Scaling Root Process: Global Impacts

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This award will partially support students to participate in a workshop aimed at scaling belowground processes to larger spatial and temporal realms. The workshop is primarily supported by the Department of Energy and will include approximately 25 speakers from as far away as Australia, China and Europe. Speakers will address both empirical studies and modeling of roots and belowground processes and part of the goal is to bring these two groups together to improve terrestrial carbon cycle models in the context of climatic change. Moreover, the influence of climatic change on soil carbon fluxes, on which roots have a major influence, is one of the greatest uncertainties in terrestrial ecosystem models. Students will participate in several ways. In most sessions, slots are reserved for a graduate student to speak; invitations will result from a competition of abstract submissions. Strong abstracts not chosen for oral presentation and that help balance workshop subject areas will be chosen for posters. This proposal leverages other support by providing an opportunity for 10 graduate students to participate either in oral or poster presentations. Students also will be included in small breakout groups that will enable them to interact closely with leaders in the field and provide fresh perspectives to perplexing areas inecosystem ecology. The workshop opportunities will be advertised openly on listserves and also at the participating universities. This workshop will provide opportunities for 10 students to interact with leaders in the fields of ecosystem, landscape and global modeling science, along with root, microbial and soil ecologists. Students will experience firsthand how interdisciplinary science is conducted and play key roles in discussions of new directions for scientific inquiry.