2008 Fall Meeting: San Francisco, CA - 15-19 December 2008

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H35:	Feedbacks Between Ecological, Geomorphic, and Hydrologic Systems Across Multiple Scales
Sponsor:	Hydrology
Convener:	Joe Wheaton Aberystwyth University Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences Aberystwyth University Llandinam Building Aberystwyth, GBR SY23 3DB 44 1970 622646 joe.wheaton@aber.ac.uk Chris Gibbins University of Aberdeen Geography & Environment School of Geosciences University of Aberdeen Elphinstone Road Aberdeen, GBR AB24 3UF c.gibbins@abdn.ac.uk Laurel Larsen USGS 430 National Center Reston, VA, USA 20192 (303) 735-0404 Laurel.Griggs@colorado.edu Ellen Wohl Colorado State University Department of Geosciences Fort Collins, CO, USA 80523-1482 970-491-5298 ellenw@cnr.colostate.edu Thanos Papanicolaou The Univeristy of Iowa IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering Iowa City, IA, USA 52242-1585 319-335-6448 apapanic@engineering.uiowa.edu
	1825 1813 0481 0439 .
Description:	Feedback is a stimulus-response process, whereby the response affects the original stimulus. Positive feedback is a signal amplification process in which the system responds to perturbation in the same direction as the perturbation. In contrast, negative feedback is a signal attenuation process in which the system responds in the opposite direction as the perturbation. Whereas positive feedback often causes system instability, negative feedback tends to result in system stability. Both types of feedback are present in nature and lead to nonlinear behavior that make understanding and/or predicting system response to change highly challenging. In this session, we are interested in physical-biological feedbacks that govern the form and function of fluvial, estuarine and wetland landscapes across different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, those biological and physical feedbacks which involve geomorphic processes are of interest. How do the existences of feedbacks affect trajectories of ecosystem evolution and the reversibility of those trajectories? How do flora and fauna alter boundary roughness, in-turn altering hydraulics, changing scour and depositional processes and influence the suitability of habitat for the same flora and fauna? What sort of feedbacks exist which influence habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity? How universal or transferable are the feedback processes governing different ecosystems? How should restoration projects account for such feedbacks? The aim of this session is to bring together contrasting perspectives on biological and physical feedbacks in fluvial and estuarine landscapes. It is expected these perspectives will be drawn from the overlapping and variably defined fields of ecohydraulics, hydroecology, ecohydrology, ecomorphology, biogeochemistry and biogeography, as well as the more traditional perspectives from geomorphology, hydrology, ecology and biology. Contributions are welcome from theoretical, empirical, modeling and/or applied (e.g. restoration) studies that seek to demonstrate, identify or explain examples of feedbacks between the triad of ecology, geomorphology and hydrology.

Union Sessions by Theme

There are no extra requirements to submit to these sessions.

1. Carbon in the Earth System

U01: Origin of Late Holocene (Pre-Industrial) Increases in Atmospheric CO₂ and CH₄

U04: Understanding of the Global Carbon Cycle Using Models and Observations

U15: Global Climate Change and Gas Hydrate Reservoir Degassing: Assessing the Scientific Evidence

U22: Geologic Carbon Sequestration: The Vital Links Between Risk Assessment, Monitoring and Mitigation Design

2. Earth's Polar Regions

U02: The International Polar Year

U23: Observing, Understanding, Predicting and Responding to Pan-Arctic Ice Retreat Problems

3. Climate & the Environment

U06: Geoengineering to Counteract Global Warming?

U10: Tropical Cyclone—Climate Interactions Past, Present, and Future

U11: Comparative Climate Studies of Earth, Venus and Mars

U12: Consequences of Peak Oil for Climate Change

U14: Environmental Consequences of the Changing Global Food System

U24: Perspectives on the Past and Future of Paleoceanography and Paleclimatology

4. Earth's Dynamic Interior

U09: Different Views on One Asthenosphere

U18: Interaction and Co-evolution of Earth Reservoirs: Coupling of Mantle, Tectonic, Atmospheric, and Hydrospheric Dynamics in the Evolution of Earth

U20: Fluids at Convergent Margins: Synthesis of Observations, Experiments and Models

U21: Geologic, Seismologic, and Geodynamic Constraints on the 4–D Evolution of North America: Where are we now and Where are we going?

5. New Frontiers

U03: MESSENGER at Mercury: The Second Flyby

U05: Episodic Tremor and Slip: Insights into a Newly Discovered Process

U08: The Library — Data Center Alliance in Earth and Space Sciences

U13: The Phoenix Mission

U16: The Van Allen Radiation Belts and Their Impact on Modern Space Science

6. Hazards and Public Risk

U07: Role of Science in Water, Biologic, and Geologic Hazards Security

U17: Decision Support Needs and Tools for Global Change: Bridging the Gap Between Physical and Societal Models

U19: The Great 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake: A Multi-disciplinary View

U25: Integrated Geohazards Along Continental Margins and Plate Boundary Zones