Dear Colleagues, We invite you to submit an abstract to our symposium "How do geologic processes drive the structure and function of aquatic and riparian ecosystems?" at the upcoming American Chemical Society Meeting in Denver, March 22-26. (http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/spring-2015.html). Ecologists, chemists and geologists working on interdisciplinary, landscape level questions are encouraged to apply. Please see full symposium description below and contact us with any questions.
*How do geologic processes drive the structure and function of aquatic and riparian ecosystems?* Organizers: Travis S. Schmidt, Johanna M. Kraus, Richard B. Wanty Geologic processes such as hydrothermal alteration change the chemistry of portions of the earth’s crust by distributing alkaline and acid generating minerals into concentrated areas. These mineral deposits can be economically valuable and exploited. However they also provide basal resources to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, which can be strongly shaped by the chemistry, mineralogy, and physical extent of the alteration. Commonly scientists characterize the geochemical and aquatic ecological condition of local deposits and use this information for risk assessments. But little is known about how catchments of similar lithology vary in water and sediment quality across a region. Rarely are ecological and geologic assessments linked to ask how geologic processes drive ecological structure and function. Specifically, geologic processes can fundamentally alter biological communities in aquatic systems with large, cross-ecosystem implications for terrestrial food webs. This symposium will focus on multidisciplinary studies that scale up from the fundamental geologic processes that form mineral and ore deposits to effects on aquatic and adjacent terrestrial ecosystems across space and time. We invite submission of multidisciplinary geo-ecological studies that ask questions beyond traditional risk assessments and seek out the emergent properties of these valuable ecosystems. Travis S. Schmidt, Ph.D. US Geological Survey [email protected] https://profile.usgs.gov/tschmidt Johanna M. Kraus, Ph.D. US Geological Survey [email protected] https://profile.usgs.gov/jkraus Richard B. Wanty, Ph.D. US Geological Survey [email protected] https://profile.usgs.gov/rwanty -- Johanna M. Kraus, Ph.D. Research Ecologist US Geological Survey 2150 Centre Ave, Building C Fort Collins CO 80526 Office: (970) 226-9436 https://profile.usgs.gov/jkraus
