RCN FORECAST CONFERENCE ANNOUNCMENT
Announcing RCN FORECAST Conference in 2012: New Perspectives on Data
Assimilation in Global Change Science.
Come join us on October 9-11, 2012 in Woodshole, MA, USA for this important conference.
The FORECAST (Forecasts Of Resource and Environmental Changes: Data Assimilation Science
and Technology) initiative, a Research Coordination Network (RCN) funded by the National
Science Foundation, will host a conference on emerging modeling tools for global change
research. The goals of the conference include i) broader dissemination of data assimilation (DA)
methods that ecologists can use to address environmental challenges and ii) identification of
ecological problems and research themes that can benefit from new or enhanced modeling and
analysis tools.
The field of ecology has been rapidly transformed to a data-rich scientific enterprise due to fast
development and implementation of observation networks, such as NEON, FLUXNET,
spaceborne remote sensing systems of MODIS, LANDSAT, and IKONOS, and the contribution
of data from an enormous number of individual or small groups of investigators. There is an
unprecedented demand to convert the raw data from those networks into meaningful ecological
information products, with the aim of accelerating advances in our fundamental knowledge of
ecological processes, testing ecological theory, forecasting changes in ecological services,
educating teachers and students, and supporting decision making.
An essential tool to assist the transformation of ecological research in this data-rich era is data
assimilation (DA), which uses data to inform initial conditions and model parameters, thereby
constraining a model during simulation to yield results that approximate reality as closely as
possible. DA also can facilitate selection of alternative model structures; quantify uncertainties
arising from observations, models, and their interactions; and design data collection plans for
observatory networks or individual experiments. Nevertheless, DA may not improve model
predictions when ecological processes are not well understood or never observed. This
conference will discuss all aspects of DA techniques and applications.
Interwoven with a few talks by prominent ecologists, this workshop focuses on new investigators
(recent PhDs), recognizing the uneven opportunities for training in environmental science
programs. Research applications will be shared through invited and contributed talks.
Discussions will focus on topics that include (but are not limited to) application areas in A1)
biogeochemical cycles, A2) biodiversity, A3) emerging infectious disease, and A4) animal
movement and health, and crosscutting challenges that derive from C1) multiple data sources, C2)
diverse scales of data and process, and C3) DA-assisted forecasting.
We expect talks to build from case studies, but also speak to the broad challenges in data
assimilation. We encourage submission of abstracts on all aspects of DA techniques and
applications, especially from new investigators. From submitted abstracts, we will select 12
contributed talks to be mixed with invited talks on Crosscutting Challenges in various application
areas.
Breakout and poster sessions will provide opportunities for small group and person-to-person
discussion to pursue particular topics, in the form of grant proposals and/or publications.
The NSF RCN FORECAST grant will cover expenses of all invited and selected speakers and
have some limited traveling grants available for participants, especially graduate students and
post-docs.
Interested applicants may refer http://ecolab.ou.edu/?callforabstract for more detail information.
Invited speakers
Andrew Latimer
Ephraim Hanks
Ines Ibanez
Jerry Melillo
Jianyang Xia
Jim Clark
Juan Morales
Katia Koelle
Mat Williams
Matt Ferrari
Mevin Hooten
Mike Dietze
Perry DeValpine
Scott Loarie
Terry Chapin
UC Davis
Colorado State University
University of Michigan
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole
University of Oklahoma
Duke University
Statistical Laboratory
Duke University
University of Edinburgh
The Pennsylvania State University
Colorado State University
Boston University
UC Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Please consider submitting an abstract (call for abstracts attached) to present a talk or
poster!
We are looking forward to your participation!
RCN FORECAST 2012 Organizing Committees:
Jim Clark (Duke University, jimclark@duke.edu)
Yiqi Luo (University of Oklahoma, yluo@ou.edu)
Shannon LaDeau (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Sciences, ladeaus@caryinstitute.org)
Kiona Ogle (Arizona State University, Kiona.Ogle@asu.edu)
Shuli Niu (University of Oklahoma, sniu@ou.edu)
David Schimel (NEON, dschimel@neoninc.org)