Form:Annualmeeting2020

CSDMS 2020: Linking Ecosphere and Geosphere

May 19 -21^st 2020, Boulder Colorado, USA

Optional: Choose to attend the pre- or post-conference event (see also conference payment, step 3):

• May 18: Pre conference: Software Carpentry Workshop
• May 22: Post conference: GeoClaw

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Introduction

This year, we anticipate 100 to 150 attendees from academic, government and commercial sectors. The meeting will be co-convened with the International Society for Ecological Modeling, and an important aim of the meeting is to explore connections between ecosystems and earth-surface processes such as erosion, sedimentation, soil dynamics, and landscape/seascape evolution.

Topics that we hope to address at the meeting include (but are not necessarily limited to):

• Life on the surface: biosphere-hydrosphere-lithosphere interactions
• Feedbacks between solid earth, fluid earth and biosphere
• Changing paradigms and challenges in linking ecosystem and earth surface research
• Dynamics of the Critical Zone
• Crossing climate threshold

This year's meeting aims to:

1. Identify new frontiers in fundamental process understanding of linkages between the biosphere and geosphere. New algorithms, cyberinfrastructure development and new model couplings appear paramount to explore important process dynamics and linkages.
2. Identify critical missing components in our ability to overcome model and process boundaries.
3. Build researcher-to-researcher connections. Better connect earth surface process modelers with ecological modelers, social scientists and engineers to facilitate interdisciplinary exploration of ecosystem dynamics and the human dimensions in earth surface processes.

Agenda

Click here to view a draft of the agenda.

Keynote Speakers

Uwe Best
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Mangrove Interaction with Tidal Flow, Waves & long term sedimentation: Combining Field Data & Numerical Modelling The projected increases in the frequency and magnitude of hazards, which threaten the coastal hinterland, heighten the need for an enhanced understanding of the determining mechanisms for mangrove adaptation and their contribution to coastal safety. This research seeks to improve the understanding of the bio-physical processes governing the geomorphological evolution of the mangrove-mudflat system by combining spatially explicit observations of mangrove population dynamics with process-based modelling.</br> </br>Field observations were taken at the Le Ressouvenir- Chateau Margot mangrove-mudflat, within the 300m wide fringe and on the mudflat extending 6km offshore, along the Guyana coastline. This coastline resides 1m below sea level and, is subject to a semi-diurnal tidal regime with a maximum tidal range of 3.5m during spring tide. Using the data collected on the elevation, vegetation, water level, flow velocities, sediment concentration and wave heights; we developed a 2D depth averaged model using a process-based approach. On a high resolution grid of 10m, the model predicts the geomorphological development from the interaction between the intertidal flow, waves, sediment transport and the temporal and spatial variation in the mangrove growth, drag and bio-accumulation. Here, we coupled Delft3D-FM with a mangrove dynamics model capturing the Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia racemosa species under suitable inundation and competition regimes.</br></br>Waves are critical for the transport of mud into the mangrove belt during high tide. Only when approaching spring tide is the inner part of the fringe inundation, creating a heightened platform which governs the species establishment. The channels form the major path for the tidal inflow during the lower tides, while the interior of the forest is an effective sediment sink during the higher tides. Sea level rise scenarios reinforce field observations for mangrove retreat and decay, with tipping points realized after 1.5m to 2.0m. </br></br>Results indicate mangrove adaptability, to climate change and anthropogenic threats, hinges on the long term sedimentation responses and system conditions to promote the establishment of stable belt widths.

Gordon Bonan
National Center for Atmospheric Research

Reinventing Nature: Environmental Stewardship in the Age of Earth System Models Global models of Earth’s climate have expanded beyond their geophysical heritage to include terrestrial ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, vegetation dynamics, and anthropogenic uses of the biosphere. Ecological forcings and feedbacks are now recognized as important for climate change simulation, and the models are becoming models of the entire Earth system. This talk introduces Earth system models, how they are used to understand the connections between climate and ecology, and how they provide insight to environmental stewardship for a healthy and sustainable planet. Two prominent examples discussed in the talk are anthropogenic land use and land-cover change and the global carbon cycle. However, there is considerable uncertainty in how to represent ecological processes at the large spatial scale and long temporal scale of Earth system models. Further scientific advances are straining under the ever-growing burden of multidisciplinary breadth, countered by disciplinary chauvinism and the extensive conceptual gap between observationalists developing process knowledge at specific sites and global scale modelers. The theoretical basis for Earth system models, their development and verification, and experimentation with these models requires a new generation of scientists, adept at bridging the disparate fields of science and using a variety of research methodologies including theory, numerical modeling, observations, and data analysis. The science requires a firm grasp of models, their theoretical foundations, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to appropriately use them to test hypotheses of the atmosphere-biosphere system. It requires a reinvention of how we learn about and study nature.

Muriel Brückner
Utrecht University

Modelling the effects of dynamic saltmarsh and microphytobenthos growth on the large-scale morphology of estuaries Biostabilizing organisms, such as saltmarsh and microphytobenthos, can play a crucial role in shaping the morphology of estuaries and coasts by locally stabilizing the sediment. However, their impact on large-scale morphology, which highly depends on the feedback between spatio-temporal changes in their abundance and physical forcing, remains highly uncertain. </br>We studied the effect of seasonal growth and decay of biostabilizing organisms, in response to field calibrated physical forcings, on estuarine morphology over decadal timescales using a novel eco-morphodynamic model. The code includes temporal saltmarsh an microphytobenthos growth and aging as well as spatially varying vegetation fractions determined by mortality pressures. Growth representations are empirical and literature-based to avoid prior calibration.</br>Novel natural patterns emerged in this model revealing that observed density gradients in vegetation are defined by the life-stages that increase vegetation resilience with age. The model revealed that the formation of seasonal and long term mud layering is governed by a ratio of flow velocity and hydroperiod altered by saltmarsh and microphytobenthos differently, showing that the type of biostabilizer determines the conditions under which mud can settle and be preserved. The results show that eco-engineering effects define emerging saltmarsh patterns from a combination of a positive effect reducing flow velocities and a negative effect enhancing hydroperiod. Consequently, saltmarsh and mud patterns emerge from their bilateral interactions that hence strongly define morphological development.

Michael Dietze
Boston University

21st Century Science For 21st Century Environmental Decision Making: The Challenges And Opportunities Of Near-Term Iterative Environmental Forecasting Society is facing unprecedented environmental challenges that have pushed us into a world dominated by transients and variability. Informed decision making in this era, at scales from the individual to the globe, requires explicit predictions on management-relevant timescales, based on the best available information, and considering a wide range of uncertainties. As a research community, we are not yet meeting this need. In this talk I will introduce the Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI), an international grass-roots research consortium aimed at building a community of practice. I will discuss EFI’s cross-cutting efforts to tackle community-wide bottlenecks in cyberinfrastructure, community standards, methods and tools, education, diversity, knowledge transfer, decision support, and our theoretical understanding of predictability. I will highlight examples of near real-time iterative ecological forecasts across a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic systems, as well as work done by my own group developing PEcAn (a terrestrial ecosystem model-data informatics and forecasting system) and our recent efforts to generalize these approaches to other forecasts. Finally, I will also introduce EFI’s ecological forecasting competition, which relies on a wide range of continually-updated NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) data.

Katja Fennel
Dalhousie University

Challenges and Opportunities for Ocean Biogeochemical Prediction The ocean is an important component in Earth’s climate system and rapidly changing. Warming, loss of oxygen and sea-ice, acidification, and intensifying vertical density stratification critically affect ocean biogeochemistry including the photosynthetic production of organic matter. The latter supports the entire marine food web and plays a major role in regulating Earth’s climate by sequestering CO2 in the ocean’s interior. Despite the urgent scientific and societal need for quantifying the ocean’s present biogeochemical state and predicting how it is changing, state-of-the-art biogeochemical models are insufficiently validated and poorly constrained by observations. This is primarily due to the insufficient availability of biogeochemical ocean observations and especially problematic because biogeochemical models aren’t based on first principles, are highly non-linear and have many poorly know parameters. In this presentation I will illustrate some of these problems and then discuss opportunities that arise from a new global ocean observation initiative referred to as Biogeochemical (BGC) Argo. BGC Argo builds on the highly successful Argo program which has maintained a global array of almost 4,000 profiling floats that measure physical ocean properties and relay their data in real time. Capitalizing on this success and recent advances in sensor technology, the addition of biogeochemical sensors to Argo floats is now ongoing. By providing a broad suite of observations with unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage, and integrating it into biogeochemical models and data products, the BGC Argo program is likely to transform ocean biogeochemical analysis and prediction. I will present some early examples.

Erkan Istanbulluoglu
University of Washington

Ecosystem processes and landscape evolution Ecosystems present spatial patterns controlled by climate, topography, soils, plant interactions, and disturbances. Geomorphic transport processes mediated by the state of the ecosystem leave biotic imprints on erosion rates and topography. This talk will address the following questions at the watershed scale: What are emergent properties of biotic landscapes, and how do they form? How do biotic landscapes respond to perturbations in space and time? First, formation of patterns and ecologic rates of change to perturbations in semiarid ecosystems will be investigated using Landlab. Second, we will examine eco-geosphere interactions and outcomes using a landscape evolution model. The role of solar radiation on ecogeomorphic forms, and watershed ecogeomorphic response to climate change will be elaborated. Finally, reflecting on the findings of previous research, some future directions in numerical modeling for linking ecosphere and geosphere will be discussed.

Nathan Lyons
Tulane University

Life in Landscape Evolution Models: Investigations of Climate and Tectonics as Drivers of Biological Evolution Climate and tectonics ultimately drive the physical and chemical surface processes that evolve landscape structure, including the connectivity of landscape portions that facilitate or impede movement of organismal populations. Connectivity controls population spatial distribution, drives speciation where populations spatially fragment, and increases extinction susceptibility of species where its habitat shrinks. Here I demonstrate the role that landscape evolution models can have in exploring these process linkages in investigations of species diversification driven by climatic and tectonic forcings. The models were built with the tool, SpeciesEvolver that constructs lineages in response to environmental change at geologic, macroevolutionary, and landscape scales. I will also suggest how future studies can use landscape evolution models and tools such as SpeciesEvolver to pursue questions regarding the mechanisms by which lineages respond to the drivers and details of landscape evolution, and taxon-specific and region-specific interactions between biotas and their environments.

Brad Murray
Duke University

Opening of the CSDMS 2020 virtual annual meeting Opening of the meeting

Alejandra Ortiz
Colby College

Atolls and Ecogeomorphology: Investigating the feedbacks between physical processes, anthropogenic, ecological, and changing climate Within our lifetime, climate change has the potential to drastically alter coastal resiliency. Atoll island nations are particularly vulnerable to climate change: from increasing ocean temperatures (causing coral die-off), to ocean acidification (decreasing coral resiliency), to increasing SLR. We must understand what will happen to the atoll islands since the land is where people live. However, we lack a comprehensive understanding about the primary processes driving atoll island evolution under rising sea levels and varying wave climate. This uncertainty in predictions hinders local communities’ preparation for the future; we must understand how atoll islands respond and evolve with changing environmental forcings on a global scale. However, to predict the response of these islands to changing climate, we must understand the feedbacks between physical and ecological processes at different temporal and spatial scales. In addition, we must account for the actions and processes taken by humans driving landscape change on these islands. My lab has focused on investigating the feedbacks inherent in these landscapes using numerical modeling and remote sensing.

Suzanne Pierce
University of Texas, TACC

Recent lessons from data- and model-driven DSS in the wicked, wild world Major societal and environmental challenges require forecasting how natural processes and human activities affect one another. There are many areas of the globe where climate affects water resources and therefore food availability, with major economic and social implications. Today, such analyses require significant effort to integrate highly heterogeneous models from separate disciplines, including geosciences, agriculture, economics, and social sciences. Model integration requires resolving semantic, spatio-temporal, and execution mismatches, which are largely done by hand today and may take more than two years. The Model INTegration (MINT) project will develop a modeling environment which will significantly reduce the time needed to develop new integrated models, while ensuring their utility and accuracy. Research topics to be addressed include: 1) New principle-based semiautomatic ontology generation tools for modeling variables, to ground analytic graphs to describe models and data; 2) A novel workflow compiler using abductive reasoning to hypothesize new models and data transformation steps; 3) A new data discovery and integration framework that finds new sources of data, learns to extract information from both online sources and remote sensing data, and transforms the data into the format required by the models; 4) A new methodology for spatio-temporal scale selection; 5) New knowledge-guided machine learning algorithms for model parameterization to improve accuracy; 6) A novel framework for multi-modal scalable workflow execution; and 7) Novel composable agroeconomic models.

Ian Reeves
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Impacts of Seagrass Dynamics on the Coupled Long‐Term Evolution of Barrier‐Marsh‐Bay Systems Seagrass provides a wide range of economically and ecologically valuable ecosystem services, with shoreline erosion control often listed as a key service. But seagrass can also alter the sediment dynamics and waves of back-barrier bays by reducing wave height and attenuating wave and current shear stresses acting on the sediment bed. This suggests that seagrass can play an important role in the evolution of the entire shallow coastal bay, back-barrier marsh, and barrier-island system, yet no study has previously examined these subsystems coupled together. Here we incorporate seagrass dynamics of the back-barrier bay into the existing coupled barrier-marsh model GEOMBEST+. In our new integrated model, bay depth and distance from the marsh edge determine the location of suitable seagrass habitat, and the presence or absence, size, and shoot density of seagrass meadows alters the bathymetry of the bay and wave power reaching the marsh edge. We use this model to run 3 sets of experiments to examine the coupled interactions of the back-barrier bay with both adjacent (marsh) and non-adjacent (barrier) subsystems. While seagrass reduces marsh edge erosion rates and increases progradation rates in many of our model simulations, seagrass surprisingly increases marsh edge erosion rates when sediment export from the back-barrier basin is negligible. Adding seagrass to the bay subsystem leads to increased deposition in the bay, reduced sediment available to the marsh, and enhanced marsh edge erosion until the bay reaches a new, shallower equilibrium depth. In contrast, removing seagrass liberates previously-sequestered sediment that is then delivered to the marsh, leading to enhanced marsh progradation. Lastly, we find that seagrass reduces barrier island migration rates in the absence of back-barrier marsh by filling accommodation space in the bay. These model observations suggest that seagrass meadows operate as dynamic sources and sinks of sediment that can influence the evolution of coupled marsh and barrier island landforms in unanticipated ways.

Pamela Sullivan
Oregon State University

Are rate changes in biotic processes altering subsurface hydrologic partitioning in the Anthropocene? The degree to which subsurface architecture – pores space and connectivity—fluctuates and/or evolves is largely ignored in predictions of how Earth’s critical zone can respond to changes in biotic processes (direct and indirect) in the Anthropocene. Specifically, changes in microbial carbon decomposition rates and root growth can influence the generation of macropores, whose porosity accounts for only ~2% of the subsurface but accounts for ~70% of water transmitted to depth. We argue that the community needs to consider that changes in the subsurface structure throttles the partitioning of water, and thus the fluxes of carbon, nutrients, and weathering products. Using empirical data and modeling we explore this connectivity between biotic processes (e.g., root growth, carbon turn over) and subsurface pore structure from the pedon to the continental scale, quantifying the impact of this interaction on stocks and fluxes of water and nutrients. We then examine how over longer time periods, this change in hydrologic partitioning can influence the depth to which reaction fronts propagate into the subsurface and the role in which these changes could influence the trajectory of landscape evolution.

Greg Tucker
CSDMS, University of Colorado

Modeling geosphere and biosphere: opportunities, growing pains, and resources Introduction for the CSDMS 2020 annual meeting, presenting last years accomplishments and available resources for the community.

Robert Ulanowicz
Biology Dept., Univ. Florida Univ. MD Ctr for Env. Science

Process Ecology: A Step beyond Physics Ecology is largely considered to have its foundations in physics, and indeed physics frames many of the constraints on ecosystem dynamics. Physics has its limitations, however, especially when dealing with strongly heterogeneous systems and with the absence of entities. Networks are convenient tools for dealing with heterogeneity and have a long history in ecology, however most research in networks is dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms that give rise to network types. Causality in complex heterogeneous systems deals more with configurations of processes than it does with objects moving according to laws. Phenomenological observation of ecosystems networks reveals regularities that the laws of physics are unequipped to determine. The ecosystem is not a machine, but rather a transaction between contingent organization and entropic disorder.

Clinic Leaders

Daniel Buscombe
Marda Science

Part I: Landcover and landform classification using deep neural networks A fatal error occurred in the #info parser function

Daniel Buscombe
Marda Science

Part II: Landcover and landform classification using deep neural networks A fatal error occurred in the #info parser function

Nicole Gasparini
Tulane University

Modeling the Ecosphere using Landlab Landlab is a Python-based toolkit for building, coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models of Earth-surface dynamics. This clinic will first provide a short hands-on introduction to Landlab's features and capabilities. We will highlight examples from several existing models built within the Landlab framework, including: coupling of local ecohydrologic processes, spatial plant interactions, and disturbances (fires and grazing); landscape evolution impacted by plants; overland flow impacted by changing soil properties; and effects of topographic structure on species distribution and evolution. Models will be run with various scenarios for climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, and evolution of state variables and fluxes across the landscape will be explored. We will also show the use of gridded climate data products to drive Landlab simulations. Participants are encouraged to install Landlab on their computers prior to the clinic. Installation instructions can be found at: http://landlab.github.io (select "Install" from the menu bar at the top of the page).

Anne Gold
CIRES Education and Outreach

Building and Maintaining a Diverse and Inclusive Research Team In this clinic, we will talk about diversity in a way that makes it approachable and actionable. We advocate that actions in support of diversity can happen at all career levels, so everyone who is interested can partake.</br>We will discuss concrete strategies and opportunities to help you bring a diverse research group together. Creating a diverse group can be through reaching out to undergraduate minority students to engage in undergraduate research experiences. This can be done ground-up, i.e. by graduate students in a mentoring role as productively as a faculty in a hiring role. We are all supervisors and mentors in our own ways.</br>We will highlight a number of approaches to engage with underrepresented minority students when recruiting new graduate students, and suggest some concrete adjustments of your recruitment processes to be as inclusive as possible. </br>But being proactive does not stop after recruitment. The clinic will have dedicated discussion time to engage in role play, and provide stories about situations in which you can be an ally. We will identify some pitfalls, ways to reclaim, and provide ideas for more inclusive meetings and mentoring.</br>Lastly, together we can work on creating an overview of current programs that focus on diversity and inclusion, to apply for funding to take action.

Eric Hutton
CSDMS IF

Part I: Exploring Surface Processes using CSDMS Tools: How to Build Coupled Models Predicting long-term Earth surface change, the impacts of short-term natural hazards and biosphere/geosphere dynamics requires computational models. Many existing numerical models quantitatively describe sediment transport processes, predicting terrestrial and coastal change at a great variety of scales. However, these models often address a single process or component of the earth surface system. </br></br>The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System is an NSF-funded initiative that supports the open software efforts of the surface processes community. CSDMS distributes >200 models and tools, and provides cyberinfrastructure to simulate lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or cryosphere dynamics. Many of the most exciting problems in these fields arise at the interfaces of different environments and through complex interactions of processes.</br></br>This workshop presents recent cyberinfrastructure tools for hypothesis-driven modeling— the Python Modeling Tool (PyMT) and LandLab. PyMT allows users to interactively run and couple numerical models contributed by the community. There are already tools for coastal & permafrost modeling, stratigraphic and subsidence modeling, and terrestrial landscape evolution modeling (including hillslope, overflow, landslide processes, and a suite of erosion processes with vegetation interactions), and these are easy to run and further develop in a Python environment. </br></br>This 2-part tutorial aims to provide a short overview of the PyMT and Landlab, a demonstration of running a coupled model, and hands-on exercises using Jupyter notebooks in small groups of attendees. The organizers will facilitate break-out groups for discussion of pressing research needs and then have a plenary discussion with reports of each of the breakouts on future frontier applications of coupled landscape/bioscape process modeling.</br></br>Materials for this clinic can be found at: https://github.com/csdms/csdms-2020

Eric Hutton
CSDMS IF

Part II: Exploring Surface Processes using CSDMS Tools: How to Build Coupled Models Predicting long-term Earth surface change, the impacts of short-term natural hazards and biosphere/geosphere dynamics requires computational models. Many existing numerical models quantitatively describe sediment transport processes, predicting terrestrial and coastal change at a great variety of scales. However, these models often address a single process or component of the earth surface system. </br></br>The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System is an NSF-funded initiative that supports the open software efforts of the surface processes community. CSDMS distributes >200 models and tools, and provides cyberinfrastructure to simulate lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or cryosphere dynamics. Many of the most exciting problems in these fields arise at the interfaces of different environments and through complex interactions of processes.</br></br>This workshop presents recent cyberinfrastructure tools for hypothesis-driven modeling— the Python Modeling Tool (PyMT) and LandLab. PyMT allows users to interactively run and couple numerical models contributed by the community. There are already tools for coastal & permafrost modeling, stratigraphic and subsidence modeling, and terrestrial landscape evolution modeling (including hillslope, overflow, landslide processes, and a suite of erosion processes with vegetation interactions), and these are easy to run and further develop in a Python environment. </br></br>This 2-part tutorial aims to provide a short overview of the PyMT and Landlab, a demonstration of running a coupled model, and hands-on exercises using Jupyter notebooks in small groups of attendees. The organizers will facilitate break-out groups for discussion of pressing research needs and then have a plenary discussion with reports of each of the breakouts on future frontier applications of coupled landscape/bioscape process modeling.</br></br>Materials for this clinic can be found at: https://github.com/csdms/csdms-2020

Caner Kazanci
University of Georgia

Ecological Network Analysis/EcoNet Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) enables quantitative study of ecosystem models by formulating system-wide organizational properties, such as how much nutrient cycling occurs within the system, or how essential a particular component is to the entire ecosystem function. EcoNet is a free online software for modeling, simulation and analysis of ecosystem network models, and compartmental flow-storage type models in general. It combines dynamic simulation with Ecological Network Analysis. EcoNet does not require an installation, and runs on any platform equipped with a standard browser. While it is designed to be easy to use, it does contain interesting features such as discrete and continuous stochastic solutions methods.

Michael Koontz
Earth Lab, University of Colorado

An introduction to Google Earth Engine— the planetary-scale GIS for everyone Google Earth Engine is a powerful geographic information system (GIS) that brings programmatic access and massively parallel computing to petabytes of publicly-available Earth observation data using Google’s cloud infrastructure. In this live-coding clinic, we’ll introduce some of the foundational concepts of workflows in Earth Engine and lay the groundwork for future self-teaching. Using the JavaScript API, we will practice: raster subsetting, raster reducing in time and space, custom asset (raster and vector) uploads, visualization, mapping functions over collections of rasters or geometries, and basic exporting of derived products.

Richard McDonald
U.S. Geological Survey

An introduction to hydraulic modeling with the Python Modeling Toolkit In this clinic, we will provide a brief introduction to a selection of models (USGS and others), including FaSTMECH (2D/3D hydraulic) and PRMS (watershed hydrology), that have implemented a Basic Model Interface (BMI) and are available in the Python Modeling Toolkit (PyMT). We will interactively explore Jupyter Notebook examples of both stand-alone model operation and, as time permits, loosely coupled integrated modeling applications.</br>Participants will need a laptop with a web browser. Knowledge of Python, Jupyter Notebook, and hydrologic/hydraulic modeling is helpful, but not required.

Julia Moriarty
University of Colorado

Introduction to Cloud Computing for Geoscientists Cloud computing is a powerful tool for both analyzing large datasets and running models. This clinic will provide an introduction to approaches for accessing and using cloud resources for research in the Geosciences. During the hands-on portion of this clinic, participants will learn how to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to open a terminal, analyze model output in python, and run a model, time permitting. This workshop assumes no experience with cloud computing.

Todd M. Swannack
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Accelerating multidisciplinary environmental research to application: integrating multiple models through mediated modeling Environmental management decisions increasingly rely on quantitative integrated ecological models to forecast potential outcomes of management actions. These models are becoming increasingly complex through the integration of processes from multiple disciplines (e.g., linking physical process, engineering and ecological models). These integrated modeling suites are viewed by many decision makers as unnecessarily complex black boxes, which can lead to mistrust, misinterpretation and/or misapplication of model results. Numerical models have historically been developed without decision makers and stakeholders involved in model development, which further complicates communication as diverse project teams have differing levels of understanding of models and their uses. For example, explaining to a group of non-modelers how hydrodynamic model output was aggregated at ecologically-relevant scales can be difficult to explain to someone who was not exposed to that modeling decision. The mistrust of models and associated outputs can lead to poor decision-making, increase the risk of ineffective decisions and can lead to litigation over decisions. Improved integrated ecological model development practices are needed to increase transparency, include stakeholders and decision makers throughout the entire modeling process from conceptualization through application. </br></br>This clinic describes a suite of techniques, best practices, and tools for rapid developing applied integrated ecological models in conjunction with technical stakeholder audiences and agency practitioners. First, a workshop approach for applied ecosystem modeling problems is described that cultivates a foundational understanding of integrated ecological models through hands-on, interactive model development. In this workshop environment, interdisciplinary and interagency working groups co-develop models in real-time which demystifies technical issues and educates participants on the modeling process. Second, a Toolkit for interActive Modeling (TAM) is presented as a simple platform for rapidly developing index-based ecological models, which we have found useful for developing a strong modeling foundation for large, multidisciplinary teams involved in environmental decision making. Third, the EcoRest R package is described, which provides a library of functions for computing habitat suitability and decision support via cost-effectiveness and incremental cost analysis. Based on 10 workshops over the last 8 years, these techniques facilitated rapid, transparent development and application of integrated ecological models, informed non-technical stakeholders of the complexity facing decision-makers, created a sense of model ownership by participants, built trust among partners, and ultimately increased “buy-in” of eventual management decisions.

John Swartz
University of Texas, Austin

Exploring surface processes and landscape connectivity through high-resolution topography: integration of high resolution data in numerical modeling High-resolution topographic (HRT) data is becoming more easily accessible and prevalent, and is rapidly advancing our understanding of myriad surface and ecological processes. Landscape connectivity is the framework that describes the routing of fluids, sediments, and solutes across a landscape and is a primary control on geomorphology and ecology. Connectivity is not a static parameter, but rather a continuum that dynamically evolves on a range of temporal and spatial scales, and the observation of which is highly dependent on the available methodology. In this clinic we showcase the utility of HRT for the observation and characterization of landscapes and compare results with those of coarser spatial resolution data-sets. We highlight the potential for integrating HRT observations and parameters such as vegetation density, surface relief, and local slope variability with numerical surface process models. Participants will gain an understanding of the basics of HRT, data availability and basic analysis, and the use of HRT parameters in modeling.

Chris Vernon
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

GCAM and Demeter: A global, integrated human-Earth systems perspective to modeling land projections Researchers and decision makers are increasingly interested in understanding the many ways in which human and Earth systems interact with one another, at scales from local (e.g., a city) to regional to global. For example, how might changes in population, income, or technology cost alter crop production, energy demand, or water withdrawals? How do changes in one region's demand for energy affect energy, water, and land in other regions? This session will focus on two models – GCAM and Demeter – that provide the capability to address these types of questions.<br><br>GCAM is an open-source, global, market equilibrium model that represents the linkages between energy, water, land, climate, and economic systems (Calvin et al. 2019). A strength of GCAM is that it runs fast and can be used to explore, and quantify the uncertainty in, a large number of alternate future scenarios while accounting for multisector, human-Earth system dynamics. One of GCAM’s many outputs is projected land cover/use by subregion. Subregional projections provide context and can be used to understand regional land dynamics; however, Earth System Models (ESMs) generally require gridded representations of land at finer scales. Demeter, a land use and land cover disaggregation model, was created to provide this service (Vernon et al. 2018). Demeter directly ingests land projections from GCAM and creates gridded products that match the desired resolution and land class requirements of the user.<br><br>This clinic will introduce both GCAM and Demeter at a high-level. We will also provide a hands-on walk through for a reference case so attendees can become familiar with setting-up and running these two models. Our goal will be for attendees to leave the clinic with an understanding of 1) the value of capturing a global perspective when informing subregional and local analysis, 2) possibilities to conduct scenario exploration experiments that capture multisector/scale dynamics, 3) a hands-on experience with GCAM and Demeter, and 4) key model assumption drivers and simulated model results available.

Kim de Mutsert
George Mason University

Introduction to Ecopath with Ecosim This clinic will offer you an introduction to developing food web models using Ecopath with Ecosim software. Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is an ecological modeling software suite for personal computers that has been built and extended on for over thirty-five years. EwE is the first ecosystem level simulation model to be widely and freely accessible. EwE is the most applied tool for modeling marine and aquatic ecosystems globally, with over 400 models published to date, making EwE an important modeling approach to explore ecosystem related questions in marine science. In addition, Ecopath software was recognized as one of NOAA’s top ten scientific breakthroughs in the last 200 years. In this clinic, we will start with a brief introduction, then download the freeware and start setting up some simple models which we will use in example exercises. Note: the software works in a Windows environment; Mac computers can be used if they are set up with Parallels Desktop or a similar application to run programs in a Windows environment on a Mac.

Interested in providing a clinic during a next annual meeting? Contact CSDMS@Colorado.EDU.

CSDMS meeting support

Within its budget, CSDMS intends to partially support member applicants to attend the annual meeting. Towards this goal, we encourage members to fully or partially cover their expenses if capable. We additionally thank those in the industry and agency fields for understanding that 1) we cannot compensate federal agency participants since our own funding is from NSF, and 2) we request that our industrial/ corporate participants cover their own costs thereby allowing more academic participants to attend.

CSDMS is able to provide the following meeting support:

• For up to 75 participants lodging will be provided at the designated meeting hotel (for the evenings of May 19th, 20th and 21st, shared rooms at 100% of cost and single rooms at 50% of cost, on a first come, first served basis).
• Breakfast and lunch each day of the meeting and one dinner, shuttle service between the Boulder Marriott/Residence Inn/Millennium Harvest House Hotel and meeting venue will be provided for all registrants.
• Lodging support is available for registrations received through April 1, 2020 or until 75 reservations have been received. After this, lodging reservations and costs will be the responsibility of the participant.

Scholarship recipients, Keynote presenters, Clinic leaders and Awardees - please refer to your invitation letter for additional support details.

Important for foreign travelers: If you need a visa to travel to USA, select a business visa. Please email CSDMS@Colorado.EDU as soon as possible if you need an invitation letter along with your passport number, affiliation and entry/exit dates and indicate any specific wording if required. We will need to copy the entry stamp in your passport sometime during the meeting as proof that you were here on business as required by US tax laws.

Travel, Lodging and Conference Center Information

Meeting venue: SEEC at the University of Colorado's East Campus in Boulder.
Hotel: The CSDMS supported hotel block is arranged for the Boulder Marriott.
Transportation: You can book transportation between DIA and Boulder here: Green Ride Boulder. And information on how to find Green Ride Boulder at DIA.

A bus between the designated Hotel (Boulder Marriott) and the meeting venue will be provided each day (the shuttle is not able to stop at other hotels). Please note that the parking adjacent to the SEEC building requires payment for non-permit holders. You will need to park in the limited designated areas and provide payment in the adjacent kiosks. Because parking is limited, we encourage all who are able to use the shuttle bus provided, bikes or alternative public transportation.

Pre-post conference events

The following applies to the of the pre- and post conference events: Software Carpentry workshop, and GeoClaw workshop:

• Registration is open until April 1^st (or until program fills) and is handled through the 2020 meeting site.
  
• Each is capped at 30 participants (all first paid first serve), and it has a $30 registration fee.
• Participant will be responsible for cost / organization of their extra day of hotel accommodation and dinner. Costs will not be reimbursed.
• We will cover coffee, continental breakfast and lunch during each of the events.
• Shuttle service between the Boulder Marriott and SEEC is not provided for pre and post conference events.

Pre-annual meeting: Software Carpentry workshop

CSDMS will host a one-day pre-conference Software Carpentry workshop on Monday, May 18, 2020. The goal of the workshop is to teach basic programming skills that will be useful for scientific research and model development. This is an intensive, hands-on workshop, during which certified instructors will cover basic elements of:

• the Unix bash shell,
• Python programming, and
• Github for version control.

The instructor, Mark Piper, is an earth scientist, so lessons and examples will be targeted toward relevant problems in your field. The workshop intentionally precedes the CSDMS Annual Meeting so that the skills you develop can be used in the clinics during the meeting.

Post-annual meeting: The GeoClaw Software for Tsunamis, Storm Surge, and Overland Flooding

This one-day pre-conference workshop provided by Professor Randall LeVeque, University of Washington, on Friday, May 22^nd, 2020 will cover GeoClaw. GeoClaw (http://www.geoclaw.org), part of the open source software package Clawpack, has been extensively used for modeling tsunamis, storm surge, and overland flooding from dam breaks or glacial outburst floods. Adaptive mesh refinement allows tracking waves across the ocean, or water advancing down a valley, and also zooming in with much higher resolution in particular regions of interest. This workshop will consist of an overview of some of the capabilities and basic usage, followed by time to explore some sample problems. Several GeoClaw developers will be present and current users of GeoClaw are also welcome to come with questions about using more advanced features or to give feedback on present and desired capabilities.

Syvitski Student Modeler Award 2020

Applications due by January 17, 2020
CSDMS invites graduate students from earth and computer sciences to compete for the annual “CSDMS Student Modeler Award.” If you have completed an outstanding research project in 2019, which involved developing an earth science model, a modeling tool, or module linking technology, you can qualify for this award! Read more on how to apply.

Student Scholarships

This year CSDMS is offering a limited number of scholarships (up to 15) for graduate students to attend the CSDMS annual meeting. These scholarships will be offered for the purpose of increasing participation of underrepresented students or those that have not previously attended a CSDMS Annual Meeting. To be eligible, graduate students need to meet the following requirements:

• Attend the whole meeting (May 19-21, 2020)
• Submit an abstract
• Be enrolled as a graduate student at the time of the meeting (bring proof)
• Submit a letter of motivation that states why you wish to participate in the meeting, and explain how your participation would enhance diversity in the field of Linking Ecosphere and Geosphere. Be sure to mention if it is your first time attending.

Send your application materials to csdms@colorado.edu by February 10^th, 2020. The CSDMS scholarships will cover:

• Registration costs (you will still need to pay the registration fee, but will be reimbursed after attending the meeting)
• Hotel accommodations for three nights, May 18, 19 and 20^th. (as outlined in the CSDMS meeting support section - 100% paid if you agree to a roommate)
• Travel (air fare ONLY within the United States or US Flag Air Carriers and local shuttle transport)
• Breakfast and lunch will be provided each day of the meeting and one banquet dinner on Wednesday May 20th is included - no additional meal per diem is offered.

All applicants will receive confirmation of their submission. Please notify us at csdms@colorado.edu if you do not receive confirmation within 24 hours of submission.

Important dates

• October 24: Registration opens
• January 17: Student Modeler submission deadline
• February 7: Student Modeler notifications
• February 10: Student scholarship submission deadline
• February 28: Student scholarship notifications
• April 1: Early registration deadline (and hotel support if still available – will be on first come, first served basis for 75 participants)
• May 1: Late registration deadline
• May 18: Pre conference workshop
• May 19-21: CSDMS annual meeting
• May 22: Post conference workshop
• May 22: CSDMS Executive and Steering committees meetings (by invitation only)