Past International Colloquium

Environmental Science Literacy

A framework for addressing 21st Century Environmental Challenges

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 | 9 – 10:30 A.M.
Lory Student Center Room 386

Society faces a number of environmental challenges connected to the global and
local issues (e.g., greenhouse gases, climate change, energy development) that will require collective human action on an unprecedented scale. Responding to these issues will require greater participation in STEM careers and improvements in the environmental literacy of a diverse public to make informed decisions. Environmental science literacy captures the capacity to participate in and make decisions through evidence-based discussions of socio-ecological systems. Environmental science literacy requires citizens to understand, evaluate, and respond to multiple sources of information. Scientists and science educators have worked collaboratively to develop an emerging Environmental Science Literacy Framework that ties together the content and practice skills to affect the development of curricula, instructional practice and communication. This panel will address different dimensions and approaches to study and advance this emerging framework.

Organizer and Moderator: Dr. John Moore, Department Head, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability; Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) Director

Panelists:

  • Dr. Charles ‘Andy’ Anderson, Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University
  • Dr. Meena Balgopal, Associate Professor, Biology, CSU
  • Dr. Alan Berkowitz, Head of Education and Plant Ecologist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, NY)
  • Dr. Scott Denning, Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science, CSU
  • Dr. Beth Covitt, Head of Science Education Research and Evaluation, University of Montana
  • Dr. Kristin Gunckel, Associate Professor, Science Education, University of Arizona

Full Schedule

Opening Plenary

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 | 9 – 10:30 a.m.
Lory Student Center Room 382

Society faces a number of environmental challenges connected to climate change, human health, energy development, and food security that will require human action on an unprecedented scale. This year’s International Colloquium focuses on ecosystem science– the integrated system-level study of the living and non-living components of the environment. Ecosystem science provides a powerful framework to study and address these challenges. Colorado State University and the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) have been leaders in the development of ecosystem science as a discipline. The program will introduce the ecosystem concept, and provide an overview of our rich history and paths to resolving our environmental challenges.

9 a.m.

  • Introduction
    Dr. John Moore, Department Head, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, CSU; NREL Director

9:10 a.m.

  • “Ecosystem Ecology – The Ultimate Abomination No More”
    Dr. Alan Knapp, Professor, Biology, CSU

9:30 a.m.

  • “Musings on the Future – It May Be Challenging”
    Dr. Mary Firestone, Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley

9:50 a.m.

  • “Microbiomes to Macrosystems: Personal Reflections on Ecosystem Science in the Anthropocene”
    Dr. Serita Frey, Professor, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire

10:10 a.m.

  • “Emergence of Ecosystem Science Through the Lens of the NREL”
    Dr. Dennis Ojima, NREL Senior Research Scientist

10:30 a.m.

  • Panel overview and adjourn

Use of Ecosystem Models at NREL during the Past 50 Years

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 | 2 – 3:30 P.M.
Lory Student Center Grey Rock Room

The use and development of ecosystem models and the system ecological approach are key parts of the research conducted at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) from the 1960’s to present time. We will trace the historical development of ecological research at NREL and demonstrate the important role that ecological models had in this research. Most of the major research projects included a mixture of ecological model development, field and laboratory research, and the use of ecological models for improving our understanding about ecosystem dynamics. We summarize the development and application of ecosystem models at Colorado State University, because this lab has been a leader in ecosystem modeling. We trace how model complexity, extent of validation and application, interactions between modeling and measurement projects, usefulness of model outputs, and other factors have evolved through time. Panel members will show how the modeling efforts at NREL have influenced ecosystem model development around the world. We close by prioritizing future research efforts needed to reduce uncertainties and better address contemporary issues.

Organizer and Moderator: Dr. Bill Parton, Professor Emeritus, CSU; NREL Senior Research Scientist

Panelists:

  • Dr. Steve Del Grosso, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Station (Fort Collins, CO)
  • Dr. Keith Paustian, Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, CSU; NREL Senior Research Scientist
  • Dr. Stephen Ogle, NREL Senior Research Scientist
  • Dr. Tom Hobbs, NREL Senior Research Scientist
  • Dr. Will Wieder, Research Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, CO)

Critical Knowledge Gaps in Soil Organic Matter Dynamics for Monitoring Soil C

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 | 10:45 A.M. – 12:15 P.M.
Lory Student Center Room 382

Our view of soil organic matter dynamics is rapidly changing with new techniques and methods for analyzing soils. A better appreciation of SOM transformations and stabilization have emerged with studies clarifying the role of aggregate dynamics, saturation, pyrogenic carbon, priming, dissolved organic matter, temperature responses, and erosion. Ultimately these advances are creating opportunities to more accurately model and monitor soil C and instill confidence in the policy community that managers can sequester C and mitigate GHG emissions, which has been promised by scientists for years. This panel will explore these concepts and the latest frontiers in an area that could lead to improved understanding in the next decade.

Organizer and Moderator: Dr. Stephen Ogle, NREL Senior Research Scientist

Panelists:

  • Dr. Jeff Baldock, CSIRO (Australia)
  • Dr. Francesca Cotrufo, Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, CSU
  • Dr. Serita Frey, Professor, Natural Resources, University of New Hampshire
  • Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, Cornell University
  • Dr. Keith Paustian, Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, CSU; NREL Senior Research Scientist

Poster Session

Wednesday, November 15 | 4:45 – 6:30 P.M.
Lory Student Center Ballroom B

Poster Abstracts

1. Stacy Lynn, Amanda Morrison and Mike Ryan
Poster Session Introduction and Roadmap

NREL Programs

2. Stacy Lynn and Jensen Morgan
Skills for Undergraduate participation in Ecological Research (SUPER) Program

3. Aparna Bamzai‐Dodson, Jill Lackett, Robin O’Malley and Dennis Ojima
The North Central Climate Science Center: Delivering actionable science to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate

4. Shannon Spencer, Stephen Ogle, Keith Paustian, Steve Del Grosso, Bill Parton, F. Jay Breidt, Cody Alsaker, Guhan Dheenadayalan, Chris Dorich, Ram Gurung, Ken Killian, Ernie Marx, Amy Swan and Steve Williams
National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Agricultural Lands

5. Greg Newman and Russell Scarpino
CitSci.org: Helping you do great science

6. Rod Simpson
EcoCore

Climate Change

7. Alannah Liebert, Dennis Ojima and Robert Flynn
Identifying Climate Impacts on Vulnerable Species: Assessment of Vandenberg AFB and the California Red Legged Frog

8. Mitchell Ralson
Identifying temporal algal community shifts using a sedimentary eDNA approach in The Loch sub‐alpine lake

9. Hollie Skibstead and Stacy Lynn
Influence of climate variability on Samburu pastoralism

10. Maosi Chen, John M. Davis, Chaoshun Liu, Zhibin Sun, Melina Maria Zempila and Wei Gao
Using Deep Recurrent Neural Network for direct beam solar irradiance cloud screening

11. Steven Filippelli, Michael Falkowski, Andrew Hudak and Patrick Fekety
Mapping Woodland Biomass in the Pacific Northwest by Scaling from NAIP to Landsat

12. Isabella Oleksy
Is there a history of eutrophication preserved in the sediments of The Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park?

13. Megan Machmuller, Laurel Lynch, Francesca Cotrufo, Eldor Paul, Francisco Calderon, Gus Shaver and Matthew Wallenstein
Tracking the fate of carbon in a rapidly changing Arctic ecosystem

14. Yao Zhang, Ernie Marx, Stephen Williams, Ram Gurung, Stephen Ogle, Radley Horton, Daniel Bader and Keith Paustian
Management adaptation and practice changes using current available technology to mitigate CO2 emissions from agricultural soil in the US Corn Belt under climate change

Ecosystem Management

15. Conrad Marshall
Identifying and mapping problematic plant species within community‐based conservancies in northern Kenya

16. Samantha Mosier, Francesca Cotrufo, Keith Paustian and Christian Davies
The Sustainability of Using Loblolly Pine Plantations as a Biofuel Feedstock: Soil carbon stocks across different soil types and management intensities

17. Guhan Sivakami, Shannon Spencer and Stephen Ogle
Estimating Regional and National‐Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Sector using the ‘Agricultural and Land Use (ALU) Tool’

18. Anthony Vorster, Paul Evangelista and Atticus Stovall
Biomass Estimate Variability between Allometric Equations from Tree to Landscape Scale

19. Sara E. Simonson
Monitoring and anticipating the effects of climate change in a high elevation snow system: A summary of repeat vegetation surveys in the Senator Beck Basin, CO, 2004‐2017

20. Alix Messer
Land Use through Pastoralism, Cultivation, and Natural Resource Use in Simanjiro, Tanzania

21. Zhibin Sun, Ni‐Bin Chang and Wei Gao
Using neural networks for water quality monitoring

22. E. Fernandez‐Tschieder, J. Marshall and D. Binkley
Estimating belowground carbon partitioning at tree level using phloem carbon isotopes and transpiration

Wildlife Management

23. Ashley Foster and Stacy Lynn
People, Wildlife and Conservation in Samburu County, Kenya

24. Arianna Punzalan
Predicting Condor Range Expansion to Reduce Development Threats

Ecosystem Science Literacy

25. Ellen Eisenbeis, Greg Newman, Stacy Lynn, Sarah Newman and Russell Scarpino
How Citizen Science Project Traits Impact Data Usability

26. Sarah Whipple, Kitrea Takata‐Glushkoff and Parker Hopkins
Engaging Students in Citizen Science and Biodiversity Research

Food & Water Security

27. Leanne Makens, Catherine Stewart, Elizabeth Pruessner
The Impacts of Polyculture vs. Monoculture on Soil Aggregation and Soil Organic Carbon

28. John Hammond
Snowmelt and rainfall partitioning through the critical zone varies by climate type

29. Kevin Brown
Snow Depth Measurement via Automated Image Recognition

Sustainable Communities

30. Sara Hines
Women’s Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Medicinal Practices in Samburu County, Kenya

31. Hannah Dresang
Social‐Ecological Dynamics of Pollinators and Pastoralists in Simanjiro, Tanzania

32. Cara Steger
Collaborative Social‐Ecological Models for Adaptive Conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands