ESA 2016 theme: Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene

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 101^st annual meeting will support sessions that explore 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 will face as we progress into the Anthropocene Epoch.