Sat & Sunday : Monday : Tuesday : Wednesday : Thursday : Friday

Niche verses neutral: a look at an iconic idea in community ecology, its challenger, and the middle ground, Part I
Wednesday, August 9, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Annette Ostling, Nathan Sanders, Jeffrey Lake

Throughout the 20th century, the dominant view in ecology has been that species live together in communities only when they have different “niches”; an even slightly better competitor for a niche will drive other species to extinction. The alternative notion—that chance dominates over competitive exclusion to shape communities—has lacked an adequate quantitative formulation. In the 1970's and 80's, random “null models” were pitted against niche-based “assembly rules”, but these were criticized as not incorporating the effects of demographic stochasticity, evolutionary history, and dispersal limitation. More recently, a “neutral theory” of biodiversity has been proposed that incorporates many of these effects. At the same time, ecologists' understanding of the niche and the evolutionary processes leading to it has become more sophisticated. In this symposium and the organized oral session following it, we will take stock of what we have learned about community assembly in the past 30 years. We will explore the debate between an idea so established it has become an icon and the latest version of the upstart notion challenging it. We will focus on the middle ground, where researchers are sorting out when the different forces of community assembly dominate and discovering phenomena arising from the combined action of niches and chance.

From upstart to icon: Geographic Information Systems in plant population ecology: historical perspective and innovative approaches in presentation, analysis, and dissemination of data
Wednesday, August 9, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Summer Scobell, Carol Johnston

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe" (John Muir). The emergence of Geographic Information Systems has catalyzed a new way of doing ecological research. GIS is an integrated system of hardware and software that creates and analyzes map layers of spatially explicit data. In this way, many of the multiple dimensions of an organism's ecological niche can be integrated, visualized, and analyzed in one database. Amazingly, it was less than 15 years ago that the first user-friendly GIS software became commercially available. From that time on, ecologists have used GIS to analyze and disseminate their data in a way that is more effective and efficient than was possible with conventional maps or databases. In 1999 an NSF workshop convened to discuss the emerging field of GIS science. Their report included predictions of the capabilities of GIS in the year 2010, including scenarios of “spatially-enabled” scientists using real-time satellite data, an interactive “Digital Earth” map, and “enhanced reality” goggles that would superimpose GIS information over field sites. It seems appropriate, therefore, to pause this year and take stock of progress in GIS science since 1999 and the innovative ways ecologists have used it in their research. This symposium will cover diverse topics including the USGS Gap Analysis program, landscape genetics, analysis of GIS using structural equation modeling, communicating the spread of plant diseases to/from the public, and predicting the effects of climate change on plant populations. This symposium will bring together ecologists from diverse fields to discuss the past successes and future possibilities of GIS . Our goal is to demonstrate that this once upstart technology is now an extremely versatile icon that can be used in an almost limitless number of ways to analyze and communicate important ideas about ecology both among collaborating scientists and, perhaps more importantly, to the world.

Beyond labeling: comparing the sustainability of conventional and certified alternative farming systems
Wednesday, August 9, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Fabian Menalled, Andrew Hulting, Katie Monsen

Agriculture increasingly depends on off-farm inputs such as fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides to meet the demands of high-yielding crops. Although successful in terms of yield, this approach to farming has been criticized as environmentally, socially, and economically unsustainable. Certified alternative farming practices including organic agriculture are upstarts that challenge the conventional agriculture icon and are promoted as ways to increase or sustain farm profitably while reducing environmental and human risks. But to what extent are these alternative production systems more sustainable than conventional agriculture? How much do we know about the differences between these production methods and what research needs to be proposed to answer these questions? This symposium addresses the sustainability of conventional and alternative production practices by comparing established agroecosystems from multiple perspectives. We conclude the symposium with a panel and audience discussion on how to optimize and prioritize continued research efforts to increase the sustainability of food and fiber production.

When does fear matter? A road map to the implications of trait-mediated effects to ecology
Wednesday, August 9, 8-11:30 am
Organizers: Evan Preisser, Geoffrey Trussell, Earl Werner

Predators eat prey and prey try to avoid being eaten; this statement embodies both classical (predators affect prey populations via consumption) and more recent (predator avoidance may itself incur significant costs to prey populations) approaches to community ecology. Traditional models have emphasized consumptive or density effects to predator-prey interactions but recent work has indicated that community dynamics are strongly influenced by the effects of non-lethal interactions between predators and their prey. Although ecologists are often aware of the potential importance of prey responses to predation risk (‘trait-mediated effects'), these effects are rarely explicitly incorporated into studies because of the difficulty of disentangling the role of trait-mediated and density-mediated effects. The influence of non-lethal effects on prey growth, life history, and resource use can reinforce or oppose density-mediated effects, making the outcome of such interactions difficult to predict. This symposium synthesizes theory and empirical research to explore the factors influencing the relative importance of trait- and density-mediated effects in ecological communities. We seek to provide a ‘road map' that details when and where researchers need to account for such effects and identifies the potential mechanisms driving these effects in each case. We address how trait-mediated effects may fundamentally change our approach to issues such as the impact of invasive versus native predators, the effect of consumers on diversity-functioning relationships, and the use of trophic cascade theory for managing natural communities. Other presentations will explore the implications of trait-mediated effects to spatial ecology and theoretical developments and how these effects ‘scale up' as more species are added to a community. We conclude with a round-table discussion on gaps in our knowledge base and suggested directions for theoretical and empirical research.

Scientific teaching in environmental education: focus group discussions
Wednesday, August 9, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Bob Pohlad, Kathy Williams

During the 2005 ESA Meeting in Montreal a number of the education section members met to discuss "what, why, and how" we can help faculty succeed at scientific teaching in ecology. Eight focus groups were established including: 1) Standards—what do we want them to know/do; 2) Issues of diversity in class; 3) Public understanding; 4) Literature review based on cognition; 5) Distance learning; 6) Field work and IT; 7) Diagnostic assessment tools; and 8) Course design. Online discussion through the Education Section web site until the Annual Meeting will refine these groups. This session will include breakout groups to propose the next steps for action. Lunch is provided.

How to integrate educational outreach in your research studies
Wednesday, August 9, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Alice Levine

Have you ever thought about incorporating educational outreach in your research? GK-12 or related science outreach programs are becoming more commonplace in universities, providing opportunities for graduate students and professors to interact with young students. For individual researchers though, it's difficult to integrate these experiences into their own studies if they don't have the resources, know-how, or support from a larger outreach program. However, it's vital for individual scientists to learn to better communicate and continue working with the non-science community, instead of just with other scientists. Making this transition is the next great leap to developing a society that values, supports, and rewards interactions between scientists and laymen. Don't miss this workshop! All of these issues and more will be discussed by a panel of professors, graduate students, and educational outreach program coordinators with varying levels of experience integrating students and laymen volunteers into their research. Lunch is provided.

The bruchid bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus , a model system for inquiry-based undergraduate laboratories
Wednesday, August 9, 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Lawrence Blumer, Christopher Beck

Bean beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), are tropical and subtropical agricultural pest insects. This species is among the most tractable and robust laboratory animal systems but it is not widely used outside of research laboratories. C. maculatus is extremely easy to manipulate and maintain and has a very rapid life cycle. Extensive past and present research on C. maculatus (more than 150 journal articles in the past 10 years) provides opportunities for connections between undergraduate laboratory studies and research in ecology, evolutionary biology, and animal behavior. The purpose of this workshop is to develop faculty expertise in the use of C. maculatus in undergraduate laboratory courses. Bean beetle culture information will be presented in this workshop including: natural history, life cycle, culture techniques, generation time at different temperatures, sex identification, handling techniques, mating beetles, and isolating virgins. Participants will get hands-on experience working with live bean beetles. An oviposition-substrate choice experimental protocol will be introduced that can be readily implemented as an inquiry-based study in introductory or advanced undergraduate laboratory courses. In this experiment, we will test the hypothesis that female bean beetles discriminate between seeds of the species from which they emerged (natal seeds) and seeds of another species that are readily accepted as an oviposition substrate. Participants will each receive a live bean beetle culture to take, a hardcopy of our bean beetle handbook, information about laboratory protocols being developed, and web resources available at our website: www.beanbeetles.org. Lunch is provided.

Ecology in an undergraduate curriculum
Wednesday , August 9 , 11 :30 am-1:15 pm
Organizers: Jason Taylor, Saran Twombly, Carol Brewer, Jen Marangelo

In 1996, the Ecological Society of America ( ESA ) sponsored a survey of Ecology in the Undergraduate Curriculum that was sent to members at 318 institutions. Results from this survey (Brewer 1998) have motivated significant change in science education. ESA has been at the forefront of these changes through its sponsorship of innovative teaching approaches, programs to increase diversity, and its recognition of the contributions of ecological educators with the prestigious Odum Education Award. In 2004 the Education and Human Resources committee of ESA conducted a new survey to assess what progress has been made over the last 5–10 years and to identify key challenges in educating undergraduates in the broad field of ecology. This lunchtime workshop will present the result of this survey and explore with participants how data from the survey help us develop a profile of how ecology is taught. Lunch is provided.

Mucking through multi-factor experiments: design and analysis of multi-factor studies in global change research
Wednesday, August 9, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Aimee Classen

Progress has been made in the past decade to understand terrestrial ecosystem responses to climatic change using numerous single-factor and a limited number of multi-factor experiments. Model-based analyses have also been widely used to speculate on future ecosystem responses, but their predictions remain largely untested. There is an increasing awareness that multiple, and often confounded, environmental variables may dictate the structure and function of ecosystems. Therefore, in order to answer the question “What are the potential consequences of global environmental change for ecological systems?” multi-factor experiments are needed. Multi-factor experiments are complicated by design, however, and they demand a concomitant increase in the conceptual and analytical complexity of statistical analyses for their interpretation. This symposium will bring together researchers from a variety of projects, backgrounds, and expertise to discuss our collective ability to understand and interpret the results from multi-factor experiments. The symposium will conclude with an open discussion by panel members and the audience on future multi-factor experimental design and synthesis.

The urban food web: how humans alter the state and interactions of trophic dynamics
Wednesday, August 9, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Paige Warren, Chris Tripler, Chris Lepczyk, Jason Walker

Urbanization is an ecological process that is rapidly altering food web dynamics on the global stage. However, food web theories traditionally have not addressed human influences explicitly. Few ecological systems are free of anthropogenic effects. Human influence may be encountered in any of the pathways of a food web from altering resources (e.g., fertilization) to the extirpation of some consumers and predators of others (e.g., domestic cats). Nowhere is this more evident than in urban environments where humans pervasively and simultaneously alter all levels of trophic structure. In this symposium, we will ask: Are current food web theories robust enough to account for the novel impacts of anthropogenic influences? Can we develop general and predictive models of human impacts on food web dynamics? Speakers will integrate results from urban ecological experiments with new and existing theoretical models from both the social and biophysical sciences.

Plant clonal growth – ecological implications
Wednesday, August 9, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Scott Franklin, Vladimir Douhovnikoff, Paul Gagnon

The capacity for clonal growth is widespread in the plant kingdom and predominant in many ecosystems. For example, perhaps 80% of understory flora in eastern deciduous forests have the capacity to produce independent shoots genetically identical to the parent. Numerous trees and shrubs are also recognized as clonal including aspen, coast redwood, and some of North America 's most aggressive invasive species (e.g., Ailanthus ). Aspects of clonal growth include: 1) modular and decentralized organization of the plant body; 2) architectural plasticity and plant mobility; 3) resource and information sharing between plant ramets; and 4) exceptional genotype persistence and genetic representation. Despite the profound ecological and evolutionary implications, the extent of clonality remains largely understudied, particularly in woody plants. Research in the field is thus far limited in the United States and is predominantly found in the international literature. This symposium brings together established experts (icons) and younger researchers (upstarts) with two goals: 1) to review the ecological implications of clonal growth; and 2) to compare the better-studied herbaceous clonal systems (icons) with more recently studied woody clonal systems (upstarts).

Niche verses neutral: a look at an iconic idea in community ecology, its challenger, and the middle ground, Part II
Wednesday, August 9, 1:30-5 pm
Organizers: Annette Ostling, Nathan Sanders, Jeffrey Lake

This session is a continuation of the symposia with the same name. Throughout the 20th century, the dominant view in ecology has been that species live together in communities only when they have different “niches”; an even slightly better competitor for a niche will drive other species to extinction. The alternative notion—that chance dominates over competitive exclusion to shape communities—has lacked an adequate quantitative formulation. In the 1970's and 80's, random “null models” were pitted against niche-based “assembly rules”, but these were criticized as not incorporating the effects of demographic stochasticity, evolutionary history, and dispersal limitation. More recently, a “neutral theory” of biodiversity has been proposed that incorporates many of these effects. At the same time, ecologists' understanding of the niche and the evolutionary processes leading to it has become more sophisticated. In this symposium and the organized oral session following it, we will take stock of what we have learned about community assembly in the past 30 years. We will explore the debate between an idea so established it has become an icon and the latest version of the upstart notion challenging it. We will focus on the middle ground, where researchers are sorting out when the different forces of community assembly dominate and discovering phenomena arising from the combined action of niches and chance.

What editors want: do's and dont's for submitting your manuscript
Wednesday, August 9, 6:30-10 pm
Organizers: Elizabeth Harp, Abraham Miller-Rushing, Liz Ferguson

Have you ever wondered what editors look for when combing through droves of manuscript submissions? Just how do you get your manuscript to the top of the pile? In this session participants will learn what editors look for when deciding which articles get considered for publication. Editors from a variety of ecological journals will discuss how to avoid common mistakes when writing and submitting papers for publication. They will also give hints and tips about topics like copyright permissions, citations, and more. In addition, speakers will discuss current publishing trends and publishing biases. A question and answer session will follow the presentations; presentations will be kept short in order to allow plenty of time for lively discussion. More information, including a detailed speaker list, can be found at www.esa.org/students. This session is aimed at students, post-docs, and early-career ecologists, but attendance is open to all. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served, and beer and wine will be available for purchase.

International research in US Geological Survey
Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: Jacoby Carter, Sybil Carter

The US Geological Survey (USGS) is the science agency for the US Department of Interior and is comprised of five disciplines: Biology, Geography,Water, Geology, and Geospatial Information. The USGS carries out international activities as a complement to its domestic programs and is providing scientific and technical assistance in more than 100 countries. This evening session will go over some of the international projects in which the USGS is involved and discuss how these collaborations come about.

Ecological ethics: examining the neglected ethical context of ecological decision-making
Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: Ben Minteer, James Collins

Ecological research and decision-making can raise all sorts of complicated ethical questions, among them ecologists' responsibilities to the scientific community, public welfare, research animals, wild and captive species, and ecosystems. Answering these questions is challenging because ecologists do not have the equivalent of bioethics, an established field with a support network focused mainly on biomedicine, to help them recognize and sort through the various ethical issues surrounding their research. In this session, an interdisciplinary group of prominent environmental ethicists and ecologists will therefore begin to map the territory of a new approach in science ethics, “ecological ethics,” illustrating its practical and conceptual dimensions. Topics to be covered include the role of professional codes in shaping the ethical context of ecology, the value dimensions of ecological research and conservation practices (such as relocation and restoration), and consideration of the wider linkages between the new ecological ethics and environmental science policy.

NEON : at the starting line
Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: David Kirschtel, Jeffrey Goldman, Bruce Hayden, William Michener

NEON , the National Ecological Observatory Network, is a continental-scale research platform that will consist of a geographically distributed infrastructure, networked via state-of-the-art communications to support research and education on major national environmental challenges spanning regional to continental scales. A core design element of NEON is to provide facilities for scientists, engineers, and educators to conduct real-time ecological studies spanning all levels of biological organization across temporal and geographical scales. With the goal of helping educators and scientists understand how NEON will fit into their upcoming curricula and research programs, the workshop will serve to update the ecological community on NEON 's development as the project prepares to make the transition from design phase to deployment and operations. Following their presentations on the current status of key components of NEON , the speakers and additional panelists will participate in an extended question and answer session with workshop attendees.

Haida Gwaii, a natural laboratory...or...Is there trouble with Bambi?
Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: Jean-Louis Martin, Blangy Sylvie

This session will present a 52 minute TV documentary on the effects of abundant deer populations on plant and animal diversity in temperate forests, followed by a post-viewing discussion about “icon Bambi” and its ecological effects. The film shows how scientists from France and Canada have used the introduction of non native black-tailed deer to the islands of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia , Canada , as a natural experiment to tease apart the cascade of effects that link deer, plants, and animals. These results shed new light on the ecological consequences of high deer populations and, indirectly, on the benefits of the return of their natural predators. The film also documents the way local people perceive the changes that occur within their forests. The documentary was produced in 2004 by France5 and CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research, France).

Evaluating the success of ecological restoration programs: the challenge of integrating ecology and social science

Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: Diana Lane , Kate LeJeune, Matthew Birnbaum, Collette Charbonneau

Originally considered to be an “upstart” activity, ecological restoration programs have grown in number, size, and funding level over the past decades. In this session, we will focus on the challenge of engaging in multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary evaluation for restoration programs that can involve many different kinds of individual projects. What measures, metrics, or suites of indicators do ecologists use to evaluate the success of a program of restoration actions (i.e., looking beyond the results of individual projects)? What types of evaluation approaches are used by economists and other social scientists? This evening session will bring together ecologists, economists, social scientists, and agency personnel to share their experiences of managing and evaluating restoration programs. Brief presentations by panel members representing a diversity of viewpoints and experiences will be followed by an interactive discussion open to all. This is an opportunity to think critically about what evaluation means from ecological, economic, and social science perspectives.

Environmental justice and ESA : ecologists and practitioners in dialogue. Implementing a vision for research, education, and outreach

Wednesday, August 9, 8-10 pm
Organizers: Leanne Jablonski, George Middendorf, Rachel O'Malley, Charles Nilon

The Environmental Justice (EJ) Working Group promotes the engagement of ecologists in addressing environmental injustice issues. EJ demands that there be no disproportionate impact on any one group and that there be full inclusion in environmental decision-making. Our goal is that all ESA members should understand the relationship between ecology and EJ and should work to address EJ issues. We are promoting these by: 1) educating members in EJ principles by producing an ESA Position Paper, identifying ESA members with expertise and interest relevant to EJ, and assisting ecologists in identifying EJ-relevant dimensions of their field; and 2) encouraging interactions with other organizations engaged in EJ issues, as well as collaborating with other professional organizations involved in major environmental projects. This year's annual meeting symposium, Linking Ecology and Environmental Justice, brings together leading ecologists who will reflect on the relationship of EJ and their ecological sub-discipline, with the goals of illustrating how ecologists can conduct science that is useful in decision making related to EJ issues and to encourage the development of research that incorporates societal concerns and community issues in design. In this discussion, a panel of EJ-practitioners, including some with experience in Memphis , will respond to the symposium presenters and share perspectives on what is needed from ecology and ecologists to address EJ-issues. Insights from a spring workshop between ecologists and practitioners will also be shared. Participants are invited to join the dialogue and provide feedback to our proposed next steps in advancing research, outreach and education initiatives.