Microbial populations in biogeochemical models:

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Microbial populations in biogeochemical
models Who needs 'em?
Rich Conant Research Scientist, Ecosystem
ecologist (NOT A MICROBIAL ECOLOGIST - even on
Halloween) Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
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Background
Species, community, etc. diversity
Ecosystem function
Complexity
Simplicity
Species-species interactions
Nutrient cycling
Regional biogeochemistry
Soil food webs
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Questions
Species, community, etc. diversity
Ecosystem function
Functional diversity ??

• If were interested in modeling regional
  biogeochemistry where do we need to be along this
  line?
• How do we account for differential temperature
  sensitivity and CN stoichiometry of different
  communities?
• How can we get from microbial community
  characterizations to quantitative process rate
  modifiers?
• What is the balance between effort expended to
  characterize microbial communities and improved
  model performance? Are some shifts more
  consistent/important than others?

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Some possible ways forward in the short-term
Some ways we may be able to integrate microbes
into current biogeochemcial models
Lignin content
structural C
metabolic C
1 MRTf(k,pool size)
Lignin content
structural C
metabolic C
Active C
Passive C
Slow C
3 elemental stoichiometry