Each year the Soil Ecology section awards a cash prize recognizing the best student presentation (talk or poster) in soil ecology at the ESA Annual Meeting. Candidates must meet the eligibility requirements for the Buell and Braun awards, but they need not apply to those competitions.  Symposium presentations are eligible for this award. The presentation must describe research used for the graduate (or undergraduate) degree; evaluation criteria are similar to those used for the ESA Buell and Braun Awards. A student may apply several times (in different years) as long as he or she meets the qualifications and has not previously won this award. In some years, separate awards may be made for talk and poster presentations, Section budget allowing.

Students apply for the Section's award by sending an e-mail (with the subject line “ESA SES Student Award”) to the Section Chair by May 1st stating 1) their interest in being an award candidate that year, 2) that they, or a co-author, are a member of the ESA Soil Ecology Section, and 3) that they are eligible for the Buell and Braun Awards. They must also include or attach a copy of their abstract AND a 250-word or less description of why/how the research presented will advance the field of ecology, with attention to soil ecology.  Click here to download application.

2006 Annual Meeting Awards:

Seven students competed for the ESA Soil Ecology Section’s student presentation award at the 2006 annual meeting in Memphis, Tennessee.  The high overall quality of these presentations is one indication of the valuable contributions students are making to soil ecology, and to ecology in general.  Speaking for the judges, I am delighted to congratulate Kristen DeAngelis and Colleen Iversen for their winning presentations.  I also pass along the judges’ congratulations to all of our student participants; we were really impressed with the quality of your work and your presentations.

Many thanks to the thirteen Soil Ecology Section members who generously participated in evaluating student presentations!  I really appreciate your service and solicit your suggestions for improving the evaluation process in future years.  It would be great to increase the level of student participation in this competition and/or initiate alternative efforts that will promote student research in soil ecology and reward them for their achievements.  [Please send comments and suggestions to Julie Whitbeck at jwhitbec@uno.edu.]  The Section is also seeking someone to administer this competition in 2007.

Best Talk

Our award for best student oral contribution in soil ecology goes to Kristen DeAngelis, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, for her talk “Quorum sensing as a control point in rhizosphere nitrogen transformations”.  Describing her work she writes, “Plant growth is fueled by high gross nitrogen mineralization rates in the rhizosphere compared to bulk soil, but the control of N mineralization was poorly understood. We set up microcosms of wild oat planted to sieved California grassland soil to query N cycling and examine soil microbial communities in rhizosphere soil zones compared to bulk soil. Total bacterial counts and quorum sensing signals associated with high cell density were higher in the rhizosphere, as were chitinase and protease activity per cell, DON and low-MW DON pools. In a surprise, community analysis by 16S phylochip revealed that the overall community did not differ dramatically while specific populations comprising 5-10% of the total varied substantially between rhizosphere and bulk soil. These findings indicate the importance of studying specific populations within the community, such as the quorum sensing bacterial population, and challenge the idea that changes in soil function necessarily accompany changes in microbial community composition.”

Best Poster

Our award for best student poster contribution in soil ecology goes to Colleen Iversen, a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, for her poster “Changes in fine-root quantity and quality with elevated CO2: Implications for decomposition and N cycling”.  To better understand how increases in root production and proliferation at depth may affect ecosystem N cycling and C storage, Iversen examined the characteristics and decomposability of fine roots grown under current and elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO2. This research was conducted within the sweetgum plantation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory FACE site. Iversen and her co-authors, Richard Norby and Aimée Classen, reported that elevated CO2 increased the quantity of fine roots within a volume of soil, and that most of the increase in length was in larger diameter fine roots (>0.5 mm).  Thus, elevated CO2 indirectly decreased root quality, because root [N] varied inversely with root diameter and decreased with depth.  Changes in fine root quantity and quality have not affected the decomposability of fine roots at ORNL FACE thus far.  Increased root detritus may increase soil C and N storage under scenarios of elevated CO2, and potentially decrease the soil N available for plant uptake and use.

2004 Annual Meeting Awards:

Best Presentations (two talks tied for this award):

Congratulations to Andrea Thorpe, a graduate student at the University of Montana, for her talk “Effects of Centaurea maculosa on nitrification in North America and Romania: Evidence for novel weapons”.

Congratulations to Sophie Parker, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for her talk “Nitrogen cycling in California grassland soils is influenced by soil texture and plant phenology”.

2003 Annual Meeting Award:

Best Presentation:

Evan Preisser for his talk, "Climate affects predator control of herbivore outbreaks". PREISSER, EVAN L.,* and DONALD R. STRONG. Center for Population Biology, UC Davis, Davis, CA USA.

2000 Annual Meeting Awards:

Best Talk

Anne Pringle Department of Biology Duke University Talk entitled: "Winners never cheat; cheaters never win: species' flexibility and the symmetry of benefit within a mutualism of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plants". Advisors: Janis Antonovics (University of Virginia) and Rytas Vilgalys (Duke University) Current address: University of California, Berkeley

Best Poster

Nicole DeCrappeo Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Colorado State University Poster entitled: "Abiotic and biotic controls on the abundance and distribution of entomopathogenic nematodes in tallgrass prairie." Advisor: Diana Wall (Colorado State University)