Great Lakes Seminar Series: Bill Currie

Title: Plant community dynamics linked to ecosystem biogeochemistry in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: modeling for both basic understanding and management applications

Abstract: Linking plant community dynamics to ecosystem processes has long been a central theme in ecological modeling. In this seminar, Bill Currie will present the development and applications of the Mondrian model, which was designed to link across four levels of organization in coastal wetlands: individual plant physiology, plant population dynamics, plant community shifts including invasive species, and ecosystem biogeochemistry including C, N and P cycling. Mondrian is an individual-based model in which spatially-explicit plant competition for resources causes emergent population and community dynamics, which respond to wetland N and P inflows while also driving ecosystem N and P cycling including nutrient retention. At the same time it integrates the effects of dynamic water levels, hydroperiod, and water residence time on both plant survival and ecosystem biogeochemistry, including decomposition, C storage, nitrification and denitrification. It has been used to study clonal plant competition broadly from a basic-science perspective as well as the integrated effects of water level and nutrient inflows on the joint outcomes of wetland C budgets and the success or failure of plant invasions in Great Lakes coastal wetlands. The model has also been used in an adaptive management framework to simulate the outcomes of management practices including burning, mowing, and herbicide to control invasive cattails and Phragmites. The Mondrian model was designed to be highly flexible for use by different research groups for a range of research questions and is available open-source.

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More Information: https://ciglr.seas.umich.edu/event/092223-bill-currie/