Past PPE Newsletters

April 2021

Dear PPE members,

We would like to call your attention to the following section updates and important news items.

1. Plant Population Ecology Postdoctoral Excellence Award nominations are now open. Nominate yourself or a postdoc with an outstanding plant ecology paper published in 2020. Applications are due June 1, 2021 (UPDATE: We have extended the deadline to 15 June 2021). Please see announcement below or check out our webpage for more information: https://esa.org/plantpopulation/?page_id=72
2. Student Registration Award applications are now being accepted for the 2021 Annual Meeting. Applications are due April 30, 2021. For more information and to apply, please visit ESA’s centralized awards webpage: https://www.esa.org/longbeach/registration-grants-for-attendees/
3. Highlighted members: Have you read an exciting plant ecology paper by an early-career PPE member? We welcome nominations for Highlighted Early Career Members at any time (including self-nominations; https://esa.org/plantpopulation/?page_id=182). So, please nominate your early-career (student, post-doctoral, or faculty) colleagues by sending a brief email to Secretary Gaurav Kandlikar (gkandlikar@nullmissouri.edu) stating why a particular paper should be highlighted and the career stage of the early-career author.
4. Please consider making a monetary donation to the PPE Section in support of our student travel and post-doc awards. Monetary donations are tax-deductible, and ESA will provide a letter to this effect. To make a donation to the section, simply mail a check to ESA (Elizabeth Biggs, Ecological Society of America, 1990 M Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036) and include a note that the donation is for the Plant Population Ecology Section.
5. You can also stay up to date with section news, job postings, and more by following the section’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/plantpopecol), webpage (https://esa.org/plantpopulation/), and Twitter account (@PlantPopEco_ESA). 

Best wishes,

Nicole, Matt, and Gaurav

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February 2021

Dear PPE members,

We hope you are well. We would like to call your attention to the following section updates and important news items.

1. Every two years our members elect a new Vice–Chair for the section who serves in the position for two years and then becomes section Chair for two years. Nicole Rafferty’s tenure as Chair ends this year, and Matt Koski will take on that role.

We are opening self-nominations for candidates for our next Vice-Chair, in accordance with Section bylaws regarding elections (included below, along with description of the duties of both Vice-Chair and Chair). If you are interested in running for this position, please send a short CV and a brief statement detailing your academic/research background and interests in serving the section to Secretary Gaurav Kandlikar (gkandlikar@nullmissouri.edu). Deadline for nominations is March 5, 2021, and the election will take place shortly after. Questions about the position and duties, which are listed below, can be sent to Nicole (rafferty@nullucr.edu).

Also, if you know a section member who you think is well suited for the position, please encourage them to self-nominate. New leaders with new ideas help PPE thrive! This is a great opportunity to have a high-profile service contribution (national leadership!) with relatively little effort. Looks great on tenure or promotion packages!

2. Important service opportunity: ESA is requesting help in reviewing contributed abstracts for the 2021 Annual Meeting. Reviewers will be asked to complete their reviews online over a 2-week period in March. Any ESA member is eligible to serve as a reviewer, including students and postdocs. ESA anticipates assigning 50-75 abstracts to each reviewer. If you’d like to volunteer, please contact Nicole at rafferty@nullucr.edu by February 22 with your name, institution, and email address.
3. We are seeking a student to serve as the PPE representative for ESA’s Student Section in preparation for the 2021 ESA Annual Meeting. The student representative from PPE would interact with other representatives across ESA sections, organized by Vanessa Blevines, the ESA Student Section Liaison Coordinator.

If you are interested in being PPE’s student rep for ESA 2021, we are taking self-nominations. The only requirement is that you are currently a student and are currently a PPE member. To self-nominate please e-mail Matt at mkoski@nullclemson.edu and state that you are currently a student and a PPE member.

4. Have you read an exciting plant ecology paper by an early-career PPE member? We welcome nominations for Highlighted Early Career Members at any time (including self-nominations; https://www.esa.org/plantpopulation/highlighted-members/). So, please nominate your early-career (student, post-doctoral, or faculty) colleagues by sending a brief email to Gaurav (gkandlikar@nullmissouri.edu) stating why a particular paper should be highlighted and the career stage of the early-career author.
5. Please consider making a monetary donation to the PPE Section in support of our student travel and post-doc awards. Monetary donations are tax-deductible, and ESA will provide a letter to this effect. To make a donation to the section, simply mail a check to ESA (Elizabeth Biggs, Ecological Society of America, 1990 M Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036) and include a note that the donation is for the Plant Population Ecology Section.
6. You can also stay up to date with section news, job postings, and more by following the section’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/plantpopecol), webpage (https://esa.org/plantpopulation/), and Twitter account (@PlantPopEco_ESA). 

Best wishes,

Nicole, Matt, and Gaurav

To join PPE if you are not currently an ESA member, simply click the box for this section when you join. You will be charged $5.

To join PPE if you are already an ESA member, log into your account (https://www.esa.org/esa/).

On the left there is a tab that says, “Renew/Membership Options.” If you click on that (even though you are up to date on your membership), you can select additional sections or chapters to join. They cost $5 each.

From PPE Bylaws:

ELECTIONS. The Executive Committee will put out a call for nominations with a deadline of no fewer than thirty days. Any member may place names on the ballot. The Executive Committee may nominate candidates to ensure at least one candidate for each open position. The slate of nominees and ballots shall be sent to Section members during the spring of each year, no later than sixty days before the annual business meeting of the Section. The winner shall be the person receiving a plurality of the votes. Balloting shall be at least thirty days in duration; results shall be announced prior to the annual business meeting. If an officer is unable to carry out the duties of the office, the Executive Committee shall hold a special election, using the procedure described above, and the person elected shall serve for the remainder of the term.

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DUTIES OF THE CHAIRPERSON. The Chairperson shall preside at the business meeting of the Section, shall authorize expenditures of Section funds, shall serve as Section representative on Council, and shall promote the interests of the Section. The Chairperson shall appoint committees as required to promote the interests of the Section and designate persons to serve on society committees. Such committees and persons shall serve until the next annual meeting of the Section and may be reappointed at the discretion of the new Chairperson.

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Article 8. DUTIES OF THE VICE-CHAIRPERSON. The Vice-Chairperson shall serve as Program Officer of the Section and shall work closely with the Program Officer of the parent Society, Program Officers of other sections, and representatives of other relevant professional societies, in developing activities of the Section for professional meetings, including field trips, organized oral sessions, special poster sessions, and symposia for the annual meetings. The Vice-Chairperson shall assume the duties of the Chairperson whenever that person is unable to act.

August 2020

Dear PPE members,

We hope you are well. Although we will miss seeing you in person at the ESA Annual Meeting, we appreciate your membership and hope to gather for our section mixer next year. In the meantime, we would like to call your attention to the following section updates and important news items.

Officer News

Many thanks to our outgoing Secretary, Nick Barber, for his years of service! Nick served two terms as Secretary and did an outstanding job. Thank you, Nick, for all your support of the PPE Section.

Please welcome Gaurav Kandlikar as the new Secretary.

Nicole Rafferty and Matt Koski continue in their roles as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively.

Award Winners

Please join us in congratulating this year’s award winners!

Sade Perez Partridge, Alejandra Martínez-Blancas, and Verónica Zepeda each received a Student Registration Grant to participate in the ESA Annual Meeting.

Po-Ju Ke received the Postdoctoral Excellence Award for the paper “Effects of soil microbes on plant competition: a perspective from modern coexistence theory” published in 2020 in Ecological Monographs with co-author Joe Wan.

This year we have a double dose of generosity associated with the Postdoctoral Excellence Award: we thank AoB PLANTS for generously providing the $500 prize associated with this award, and we thank Po-Ju Ke for generously donating this prize to support future student travel awards emphasizing diversity and inclusion.

You can read more about AoB PLANTS, a non-profit, sound science, open access journal for plant-focused research here: https://academic.oup.com/aobpla

PPE-Related Presentations at ESA 2020

Take a look at our list of plant ecology-related presentations at ESA 2020 and help support our award winners by checking out their talks and posters:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16xlv8Z9NMh_DhMHC94youttU6JsmTa0buZGknGMr34Y/edit?usp=sharing

We initially populated the list to emphasize talks that have live Q&A sessions, but we welcome additions of any plant ecology-related presentations. Please use the link to add your own plant ecology talk or poster to the list! Thanks to Gaurav for taking the lead in compiling this list.

Highlighted Members

Have you read an exciting plant ecology paper by an early-career PPE member? We welcome nominations for Highlighted Early Career Members at any time (including self-nominations;https://www.esa.org/plantpopulation/highlighted-members/). So, please nominate your early-career (student, post-doctoral, or faculty) colleagues by sending a brief email to Gaurav Kandlikar (gkandlikar@nullucla.edu) stating why a particular paper should be highlighted and the career stage of the early-career author.

Support the PPE Section

Please consider making a monetary donation to the PPE Section in support of our student travel and post-doc awards. Monetary donations are tax-deductible, and ESA will provide a letter to this effect. To make a donation to the section, simply mail a check to ESA (Elizabeth Biggs, Ecological Society of America, 1990 M Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036) and include a note that the donation is for the Plant Population Ecology Section.

Follow Us

You can stay up to date with section news, job postings, and more by following the section’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/plantpopecol), webpage (https://esa.org/plantpopulation/), and Twitter account (@PlantPopEco_ESA).

Best wishes,

Nicole, Matt, and Nick

To join PPE if you are not currently an ESA member, simply click the box for this section when you join. You will be charged $5.

To join PPE if you are already an ESA member, log into your account (https://www.esa.org/esa/).

On the left there is a tab that says, “Renew/Membership Options.” If you click on that (even though you are up to date on your membership), you can select additional sections or chapters to join. They cost $5 each.

June 2020

Dear Plant Population Ecology Section Members,

Please vote for the next PPE Section Secretary. Gaurav Kandlikar has been nominated and has agreed to serve. Gaurav’s statement and CV are available at the voting link below.

You can vote in the next 30 days at the following link:

https://www.esa.org/plantpopulation/home/ppe-secretary-election-2020/

Thanks very much,

Nicole, Matt, and Nick

Please see the officer description from our by-laws:

Article 4. OFFICERS. The officers of the Section shall be a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, and
Secretary-Treasurer. The Vice-Chairperson and the Secretary shall be elected by a vote of the
section; the Vice-Chairperson will assume the position of Chairperson at the end of her or his
term. The terms of office for all officers shall be two years, with election of the Vice Chairperson
in odd numbered years and the Secretary-Treasurer in even numbered years. The official terms of
office shall commence with the close of the annual meeting and shall continue until their
successors assume office.

April 2020

Dear PPE members,

Hope you are staying well. We would like to call your attention to the following section updates and important news items.

• PPE Secretary nominations are now open. This is a great opportunity to have a high-profile service contribution (national leadership!) with relatively little effort. Looks great on job applications or on tenure or promotion packages! The Secretary runs the section’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and updates the webpage.

Please submit nominations (self-nominations are welcome!) including a CV and 200-word statement detailing your background and interests to Nicole Rafferty (rafferty@nullucr.edu) by May 25, 2020. We will announce the candidates in late May.

• Plant Population Ecology Postdoctoral Excellence Award nominations are now open. Nominate yourself or a postdoc with an outstanding plant ecology paper published in 2019 or 2020. Please see announcement below or check out our webpage for more information: https://esa.org/plantpopulation/?page_id=72.
• Please stay tuned for the announcement for Student Travel Awards, which will come from ESA this year, as they open a new, centralized application process (https://www.esa.org/saltlake/registration/travel-support/).
• Highlighted members: Have you read an exciting plant ecology paper by an early-career PPE member? We welcome nominations for Highlighted Early Career Members at any time (including self-nominations;http://esa.org/plantpopulation/?page_id=182). So, please nominate your early-career (student, post-doctoral, or faculty) colleagues by sending a brief email to Nick Barber (nbarber@nullsdsu.edu) stating why a particular paper should be highlighted and the career stage of the early-career author.
• Please consider making a monetary donation to the PPE Section in support of our student travel and post-doc awards. Monetary donations are tax-deductible, and ESA will provide a letter to this effect. To make a donation to the section, simply mail a check to ESA (Elizabeth Biggs, Ecological Society of America, 1990 M Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036) and include a note that the donation is for the Plant Population Ecology Section.
• You can also stay up to date with section news, job postings, and more by following the section’s Facebook page (facebook.com/plantpopecol), webpage (https://esa.org/plantpopulation/), and Twitter account (@PlantPopEco_ESA). 

Best wishes,

Nicole, Matt, and Nick

To join PPE if you are not currently an ESA member, simply click the box for this section when you join. You will be charged $5.

To join PPE if you are already an ESA member, log into your account (https://www.esa.org/esa/).

On the left there is a tab that says, “Renew/Membership Options.” If you click on that (even though you are up to date on your membership), you can select additional sections or chapters to join. They cost $5 each.

Postdoctoral Excellence Award in Plant Population Ecology

The Plant Population Ecology (PPE) section of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce the 2020 Postdoctoral Excellence Award in Plant Population Ecology, sponsored by the journal AoB PLANTS. This honor is presented at ESA’s annual meeting each August and recognizes a distinguished journal contribution to plant population ecology within the past three years by a postdoctoral member of the PPE section. The winner will receive an award of $500 from AoB PLANTS. Established in 2010 and published by Oxford University Press, AoB PLANTS is a non-profit, open-access journal specializing in environmental and evolutionary plant biology. The journal has distinguished Advisory and Editorial Boards, renders first decisions on manuscripts in an average of 35 days, and has a 2018 Impact Factor score of 2.27. 

Eligibility – Applicants must have received their Ph.D. degrees between January 1, 2016 and Dec 31, 2019 and be a current member of the PPE section (if applicants are not a member of ESA or the PPE section, they can join prior to applying). Applicants must be first author on the publication, which may result from either dissertation or postdoctoral research. Publications in any journal are eligible, provided they were published within the past calendar year (January – December 2019). Manuscripts that were accepted for publication by December 2019 may also be submitted for consideration. Only one publication will be considered per applicant. 

Application – To apply, submit a single, merged pdf file with both a qualifying manuscript and a 200-word statement describing how the paper advances the field of plant population ecology. Applications should be emailed to the PPE Secretary Nick Barber (nbarber@nullsdsu.edu) by 5 pm EST on May 31, 2020, using “ESA PPE – AoBP Postdoc Award” as the subject line.

Applications will be assessed by the PPE Executive Board. The award will be announced at the annual meeting of the ESA during the PPE section mixer on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. The recipient is strongly encouraged to attend the PPE mixer to be recognized and to accept the award.