We would like to call your attention to two sessions planned for the Fall07 AGU Meeting (December 10-14) on Soil Carbon Stabilization and Responses to Climate Change. Please post or forward this to any other interested parties, and apologies for multiple receipts. Abstract submissions are due September 6th at http://submissions3.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp
BG14: Soil Carbon: Mechanisms of Stabilization Soil organic matter contains more reactive organic carbon than any other single terrestrial pool. Consequently, SOM balance (the difference between accumulation of decaying plant materials and combined losses due to SOM oxidation to CO2 and leaching or volatilization of dissolved compounds) plays a major role in determining C storage in ecosystems and in regulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Despite the critical roles played by SOM within ecosystems, in the global C cycle, and in the EarthÂ’s climate system, controls on SOM balances in ecosystems remain poorly understood. In the latest Investigators Meeting of the North American Carbon Program, soil carbon storage and dynamics was pointed out as one of the key areas of uncertainty in the carbon balance of North America. This session will focus on studies of soils and carbon: storage potential, mechanisms of stabilization/destabilization/long term storage. Invited talks will fall into two categories: those that address mechanisms and process, and those that use modeling approaches to understand response of C storage to climate change and employ techniques to quantify change accurately at meaningful scales for a landscape, a regional and/or the globe. Co-conveners: Kate Lajtha ([EMAIL PROTECTED], Oregon State University), Nancy Cavallaro ([EMAIL PROTECTED], USDA-CSREES) To be held in conjunction with: GC11: Soil Carbon: Response to Climate Change This session will present the mechanisms of soil carbon stabilization and their responses to climate change. Research on the mechanisms controlling the response of soil and litter decomposition to changes in temperature has progressed significantly in recent years because changes in temperature could have a dramatic impact on decomposition and on detrital and soil carbon stocks. Diverse research approaches have led to advances in understanding biological, chemical, and physical controls on decomposition responses to temperature and in integrating those responses into modeling efforts. This special session will serve as a forum to distill fundamental principles and identify opportunities to resolve apparent conflicts in experimental studies. We invite presentations of process- and mechanism-level studies of soil and litter carbon dynamics under changing temperature and of studies integrating that new understanding into models. Co-conveners: Alain Plante ([EMAIL PROTECTED], University of Pennsylvania), Richard Conant ([EMAIL PROTECTED], Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory), Serita Frey ([EMAIL PROTECTED], University of New Hampshire)
