00_cover_Biennial Report 05-06.qxd - INSTAAR - University of ...

ties. However, manmade reservoirs are simultaneouslyreducing the flux of sediment reaching the world’s coastsby about 1.4 billion metric tons per year. The net sedimenttransfer from an individual river to the ocean can greatlyaffect sensitive coastal zones, including nutrient balances,pollution levels, harbor dredging, coastal fish farms andcoral reefs, coastal wetlands, and seagrass communities. Inorder to make their analysis, the team had to create a newcomputer model capable of globally consistent estimates ofsediment flux near river mouths. The report was completedfor the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme, alarge-scale effort by scientists to study how humans havebeen and will continue to affect the entire planet. The studywas published in the April 15, 2005, issue of Science.NOVEL TAXONOMIC WEB SITEASSISTS ANTARCTIC ECOLOGICALRESEARCH. Sarah Spaulding, RheaEsposito, and David Lubinski led a team ofscientists, graduate students, and undergraduatestudents to develop a dynamicweb database, “Antarctic FreshwaterDiatoms,” that combines ecological data collected overmore than a decade in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region.The database takes a technologically novel approach bylinking microscope images, scanning electron micrographs,original taxonomic descriptions, species geographic distributions,species assemblage data, maps, and permanentarchives. Members of the research team are continuallyadding new data and images; no technical web knowledgeis required. The interdisciplinary effort brought collaboratorsand students together from the University of Colorado,INSTAAR, University of Maine, CU Math-Bio Program, NSFResearch Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and NSFPartnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET).INSTAAR participants included Diane McKnight and ChiYang. The effort was principally funded by NSF’s McMurdoDry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program(MCMLTER) and an NSF supplement to the Niwot RidgeLTER program to encourage collaboration among undergraduatesin biological sciences and mathematics departments.Although just launched in late February 2005, the site isalready serving as a model for regional taxonomic databases,as an effective way to recognize and communicatespecies endemism and biodiversity.ARID AUSTRALIAN INTERIORLINKED TO LANDSCAPE BURNINGBY ANCIENT HUMANS. Gifford Millerand colleagues from the National Center forAtmospheric Research in Boulder and theAustralian National University in Canberraused global climate model simulations toevaluate the atmospheric and meteorological conditionsin Australia over time, as well as the sensitivity of theAustralian monsoon to different vegetation and soil types.Their results suggest that landscape burning by ancienthunters and gatherers may have triggered the failure of theannual Australian monsoon some 12,000 years ago, resultingin the desertification of the country’s interior that isevident today. The study builds on previous field-basedresearch of Miller’s team; they found that dozens of giantanimal species went extinct in Australia roughly 50,000years ago, probably due to ecosystem changes caused byhuman burning. The new study indicates such burning mayhave eventually altered the flora enough to decrease theexchange of water vapor between the biosphere and atmosphere,causing the failure of the Australian monsoon overthe interior. The earliest human colonizers are believed tohave arrived in Australia by sea from Indonesia about50,000 years ago, using fire as a tool to hunt, clear paths,signal each other, and promote the growth of certain plants.Fossil remains of browse-dependent birds and marsupialsindicate the interior was made up of trees, shrubs, andgrasses rather than the desert scrub environment presenttoday. Among other results, the research team found thata climate model simulating a forested Australia producedtwice as much annual monsoon precipitation over the continentalinterior as the model simulating arid scrub conditions.The study was published in the January 2005 issueof Geology.NSF AWARDS INSTAAR$4.9 MILLION TO CONTINUEALPINE ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH.The Niwot Ridge Long-Term EcologicalResearch project administered by INSTAARscientists will continue for at least 6 moreyears as a result of a $4.9 million grant fromthe National Science Foundation. Located adjacent toINSTAAR’s Mountain Research Station, Niwot Ridge is theonly multidisciplinary, long-term alpine and sub-alpineTree trunks of a former forestnow stick out of the surf zonedue to retreat of the coastline,Ganges delta, India, December2006. Irina Overeem (INSTAARAffiliate, Delft University ofTechnology) is studying theinfluence of climate change onsedimentary system dynamics ofthe Ganges delta in a joint Indo-U.S. project on “Large river systemsin monsoonal setting:response to climate change.”Photo: H. Reinink (DelftUniversity of Technology),December 2006.RESEARCH MISSION | 13