Annual Meeting

Over 2,500 ecologists gathered in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida in August to share ecological research.

With a rapidly changing climate, altered hydrological and nutrient cycles, dominance of large regions by agricultural and urban ecosystems, and massive movement of species to new continents, the Earth has entered a new epoch characterized by human influence. Understanding the basic principles of ecology will be more important than ever before, to predict how new combinations of species in new environments will develop into functioning, novel ecosystems.

Building on The Ecological Society of America’s 2015 Centennial meeting—Ecological Science at the Frontier—the 101st annual meeting supported sessions that explored how ecosystem structure and function respond to multiple drivers of change, how resource managers can cope with developing novel ecosystems, and potential benefits and problems that society faces as we progress into the Anthropocene Epoch.

This year we said goodbye to long-time ESA Meeting Manager, Michelle Horton who retired. ESA thanks her for the dedicated and stellar service to ESA and its members. We also welcomed Christi Nam as our new meeting manager. This year’s meeting was a joint effort between Michelle and Christi and the transition was seamless. President Monica Turner presented Michelle with a recognition of service award during the Scientific Plenary.

Awards & Giving Back

ESA presented fourteen awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity, and lifelong commitment to the profession.

• Eminent Ecologist Award: Jerry F. Franklin
• Eugene P. Odum Education Award: Carolyn Thomas and Bob Pohlad
• Commitment to Human Diversity in Ecology Award: Frank Day
• ESA Distinguished Service Citation: Carol Brewer
• Whittaker Travel Award:  Simoneta Negrete Yankelevich and Ezatollah Karami
• Honorary Membership Award:  Richard Hobbs
• W.S. Cooper Award: E. Laliberte, G. Zemunik and B.L. Turner
• George Mercer Award: Jenifer R. Gremer and D. Lawrence Venable
• Murray F. Buell Award: Cody S. Clements
• Lucy Braun Award: Timothy Fegel
• Robert H. MacArthur Award: Anurag Agrawal
• Sustainability Science Award: M.A. Palmer and J.B. Ruhl
• Innovation in Sustainability Science Award: A.E. Sutton-Grier, Kateryna Wowk and H. Bamford
• Forrest Shreve Student Research Award: Nameer Baker and Camila Madeiros

Durning the Opening Plenary, ESA presented Shannon Estenoz with the Regional Policy Award for her work on behalf of the restoration of the Florida Everglades.

ESA donated $12,735 to offset the associated environmental impacts of the meeting to Archbold Biological Station.

Photos and social media from the 2016 gathering in Fort Lauderdale

Blogging the meeting

• “Reflecting on ESA2016 ‘Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene’: Three Ecologists Provide Contrasting Perspectives.” (audio interviews) Journal of Ecology Blog
• “ESA 2016: Niche Partitioning and Rapid Adaptation of Urban Anoles.” James Stroud, Anole Annals
• “Of Big Meetings and Me.” Isabelle Laforest-L.
• “The importance of #upgoESA experiment by @DrHolly #ESA2016.” Christopher Lortie
• “#ESA2016 open thread (UPDATEDx2).” Jeremy Fox, Dynamic Ecology”
• “Annual meetings trivia – Fort Lauderdale edition.” Susannah Tysor, ESA Historical Records Committee blog
• “Ecology on the Runway.” Paul Gebrielsen, University of Texas @TheU
• “Function over Form: Predicting Disturbance Responses with Functional Traits at ESA 2016.” Uma Nagendra, PLoS Ecology Community blog
• “The fore-front of Restoration Ecology at ESA 2016.” Liz Kimbrough, PLoS Ecology Community blog
• “Science Communication, Simple Words, and Story Telling at ESA 2016.” Cailin McDonough, PLoS Ecology Community blog
• “Leveraging the Power of Biodiversity Specimen Data for Ecological Research.” Cailin McDonough, PLoS Ecology Community blog
• “Invasion Ecology at ESA 2016.” Kelsey K Graham, PLoS Ecology Community blog
• “Augmenting the Reality of Ecology Education.” Uma Nagendra, PLoS Ecology Community blog

Twitter

#ESA2016 is just around the corner! Download the mtg app, browse the program on the plane https://t.co/enpa36HaOh pic.twitter.com/AWzQSDTCqJ

— Ecological Society (@ESA_org) August 4, 2016

#Nepali #ecologist #ESA2016 pic.twitter.com/1J94VEo7bM

— Shishir Paudel (@ShishirPaudel3) August 13, 2016

What!?!? Novel ecosystems soils might not have #Mycorrhizae!? What does this mean 4 competition & symbiotic interactions!? #ESA2016 -Ibañez

— Jorge Ramos (@JorgeRH2O) August 12, 2016

#sketchyourscience is coming back to #ESA2016 — Bring your crayons, pens & pencils, ecologists! #scicomm @ESA_org https://t.co/YDFDoadXwt

— Holly Menninger (@DrHolly) July 27, 2016

Added my artistic representation of #SEMOPb research to the #sketchyourscience gallery at #ESA2016. @SeeMoBirds pic.twitter.com/a7QacEElf8

— Kathy Hixson (@kathymhixson) August 10, 2016

Sup ecologists, here is the chatter on #ESA2016 I like the obvious sentiment bump showing fun in #ecologyontherunway pic.twitter.com/PYfX7DT7wU

— Thomas E. Keller (@tek_keller) August 15, 2016

"Stop thinking in terms of balance of Nature, think cultures of Nature". Amazing talk by Erle Ellis at #ESA2016 https://t.co/dGJZvnbNpo

— Jean-Yves Barnagaud (@jybarnagaud) August 12, 2016

#ESA2016 Eric Higgs Carolina Murcia @Crayvish Michael McTavish @HuynhPatricia; gr8 sympos @erleellis @JacquelynGill pic.twitter.com/Tx4UW9A9KZ

— stephen murphy (@prof_smurph) August 12, 2016

We spy with our Twitter eye an @NSF_BIO Program Officer! 😎 #ESA2016 https://t.co/JqOgXybWRE

— NSF Biology (@NSF_BIO) August 13, 2016

2 scientists from Oregon just raised the bar at the #ESA2016 #scicomm booth with #sketchyourscience contributions! pic.twitter.com/W7yT1bS825

— Harvard Forest (@HarvardForest) August 10, 2016

Just affixed the #ESA2016 badge to my bag and realized it's my 10 year ESA-iversary! My first ESA was Memphis 2006 pic.twitter.com/pRdwcUgxpg

— Amy Burgin (@burginam) August 22, 2016

Most prolific #ESA2016 tweeps: @ESA_org, @JacquelynGill, @cjlortie, @Drew_Lab, @BeckSamBar pic.twitter.com/JcXquwDnW5

— Emily Rollinson (@ejrollinson) August 13, 2016

The amazing #BeachParty at #ESA2016! Being an ecologist is probably the best job ever! pic.twitter.com/aRyuEizQfC

— Jorge Ramos (@JorgeRH2O) August 11, 2016

Cool and novel approach to finding where constraints on communities act at plant life stages by John Guittar #esa2016

— Jes Coyle (@jescoyle) August 11, 2016

#ESA2016 Eco Hackathon ecology apps & code are available here: https://t.co/nAWpXvvmbY @ESA_SEEDS @ESA_org pic.twitter.com/XXu7V1NLXM

— Jere Boudell (@Apps4Ecology) August 13, 2016

Celebrating 20 years!@ESA_SEEDS Thanks to the @ESA_org members for their support as mentors & advisors #ESA2016 pic.twitter.com/FFdZvtddDr

— M.K. Marshall (@greenkels) August 11, 2016

Reflecting on #ESA2016: Novel ecosystems in the Anthropocene: https://t.co/urhNPibnN9 interviews with me, Emily Farrer, and Charlie Canham

— Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) August 19, 2016

1/2 Was tired last night and when a friend asked me what my talk was about. I said "Science crap. About the Everglades. "#ESA2016

— Christa Zweig (@xazweig) August 12, 2016

Excellent end to a fruitful #esa2016 #doublerainbow pic.twitter.com/kCEcW5cgnD

— Laura Ladwig (@LauraLadwig) August 12, 2016