Dear ESA Member, ESA will be holding a totally virtual Annual Meeting this year from August 3–6 in response to the pandemic. The virtual meeting will provide an opportunity for you to join colleagues and leaders from across the field for four days of inspiration and community focused on your research and your career as each of us looks ahead…
In This Issue: Pandemic Response House Legislation Includes Funding for Science, Wildlife Disease The latest coronavirus bill includes $125 million for NSF. Webinar: Invasive Species Policy and COVID-19 Speakers will explore how ecological research can inform policy and contribute knowledge to prevent the introduction and spread of invasive species. National Science Board Unveils Visions 2030 Report, Charts Impacts of COVID-19…
The National Science Foundation’s Biological Science’s Advisory Committee (BIO AC) held a virtual, abbreviated meeting April 30 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The committee, composed of biological and ecological scientists from across the research enterprise, typically meets twice a year for a two-day in-person meeting. Here are some of the highlights from that meeting relevant to the ecological science community: COVID-19…
The National Science Board (NSB), the oversight body for all of NSF who serve as independent science advisors to the president and Congress, met May 5 and 6. The meeting marked the full board’s first meeting held during the coronavirus pandemic. The marquee item on the agency was the release of the NSB Visions 2030 report, which charts a path…
“Do most of your members know about the Nagoya Protocol**?” This question appeared on a survey distributed to representatives from an array of professional societies in the social and life sciences, all of whom were about to attend a workshop on “The Shifting Landscape of International Biological Research” that ESA organized in 2017. A primary goal of this workshop was…
by Jorge V. Crisci (Universidad Nacional de la La Plata, Argentina) and Tod F. Stuessy (Ohio State University, USA) The great German physicist Werner Heisenberg remarked that nature does not reveal itself directly but only through questions we ask about it. This is true for questions we have with the tragic pandemic of COVID-19. In the last 17 years, coronaviruses,…
In This Issue: National Science Board to Convene, Discuss NSF’s COVID-19 Response Agencies release guidance for grantees and grant opportunities for COVID-19-related research. Congress Senate Environment and Public Works Committee introduces draft water infrastructure bill. Executive Branch EPA finalizes WOTUS rule, Science Advisory Board finalizes review of “Transparency in Science” rule Courts Supreme Court creates new test for Clean Water…
Blog post by ESA President Osvaldo Sala On April 9, I represented ESA in a meeting with Joanne Tornow, NSF assistant director for the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). Tornow organized the Zoom meeting to listen to concerns of scientific society leaders and to inform us of NSF’s COVID-19 pandemic response. The other attendees were presidents and CEOs of…
In This Issue: Federal Agency Award COVID-19 Resources Agencies release guidance for grantees and grant opportunities for COVID-19-related research. The Ecology of COVID-19 Blog Series First post from the Long-term Ecological Research Network offers considerations for deciding whether and when to go into the field. Congress Senators ask Secretary of State to take action to shutdown the global illegal wildlife…
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present the 2020 awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity, and lifelong commitment to the profession during the Society’s Annual Meeting August 2-7. ESA is weighing whether to hold an in person meeting in Salt Lake City that includes a virtual option or whether to hold a totally…
By Martha Downs, Frank Davis, Jenn Caselle, Julien Brun, and Kristen Weiss Like marine fog that blankets one community while leaving a nearby neighborhood in sunshine, COVID 19 crept up on us at an uneven pace. In California, awareness and action to halt its spread came quickly, with in-person instruction at UC Santa Barbara, where the LTER Network Office is…
ESA’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and management and policy.