Dear colleagues, Please consider submitting to the AGU session (B030) *Flow-paths, Snap-shots, and Fixed-sites: Advances in Alternative Approaches in Ecosystem science.*
As environmental scientists, we all design data collection strategies and/or models and must confront how to use these data (often collected using different reference frames) to gain the most insight into our questions. We can measure/model a system using three reference frames: Eulerian (one location over time), Lagrangian (following an object through space and time), and Synoptic (a snap shot over space at one time). Most of us use data from at least two reference frames, but it is difficult to integrate these approaches a priori as well as the data a posteriori to make the best use of multiple data streams. We are broadly interested in studies that apply multiple and/or alternative measurement/modeling approaches within any system, discipline, or method. *Session Title:* *Flow-paths, Snap-shots, and Fixed-sites: Advances in Alternative Approaches in Ecosystem science* *Session Description:* Ecosystems are dynamic in space and time. However, our understanding of many systems comes largely from measuring or modeling at a single location over time; a fixed-site (Eulerian) approach. Alternative approaches include 1) a synoptic approach, taking a snap-shot of measurements across space at one point in time (e.g. remote sensing) or 2) a flow-path (Lagrangian) approach, tracking objects along a flow-path through space and time (e.g. drifting sampling, animal tagging). Alternative approaches, or combinations of approaches, may provide new insights into old questions or inspire entirely new avenues of research. Our goal is to cross-pollinate ideas by highlighting studies that apply alternative approaches to advancing our fundamental understanding of ecosystem or watershed science. We welcome submissions from diverse disciplines, systems (terrestrial, freshwater, marine), and methods (conceptual, field-based, modeling) with a particular interest in studies that leverage data and/or emerging technologies. *Primary Section/Focus Group:* Biogeosciences *Cross-Listing(s):* A - Atmospheric Sciences EP - Earth and Planetary Surface Processes H - Hydrology OS - Ocean Sciences *Conveners* Dr. John Crawford (USGS) John Gardner (Duke University) Dr. Robert Hensley (University of Florida) Luke Loken (University of Wisconsin)
