Beyond the Walls: Soil Science and Ecology.

One of the grand challenges for 21^st century ecologists is to better understand the mechanisms that control feedbacks between the biosphere and our warming climate. Globally, fire regimes are intensifying as climate warms, releasing carbon historically stored in plants and soils to the atmosphere and altering the structure and function of ecosystems. The boundaries of biomes are shifting and plant resources, such as carbon dioxide and reactive nitrogen, are increasing in availability.  At high northern latitudes, permafrost soil carbon that has been stored for hundreds to thousands of years is undergoing thaw, decomposition and release to the atmosphere as either carbon dioxide or methane. Soils play a crucial role in determining the direction and magnitude of these carbon cycling feedbacks to climate, yet classically-trained soil scientists are often missing from the interdisciplinary teams that tackle these feedbacks.  In this talk, I will discuss my perspectives on the synergies between ecology and soil science that will be key to addressing these pressing societal challenges.  I will focus on novel and emerging research areas in ecosystem ecology where new graduate students and early career researchers in soil science can make important cross-disciplinary contributions.  Finally, I will discuss emerging national research initiatives that could provide a framework for collaborative opportunities between ecology and soil science, including the NSF-funded National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the NASA Terrestrial Ecology Arctic and Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), and the DOE Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE).