National Center For Ecological Analysis And Synthesis Research Articles

Victoria L. Sork—Recipient of the 2020 Molecular Ecology Prize

Victoria L. Sork—Recipient of the 2020 Molecular Ecology Prize

Beyond the jellyfish joyride and global oscillations: advancing jellyfish research

There has been debate in the literature recently about increases in jellyfish populations in response to anthropogenic change, and this has attracted widespread media interest. Despite an international collaborative initiative [National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group on jellyfish blooms] to investigate trends in global jellyfish numbers, interpretations from the data remain ambiguous. Although this is perhaps to be expected given the diversity of potential drivers, the debate has not been helped by a general lack of rigorous data and loose definitions. There is a need for the community to refocus its attention on understanding the implications of jellyfish blooms and managing them, because regardless of global trends, jellyfish are a problem in some coastal marine ecosystems. Here, we provide recommendations for advancing jellyfish research. These include directing research toward better managing jellyfish impacts, expanding research into socio-economic consequences to grow the money available for research, building more operational and ecosystem models for tactical and strategic management, filling in the gaps in our biological knowledge for supporting models, improving surveillance using observing systems and making jellyfish research more rigorous. Some vehicles to address these recommendations include international standardization of methods, a discipline-specific journal for jellyfish research and an international science program on the global ecology and oceanography of jellyfish.

From the society: Honorary Lifetime Membership awarded to James H. Brown

membership corner ISSN 1948‐6596 from the society Honorary Lifetime Membership awarded to James H. Brown The International Biogeography Society (IBS) has established a third award, Honorary Lifetime Mem‐ bership, given on the occasion of a special anniver‐ sary or event involving a prominent biogeographer. Honorary Lifetime Membership is intended to rec‐ ognize someone who has made a large intellectual contribution to biogeography and also has played a prominent role in the IBS or contributed to similar public service roles that have fostered or promoted the discipline. It is intended that there should only ever be a small group of Honorary Lifetime Mem‐ bers—perhaps a half‐dozen or so—reflecting the truly distinguished standing of recipients. Honorary Lifetime Membership was first bestowed on Edward O. Wilson, in 2007 1 , on the 40 th anniversary of the publication of “The Theory of Island Biogeography”, co‐authored with Robert MacArthur. IBS is privileged to announce that James H. Brown is the recipient of its second Hon‐ orary Lifetime Membership, on the occasion of his retirement from the University of New Mexico. Jim is certainly among the best‐known bio‐ geographers of any generation. Beginning with his 1971 publication, “Mammals on mountaintops: nonequilibrium insular biogeography”, Jim has played a central role in the development of mod‐ ern biogeography. His textbook, co‐authored with Arthur Gibson and published in 1983, has been widely adopted and highly influential in the educa‐ tion of generations of biogeographers, and is now in its fourth edition (Lomolino et al., 2010). With his 1995 book, “Macroecology”, Jim defined a new term but more importantly a different perspective on biogeography, leading to a new and still promi‐ nent field of study. He served as one of the editors of the “Foundations of Biogeography” volume (Lomolino et al., 2004) that has helped to shape our understanding of the historical development of our field—a fitting contribution by someone who has himself contributed so much to its develop‐ ment. A quick search of “Google Scholar” with the keyword “biogeography” yielded over 125 titles authored by Jim, an indica‐ tion of his vast output. His research has been charac‐ terized by great breadth and inquisitiveness, with a healthy emphasis on test‐ ing the assumptions of ear‐ lier research and expand‐ ing the nature of the ques‐ tions that are asked. Jim also has played a central role in the de‐ velopment of IBS. He was one of the organizers of the workshop held at the National Center for Eco‐ logical Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Bar‐ bara, California in September 2001. In addition to producing the “Foundations” volume, as planned, the workshop also resulted in the formation of the IBS. Jim then served as the first President of the IBS, including the period of the first IBS conference held in Mesquite, Nevada, in January 2003. In recognition of this award, Jim has agreed to present a keynote paper at the Sixth Biennial IBS Conference, to be held in January 2013 at the Flor‐ ida International University in Miami, Florida 2 . Lawrence R. Heaney 1 and George C. Stevens 2 IBS President. lheaney@fieldmuseum.org. IBS Vice President for Development and Awards. georgecstevens@hotmail.com References Brown, J.H. (1971) Mammals on mountaintops: nonequilibrial insular biogeography. American Naturalist, 105, 467‐478. Brown, J.H. (1995) Macroecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Brown, J.H. & Gibson, A.C. (1983) Biogeography. C.V. Mosby Co., St. Louis. Lomolino, M.V., Sax, D.F. & Brown, J.H. (2004) Foundations of biogeography, classic papers with commentaries. Uni‐ versity of Chicago Press, Chicago. Lomolino, M.V., Riddle, B.R., Whittaker, R.J. & Brown, J.H. (2010) Biogeography, fourth edition. Sinauer Associ‐ ates, Sunderland. Edited by Michael N Dawson 1. http://www.biogeography.org/html/About%20IBS/awards.html 2. http://www.biogeography.org/html/Meetings/2013/index.html frontiers of biogeography 4.2, 2012 — © 2012 the authors; journal compilation © 2012 The International Biogeography Society

Matrix population models from 20 studies of perennial plant populations

Demographic transition matrices are among the most commonly applied population models for both basic and applied ecological research. The relatively simple framework of these models and simple, easily interpretable summary statistics they produce have prompted the wide use of these models across an exceptionally broad range of taxa. Here, we provide annual transition matrices and observed stage structures/population sizes for 20 perennial plant species which have been the focal species for long‐term demographic monitoring. These data were assembled as part of the “Testing Matrix Models” working group through the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The data represent 82 populations with >460 total population‐years of observations. It is our hope that making these data available will help promote and improve our ability to monitor and understand plant population dynamics.The complete data sets corresponding to abstracts published in the Data Papers section of the journal are published electronically in Ecological Archives at 〈http://esapubs.org/archive〉. (The accession number for each Data Paper is given directly beneath the title.)

Measuring and modeling roots, the rhizosphere, and microbial processes belowground

Measuring and modeling roots, the rhizosphere, and microbial processes belowground

A critique for meta‐analyses and the productivity– diversity relationship

It is an exciting time to be an ecologist. Over the past several decades, our discipline has matured from one focused on the assembly of case studies based on natural history, to one that has seen improved conceptual frameworks and mathematical models that help explain ecological phenomena from species coexistence to elemental cycling. The maturation of our discipline has been fostered by many things, including improved technology, increased availability of data, and emergent methods for analyzing large data sets. One factor that has played a central role in the modern synthesis is metaanalyses. Gurevitch et al. (1992) introduced metaanalyses to ecologists and catalyzed their entrance into the ecological literature as a powerful statistical means to assess the generality of pattern and process. Soon after, the U.S. National Science Foundation established the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) whose mission it is to bring together ecological data sets so that we could synthesize pattern and process using meta-analysis and many other analytical tools. NCEAS was so successful that it was soon after mimicked by other scientific disciplines (e.g., NESCent, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center). However, when our initial honeymoon with ‘‘synthesis’’ was over, criticisms began to surface, exposing the inherent warts and flaws of a growing discipline. Some argued that data sets were now being analyzed, and syntheses performed, by researchers who knew little about (or perhaps had never even seen) the systems they were trying to understand. Such ‘‘remote ecology’’ reduces an appreciation for natural history, and may lead to incorrect conclusions because one doesn’t understand the intricacies and contingencies of each system that reveal how pattern is linked to process. Some argued that meta-analyses were proliferating more rapidly than the methods needed for quality control, and that the concatenation of data sets was leading to a propagation of errors.

Global potential net primary production predicted from vegetation class, precipitation, and temperature: comment

[Extract] Terrestrial vegetation acts as a reservoir for significant amounts of carbon and is involved in annual processing of carbon through photosynthesis and respiration (Clark 2007). Empirical study of contemporary patterns of terrestrial net primary production (NPP) is therefore critical for understanding how the global carbon budget will be affected by ongoing climate change (Clark et al. 2003). Field-based measurements of NPP are necessary to calibrate process-based models and remote sensed surrogates of productivity (Chen et al. 2004, Nightingale et al. 2008) as well as to build algorithms that link NPP to climate at global scales (Lieth 1975, Schuur 2003). In a recent analysis, Del Grosso et al. (2008) present an updated model of the global relationship between NPP and climate. The Del Grosso et al. (2008) model was considered to be an improvement on previous algorithms in two main respects. First, the model allowed for separate fitting of climate–NPP relationships for tree- and non-tree-dominated systems. For a given level of precipitation, non-tree-dominated systems were shown to exhibit significantly lower NPP than tree-dominated systems so it would seem sensible to parameterize equations for the two systems separately. Second, the new model drew upon a greatly expanded data set of NPP compiled as part of the Ecosystem Model–Data Intercomparison (EMDI) project (Olson et al. 2001) supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, California, USA. The worldwide synthesis of data is expected to improve coverage, representation and replication of data from vegetation types, climates, and soils used to parameterize models. Here we raise some concerns about the methodological approach used to derive the “improved” models and their application in the retrospective reconstruction of past global trends in NPP in response to 20th-century climate change.

Introduction to special section on Synthesis of Recent Terrestrial Methane Emission Studies

Introduction to special section on Synthesis of Recent Terrestrial Methane Emission Studies

Population viability analysis based on combining Bayesian, integrated, and hierarchical analyses

Abstract Several methods used in fisheries stock assessment models that can be applied to population viability analysis are presented. (1) Integrated analysis allows the use of all information on a particular population, and ensures that all model assumptions and parameter are consistent throughout the analysis, that uncertainty is propagated throughout the analysis, and that the correlation among parameters is preserved. (2) Bayesian analysis allows for the inclusion of prior information, and is a convenient way to represent uncertainty. (3) Random-effects models based on hierarchical modeling allow information to be shared among parameter estimates and allow the separation of process error from estimation error. (4) Non-parametric representation of parameters allows for a more flexible relationship among the parameters. (5) Robust likelihood functions provide an automatic method to reduce the influence of outliers when the data sets are large. These methods are applied to artificial data sets provided by the Extinction Risk Working Group of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) using AD Model Builder software (Otter Research™).

TRAGNET analysis and synthesis of trace gas fluxes

A critical synthesis of information on the biotic and abiotic controls of trace gas fluxes was needed in order to advance our ability to determine regional estimates of various trace gas compounds. In response to this need, the U.S. Trace Gas Network (TRAGNET), as part of an International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) activity, developed an accessible database of multiyear trace gas flux (CH4, NOx, and N2O) and ancillary data from a range of ecosystems (tropical to arctic) across North America, Europe, and Central America. These data have been collected by a number of independent research programs. Through the support of National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Department of Agriculture/Agriculture Research Service (USDA/ARS), Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, and National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), TRAGNET has assembled the data sets and has begun to analyze and synthesize these trace gas data on regional to global scales to (1) determine a generalized understanding of environmental factors controlling trace gas fluxes in order to develop methods for spatial and temporal interpolation and regional extrapolation, (2) test and validate trace gas models across different spatial, temporal, and process scales, and (3) determine regional trace gas fluxes from the measured set of fluxes in the database.

The calculus of biodiversity: integrating phylogeny and conservation

Recently, several algorithms – a ‘calculus of biodiversity’1 – have been proposed to provide a more objective, phylogenetic basis for conservation decisions2–4. But, do such quantitative approaches yield the purported objectivity or can the conservation value of species and areas be measured using phylogenetic information? To answer these, and similar, questions, John Gittleman (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA) and Michael McKinney (Univer- sity of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA) established a ‘Phylogeny and Conservation’ working group sponsored by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. The first of three annual meetings last August represented a collaborative effort among ecologists, evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, systematists and conservation biologists from the USA, Canada, Australia and England.