256 Symposium--Ecological Sites: A Concept for Integrating Vegetation and Soils Information: I

Oral Session
SSSA Division: Pedology
Ecological site concepts have been widely used in forests and rangelands and are being extended into wetlands, subaqueous soils, and highly managed lands. In historic forestry literature, productivity was largely considered an inherent property of the site, i.e., the integration of biological, edaphic, geomorphologic, and climate factors of the environment. In contemporary rangeland literature an ecological site is defined as land that produces a characteristic kind and amount of vegetation and responds similarly to management and disturbance. Potential and on-going research in this area include using ecological sites to: evaluate how management inputs interact with inherent site properties; document change in landscapes affected by hydrocarbon development (oil/gas/fracking and the associated infrastructure); characterize outcomes in semi-arid rangelands after fire, climate change and other vegetation disturbance; elucidate management units for subaqueous soils; and organize dynamic soil property information by crop production and management regimes.

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Cosponsor(s):

Forest, Range & Wildland Soils
Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Community

Tuesday, November 5, 2013: 8:55 AM-10:45 AM
Tampa Convention Center, Room 37 and 38

Organizer:
Skye Wills
Moderator:
Skye Wills
8:55 AM
Introductory Remarks
9:00 AM
Ecological Site Descriptions and Digital Soil Maps for Management in Red Spruce (Picea rubens) Communities of West Virginia.
Travis Nauman, US Geological Survey; Jason Teets, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; James A. Thompson, West Virginia University; James W. Bell, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Henry J Liebermann, West Virginia University; Aaron Burkholder, West Virginia University
9:30 AM
A Novel, GIS-Based Approach to Developing Ecological Sites in Highly Variable Landscapes of the Eastern US.
Patrick J. Drohan, Pennsylvania State University; Alex U. Ireland, The Pennsylvania State University
10:00 AM
A New Framework to Consider Agronomic Systems As Ecological Sites.
Susan S. Andrews, USDA-NRCS; Skye Wills, USDA-NRCS; Mari-Vaughn V. Johnson, USDA-NRCS; Jeff Herrick, USDA-ARS; M. Lee Norfleet, USDA-NRCS
10:30 AM
Dynamic Soil Property Characterization In Southeastern Coastal Plain Kandiudults.
Joey N. Shaw, Auburn University; Sharon M. Hermann, Auburn University; Matthew R. Levi, USDA-ARS; Frank Cochran, USDA-NRCS; Emily A. Carter, USDA Forest Service (FS)
10:45 AM
Adjourn