The Final Day to Save!
Limited Housing Left
Save up to 15% on your housing for the week in Portland by booking in one of our remaining room blocks -- and help us keep costs down in future years, too.
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2023 Election Candidates
ESA members will elect their next cohort of leaders when the annual election opens in September. The Nominations Committee has put forward this slate of members.
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DEIJ Impacts on ESA
Our EEE Scholars are just one way we've been able to impact participating in the Society and further ecology careers for marginalized scientists.
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Field Trip Endowment Status
A SEEDS Henry L. Gholz National Field Trip endowment announcement.
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Certification
Employers in all sectors value a credential that validates your skill as a professional. Learn more about ongoing changes to ESA certification and start your application today!
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Opportunity Fund Donations
Make a difference and fund programs which empower, educate and embolden both the current and next generation of scientists in the vast field of ecology.
Read moreJournals & Publications
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Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
In the Southern Ocean, extent and quality of sea ice are key to the reproductive success of certain Antarctic pinnipeds such as the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). When sea-ice concentrations fall below 10%, researchers capture fewer seal vocalizations – recorded underwater and serving as a proxy for seal presence and reproductive activity. This finding, by Roca et al. in the June issue of Frontiers, indicates that sea-ice-dependent seals may lack the capacity to adjust the timing of their breeding in response to short-term changes in environmental conditions, which is critical given intensified climate-change impacts in polar regions.
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Ecology
Patches of perennial grasses now remain of the once-expansive arid grasslands on the Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico, USA. In their study in the July issue of Ecology, Christensen et al. investigated temporal patterns of perennial grass cover from 1915–2016. During most of the 20th century, grass cover was correlated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), a multi-decadal cyclical climate teleconnection. However, observed grass cover since 1995 has been consistently below predictions, suggesting a recent breakdown in the historical relationship between vegetation and the PDO.
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Ecosphere
On the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.), such as the one shown here consuming the reef-building coral Acropora, are a major driver of coral mortality. In the June issue of Ecosphere, Castro-Sanguino et al. report on two models simulating dynamics of reef communities to evaluate the effectiveness of the current control program and to provide a framework for maximizing the benefits of control of outbreaks to ensure coral persistence.
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Ecological Applications
Recognizing that collaborative efforts are needed to solve existing and emerging environmental problems, the "Broadening Perspectives" special feature in the July 2023 issue of Ecological Applications highlights research that explores human dimensions of applied ecology and ecological disruptions such as the drivers and consequences of environmental change that impact communities of color. The six papers in this special feature are fully open access. The cover image highlights a native bumble bee foraging on blooming Epilobium densiflorum in western Oregon, USA, from a study by Zitomer et al. in the July issue showing a diversity of native bee species are found in intensively managed conifer plantations shortly after clearcut harvest, but bee communities erode rapidly as stands age and the forest canopy re-establishes.
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Ecological Monographs
Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments can be used to better understand the mechanisms behind diversity and ecosystem functions relationships. The BEF-China tree diversity experiment site is pictured here during early morning in September 2019. In their study published in the May issue of Ecological Monographs, Beugnon et al. studied the mechanisms behind tree diversity effects on microbial biomass and soil carbon concentration at this site. Their results highlight strong effects of forest diversity on soil microbial biomass and carbon by driving forest productivity, tree functional traits, and micro-environmental conditions.
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Bulletin
In the July issue of the ESA Bulletin, a commentary from Steward T. A. Pickett asks whether it is time to retire the term "non-academic" and explores the impacts of the label. Pickett suggests alternative approaches to foster inclusion between those in ecological careers in academia and other sectors. The piece is especially timely: ESA's 108th Annual Meeting in August 2023—"ESA for All Ecologists"—seeks to better engage private- and public-sector ecologists and promote collaboration across sectors.