Author: Peter M Vitousek at NOTE Date: 5/28/96 7:41 PM Priority: Normal TO: cdahm at nsf2 Subject: Re: DEB-9628803 Message Contents Hello Cliff, Thank you for the good news on the proposal. My revised budgets are making their way through our process and will get to you soon; my abstract in non-technical language is below. Revise away as you think best - and I would appreciate feedback on how to do this (important) task better. On a technical note - I take the panel's recommendation not to use Century as the sole vehicle for integration - but I don't think writing our own model for these systems is a very productive approach. What I hope to do is use what we learn here to affect how people in general model these processes; tying it to Century is limiting, developing our own model that's "best" for these systems is even more so... And - the summary: Soil fertility controls plant production and many other aspects of ecosystems. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the most important of the nutrients governing soil fertility, and both the nature of ecosystems and their responses to natural and human-caused change differ depending on whether nitrogen or phosphorus is in the shortest supply. This research is designed to determine how interactions between the cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus control plant production in ecosystems, and with what consequences. It makes use of a set of forests in Hawaii that range in soil age from 300 to 4,100,000 year. Most factors, including tree species, are constant on this sequence, but fertility on young soils is controlled by nitrogen, while that on old soils is phosphorus controlled. The sites thus facilitate our understanding of the basic processes that regulate soil fertility and its consequences. And I'll be happy to take another crack at it, if appropriate. With best wishes, Peter Vitousek
