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Chapter 9. Biology and Water Science
Biology in CIRES
The leading edge of the wedge for biology in CIRES was Ray Fall, who became a fellow in 1981 as a result of the efforts of Robert Sievers, CIRES director at that time. Fall took his Ph.D. in biochemistry at UCLA and subsequently did postdoctoral work at the Washington University School of Medicine. His early work dealt with protein structure and, though virtually any science related to life can be by some logic environmental, appears to have been impressive but without any particular environmental slant. Environmental flavor crept in during the 1970s, however, in the form of his work on biodegradation (Fall et al. 19791).
1. References characterizing the work of individuals are indicative rather than comprehensive.
The environmental slant in Fall's work steepened in 1988 with his studies of ice nucleation, which is a property of bacteria of considerable interest in the natural environment and also to agricultural practices that are threatened by ice formation (Parody-Morreale et al. 1988). During the late 1980s, coincident with a sabbatical at the NOAA Aeronomy Lab [ About this Lab ] , which is well represented in CIRES, Fall moved into studies of chemical emissions from living plants (Fall et al. 1988). This subject had come into strong focus nationally as the U.S. attempted to distinguish natural from anthropogenic emissions of gases to the atmosphere. Some of Fall's work was done in collaboration with CIRES fellow Fred Fehsenfeld. Their joint work illustrates nicely the benefi- cial complementarity of the collaboration of biologically- and chemically-oriented branches of the environmental sciences. Subsequently, Fall collaborated with CIRES fellow Russ Monson, a plant physiologist, on emission of isoprene and other substances from plants (Monson and Fall 1989). This work continued through the 1990s (Fall and Wildermuth 1998).
An interesting later development was Fall's work on the dependence of emission rates from plants on agricultural processing (de Gouw et al. 1999) or freezing of plant tissues (Fall et al. 2001). Thus, Fall passed from classical protein biochemistry to collaborative studies of the relationship between emissions from plants and chemical composition of the atmosphere.
Biology can be thought of as a spectrum of sub-disciplines based on level of organization, extending from the molecular to the biospheric (Figure 2). Fall's position on the spectrum is firmly toward the molecular end, but his work has had special significance through his search for biochemically- oriented problems that are of major environmental signifi- cance beyond the molecular level.
 Fig. 2. A diagram showing a classification of the biological sciences according to levels of organization and a depiction of the main interests along the biological spectrum of the five biologically-oriented fellows of CIRES as of the year 2000. |
CIRES did not rush to embrace biology. Seven years after Ray Fall joined CIRES, Bill Lewis was recruited as a second biologist on the Council of Fellows (1988). Lewis received a Ph.D. from Indiana University in zoology with emphasis on limnology, the study of inland waters. After postdoctoral work at the University of Georgia, he entered the Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology (EPO Biology). Lewis, like Fall, already had been a member of a CU department for quite a few years before joining CIRES. Fall encouraged Lewis to stand for consideration as a fellow. In doing so he was probably representing especially the interests of the atmospheric chemists, who saw a connection between their own interests and Lewis's work on atmospheric deposition in Colorado. Lewis and colleagues first documented strong anthropogenic influences on precipitation chemistry at high elevation in Colorado (Lewis and Grant 1980), where the air was thought previously to be mostly pristine. Mapping of atmospheric deposition in Colorado showed that oxides of nitrogen and sulfur generated mainly at low elevation were neutralized by particulate alkalis at low elevation, but had a strong acidifying effect on precipitation in montane environments because the particulate alkalis were lost from the air as it passed to higher elevation, where precipitation is most likely (Lewis et al. 1984).
Lewis developed a dual program, one component of which focused on tropical aquatic ecosystems and the second on aquatic ecosystems of Colorado. His original interest in atmospheric deposition was connected mainly not with acidity, but rather with nutrient cycling, and especially that of nitrogen, which has important regulatory effects on the metabolism of aquatic ecosystems. This interest continued, as indicated by Lewis's recent work on estimation of global nitrogen yields from land surfaces to oceans by way of inland waters under pre-disturbance conditions (Lewis et al. 1999, Lewis 2001).
Lewis's interests and those of his students also have consistently involved the analysis of foodwebs centered on the mechanisms controlling energy flow through foodwebs and factors limiting foodweb efficiency (Lewis et al. 2001).
Lewis's tropical work included a long-term research project on the Orinoco River floodplain. The general thesis of this work was that, contrary to initial impressions of intractable complexity, the main biogeochemical and biological processes occurring on natural floodplains can be to a large extent explained by deterministic relationships between these processes and geomorphic or hydrologic influences (Lewis et al. 2000). Lewis also has worked on other topics, including the evolution of sex (Lewis 1987) and relationships between science and policy in the United States (Lewis 2001).
Like Fall, Lewis had a position with the University rostered in Arts and Sciences rather than with the graduate school, which is the administrative home of CIRES. In 1995, Lewis's position was changed so that it was rostered in the graduate school rather than with Arts and Sciences, although Lewis continued to teach for EPO Biology. Lewis had served as director of the Center for Limnology in the College of Arts of Sciences since 1986. The center, with Lewis continuing as director, moved to CIRES physically and administratively in 1995. This move represented a new level of administrative commitment within CIRES to the development of water science, more of which is explained below. Research at the Center for Limnology has been primarily centered on functional analysis of aquatic ecosystems and aquatic communities, as indicated in Figure 2.
In 1990, Shelley Copley became the third biologist in CIRES. Unlike Fall and Lewis, she was appointed to a position rostered in the graduate school rather than in Arts and Sciences and became immediately a fellow of CIRES. The search that resulted in her hiring, however, was collaborative with the chemistry department, which served as her home for purposes of teaching assignments, graduate admissions, and personnel actions related to promotion and tenure. The search was not motivated by a desire to expand representation of biology in CIRES. Instead, it was broadly cast as an attempt to recruit an environmentally-oriented chemist with superb qualifications. The result could have been a chemist with negligible connection to biology, but Copley's field of interest proved an excellent reinforcement for biological interests within CIRES.
Copley took her Ph.D. in biophysics at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the University of Colorado after a two-year postdoctoral appointment at CU under chemistry professor Tad Koch. The consistent thread in Copley's research has been investigation of mechanisms by which bacteria degrade refractory compounds, particularly xenobiotic compounds. Her work in this area has both basic and applied significance. Biodegradation of xenobiotics is revealing in an evolutionary sense in that degradation mechanisms for these compounds must have evolved since the beginning of the industrial age, or even more recently in the case of xenobiotics only recently introduced. The microbial acquisition of metabolic competency for biodegradation of these substances occurs through natural selection and can be explained mechanistically by the modification of preexisting enzymes and metabolic pathways to accommodate a novel substrate. Copley has shown how this process works for halogenated organic compounds, which are notoriously refractory (Copley 2000, 1999, 1997). Her work has both experimental and conceptual components.
Copley also has collaborated with Ray Fall in studies of bacteria as sources and sinks of isoprene (Fall and Copley 2000), as an extension of Fall's earlier work on the emission of isoprene by plants. This is a good illustration of the types of collaboration that occur easily within CIRES.
Copley changed her departmental affiliation from Chemistry to Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCD Biology) in 2000. Both departments are very strong, but MCD Biology has a much stronger representation of individuals who are directly interested in the types of processes that Copley studies.
Copley was the key unofficial representative of biological interests within CIRES during this formative period. In a CIRES retreat during 1997, she organized a presentation intended to persuade the CIRES fellows that they should consider recruiting additional biologists to be CIRES fellows, on grounds that the biological component of environmental sciences is strongly connected to other components of historical strength within CIRES. Her presentation was well received by CIRES fellows, although subsequent change occurred fairly slowly. As a means of consolidating biological interests across divisions, Copley organized a Biology Supergroup, which became quite successful in its seminar series dealing with subjects that are directly biological or that are strongly connected with biological aspects of environmental science.
Carol Wessman became a fellow of CIRES in 1991 following her Ph.D. work at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a postdoctoral position with the CIRES Center for the Study of Earth from Space (CSES, chapter six). A Byzantine administrative process at CU solved several problems simultaneously and resulted in Wessman's appointment, which was highly beneficial to CSES and to CIRES. Events leading up to Wessman's hire began with the staffing of CSES, of which Alex Goetz, a fellow of CIRES, was the founding director. Goetz's vision involved recruitment of new faculty spanning a range of disciplines that would give the Center broad capability in the application of remote sensing to analysis of the environment. Because terrestrial vegetation is readily sensed remotely, and because it is a key environmental indicator that potentially yields substantial information extending well beyond mere indications of land cover (Wessman 1989, 1988), Goetz wanted to recruit a biologist with interests in remote sensing for one of the faculty positions designated for expansion of CSES. The position was filled by the appointment of William Bowman from Duke University, but the match of interests between Goetz's program and Bowman's research was poor. The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) happened to be looking for a full-time director with a tenure-track appointment about the time that this mismatch within CSES became evident. Also, Wessman, who was present as a research associate within CSES, appeared to be admirably well suited for the niche that Goetz had visualized. Bill Lewis, who was chair of EPO Biology at the time, brokered an arrangement whereby Bowman vacated the faculty line within CSES (CIRES) and was transferred to INSTAAR with a tenure-track position in EPO Biology and an assignment to serve as director of the Mountain Research Station. The open position thus created within CSES was filled by Wessman. So many signatures were required for this arrangement to occur that the academic vice chancellor dubbed it the "cosmic agreement." The good fit between CSES and Wessman has been fully confirmed by the passage of time.
Wessman has strong expertise in ecosystem science and landscape ecology (Burke et al. 1998). She also has widely recognized knowledge of methods for developing new applications of remote sensing data and geographic information systems to study ecological phenomena (Bateson et al. 2000). Thus, she is one of only a few individuals in the U.S. with wellbalanced abilities to deal with the complexities of remote sensing and GIS technology while also working at the state of the art in ecological analysis of ecosystems and landscapes.
Climatologists are preoccupied with the problems of downscaling, i.e., converting global models to the analysis of phenomena at the regional or local level. Ecosystem scientists, on the other hand, are more frequently occupied with the problem of scaling up, i.e., making observations on specific ecosystems and generalizing them or testing them against the behavior of landscapes or regions. Satellite imagery is a long recognized tool for scaling up, but it is useful insofar as spectral information can be converted to information on structure and function of ecosystems. The contributions of Wessman and her students to the solution of this problem have been diverse and considerable. They include the mapping of deforestation and vegetational change (Hudak and Wessman 2001, 2000). They also include use of spectral data to resolve canopy structure (Asner et al. 1998) and absorption of photosynthetically-active radiation (Asner et al. 1998), as well as other landscape-scale phenomena such as fire and grazing (Wessman et al. 1997).
Russell Monson was added to the biologists among the CIRES fellows in 1999. Monson can be classified as a plant ecophysiologist, but he has done a considerable amount of synthetic and collaborative work that has taken him well into the realm of plant population ecology (Figure 2) and beyond. Like Fall and Lewis, he was recruited as an established faculty member in an academic department (EPO Biology); his faculty line remains in Arts and Sciences. He joined the University of Colorado in 1982 after having obtained a Ph.D. in botany from Washington State University.
Monson's work on the ecophysiology of plants began with studies of photosynthesis and water economy in desert plants (Monson and Szarek 1979, Monson and Smith 1982). His early work also included extensive comparison of C3 and C4 plants (physiological categories of plants that have different types of photosynthetic carbon metabolism); some variations on these themes have continued in his work up to recent years (Monson 1999). During the 1980s, Monson collaborated with Ray Fall on the study of isoprene emissions from vascular plants (Monson and Fall 1989), and this work has continued in various forms (Monson et al. 1995, Lerdau et al. 1997). He also has worked on other volatile organic substances released from vascular plants, and on the general ecological significance of volatile emissions from plants (Litvak and Monson 1998). He is widely recognized as an authority on the contributions of plants to volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. His work on trace gas fluxes has reached a valuable synthetic phase involving extensive collaboration (Monson and Holland 2001).
Monson and collaborators also have studied uptake of amino acids from soils (Raab et al. 1999). This work has contributed to the understanding of organic nitrogen sources in sustaining the nitrogen metabolism of plants, which often have been treated as being completely dependent on inorganic nitrogen to sustain protein synthesis. Monson's addition to CIRES not only filled an important gap in the representation of the biological sciences in CIRES (Figure 2), but also cemented a scientifically compelling linkage between atmospheric chemistry (Fehsenfeld, NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory), biochemistry of plant emissions (Fall), and ecophysiology of plants (Monson). From the earliest time of his association with CIRES, Monson was regarded as a leading advisor to CIRES on matters related to biological sciences. Beginning in 2001, he served as chair of EPO Biology, and has headed a University-wide review process on the future of biological sciences on the Boulder Campus.
The future of biology in CIRES is uncertain. The record shows incremental increase in commitment to biology within CIRES over the last ten years, but primarily through internal rather than external recruitment. During a program review in the mid-1990s, the director of NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories asked off the record for the advice of CIRES about what NOAA should be doing in the biological sciences. Because this request represented a remarkable opportunity for CIRES to help shape the future roles of biology in federal studies of the environment, follow-on discussions were held. It was decided that an area that offered a potential link between biological studies and the strong atmospheric chemistry programs of NOAA was microbiology. An added incentive for growth of CIRES in this discipline had been provided.
The CIRES fellows supported an attempt at additional external recruitment through a search for a microbial ecologist. This search occurred in 1997 and again in 2000 and in 2001. The first search, which was conducted jointly with EPO Biology, failed when the two units disagreed on the top candidate. The second and third searches, which were conducted in collaboration with MCD Biology, also failed, even though CIRES found candidates in both searches that it viewed with satisfaction. Failure of the searches was due to the judgment of MCD biologists that no candidate among the interviewees could meet the special combination of disciplinary specifications and experience of a new faculty member in MCD Biology.
Microbial ecology is an obvious avenue of advance for biological science in CIRES. Microbes are directly tied to metabolic processes that govern the composition of the atmosphere, an established theme within CIRES. Microbes also are responsible for transformation of xenobiotic compounds, a subject of central interest to Copley's research group, and for biogeochemical processes of direct interest to the Center for Limnology. Thus, a microbially-oriented environmental biologist would broaden CIRES biologically by adding a field of specialization not yet represented, and at the same time would complement existing work in CIRES. Although this logic has been convincing to the CIRES fellows, the difficulty of filling the position has been frustrating and may have blunted enthusiasm for developing biology further within CIRES.
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