Fossil trees in Antarctica show us that climate has changed greatly in the past. Suppose the current warming is just part of a longer trend that we can’t do anything about?

Have you noticed the changing “ecosystem” banner photo on the ESA home page? How about the pictures of ecologists (that’s you!)? We will be featuring a new ecosystem once each month, and changing the other pictures periodically.

I was struck between the parity between the ongoing discussion on this blog about the usage of blogs in academia and Sunday’s New York Times article on how the intelligence community is using blogs and wikis for information synthesis, and a recent post at evolgen asking if there were any ecologists in the blogosphere.

Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio discusses “The role of ecological theory and practice in poverty alleviation and environmental conservation,” in the latest Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

ESA’s News and Views Blog is something that is long overdue. Its mission to engage students is especially valuable. For academics in particular, however, the ESA Blog presents some intriguing and important implications and consequences for the process of publication. I would like to encourage some discussion of this.

When we were introduced to the concept of this ESA blog, we were asked to write about what makes us proud to be ecologists.

Right now, a constitution is being written for the globe. In it, humans are defining what democracy means for the Earth and all of its inhabitants. In this essay, I want to explore some of the reasons why I think science is deeply relevant to the project of writing a global constitution.

Costa Rica is a country of an important ecological and human diversity due to its location and biophysical characteristics. The country has 5% of the world’s species in a geographical territory of 51,100 square kilometers (km), 0.1% of the earth’s surface, and a marine territory of 500,000 square km.

A new vision for New Orleans and the Mississippi delta: applying ecological economics and ecological engineering. Robert Costanza, William J. Mitsch, and John W. Day, Jr . Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, November 2006

We look forward to your sharing information and ideas about the science of ecology and its many applications on our new blog. Since our first meeting in 1915, the ESA has grown from 300 to nearly 10,000 members. The timely exchange of views remains a priority for the ESA and initiation of this blog continues our long tradition of electronic communication among members of the ecological community.

Attention all professors, teachers, teaching assistants, and tutors- the ESA has launched one of the first professional science blogs. The News and Views Blog will feature a series of ecological discussions based upon provocative journal articles and posts by ecologists on current issues or events in ecology.

ESA is exploring how ecology relates to other scientific disciplines. One expression of this exploration is the invitation to scientific practitioners and researchers in related disciplines to become members of ESA. And we want to know what you think.