecology to address ecological questions within marine and coastal systems. The unique challenges facing the growing field of “seascape” ecology will be addressed.
Friday, April 2, 2004 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM Apollo Room 3
Friday, April 2, 2004 3:00 PM - 5:20 PM Apollo Room 5
Friday, April 2, 2004 3:00 PM - 5:20 PM Apollo Room 7
Friday, April 2, 2004 3:00 PM - 4:40 PM Apollo Room 1-2
Friday, April 2, 2004 3:00 PM - 4:40 PM Apollo Room 8
Executive Committee Members Only [CLICK TO EXPAND] Sunday, April 4, 2004 [CLICK TO EXPAND]
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