Sustainability Science Awards
Initiated in 2004, the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America recognizes the authors of the peer reviewed paper published in the past five years that makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences. One of the most pressing challenges facing humanity is the sustainability of important ecological, social and cultural processes in the face of changes in the forces that shape ecosystems and regions. Unprecedented directional changes in climate, human population, technology and social and economic institutions alter the structure and functioning of current ecological and social systems. The Sustainability Science Award recognizes the role that science can contribute to addressing these challenges.
| Year | ESA Bulletin | Citation | Authors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Link | Sustainability and resilience for transformation in the urban century. Nature Sustainability volume 2:267–273 (2019). DOI: 10.1002/fee.1480 | Thomas Elmqvist, Erik Andersson, Niki Frantzeskaki, Timon McPhearson, Per Olsson, Owen Gaffney, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Carl Folke |
| 2022 | Link | Biodiversity in the city: key challenges for urban green space management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 15(4): 189-196. DOI: 10.1002/fee.1480 | Myla F. J. Aronson, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Karl L. Evans, Mark A. Goddard, Susannah B. Lerman, J. Scott MacIvor, Charles H. Nilon, and Timothy L. V. Vargo |
| 2021 | Link | US cities can manage national hydrology and biodiversity using local infrastructure policy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(36), 9581-9586. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706201114 | Ryan A. McManamay, Sujithkumar Surendran Nair, Christopher R. DeRolph, Benjamin L. Ruddell, April M. Morton, Robert N. Stewart, Matthew J. Troia, Liem T. Tran, Hyun Kim, Budhendra Bhaduri |
| 2020 | Link | Ocean Outbreak; Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Disease.” University of California Press. | Drew Harvell |
| 2019 | Link | Advancing Urban Ecology toward a Science of Cities | Timon McPhearson, Steward T. A. Pickett, Nancy B. Grimm, Jari Niemelä, Marina Alberti, Thomas Elmqvist, Christiane Weber, Dagmar Haase, Jürgen Breuste, Salman Qureshi |
| 2018 | Link | Cash for Carbon: a randomized trial of payments for ecosystem services to reduce deforestation. Science 357:267–273. | Seema Jayachandran, Joost de Laat, Eric F. Lambin, Charlotte Y. Stanton, Robin Audy, Nancy E. Thomas |
| 2017 | Link | Systems integration for global sustainability. Science 347(6225), DOI: 10.1126/science.1258832 | Jianguo Liu, Harold Mooney, Vanessa Hull, Steven J. Davis, Joanne Gaskell, Thomas Hertel, Jane Lubchenco, Karen C. Seto, Peter Gleick, Claire Kremen, and Shuxin Li |
| 2016 | Link | Aligning restoration science and the law to sustain ecological infrastructure for the future. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 13: 512–519 (2015) | Margaret A. Palmer, J.B. Ruhl |
| 2014 | Link | Sacred Ecology. Routledge; 2012 | Fikret Berkes |
| 2013 | Link | Seeds of sustainability: Lessons from the birthplace of the green revolution. (book) | Pamela Matson |
| 2012 | Link | Evolution of models to support community and policy action with science: Balancing pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation in savannas of East Africa. (2009) in PNAS | R. S. Reid; D. Nkedianye; M. Y. Said; D. Kaelo; M. Neselle; O. Makui; L. Onetu; S. Kiruswa; N. Ole Kamuaro; P. Kristjanson; J. Ogutu; S. B. BurnSilver; M. J. Goldman; R. B. Boone; K. A. Galvin; N. M. Dickson; W. C. Clark |
| 2011 | Link | Rebuilding global fisheries. Science 325:578–585 | Boris Worm; R. Hilborn; J. K. Baum; T. A. Branch; J. S. Collie; C. Costello; M. J. Fogarty; E. A. Fulton; J. A. Hutchings; S. Jennings; O. P. Jensen; H. K. Lotze; P. M. Mace; T. R. McClanahan; C. Minto; S. R. Palumbi; A. M. Parma; D. Ricard; A. A. Rosenberg; R. Watson; D. Zeller |
| 2010 | Link | Preventing the collapse of the Baltic cod stock through an ecosystem-based management approach. PNAS 106:14722-14727 | Martin Lindegren; Christian Möllmann; Anders Nielsen; Nils C. Stenseth |
| 2009 | Link | Land change science special feature. PNAS 104:20666-20701. | B. L. Turner II; Eric F. Lambin; Anette Reenberg; Elena G. Irwin; Nancy E. Bockstael; Steven M. Manson; Tom Evans; Sandra Díaz; Sandra Lavorel; Francesco de Bello; Fabien Quétier; Karl Grigulis; T. Matthew Robson; D. Mark Stafford Smith; Greg M. McKeon; Ian W. Watson; Beverley K. Henry; Grant S. Stone; Wayne B. Hall; S. Mark Howden; Deborah Lawrence; Paolo D'Odorico; Lucy Diekmann; Marcia DeLonge; Rishiraj Das; James Eaton |
| 2008 | Link | Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to a directionally changing climate. PNAS 103:16637-16643. | F. Stuart Chapin III; Amy L. Lovecraft; Erika S. Zavaleta; Joanna Nelson; Martin D. Robards; Gary P. Kofinas; Sarah F. Trainor; Garry D. Peterson; Henry P. Huntington; Rosamond L. Naylor |
| 2007 | Link | The ecology and evolutionary history of an emergent disease: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. BioScience 52:989-998 | Terry Yates; J. N. Mills; C. A. Parmenter; T. G. Ksiazek; R. R. Parmenter; J. R. VandeCastle; C. H. Calisher; S. T. Nichol; K. D. Abbott; J. C. Young; M. L. Morrison; B. J. Beaty; J. L. Dunnum; R. J. Baker; J. Salazar-Bravo; C. J. Peters |
| 2006 | Link | Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington. | Millennium Assessment Team |
| 2005 | Link | The struggle to govern the commons. Science 302:1907-1912. | Thomas Dietz; Elinor Ostrom; Paul Stern |
| 2004 | Link | Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature 413:591-596. | Marten Scheffer; Steve Carpenter; Jonathan Foley; Carl Folke; Brian Walker |
Initiated in 2015, the Innovation in Sustainability Science Award is given to the authors of a peer-reviewed paper published in the past five years that exemplifies leading-edge work on solution pathways to sustainability challenges. The award recognizes that the application of sustainability science is enabled by linking ecological science with advances in other biophysical disciplines, engineering, the social sciences (e.g., economics, anthropology, public policy, governance), and other fields. The award recognizes higher risk ideas that are yet to be fully tested but hold great promise for achieving a sustainable world.
| Year | ESA Bulletin | Citation | Authors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Link | Nexus approaches to global sustainable development. Nature Sustainability, DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0135-8 | Jianguo Liu, Vanessa Hull, H. Charles J. Godfray, David Tilman, Peter Gleick, Holger Hoff, Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Zhenci Xu, Min Gon Chung, Jing Sun, Shuxin Li |
| 2019 | Link | Bright spots: seeds of a good Anthropocene. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 14: 441-448, doi:10.1002/fee.1309 | Elena M Bennett, Martin Solan, Reinette Biggs, Timon McPhearson, Albert V Norström, Per Olsson, Laura Pereira, Garry D Peterson, Ciara Raudsepp‐Hearne, Frank Biermann, Stephen R Carpenter, Erle C Ellis, Tanja Hichert, Victor Galaz, Myanna Lahsen, Manjana Milkoreit, Berta Martin López, Kimberly A Nicholas, Rika Preiser, Gaia Vince, Joost M Vervoort, Jianchu Xu |
| 2018 | Link | To what extent can ecosystem services motivate protecting biodiversity? Ecology Letters 20:935–946. | Laura E. Dee, Michel De Lara, Christopher Costello, Steven D. Gaines |
| 2017 | Link | Navigating the complexity of ecological stability. Ecology Letters, 19: 1172–1185. doi:10.1111/ele.12648 | Ian Donohue, Helmut Hillebrand, José M. Montoya, Owen L. Petchey, Stuart L. Pimm, Mike S. Fowler, Kevin Healy, Andrew L. Jackson, Miguel Lurgi, Deirdre McClean, Nessa E. O’Connor, Eoin J. O’Gorman, Qiang Yang |
| 2016 | Link | Future of our coasts: The potential for natural and hybrid infrastructure to enhance the resilience of our coastal communities, economies and ecosystems. Environmental Science & Policy 51: 137–148 (2015) | Ariana E. Sutton-Grier, Kateryna Wowk, Holly A. Bamford |