Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Workshop: September 13-16, 2007

The fossil record gives scientists the power to look back in time at important changes in Earth’s ecology over a wide range of scales, from years to billions of years. Researchers in paleoecology and ecology have long followed independent trajectories as they attempt to understand the interactions of organisms and environments in ancient vs. modern contexts. As a new initiative for its 20th anniversary year, the ETE Program is organizing a series of workshops to promote understanding about paleoecology over geological time and its relevance to the ecology of today. The first workshop will focus on how to think and communicate about the widely different scales of space and time that are available to paleobiologists, i.e., spatially from individual organisms through communities to the global biota, and temporally from years to millennia to millions of years. We see this theme as critical to all further integration of evidence and theory relating to ecology and paleoecology. The workshop will synergize interdisciplinary understanding of paleoecology among paleobiologists and generate reports for the wider scientific community that can lead to a future synthesis of ecology and paleoecology.

“Paleontological Powers of Ten” will bring together 32 paleobiologists with expertise in marine and terrestrial settings to debate and clarify what the central lessons regarding scale in paleoecology and ecology should be. Approximately 1/4 of the invitees will be ETE scientists, with the others chosen from international researchers who have interest and experience in confronting issues of scale in paleobiology or ecology. Over four days, participants will hammer out the major questions and issues regarding temporal and spatial scale in paleobiology in break-out groups based on areas of expertise as well in combined sessions. All participants will contribute information regarding their research prior to the meeting in the form of a questionnaire and an example of their published work. The meeting will be held in the Executive Conference Room, NMNH.

Sarah Williams, our science journalism intern, will attend the sessions and prepare reports for the general public and for the ETE Website. Hannah Bonner, who has worked with our scientists on a series of children's books about paleobiological topics, will attend with the aim of generating a book or other media offerings about how paleobiologists study the ecology of the past. The workshop will be featured on a regular basis via this link on the website of the Department of Paleobiology.

Organizing Committee: Kay Behrensmeyer, Bill DiMichele, Cindy Looy, Department of Paleobiology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution