National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis 2011 - Report to the National Science Foundation

The results of these analyses will be the subject of a review article styled for Biological Reviews or Coral Reefs and this work will contribute to the science necessary to complete the activities in a companion NCEAS working group proposal that will be submitted in January 2010 in collaboration with Peter Edmunds and titled ―Coral reefs of tomorrow: when the winners take over, what will it be lik. [...] Pau, Stephanie 11-Jan-10 – 30-Sep-11 15 Improving our understanding of the ecological controls on the distribution and phenology of C3 and C4 grasses in response to climate variations This proposed project seeks to analyze and synthesize herbarium, climate, and satellite data over several decades to address the spatial and temporal response of C3 and C4 grasses to climate variability in the Hawaii. [...] Our ultimate goal is to take full advantage of the NCEAS model – ranging from the opportunity to pursue the basic processes of data and conceptual synthesis, to the use of ecoinformatics resources that are unique to NCEAS – to advance our understanding of the nature of nutrient limitation in tropical forests. [...] This proposal will provide a global synthesis of reports of jellyfish abundance to achieve four main 25 objectives: (1) to examine the hypothesis of a global expansion of jellyfish blooms, and to explore the possible drivers for this expansion; (2) to examine the effects of jellyfish blooms on the ecosystem, addressing in particular, carbon cycling, and food webs; (3) to identify current and futur. [...] This is a two year project and meetings will be a combination of plenary and specific group level sessions involving data acquisition and statistical analyses, global synthesis of trajectory maps of regional jellyfish blooms, generation of conceptual diagrams of the role of jellyfish in biogeochemical cycles and food webs, and discussions relating to the socio-economic ramifications of jellyfish b.