Press Releases — Page 16

Spillover of infectious wildlife diseases to domestic animals and people and the link between environmental processes and human health.

Are human choices redefining the fitness of an ancient survival strategy?   Media advisory For Immediate Release:  Wednesday, 26 June 2013 Contact: Liza Lester (202) 833-8773 x 211; llester@esa.org   In the late spring, the 4000 elk of the Clarks Fork herd leave crowded winter grounds near Cody, Wyoming, following the greening grass into the highlands of the Absaroka Mountains,…

For Immediate Release: Monday, 17 June 2013 Contact: Nadine Lymn (202) 833-8773 x 205; nadine@esa.org or Liza Lester (202) 833-8773 x 211; llester@esa.org     During the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) 98th Annual Meeting, the Society will present ten awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology.  The awards ceremony will take place on Monday, August 5 at 8 AM in the auditorium…

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce its 2013 fellows. The Society’s fellows program recognizes the many ways in which our members contribute to ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and to management and policy.

Perceived food safety risk from wildlife drives expensive and unnecessary habitat destruction around farm fields. Meticulous attention to food safety is a good thing. As consumers, we like to hear that produce growers and distributers go above and beyond food safety mandates to ensure that healthy fresh fruits and vegetables do not carry bacteria or viruses that can make us sick. But in California’s Salinas Valley, some more vigorous interventions are cutting into the last corners of wildlife habitat and potentially threatening water quality, without evidence of food safety benefits.

The Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) long-standing program to diversify the field of ecology recently got another boost from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The federal research agency awarded ESA a grant of $183,158 to support the Society’s “Diverse People for a Diverse Science” project. Not only will the funding go to key existing program components, such as research fellowships, it will also fund an independent evaluation of SEEDS.

Ecological dimensions of biofuels: a report on the state of the science. Looking to tributaries for conservation gains: a case study in large river fish of the Mississippi Basin. Oyster reefs buffer acidic inputs to Chesapeake Bay.

August 4 – 9 Sustainable Pathways: Learning From the Past and Shaping the Future   The Ecological Society of America’s 98th annual meeting “Sustainable Pathways: Learning From the Past and Shaping the Future” will meet in in Minneapolis, Minn., from Sunday evening, August 4, to Friday morning, August 9, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Early bird registration opens the first…

Cape Cod, Massachusetts has a problem. The iconic salt marshes of the famous summer retreat are melting away at the edges, dying back from the most popular recreational areas. The erosion is a consequence of an unexpected synergy between recreational over-fishing and Great Depression-era ditches constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) in an effort to control mosquitoes. The cascade of ecological cause and effect is described by Tyler Coverdale and colleagues at Brown University in a paper published online this month in ESA’s journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“People who live near the marshes complain about the die-off because it’s not nice to look at,” said Coverdale. “Without cordgrass protection you also get really significant erosion, retreating at sometimes over a meter a year.” The die-back is ugly, but it is also a substantial loss of a valuable ecological resource.

Educators & scientists to swap ideas for a robust biology classroom   For immediate release: 11 March, 2013 Contact Nadine Lymn, (202) 833-8773 x 205; nadine@esa.org Say you’re a plant biologist who wants to devise educational components for your research project but you’re not sure what might work well for high school students.  Or say you’re a high school biology…

Future of Alaskan forests, proliferation of plastic greenhouses, and the intersection of watershed protection and urban renewal   Weighing the costs and benefits of plastic vegetable greenhouses The economic benefits of intensive vegetable cultivation inside plastic greenhouses, particularly for small-holders, have driven a rapid mushrooming of long plastic tents in farmlands worldwide – but particularly in China, where they cover…

ESA’s Leadership Meeting for Underrepresented Students   For immediate release: February 13, 2013 Contact: Nadine Lymn 202.833.8773, ext. 205; nadine@esa.org “Just watch these students—watch for their names.  They will continue to shine and you will keep coming across their names.  Some are already taking leadership roles and after this meeting will be doing even more to help bring ecology alive.” Teresa…

Josh Miller likes to call himself a conservation paleobiologist. The label makes sense when he explains how he uses bones as up-to-last-season information on contemporary animal populations. Bones, he says, provide baseline ecological data on animals complementary to aerial counts, adding a historical component to live observation. In his November cover article for the Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecology, he…

Landscape corridors and connectivity in conservation and restoration planning   We live in a human-dominated world. For many of our fellow creatures, this means a fragmented world, as human conduits to friends, family, and resources sever corridors that link the natural world. Our expanding web of highways, cities, and intensive agriculture traps many animals and plants in islands and cul-de-sacs…

The pressures of global trade may heighten disease incidence by dictating changes in land use. A boom in disease-carrying ticks and chiggers has followed the abandonment of rice cultivation in Taiwanese paddies, say ecologist Chi-Chien Kuo and colleagues, demonstrating the potential for global commodities pricing to drive the spread of infections. Their work appears in the September issue of ESA’s…

Scott Collins, Regent’s Professor of Biology and Loren Potter Chair of Plant Ecology at the University of New Mexico became President of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) on August 10, 2012. Elected by the members of ESA for a one-year term, Collins will chair the ESA Governing Board, the elected governing body of the Society, which provides vision and…

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present its fifth annual Regional Policy Award to Ken Bierly of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board during the Society’s upcoming conference in Portland, Oregon. The ESA award recognizes an elected or appointed local policymaker who has an outstanding record of informing political decision-making with ecological science. “We are delighted to present this prestigious…

Special “Citizen Science” issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment accompanies the event   Media Advisory For immediate release: 20 July 2012 Contact: Liza Lester (202) 833-8773 x 211; llester@esa.org   Though public participation in scientific research has deep roots in the history of science, in the last few years it has taken off spectacularly from launch pads across…

Scientists examine process chain of natural gas, from rural extraction to urban distribution   For immediate release: 12 July 2012 Contact: Nadine Lymn (202) 833-8773 x 205; nadine@esa.org   “Fracking” stories about shale gas extraction hit the news daily, fueling a growing conflagration between environmental protectionism and economic interests. Otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing, fracking has become a profitable venture…

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present eight societal awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology during ESA’s 97th annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. The meeting, which will be held from August 5 – 10, is expected to draw over 4,500 scientists from around the globe to share their research and ideas. Eminent Ecologist Award: Robert Naiman, University of Washington,…