FROM MIKE WILLIG:
NEW POSITION (Temporary)
I have accepted the position of Program Director in Ecology at NSF in the
Division of Environmental Biology. Note the new address, e-mail, and
telephone numbers.
NEW GRANT
Along with collaborators, I was funded recently by NIH to study the "Effect
of Neotropical Deforestation on Arbovirus Ecology" in Amazonian Peru over a
six-year period.
NEW RECRUITS
Graduate Students.---As a part of the new NIH grant, I am recruiting MS or
PhD students with an interest in the community ecology of bats, rodents, or
marsupials that are interested in field experiences in the Amazon.
Postdoctoral Fellow.---I am also recruiting a postdoctoral fellow (see
attachment) for a 1-2 year appointment, depending on how long I remain at
NSF. Applicants should have strong quantitative abilities (statistics,
modeling, informatics, or computer science) with interests or experience
conducing multidisciplinary research in 1) Disturbance Ecology, 2)
Biocomplexity, 3) Community Ecology, or 4) Macroecology. Details appear in
the attachment, and prospective applicants should peruse my lab web page for
additional details http://www.biol.ttu.edu/willig/.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
1. Stevens, R.D., and M.R. Willig. 2000. Community structure, abundance, and morphology. Oikos 88:48-56.
2. Willig, M.R. 2000. Latitudinal gradients of diversity. Pp.000-000, in Encyclopaedia of Biodiversity (S. Levin, ed.), Academic Press, San Diego, California (In Press).
3. Willig, M.R., S.J. Presley, R.D. Owen, and C. Lopez-Gonzalez. 2000. Composition and structure of bat assemblages in Paraguay: A subtropical - temperate interface. J. Mamm. 81:386-401.
4. Sites, R.W., and M.R. Willig. 2000. Morphometric variation among populations of Ambrysus mormon (Heteroptera: Naucoridae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 102:533-541.
5. Stevens, R.D., and M.R. Willig. 2000. Density compensation in New World bat communities. Oikos 89:367-377.
6. Parmesan, C., T.L. Root, and M.R. Willig. 2000. Impacts of extreme weather and climate on terrestrial biota. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 81:443-450.
7. Gross, K.L., M.R. Willig, L. Gough, R. Inouye, and S.B. Cox. 2000. Patterns of species diversity and productivity at different spatial scales in herbaceous plant communities. Oikos 89:417-427.
8. Scheiner, S.M., S.B. Cox, M.R. Willig, G.G. Mittelbach, C.W. Osenberg, and M. Kaspari. 2000. Species richness: scale effects and species-area curves. Evolutionary Ecology Research (In Press).
_____________________________Michael R. Willig National Science Foundation
Program Director 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 635
Ecological Studies Arlington, VA 22230
mwillig@nsf.gov 703-292-7198; 800-208-8980(FAX)
FROM MATT LARSEN
Matt Larsen is currently the USGS Acting Caribbean District Chief. The
project chief for the USGS Luquillo WEBB (Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical
Budgets) Project is now Joe Troester. Joe has worked for the USGS in Puerto
Rico since 1987. He received a B.S. in Geology from the Southern Illinois
University and a Ph.D. in Geology from the Pennsylvania State University.
His dissertation is entitled, The geochemistry, hydrogeology, and
geochemistry of the Río Camuy drainage basin, Puerto Rico: A humid tropical
karst. Joe's speciality is island hydrology. He has visited and studied
over 20 islands in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific. For more
information about Joe or the USGS WEBB project, visit our www page at
http://pr.water.usgs.gov/public/webb/webb.html
_____________________________
Dr. Matthew C. Larsen, Hydrologist, Acting District Chief
USGS, GSA Center, 651 Federal Drive
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 00965-5703, USA
phone: 787-749-4346, ext. 317, fax: 787-749-4301
cell: 787-391-1713, pager: 787-219-2583
mclarsen@usgs.gov, http://pr.water.usgs.gov
FROM TIM SCHOWALTER:
I gave a paper on "Diel, seasonal and disturbance-induced variation
in canopy invertebrate communities in neotropical rain forests" at the XXI
International Congress of Entomology in Iguassu Falls, Brazil last month.
This paper also will be published eventually in an edited book on canopy
arthropods. This paper summarizes and compares responses of invertebrate
taxa and functional groups to these different scales of temporal variation
at LUQ from 1991-99, with supporting data from Panama for 1999. Major
conclusions are that diel and seasonal variation in abundance was apparent
for some taxa, but major variation resulted, of course, from hurricane and
drought disturbances. Interestingly, individual taxa within functional
groups showed no consistent trends, but the folivore functional group as a
whole clearly was reduced following hurricanes Hugo and Georges but peaked
abruptly in 1994-95 during the drought, consistent with much data
indicating outbreaks of folivores during droughts. The sap-sucker
functional group generally was most abundant during post-hurricane years,
but also showed a lesser peak during 1994-95. These trends indicate
responses at the functional group level that reflect complementary, rather
than consistent or redundant, trends among taxa within functional groups.
Also, during this next year, will be initiating an NSF-funded study of the
effects of herbivore induced inputs to the forest floor on decomposition
and soil respiration processes at LUQ. This project will be part of a
comparison of herbivore effects at CWT and LUQ.
_____________________________
Timothy Schowalter
Oregon State University
Entomology Department
2032 Cordley Hall
Corvallis OR 97331-2907
USA
(541)737-5511
(541)737-3643
schowalt@bcc.orst.edu
FROM CATHY PRINGLE:
Check out the special issue of Ecological Applications: "The
land-water interface: Science for a sustainable biosphere" co-edited by
Catherine Pringle and Mary Barber.
Pringle authored an invited paper in this special issue which uses
the Luquillo Experimental Forest as a case study to illustrate the extent
of outside human pressures on water resources of many U.S. public lands.
The paper highlights aquatic research conducted at the Luquillo LTER site
and research-management connections:
Pringle, C. M. 2000. Threats to U.S. public lands from cumulative hydrologic alterations outside of their boundaries. Ecological Applications 10:971-989.
The impetus for the paper came from a desire to examine the
challenges facing the Luquillo Experimental Forest in the larger context of
pressures that are being exerted on public lands throughout the U.S.
Historically, water issues have been dealt with at local levels and it is
only recently that agencies have begun to compile information at regional
levels. This paper is based on synthesis and summary of existing
information and emerging trends. It highlights immediate problems facing
managers of freshwater resources on public lands and is not meant to be a
comprehensive treatise.
The paper: (1) describes regional differences in the availability
of freshwater, rates of human population growth, and the distribution of
public lands in the U.S.; (2) summarizes the general extent and magnitude
of current pressures on water resources in those categories of public lands
where there is a strong emphasis on managing aquatic ecosystems for
environmental needs (i.e. national parks; national forests, and national
wildlife refuges); and (3) discusses two case studies where
science-management linkages have been effective in implementing some
localized solutions, yet where many landscape-scale problems remain to be
addressed.
This analysis is intended to place the water resources issues faced
by the Luquillo Experimental Forest into a broader context and to
illustrate the increasing need to understand the cumulative and longterm
ecological effects of hydrologic alterations outside of public land
boundaries.
ADDITIONAL PAPERS
Pringle, C. M., F. Scatena, P. Paaby, and M. Nunez. 2000.Conservation of aquatic ecosystems of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chapter 2, pp 39-75. In: P. J. Boon and B. Davies (eds.) Global perspectives on river conservation: Science, policy and practice. John Wiley and Sons.
Pringle, C. M. 2000. Riverine conservation in tropical versus temperate regions: Ecological and socioeconomic considerations, Chapter 15, pp. 367-378. In: P. J. Boon and B. Davies (eds.) Global perspectives on river conservation: Science policy and practice. John Wiley and Sons.
PLEASE NOTE - NEW WEB PAGES
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~cpringle/
http://cro.ots.ac.cr/cm/projects/streams/
_____________________________Dr. Catherine M. Pringle
Associate Professor
Institute of Ecology
The University of Georgia
711 Bio. Sci. Bldg.
Athens, GA. 30602-2602
pringle@sparc.ecology.uga.edu
Phone: (706) 542-4289
Fax #: (706) 542-3344
FROM FRED SCATENA:
This September, Jaap Schellekens successfully completed his PhD defense at
the Virije Universiteit of Amsterdam. His thesis, "Hydrological processes
in a humid tropical rain forest: a combined experimental and modeling
approach" was done in the Bisley catchments. The thesis and recently
published paper "Evaporation from a tropical rain forest, Luquillo
Experimental Forest, eastern Puerto Rico, Water Resources Research Vol. 36.
No. 8:2183-2196" are major contributions to our understanding of the
hydrologic cycle of the LEF.
_____________________________ Frederick Scatena
USDA Forest Service
International Institute for Tropical Forestry (IITF)
P.O. Box 25000
Rio Piedras PR 00928-2500
USA
Phone: (787)766-5335
Fax: (787)766-6302
fscatena@fs.fed.us
FROM BILL MCDOWELL:
I have been awarded several grants in the last year or so that are relevant to Luquillo:
1) USDA NRICGP 9900975, "Ecosystem consequences of globalized N deposition – N losses to water and air." 01/00-12/01. Purpose is to quantify the effects of increased nitrogen deposition on N losses in groundwater and soil solution with long-term plot-scale manipulations analogous to the "Chronic N" experiment at Harvard Forest. We will try to add N2O losses as well. Plots will be set up in Bisley and Icacos. N addition will start some time next summer.
2) NSF Ecosystems, DEB-9981600, "Linking DOC and DON fluxes to soil properties at watershed and landscape scales," 02/00-01/02. Examine the relationship between soil properties (C/N ratio, texture) and hydrologic export of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen within an ecosystem type (wet forest in LEF; primarily Mameyes basin). Based on recent paper (Aitkenhead and McDowell 2000) showing soil C/N ratio is a good predictor of DOC flux globally.
3) NSF LTER Cross-Site. DEB-0087006, "DIRT: a cross-continental, experimental study of forest soil organic matter and nitrogen dynamics." 10/00-09/02. Collaborative with Kate Lajtha, Andrews LTER and Rich Bowden, Allegheny College. Manipulate litter inputs, root inputs and examine effects on soil solution chemistry, especially DOC, DON, and inorganic N. Long-term goal is to examine controls on soil organic matter formation. No work funded at LUQ, but we hope it will set the stage for another proposal to establish DIRT plots at LUQ.
4) NSF LTER Cross-site. DEB 0087248. "Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Intersite Comparison (DONIC)." 10/00-03/03. (subcontract from U. Colorado, M. Williams PI). Compare methods and sampling techniques; develop innovative methods. I will synthesize work on DON at LTER sites, and globally, to attempt to understand controls on its production, fate, and transport in watersheds.
Recent papers published (Not all LUQ, but related to what I’m working on at LUQ):
Campbell, J.L., JW. Hornbeck, W.H. McDowell, D.C. Buso, J.B. Shanley, and G.E. Likens. 2000. Dissolved organic nitrogen budgets for upland, forested ecosystems in New England. Biogeochemistry 49:123-142
Aitkenhead, J.A. and W.H. McDowell. 2000. Soil C:N ratio as a predictor of annual riverine DOC flux at local and global scales. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 14:127-138.
Richardson, B.A., M.J. Richardson, F.N Scatena, and W.H. McDowell. 2000. The effects of nutrient availability and other elevational changes on bromeliad populations and the phytotelm invertebrate communities in a humid tropical forest in Puerto Rico. J. Tropical Ecology 16:167-188.
Schaefer, D.A., W.H. McDowell, F.N. Scatena, and C.E. Asbury. 2000. Effects of hurricane disturbance on stream water concentrations and fluxes in eight watersheds of the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. J. Tropical Ecology 16:189-207.
Magill, A.H., J.D. Aber, G.M. Bernston, W.H. McDowell, K.J. Nadelhoffer, J.M. Melillo, and P. Steudler. 2000. Long-term nitrogen additions and nitrogen saturation in two temperate forests. Ecosystems 3:238-253.
Chestnut, T.J. and W.H. McDowell. 2000. Nitrogen and carbon dynamics in the riparian and hyporheic zones of a tropical stream: Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 19:199-214.
Minocha, R., S. Long, A.H. Magill, J.D. Aber, and W.H. McDowell. 2000. Foliar free polyamine and inorganic ion content in relation to soil and soil solution chemistry in two fertilized forest stands at the Harvard Forest, Massachusetts. Plant and Soil 222:119-137.
William McDowell
University of New Hamshire
Deptartment of Natural Resource
James Hall
Durham NH 03824
USA
Phone: (603)862-2249
Fax: (603)862-4976
Email: bill.mcdowell@unh.edu
FROM JILL THOMPSON:
News from the LFDP 1 October 2000.
We were very pleased to receive funds from the Andrew Mellon Foundation for
the third census of the LFDP.
The census started in July 2000 with the training of Tim Bragg, Michele
Hill, Stefan Jirka and Janeria Aponte who will be employed as research
assistants for 18 months while the census is in progress. These four
research assistants have worked very hard to learn the census protocol, data
management and to identify the plant species. They are now doing a great job
acting as team leaders for eight volunteers who started work on the LFDP in
September. The volunteers will be working for three months until mid
December.
We are now looking for the next group of volunteers to start in January
2001. Applications to be with Jill by 20 October. Please post the attached
advert at your institutions and send it on to interested people. Volunteers
will receive $500 per month stipend, refund of return airfare, free
accommodation at the field station, and the opportunity to meet some amazing
scientists!
In order to make the El Verde experience for the LFDP research assistants
and volunteers as interesting as possible, I would be very grateful it
anyone visiting PR over the next 18 months could offer to give a talk about
their work in PR, or on any other subject you wish.
Please contact me know when you will be here so I can timetable your talk.
Thank you.
____________________________
Jill Thompson
Associate Professor
University of Puerto Rico
El Verde Field Station
HC-01 Box 8974
Río Grande PR 00745-9601
USA
Phone: (787)380-3220
Fax: (787)887-5974
Email: jill@coqui.net