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2010 EcoArts Winners

EcoFilm Competition 2010 Winners

  • 1st place - Natalie Melaschenko, Rebecca Martone and Kristine Metzger - "Kelp, why we otter care"


  • 2nd place - Nancy Adamson - "Bee Pollinators of Southwest Virginia"


  • 3rd place - Clark Dehart - "Topsail Turtles"



EcoPhoto Competition 2010

As part of its efforts connect science with society and communicate science and ecological stewardship through the arts, the ESA Student Section holds an annual Eco-Photo competition, in which ESA members are invited to submit photos that relay a message about their ecological research or a relevant environmental issue. The 2010 Eco-Photo competition, open to all ESA members, was co-sponsored by Fine Print Imaging & Art for Conservation and Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens; and included a judging panel consisting of a mix of professional scientists and photographers, including Nalini Nadkarni, Stephanie Hampton, Terry Chapin, Mary Power, Morgan Heim, Neil Osborne, Joe Riis and Molly Steinwald. Winners received cash awards, photo printing gift certificates, commemorative plaques, and exhibit of their photos at the ESA annual meeting and in Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens’ art gallery in Pittsburgh, PA.

Winners

Stoplight Parrotfish
 1st place: Stoplight Parrotfish
Submitted by: Holly Mueller
School Name: Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

Location: John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo, FL.

Description: Though this stoplight parrotfish and its surroundings in John Pennekamp State Park look healthy at first glance, experienced snorkellers and divers often remark on how much the coral reef ecosystems of the Florida Keys have changed. Nutrient and sediment runoff from land, combined with increasing tourist pressure, have killed much of the original coral cover and left the
remainder highly vulnerable to storms, changing water temperatures, and ocean acidification. Today, another threat looms large: oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill may be swept across Florida's coral reefs by prevailing ocean currents.
The Green Balloon
 2nd place: The Green Balloon
Submitted by: Ethan Welty
School Name: University of Colorado at Boulder

Location: Whitechuck Glacier, Glacier Peak Wilderness, WA.

Description: A ruptured green balloon, carelessly set free from somewhere in the lowlands, lies among ice worms, slowly photodegrading on the Whitechuck Glacier near Glacier Peak in Washington's North Cascades. Ice worms inhabit glaciers (and only glaciers) in the coastal ranges from southern Alaska to Oregon, feeding on cold-tolerant algae and bacteria that also make snow and ice their home. The glacier has retreated rapidly in the last century, and is likely do disappear in our own - the ice worms, adapted to life on the glacier surface, will disappear with it.
Leaf Cutter Ants
 3rd place: Leaf Cutter Ants
Submitted by: Adam Wilson
School Name: University of Connecticut

Location: La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica.

Description: A river of leaf cutter ants carries bits of leaves to their underground farm. A 30 second exposure and flashlight were used to capture the ants in motion.
Spider
 People's Choice: Traversing the Graduate Student Landscape: the Life of a Lonely Jumping Spider
Submitted by: Sean Ryan
School Name: University of Notre Dame

Location: My desk.

Description: This is an image of a lonely jumping spider, traversing across the heavily fragmented landscape known as a graduate student’s desk. Here in this environment the spider reigns supreme, sitting atop the trophic food web as the dominant predator in this ecosystem. Fruit flies beware! For even in environments devoid of all things natural, where incandescent bulbs replace the warm energy of the sun and plastic and chemicals dominate a seemingly sterile landscape, we can be reminded that life remains resilient.