| Day
1 Speaker Schedule |
| 8:30 - 8:45 |
An overview of responses to
water pulse (Jim Ehleringer, Univ. of Utah) |
| 8:45 - 9:10 |
Morphological and physiological
constraints on pulse utilization. (Osvaldo Sala, Univ. of Buenos Aires,
Argentina) |
| SESSION 1:
Climate & Hydrology |
| 9:10 - 9:35 |
Pulse Climatic Events in the
Western U.S (Bill Lauenroth, Colorado State
Univ.) |
| 9:35 - 10:00 |
The interaction of rainfall
intensity and spatial patterns of soil and vegetation cover on semi-arid
rangelands (Jeff Stone &
Ginger Paige,
USDA/ARS, Tucson)
|
| 10:00 - 10:30 |
Coffee Break |
| 10:30 - 10:55 |
Vertical and horizontal
components of plant-available water: soil moisture heterogeneity in a
semi-arid woodland (David D. Breshears, Orrin B. Myers and Fairley J,
Barnes, Los Alamos National Laboratory) |
| 10:55 - 11:20 |
Introduction to PrecipNet:
improving understanding of precipitation effects on ecosystems through
cross-disciplinary research networks. (Michael Loik, Univ. of California,
Santa Cruz) |
| SESSION 2: Soil
carbon and nutrient dynamics |
| 11:20 - 11:45 |
Effects of pulses and water
availability on decomposition dynamics in arid and semiarid ecosystems. (Amy Austin, Univ.
of Buenos Aires, Argentina) |
| 11:45 - 12:10 |
The importance of pulse dynamics
in nutrient availability: evidence and questions (I. C. Burke, E. C.
Adair, R. L. McCulley, P. Lowe, S.
DelGrosso and W. K. Lauenroth, Colorado State Univ.) |
| 12:10 - 13:10 |
Lunch Break |
| 13:10 - 13:35 |
Timing of soil nutrient pulses
in semiarid ecosystems. (John Stark, Utah State Univ.) |
| 13:35 - 14:00 |
The
effect of precipitation timing and amount on
biological soil crusts: species composition and
carbon and nitrogen balances (Jayne Belnap,
Nicole Barger, Susan L.
Phillips, USGS, Moab) |
| 14:00 - 14: 30 |
Coffee Break |
| 14:30 - 14:55 |
Pulse effects on
carbon flux at the ecosystem scale (Travis Huxman& Dave Williams, Univ. of
Arizona) |
| 14:55 - 15:20 |
Long-term predictions for pulse
effects on soil carbon and nitrogen using a stochastic soil moisture model
(Amilcare Porporato, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy) |
| Session 3:
Plant use of water and nutrient pulses |
| 15:20 - 15:45 |
Sizes and shapes of root systems
in pulse-driven arid ecosystems (Jochen Schenk, Univ. of Southern
California) |
| 15:45 - 16:10 |
Above- and Below-ground
responses to transient rain events in Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)
and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) (Josh Leffler, Ron Ryel, Utah
State Univ.) |
| 16:10 - 16:35 |
Plastic strategies under pulsed conditions. (Ariel
Novoplansky, Ben
Gurion Univ. of the Negev, Israel) |
| Day
2 Speaker Schedule |
| 8:30 - 8:55 |
Summer pulse use in cold-desert
shrubs and grasses (Susan Schwinning, Biosphere 2, Jim Ehleringer, Univ.
of Utah) |
| 8:55 - 9:20 |
Competition for pulsed resource
(Deborah Goldberg, Univ. of Michigan) |
| 9:20 - 9:45 |
Mediterranean versus desert
species response to pulse gradients and diffuse competition. (Anna Sher,
Ben Gurion Univ. of the Negev, Deborah Goldberg, Univ. of Michigan, Ariel
Novoplansky, Ben Gurion Univ. of the Negev) |
| 9:45 - 10:10 |
Is there
competition for water and N pulses in a cold
desert community? (Renate
Gebauer, Keene State College, Jim Ehleringer, Univ. of Utah) |
| 10:10 - 10:40 |
Coffee Break |
| SESSION 4: Pulse
use at the population level |
| 10:40 - 11:05 |
Minimum recruitment frequency in
plants with episodic recruitment (Kerstin Wiegand, Univ. of Giessen,
Germany) |
| 11:05 - 11:30 |
Recruitment
of woody plants in semi-arid savannas: the role of
spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture (Jake Weltzin, Univ. of Tennessee) |
| 11:30 - 11:55 |
The wet 1980s followed by the
1989-91 drought: winners and losers among perennial vegetation in the
Northern Mojave desert (Bob Webb, Todd Esque & Phil Medica, USGS,
Tucson) |
| 11:55 - 12:55 |
Lunch Break |
| 12:55 - 13:55 |
Poster Session |
| 13:55 - 14:20 |
Shrub-grass
transitions in the Jornada Basin in the past
century: experimental and modeling evidence do not
support climate hypotheses (Jim Reynolds, Duke
Univ., Paul Kemp, Univ. of San Diego) |
| 14:20 - 14:45 |
Long-term dynamics of desert
rodents: complex relationships between consumers and resources (Morgan
Ernest, Jim Brown, Univ. of New Mexico) |
| 14:45 - 15:10 |
I |
| 15:10 - 15:40 |
Coffee Break |
| Session 5:
Diversity maintenance in pulse-driven ecosystems |
| 15:40 - 16:05 |
The role of a pulse-driven resource supply in diversity maintenance (Peter Chesson,
Univ. of California, Davis) |
| 16:05 - 16:30 |
Does high temporal variability
in water supply promote coexistence amongst higher plants? (Jeremy
Lundholme, D.W. Larson, Univ. of Guelph, Canada) |
| 16:30 - 16:45 |
Closing Remarks |
| Day
3 Activities |
| 8:30 - 9:00 |
Short general meeting. Division
into 4 groups by topic |
| 9:00 - 10:00 |
Groups I (Hydrology) and IV
(Ecology) meet |
| 10:00 - 11:00 |
Groups II (Soil metabolic
processes) and III (Higher plants) meet |
| 11:00 - 12:00 |
General meeting. Summary of
group meetings. |
| 12:00 - 13:00 |
Lunch break |
| 13:00 - 14:30 |
Co-author group meetings |
| 14:30 - 15:00 |
Conclusion. Collection of all
written material |
