AERC President Lou Pitelka worked with AIBS staff, Adrienne Froelich and Sasha Gennet, to organize a congressional hill briefing. Four speakers from the AERC scientific community addressed "Lessons from Long-term Studies of Natural Ecosystems" in 15 minute presentations using case-study examples from ecosystem research. The meeting was attended by staff from the House Science subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards. After the presentations, speakers and other AERC members responded to questions from staff members from the Science subcommittee and talked informally over brunch.

Congressional staffers were very complimentary of the informative and concise presentations by the speakers, who gave longer versions of their talks during the afternoon symposium:

Dr. Beverly Law, Oregon State University
Emerging patterns from the AmeriFlux network

Dr. Steven Wofsy, Harvard University
Why forests are taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere today, and why they may add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in the future

Dr. Tim Kratz, University of Wisconsin
Lessons from studying the long-term regional ecology of lakes

Dr. Carol Boggs, Stanford University
Causes of population fluctuations: Lessons from a long-term study

Return to AERC Homepage