WELCOME . . . to the Plant Population Ecology section of the Ecological Society of America. The purpose of this site is to facilitate interactions among researchers in plant population biology.

Highlighted Young PPE Member of the Month

Dr. Rafael  Rubio de Casas

Rubio de Casas, R., Kovach, K., Dittmar, E., Barua, D., Barco, B., and Donohue, K. 2012. Seed after-ripening and dormancy determine adult life history independently of germination timing. New Phytologist 194(3): 868-879.

 
The environmental conditions experienced by embryos can dramatically influence the adult phenotype of organisms. Plant embryos develop within seeds. However, it has never been explicitly tested how the seed environment affects the adult phenotype. Rubio de Casas et al. used manipulative experiments to show that flowering phenology changed in response to the environment experienced during the embryo stage: regardless of their dormancy level, seeds that received longer chilling treatments produced plants that flowered earlier. These results prove that dormant seeds are more “active” than it might seem and that the integration of plant life history and the environment is more complex than previously recognized.

Postdoctoral Excellence Award

The Plant Population Ecology (PPE) section of the Ecological Society of America and Journal of Ecology was pleased to award the Plant Population Ecology Postdoctoral Excellence Award, sponsored by Journal of Ecology, to Jennifer Williams at this year’s ESA meeting in Portland, Oregon. This award recognizes an outstanding contribution to plant population ecology published in Journal of Ecology within the past three years by a postdoctoral member of the PPE section. Jennifer was recognized for her 2011 paper, “Distance to stable stage distribution in plant populations and implications for near-term population projections,” co-authored by Jennifer L. Williams, Martha M. Ellis, Mary C. Bricker, Jedediah F. Brodie, and Elliot W. Parsons. (Journal of Ecology 99: 1171-1178). This exceptional paper represents a robust test of a fundamental assumption of population projection matrices—a widely used tool in plant population ecology—and successfully bridges the gap between theory and application in this field. Congratulations, Jennifer!

2011 PPE Student Travel Awards Announced

The Plant Population Ecology (PPE) Section of the ESA is proud to announce the 2011 PPE student travel awardees. This recognition highlights the advancements made by young members of our section in the field of plant population ecology. The awards, which help defray the cost of attending the ESA meeting, will be handed to the awardees during the PPE business meeting & mixer during the ESA annual conference in Austin (Aug 10, Wed, 6.30p-8p in room Travis II, Radisson Hotel). Please join us then to celebrate their achievements, socialize and discuss the future directions of the Section!

The winners are:

Christopher Bowman- Prideaux (California State University, Northridge)
Scott Chamberlain (Rice University)
Aldo Compagnoni (Utah State University)
Kimberly Kellett (University of Georgia)
Abigail Kula (University of Maryland)
Sean Michaletz (University of Calgary)
Ian Pfingsten (Oregon State University)
Rob Strahan (Northern Arizona University)

Registration and login

You must register and login to use the more advanced features of this site, such as forum participation. Registration is open to all researchers in our field -- you need not be an ESA member. We will verify email addresses and other information provided before activating your account. If you are not registered but would like to post a job, conference, or research opportunity, please contact Rachel Spigler.

What does registration get you?

Registration benefits you (and helps keep this site secure). Registering (1) lists you in our directory, (2) lets you see and search the directory, (3) allows you to post to discussion forums, (4) allows you to post announcements for events, (5) allows you to post ads for jobs, and (6) allows you to post to and receive our Newsletter. Registration data are well-protected against spammers -- email addresses aren't visible to web robots. And registration only takes a minute. If you are not in this field but want site-relevant material available on the site, you may send it to Rachel Spigler our web liaison, for posting: rbs12@pitt.edu. (You may want to check current postings and see whether your information already has been posted.)

And if you have already registered and are having trouble logging on even after using the automatic password reset feature, contact Rachel off-site at her institutional address above for additional help.

Website Issues

If you have any difficulties or problems with the PPE website, contact Rachel Spigler so we can fix them as quickly as possible. If you can't remember/want to change your user name, or if you want to delete an old or duplicated profile, Rachel can help you with that too. To send her an email within the site click here. If you are having problems logging on, send an e-mail to him at my institutional e-mail address, visible under Section Officers: rbs12@pitt.edu.

When you send Rachel an E-mail, please put "PPE Website" in the subject line.

If you have suggestions about things to add to the site or any suggestions on how we can make this a better, more helpful site for our members, please let me know.