IGN 14

Effects of Evolutionary Processes on Ecosystem Biogeochemical Cycles: Integration of Evolutionary Biology and Ecosystem Science

Ecosystem biogeochemical cycles have been long considered to be driven by environmental factors. For example, photosynthesis is primarily regulated by light and temperature, while plant respiration is controlled by temperature. Species diversity has recently been found to affect biogeochemical cycles in that increased diversity may result higher net primary production (NPP). However, evolutionary processes are rarely considered in understanding the past and current biogeochemical cycles and in predicting the future with process-based ecosystem or biosphere models. The disjunction of evolutionary processes and biogeochemical cycles is an example of division of evolution and ecology. We call for an integration of evolutionary processes and ecosystem biogeochemical cycles to advance our mechanistic understanding and predicable ability for biogeochemical cycles and the interaction with climate change. We intend to bring ecosystem ecologists, biogeochemists, and evolutionists together to address how to design experiments to study and model the effects of evolutionary processes on ecosystem biogeochemical cycles and partition the evolutionary effects with other ecological and abiotic effects.