Conference Organizers:
Dr. Diana H. Wall (PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Diana is actively engaged in research exploring how life in soil (microbial and invertebrate diversity) contributes to productive soils and ecosystems and the consequences of human activities on soil globally. Her interests extend to determining the influence of nematodes on carbon cycling in low diversity ecosystems (hot and cold deserts) and how global changes impact soil biodiversity, ecosystem processes and ecosystem services. - Suggested Readings:
•Wall, D.H. 2007. Global Change tipping points: Above- and below-ground biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences, 362:2291-2306, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1950.
•St. John, M. G., D. H. Wall and H. W. Hunt. 2006. Are soil mite assemblages structured by the identity of native and invasive alien grasses? Ecology, 87: 1314-1324.
•Robertson, G. P., and D. W. Freckman. 1995. The spatial distribution of nematode trophic groups across a cultivated ecosystem. Ecology 76: 1425-1432.
Dr. Edward Ayres (Co-PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Ed Ayres studies interactions among plants, soil, and soil biota, with an emphasis on carbon and nitrogen dynamics and community composition. Recently he has been studying soil biodiversity at large scales (global patterns of soil animal biodiversity) and small scales (the functional significance of differences in soil community composition beneath different tree species). Other interests include the impact of herbivory and climate change on plant-soil interactions. - Suggested Readings:
•Heath J, Ayres E, Possell M, Bardgett RD, Black HIJ, Grant H, Ineson P, Kerstiens G (2005) Rising atmospheric CO2 reduces sequestration of root-derived soil carbon. Science 309, 1711-1713.
•Fierer N, Jackson RB (2006) The diversity and biogeography of soil bacterial communities. PNAS 103, 626-631.
Dr. Breana Simmons (Co-PI, Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Breana Simmons conducts multi-taxa studies to understand how soil biota interact with each other and their environment, and how this affects ecosystem function. Simmons is interested in the effects of land management on soil biota and associated feedbacks to ecosystem processes, particularly resolving small spatial scale biotic interactions with large landscape scale processes. - Suggested Readings
•Simmons, B.L., Niles, R.K., and D.H. Wall. 2008. Distribution and abundance of alfalfa-field nematodes at various spatial scales. Applied Soil Ecology, 38: 211-222.
•Minoshima, H., L. E. Jackson, T. R. Cavagnaro, S. Sanchez-Moreno, H. Ferris, S. R. Temple, S. Goyal, and J. P. Mitchell. 2007. Soil food webs and carbon dynamics in response to conservation tillage in California. Soil Science Society of America Journal 71:952-963.
•Smith, P., O. Andren, L. Brussaard, M. Dangerfield, K. Ekschmitt, P. Lavelle, and K. Tate. 1998. Soil biota and global change at the ecosystem level: describing soil biota in mathematical models. Global Change Biology 4:773-784.
Tracy Smith (Organizer)
- Research Interests:
•Tracy is interested in studying plant community ecology, particularly in how community structure and dynamics relate to and impact ecosystem processes and functioning. She is also interested in integrating the knowledge about these interactions with land-use management and policy decisions. She received her BA from the University of California in Santa Barbara in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Ecology and Ecosystem Management.
CSU Participants:
Sarah Atherton (Undergraduate)
- Research Interests:
•Sarah is currently developing a method to reliably induce the protective state of anhydrobiosis in the Antarctic nematode Plectus spp. This method will provide insight into the survival adaptations that allowPlectus spp. to inhabit the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica and will aid in further research about the relationship between species of terrestrial and aquatic nematodes. - Suggested Readings:
•Crowe, J., and K. Madin. (1975) Anhydrobiosis in nematodes: Evaporative water loss and survival. J. Exp. Zool. 193: 323-334.
•Treonis, A., D. Wall and R. Virginia. (2000) The use of anhydrobiosis by soil nematodes in the Antarctic dry valleys. Funct. Ecol. 14: 460-467.
•Treonis, A., and D. Wall. (2005) Soil nematodes and desiccation survival in the extreme arid environment of the Antarctic dry valleys. Integr. Comp. Biol. 45: 741-750.
Dr. John C. Moore
- Research Interests:
•Dr. Moore has studied soil food webs and the role of detritus in governing shaping the structure and dynamic stability. Current efforts are aimed at understanding the role of soil organisms in soil organic matter dynamics in grassland and Arctic soils. His approach balance field and laboratory research with modeling. - Suggested readings:
•Rooney. N., K. McCann, G. Gellner, and J.C. Moore. 2006. Structural asymmetry and the stability of diverse food webs. Nature 442:265-269.
•Moore, J.C., E.L. Berlow, D.C. Coleman, P.C. de Ruiter, Q. Dong, A. Hastings, N. Collins-Johnson, K. S. McCann, K. Melville, P.J. Morin, K. Nadelhoffer, A.D. Rosemond, D.M. Post, J.L. Sabo, K.M. Scow, M.J. Vanni, and D. Wall. 2004. Detritus, Trophic Dynamics, and Biodiversity. Ecology Letters 7:584-600.
•Moore, J.C., D.E. Walter, and H.W. Hunt. 1988. Arthropod regulation of micro-and mesobiota in belowground detrital food webs. Annual Review of Entomology 33:419-439
•Moore, J.C., P.C. de Ruiter, and H.W. Hunt. 1993. The influence of productivity on the stability of real and model ecosystems. Science 261:906-908
Karen Seaver (Graduate Student)
- Research Interests:
•Karen is interested in how soil biota adapt to extreme environments. Currently, she is investigating the molecular mechanisms of anhydrobiosis and desiccation tolerance in nematodes of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys and Colorado’s Shortgrass Steppe. - Suggested readings:
•Adhikari BN, Ayres E, Simmons B, Wall DH, and BJ Adams. (2007) A study of the molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in Antarctic dry valley nematodes using Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs). Journal of Nematology 39:102.
•Nkem JN, DH Wall, RA Virginia, JE Barrett, EJ Broos, DL Porazinska, and BJ Adams. (2006) Wind dispersal of soil invertebrates in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Polar Biology 29: 346-352.
•D. Wall-Freckman and SP Huang. (1998) Response of the soil nematode community in a shortgrass steppe to long-term and short-term grazing. Applied Soil Ecology 9: 39-44.
Cecilia Tomasel (Wall Lab Manager)
- Research Interests:
•I am interested in the study of the interaction between organisms and their environment for the regulation of different ecosystem processes. My areas of interest are nematodes communities, soil ecology and soil biodiversity. My previous professional work has been mainly focused in the study of nematodes. I earned a Degree in Biology from the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina) working with Meloidogynein potato cultivars and later a M.Sc. in Plant Pathology at CSU working with Ditylenchus dipsaci and Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi in alfalfa. Before joining Diana Wall’s group as Lab Manager, I worked as head nematologist/pathologist at a private plant disease diagnostic laboratory. - Suggested Readings:
•M.C. Milano De Tomasel and McIntyre, G. 2001, “Distribution and biology of the alfalfa stem nematode(Ditylenchus dipsaci) and the chrysantemum foliar nematode (Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi) in alfalfa grown in Colorado” Nematropica 31 (1): 11-16.
Rosemary Townshend (CSU-Pueblo Graduate Student)