Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes: The Tenth Cary Conference, April 28-May 2, 2003

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This award will provide partial support for a conference entitled "Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes." The conference will be the tenth in the Cary Conference series, which provides a forum for discussion of leading-edge issues in the field of ecology and ecosystem science. This conference will explore spatial heterogeneity within landscapes and its consequences for ecosystem function. This topic is important and timely because ecologists are now asked to address environmental issues on landscape, regional and global scales, even though most ecological research is performed on much smaller scales. Scaling up requires assumptions about the interactions among different ecosystems in the landscape or region, but ecosystem ecologists have never systematically explored the fundamental nature of those interactions. The conference will bring together a diverse group of about 90 scientists to consider this issue in three days of focused discussion on topics such as the treatment of spatial heterogeneity in other disciplines, comparison of the importance of spatial heterogeneity in various ecosystem types, environmental issues in which the consideration of heterogeneity is important, and defining a common research agenda for the future. The format of the conference will promote broad thinking and in-depth discussion in plenary sessions, discussion groups and one-on-one interactions among individuals. The conference is intended to have a broad impact in ecology by making progress on a difficult conceptual issue, including a diverse group of speakers and invitees, and producing a book that can be used to train the next generation of ecologists.