Press Releases — Page 26

For Immediate Release: Monday, 17 June 2013 Contact: Nadine Lymn (202) 833-8773 x 205; gro.asenull@enidan or Liza Lester (202) 833-8773 x 211; gro.asenull@retsell     During the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) 98th Annual Meeting, the Society will present ten awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology.  The awards ceremony will take place on Monday, August 5 at 8 AM in the auditorium…

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce its 2013 fellows. The Society’s fellows program recognizes the many ways in which our members contribute to ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and to management and policy.

Perceived food safety risk from wildlife drives expensive and unnecessary habitat destruction around farm fields. Meticulous attention to food safety is a good thing. As consumers, we like to hear that produce growers and distributers go above and beyond food safety mandates to ensure that healthy fresh fruits and vegetables do not carry bacteria or viruses that can make us sick. But in California’s Salinas Valley, some more vigorous interventions are cutting into the last corners of wildlife habitat and potentially threatening water quality, without evidence of food safety benefits.

The Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) long-standing program to diversify the field of ecology recently got another boost from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The federal research agency awarded ESA a grant of $183,158 to support the Society’s “Diverse People for a Diverse Science” project. Not only will the funding go to key existing program components, such as research fellowships, it will also fund an independent evaluation of SEEDS.

Ecological dimensions of biofuels: a report on the state of the science. Looking to tributaries for conservation gains: a case study in large river fish of the Mississippi Basin. Oyster reefs buffer acidic inputs to Chesapeake Bay.

August 4 – 9 Sustainable Pathways: Learning From the Past and Shaping the Future   The Ecological Society of America’s 98th annual meeting “Sustainable Pathways: Learning From the Past and Shaping the Future” will meet in in Minneapolis, Minn., from Sunday evening, August 4, to Friday morning, August 9, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Early bird registration opens the first…

Cape Cod, Massachusetts has a problem. The iconic salt marshes of the famous summer retreat are melting away at the edges, dying back from the most popular recreational areas. The erosion is a consequence of an unexpected synergy between recreational over-fishing and Great Depression-era ditches constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) in an effort to control mosquitoes. The cascade of ecological cause and effect is described by Tyler Coverdale and colleagues at Brown University in a paper published online this month in ESA’s journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“People who live near the marshes complain about the die-off because it’s not nice to look at,” said Coverdale. “Without cordgrass protection you also get really significant erosion, retreating at sometimes over a meter a year.” The die-back is ugly, but it is also a substantial loss of a valuable ecological resource.

Educators & scientists to swap ideas for a robust biology classroom   For immediate release: 11 March, 2013 Contact Nadine Lymn, (202) 833-8773 x 205; gro.asenull@enidan Say you’re a plant biologist who wants to devise educational components for your research project but you’re not sure what might work well for high school students.  Or say you’re a high school biology…

Future of Alaskan forests, proliferation of plastic greenhouses, and the intersection of watershed protection and urban renewal   Weighing the costs and benefits of plastic vegetable greenhouses The economic benefits of intensive vegetable cultivation inside plastic greenhouses, particularly for small-holders, have driven a rapid mushrooming of long plastic tents in farmlands worldwide – but particularly in China, where they cover…

ESA’s Leadership Meeting for Underrepresented Students   For immediate release: February 13, 2013 Contact: Nadine Lymn 202.833.8773, ext. 205; gro.asenull@enidan “Just watch these students—watch for their names.  They will continue to shine and you will keep coming across their names.  Some are already taking leadership roles and after this meeting will be doing even more to help bring ecology alive.” Teresa…