December 2009

Seminars

Dec. 1: Todd Dawson, Depts of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UC Berkeley spoke to the title; Linking roots to regions: How root functions alter ecological, hydrological and biogeochemical processes. He has been studying the movement of water in the sub surfaces of different types of ecosystems and how this affects the root structures of the plants growing there. During drought periods, roots grow deeper and have larger xylem conduits. In turn this affects the amount of photosynthesis, linking roots to the carbon cycle.

Dec. 4: Anton Post, Senior Scientist, The Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Genomics, Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA spoke to the title: Nitrogen Acquisition in Marine Cyanobacteria: From Community Structure to Genome Architecture. He has studied the genetics of Synechococcus & Prochlorococcus isolated from ocean waters between 40º N & 40º S and related them to their phosphorus & iron metabolism.

DPB-DGE Holiday Party, Dec. 11, 2009

The holiday party was a big success, and a big thank you to everyone that helped make it successful. Especially to the admin staff, Susan, Naoia, Evana and Turkan for their help in getting the meat dishes ready to serve and their organizational skills. Thank you to Kate for pushing for a “green” party, I believe we did an admirable job. Ismael and Angelica were very busy with the set up and making the seminar room and tent area very festive. Thank you Glenn for the “fireplace” and music! Of course, a big thank you to Santa and his elves for taking time from their very busy schedule to make a stop at our party to deliver the surprises to the children. Robin made the gingerbread cookies that were used for decorating by the children (and then the big children later in the evening), thank you. Thank you to all the participants in the ornament contest, congratulations Bi Huei! And a big thank you to all the labs for your contributions. If I have omitted anyone it is not intentional. We all made this a successful party by enjoying the great food, drinks and merriment.
I hope everyone had a great time and if you have ANY suggestions you feel would contribute for a more successful event next year please feel free to send them to me. Happy Holidays! Kathi Bump

Field & Berry Groups

Dec. 4: Adam Wolf talked to us about Computer Graphics, Modeling & Rendering. He’s currently working to improve the lidar simulation of trees. Tasting: Adam brought some varieties of Kefir that is a more liquid version of yogurt. Reputed to be a good remedy for hangovers.

Alumni

Dec. 7: The Huffington Post along with Hopenhagen.org is thrilled to announce our pick for the Hopenhagen Ambassador: scientist, environmental educator, and worldwide bike traveler David Kroodsma. David has won a week-long trip to Copenhagen where he'll be meeting with everyone from Al Gore to the Mayor of Copenhagen, doing interviews, writing blog posts and and making videos which will appear on HuffPost Green, and representing the people of Hopenhagen -- those worldwide who are hopeful for a climate agreement -- at events and to the press. Huffington Post Based in San Francisco, David has worked with 350.org and is working on book about his bike trip, tentatively titled, The Road to Tierra del Fuego. more » Dave's blog »

Caldeira Group

From late October through late December 2009, Ken Caldeira and three current andformer post-docs (Jack Silverman, Steve Davis, and Kenny Schneider) were in Australia's Great Barrier Reef studying effects of ocean acidification on rates of coral reef growth. The field work, funded by the Moore Foundation, focused on determining net rates of organic carbon and carbonate mineral accumulation derived from measurements of ocean chemistry, which could then be compared with similar measurements made decades ago. Most of the field work was on Lizard Island and One Tree Island. When snorkeling in the outer reef, it was not uncommon to come upon Grey Reef Sharks. Generally friendly, these sharks have been known to attack people, but typically at dawn and dusk. (The attached photo was made with a camera on 4x zoom without any cropping. He must have gotten mighty close. The shark was about 2 m long but looked longer to me. Ken C.)

Dec. 7-18 Copenhagen Conference Attendees: Chris Field, Greg Asner & Guayana Paez-Acosta attended with Asner and Kris Ebi (IPCC). Also, Matt Colgan went with the group of Stanford students.

American Geophysical Society Participants, 12/14-18/2009

The following DGE current members and alumni participated in the AGS
Meeting in San Francisco:

Posters	Titles
George Ban-Weiss	Climate response to black carbon aerosols: dependence on altitude
L. Cao, et. al.	Global warming increased by the response of land plants to CO2.
Kyla Dahlin	Topographically mediated controls on aboveground biomass across a mediterranean-type landscape
Steve Davis	Outsourcing CO2 Emissions
Julia Pongratz	Regional contributions to global climate change in present and future from anthropogenic land cover change
Ted Raab et al.	Seasonal and spatial variation in soil chemistry and anaerobic processes in an Arctic ecosystem.
Talks	Titles
Joe Berry	Response of the Vegetation-Climate System to High Temperature.
Joe Berry, et al.	Using Atmospheric Measurements of Carbonyl Sulfide to Constrain Conductance.
K. N. Cahill, et al.	Building a Rich Community-Contributed Phenology Dataset: Lessons Learned from Winegrapes in California’s Napa Valley .
C. Doughty, et al.	Predicting tropical plant physiology from leaf and canopy spectroscopy.
E. S. Hinckley ; P.A. Matson	Sulfur as a tracer of hydrologic and biogeochemical dynamics in Northern California vineyard soils.
B. Z. Houlton et al.	Isotopic imprint of denitrification on the natural terrestrial biosphere (Invited).
U. Seibt et al.	Linking the leaf uptake of carbonyl sulfide (COS) to transpiration, photosynthesis and carbon isotope fractionation.
Y. Wang; B. Z. Houlton	Nitrogen as a constraint on terrestrial carbon uptake: implications for the global carbon-climate feedback (Invited).
A. Wolf; J.A. Berry	Allometry in global models: an important reality check on the growth and biomass of forests.