2017 ESA Annual Meeting (August 6 -- 11)

IGN 23-1 - Evaluating the present and future of ecology in Earth system models

Friday, August 11, 2017
C124, Oregon Convention Center
Quinn Thomas, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, Susan J. Cheng, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Nicholas G. Smith, Climate and Ecosystems, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA and Will R. Wieder, TSS / CGD, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO
Integrating ecological principles into Earth system models has advanced the field of ecology by challenging ecologists to quantitatively scale process across global environmental gradients. The fusion of ecology and modeling has also led to a new generation of Earth system models that more mechanistically simulate the exchange of energy, water, and greenhouse gases between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. However, not all ecological processes need nor should be included in Earth system models used for climate projections. We explore how to decide which ecological processes to add into Earth system models and how to evaluate currently included ecology.