The George Mercer Award is given for an outstanding ecological research paper published within the past two years by a younger researcher (the lead author of the paper must be 40 years of age or younger at the time of publication). If the award is given for a paper with multiple authors, all authors will receive a certificate, and those 40 years of age or younger at the time of publication will share the monetary prize. Nominees may be from any country and need not be ESA members.
| Year | Full Name | Last Name | ESA Bulletin | Citation | Authors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | David J. Civitello | Civitello | Link | Transmission potential of human schistosomes can be driven by resource competition among snail intermediate hosts. PNAS 2022 Vol. 119 No. 6 | David J. Civitello, Teckla Angelo, Karena H. Nguyen, Rachel B. Hartman, Naima C. Starkloff, Moses Paul Mahalila, Jenitha Augustine Charles, Andres Felipe Manrique, Bryan K. Delius, L.M. Bradley, Roger M. Nisbet, Safari M. Kinung’hi, Jason R. Rohr |
| 2022 | Brian C. Weeks | Weeks | Link | Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds. Ecology Letters, 23(2): 316-325. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13434 | Brian C. Weeks, David E. Willard, Marketa Zimova, Aspen A. Ellis, Max L. Witynski, Mary Hennen, Benjamin M. Winger |
| 2021 | Bethany A. Bradley | Bradley | Link | Disentangling the abundance–impact relationship for invasive species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(20), 9919-9924. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1818081116 | Bethany A. Bradley, Brit B. Laginhas, Raj Whitlock, Jenica M. Allen, Amanda E. Bates, Genevieve Bernatchez, Jeff Diez, Regan Early, Jonathan Lenoir, Montserrat Vilà, Cascade J. B. Sorte |
| 2020 | J. Mason Heberling | Heberling | Link | Phenological mismatch with trees reduces wildflower carbon budgets.” Ecology Letters 22: 616-623. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13224 | J. Mason Heberling, Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, Jason D. Fridley, Susan Kalisz, Richard B. Primack |
| 2019 | Brett R. Jesmer | Jesmer | Link | Is ungulate migration culturally transmitted? Evidence of social learning from translocated animals. Science 361:1023-1025. doi: 10.1126/science.aat0985 | Brett R. Jesmer, Jerod A. Merkle, Jacob R. Goheen, Ellen O. Aikens, Jeffrey L. Beck, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Mark A. Hurley, Douglas E. McWhirter, Hollie M. Miyasaki, Kevin L. Monteith, Matthew. J. Kauffman |
| 2018 | Rachel M. Germain | Germain | Link | Experimental dispersal reveals characteristic scales of biodiversity in a natural landscape. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114:4447–4452. | Germain, R. M., Sharon Y. Strauss, Benjamin Gilbert |
| 2017 | Jennifer Williams | Williams | Link | Rapid evolution accelerates plant population spread in fragmented experimental landscapes. Science 353(6298), pp. 482-485. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf6268 | Jennifer Williams, Bruce Kendall, Jonathan Levine |
| 2016 | Jennifer R. Gremer | Gremer | Link | Bet hedging in desert winter annual plants: optimal germination strategies in a variable environment. Ecology Letters 17: 380–387 (2014) | Jennifer R. Gremer, D. Lawrence Venable |
| 2015 | Marcelo Ardón | Ardón | Link | Drought-induced saltwater incursion leads to increased wetland nitrogen export. Global Change Biology 19:2976-2985 | Marcelo Ardón, Jennifer L. Morse, Benjamin P. Colman, Emily S. Bernhardt |
| 2014 | Douglas Rasher | Rasher | Link | Consumer diversity interacts with prey defenses to drive ecosystem function. Ecology 94:1347-1358. | Douglas Rasher, Andrew S. Hoey, and Mark E. Hay |
| 2013 | Pieter T. J. Johnson | Johnson | Link | Parasite diversity and coinfection determine pathogen infection success and host fitness. PNAS 109:9006–9011. | Pieter T. J. Johnson; Jason T. Hoverman |
| 2012 | A. Carla Staver | Staver | Link | Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: Rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states. Ecology 92:1063-1072 | A. Carla Staver; Sally Archibald; Simon A. Levin |
| 2011 | Tracy Langkilde | Langkilde | Link | Invasive fire ants alter behavior and morphology of native lizards. Ecology 90:208-217 | Tracy Langkilde |
| 2010 | Meghan A. Duffy | Duffy | Link | Selective predation and rapid evolution can jointly dampen effects of parasites on Daphnia populations. American Naturalist 171: 499-510. | Meghan A. Duffy; Spencer R. Hall |
| 2009 | Richard A. Lankau | Lankau | Link | Mutual feedbacks maintain both genetic and species diversity in a plant community, Science 317:1561-1563. | Richard A. Lankau |
| 2009 | Sharon Y. Strauss | Strauss | Link | Mutual feedbacks maintain both genetic and species diversity in a plant community, Science 317:1561-1563. | Richard A. Lankau |
| 2008 | Jonathan M. Chase | Chase | Link | Drought mediates the importance of stochastic community assembly. PNAS 104:17430-17434. | Jonathan M. Chase |
| 2007 | Jordi Bascompte | Bascompte | Link | Asymmetric coevolutionary networks facilitate biodiversity maintenance. Science 312:431–433. | Jordi Bascompte; Pedro Jordano; Jens M. Olesen |
| 2006 | Anurag Agrawal | Agrawal | Link | Resistance and susceptibility of milk-weed: competition, root herbivory and plant genetic variation. Ecology 82:2118-2133 | Anurag Agrawal |
| 2005 | Daniel Bolnick | Bolnick | Link | The ecology of individuals: incidence and implications of individual specialization. American Naturalist 161:1-28. | Daniel Bolnick; Richard Svanback; James A. Fordyce; Louis Yang; John H. Davis; Darrin Hulsey; Matthew Forister |
| 2004 | John J. Stachowicz | Stachowicz | Link | Biodiversity, Invasion Resistance, and Marine Ecosystem Function: Reconciling Pattern and Process. Ecology 83:2575-2590. | John J. Stachowicz; Heather Fried; Richard Osman; Robert Whitlatch |
| 2003 | Jean M.L. Richardson | Richardson | Link | The relative roles of adaptation and phylogeny in determination of larval traits in diversifying Anuran lineages. American Naturalist 157: 282-299. | Jean M.L. Richardson |
| 2002 | Jonathan Levine | Levine | Link | Species Diversity and Biological Invasions: Relating Local Process to Community Pattern. Science 288: 852-854. | Jonathan Levine |
| 2001 | Brian Enquist | Enquist | Link | Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants. Nature 401:907-911 | Brian Enquist; Geoffrey B. West; Eric L. Charnov; James H. Brown |
| 2000 | David Hooper | Hooper | Link | Effects of plant composition and diversity on nutrient cycling. Ecological Monographs 68:121-149. | David Hooper; Peter Vitousek |
| 1999 | Mark A. McPeek | McPeek | Link | The consequences of changing the top predator in a food web: a comparative experimental approach. Ecological Monographs 68:1-23. | Mark A. McPeek |
| 1998 | Greg Dwyer | Dwyer | Link | Host heterogeneity in susceptibility and disease dynamics: tests of a mathematical model. American Naturalist 150:685-707. | Greg Dwyer; Joseph S. Elkinton; John P. Buonaccorsi |
| 1997 | Stephen W. Pacala | Pacala | Link | Forest models defined by field measurements: estimation, error analysis, and dynamics. Ecological Monographs 66:1-44. | Stephen W. Pacala; Charles D. Canham; John Saponara; John Silander; Richard K. Kobe; Eric Ribbens |
| 1996 | Lars Hedin | Hedin | Link | Patterns of nutrient loss from unpolluted, old-growth temperate forests: evaluation of biogeochemical theory. Ecology 76:493-509. | Lars Hedin |
| 1995 | Shahid Naeem | Naeem | Link | Declining biodiversity can alter the performance of ecosystems. Nature 368:734-737. | Shahid Naeem |
| 1994 | J. Timothy Wootton | Wootton | Link | Indirect effects and habitat use in an intertidal community: interaction chains and interaction modification. American Naturalist 141:71-89. 1991 | J. Timothy Wootton |
| 1993 | Naomi Cappuccino | Cappuccino | Link | The nature of population stability in Eurosta solidaginis , a nonoutbreaking herbivore of goldenrod. Ecology 73:1792-1801. | Naomi Cappuccino |
| 1992 | Kirk O. Winemiller | Winemiller | Link | Spatial and temporal variation in tropical fish trophic networks. Ecological Monographs 60:331-367. | Kirk O. Winemiller |
| 1991 | James Samuel Clark | Clark | Link | Fire and climate change during the last 750 yr in northwestern Minnesota. Ecological Monographs 60:135-159. | James Samuel Clark |
| 1990 | Richard Karban | Karban | Link | Community organization of Erigeron glaucus folivores: effects of competition, predation, and host plant. Ecology 70:1028-1039. | Richard Karban |
| 1989 | Russell J. Schmitt | Schmitt | Link | Indirect interactions between prey; apparent competition, predator aggregation, and habitat segregation. Ecology 68:1887-1897. | Russell J. Schmitt |
| 1988 | May Roberta Berenbaum | Berenbaum | Link | Constraints on chemical coevolution: wild parsnips and the parsnip webworm. Evolution 40:1215-1228 . | May Roberta Berenbaum; A.R. Zangerl; J.K. Nitao |
| 1987 | Curtis M. Lively | Lively | Link | Competition, comparative life histories, and maintenance of shell dimorphism in a barnacle. Ecology 67:858-864. & Predator-induced shell dimorphism in the acorn barnacle Chthamalus anisopoma. Evolution 40:232–242. | Curtis M. Lively |
| 1986 | Douglas William Schemske | Schemske | Link | Population structure and local selection in Impatiens pallida (Balsaminaceae), a selfing annual. Evolution 38:817-832. | Douglas William Schemske |
| 1985 | Peter J. Morin | Morin | Link | Predation, competition, and the composition of larval anuran guilds. Ecological Monographs 53:119-138. | Peter J. Morin |
| 1984 | Phyllis D. Coley | Coley | Link | Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in low-land tropical forest. Ecological Monographs 53:209-233. | Phyllis D. Coley |
| 1983 | Kenneth P. Sebens | Sebens | Link | Limits to indeterminate growth: an optimal size model applied to passive suspension feeders. Ecology 63:209-222 | Kenneth P. Sebens |
| 1982 | Svata M. Louda | Louda | Link | Distribution ecology: variation in plant recruitment over a gradient in relation to insect seed predation. Ecological Monographs 52:25-41. | Svata M. Louda |
| 1981 | Wayne P. Sousa | Sousa | Link | Experimental investigations of disturbance and ecological succession in a rocky intertidal algal community. Ecological Monographs 49:227-254. | Wayne P. Sousa |
| 1980 | Thomas G. Whitham | Whitham | Link | Habitat selection by Pemphigus aphids in response to resource limitation and competition. Ecology 59:1164-1176. | Thomas G. Whitham |
| 1979 | Jane Lubchenco | Lubchenco | Link | Community development and persistence in a low rocky intertidal zone. Ecological Monographs 48:67-94. | Jane Lubchenco; Bruce Allen Menge |
| 1978 | Earl Edward Werner | Werner | Link | Species packing and niche complementarity in three sunfishes. American Naturalist 111:553-578. | Earl Edward Werner |
| 1977 | Douglas G. Sprugel | Sprugel | Link | Dynamic structure of wave-regenerated Abies balsamea forests in the north-eastern United States. Journal of Ecology 64:889-911. | Douglas George Sprugel |
| 1976 | William E. Neill | Neill | Link | Experimental studies of microcrustacean competition, community composition and efficiency of resource utilization. Ecology 56:809-826. | William E. Neill |
| 1975 | Peter L. Marks | Marks | Link | The role of pin cherry ( Prunus pensylvanica L.) in the maintenance of stability in northern hardwood ecosystems. Ecological Monographs 44:73-88. | Peter L. Marks |
| 1974 | Paul K Dayton | Dayton | Link | Competition, disturbance, and community organization: the provision and subsequent utilization of space in a rocky intertidal community. Ecological Monographs 41:351-389. | Paul K Dayton |
| 1973 | Carl Frederick Jordan | Jordan | Link | Relative stability of mineral cycles in forest ecosystems. American Naturalist 106:237-253. | Carl Frederick Jordan |
| 1972 | Joel Ephraim Cohen | Cohen | no citation published | A Markov contingency-table model for replicated Lotka-Volterra systems near equilibrium. American Naturalist 104:547-560. | Joel Ephraim Cohen |
| 1971 | Daniel S. Simberloff | Simberloff | no citation published | Experimental zoogeography of islands: defaunation and monitoring techniques. Ecology 50:267-278. & Experimental zoogeography of islands: the colonization of empty islands. Ecology 50:278-296. & Experimental zoogeography of islands: a two-year record of colonization. Ecology 51:934-937. | Daniel S. Simberloff; Edward Osborne Wilson |
| 1969 | Lynn White | White | Link | The historical roots of our ecological crisis. Science 155:1203-1207. | Lynn White |
| 1968 | Edward Broadhead | Broadhead | Link | Mesopsocus populations on larch in England -- the distribution and dynamics of two closely-related coexisting species of Psocoptera sharing the same food resource. Ecological Monographs 36:327-388. | Edward Broadhead; Anthony Wapshere |
| 1967 | William Albert Niering | Niering | Link | Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona:A gradient analysis of the south slope. Ecology 46:429-452. | Robert Harding Whittaker; William Albert Niering; |
| 1967 | Robert Harding Whittaker | Whittaker | Link | Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona:A gradient analysis of the south slope. Ecology 46:429-452. | Robert Harding Whittaker; William Albert Niering; |
| 1966 | Crawford Stanley Holling | Holling | Link | The functional response of predators to prey density and its role in mimicry and population regulation. Memoirs, Entomological Society of Canada 45:3-60. | Crawford Stanley Holling |
| 1965 | Kenneth Stafford Norris | Norris | Link | The functions of temperature in the ecology of the percoid fish Girella nigricans (Ayres). Ecological Monographs 33:23-62. | Kenneth Stafford Norris |
| 1964 | Orie Lipton Loucks | Loucks | Link | Ordinating forest communities by means of environmental scalars and phytosociological indices. Ecological Monographs 32:137-166. | Orie Lipton Loucks |
| 1963 | Joseph H. Connell | Connell | Link | Effects of competition, predation by Thais lapillus, and other factors on natural populations of the barnacle Balanus balanoides. Ecological Monographs 31:61-104. | Joseph H. Connell |
| 1962 | Harold A. Mooney | Mooney | Link | Comparative physiological ecology of arctic and alpine populations of Oxyria digyna. Ecological Monographs 31:1-29. | Harold A. Mooney; William Dwight Billings |
| 1961 | Robert Allen Norris | Norris | Link | Density, racial composition, sociality, and selective predation in nonbreeding populations of Savannah sparrows. Bird Banding 31(4):173-216. | Robert Allen Norris |
| 1960 | Calvin McMillan | McMillan | Link | The role of ecotypic variation in the distribution of the central grassland of North America. Ecological Monographs 29:285-308. | Calvin McMillan |
| 1959 | Robert Helmer MacArthur | MacArthur | Link | Poulation ecology of some warblers of northeastern coniferous forests. Ecology 39:599-619. | Robert Helmer MacArthur |
| 1958 | Jerry S. Olson | Olson | Link | Rates of succession and soil changes on southern Lake Michigan sand dunes. Botanical Gazette 119:125-170. | Jerry S. Olson |
| 1957 | John Jermyn Christian | Christian | Link | A drenal and reproductive responses to population size in mice from freely growing populations. Ecology 37:258-273. | John Jermyn Christian |
| 1956 | Eugene Pleasants Odum | Odum | Link | Trophic structure and productivity of a windward coral reef community on Eniwetok Atoll. Ecological Monographs 25:291-320. | Howard Thomas Odum; Eugene Pleasants Odum |
| 1955 | Shelby Delos Gerking | Gerking | Link | The food turnover of a bluegill population. Ecology 35:490-498. | Shelby Delos Gerking |
| 1954 | Frederick Herbert Bormann | Bormann | Link | Factors determining the role of loblolly pine and sweetgum in early old-field succession in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Ecological Monographs 23:339-358. | Frederick Herbert Bormann |
| 1953 | Frank Alois Pitelka | Pitelka | Link | Ecological overlap and interspecific strife in breeding populations of Anna and Allen hummingbirds. Ecology 32:641-661. | Frank Alois Pitelka |
| 1952 | Robert Baxter Platt | Platt | Link | An ecological study of the Mid-Appalachian shale barrens and of the plants endemic to them. Ecological Monographs 21:269-300. | Robert Baxter Platt |
| 1951 | Helmut Karl Buechner | Buechner | Link | Life history, ecology, and range use in the pronghorn antelope in Trans-Pecos Texas. American Midland Naturalist 43:257-354 | Helmut Karl Buechner |
| 1950 | Henry Sheldon Fitch | Fitch | Link | Outline for ecological life history studies of reptiles. Ecology 30:520-532. | Henry Sheldon Fitch |
| 1949 | Edsko Jerry Dyksterhuis | Dyksterhuis | Link | The vegetation of the western Cross Timbers. Ecological Monographs 18:325-376. | Edsko Jerry Dyksterhuis |
| 1948 | Henry P. Hansen | Hanson | Link | Postglacial forest succession, climate and chronology in the Pacific Northwest.Transactions, American Philosophical Society 37:1-30. | Herbert Christian Hansen |
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