Update: Vegetation Panel Activities at ESA’s 2020 Annual Meeting goes Virtual!

This year’s ESA Annual Meeting is convening virtually, from August 3rd to 6th. The meeting will feature a variety of live virtual Q&A’s, asynchronous Q&A’s, and live networking sessions throughout the day. The Vegetation Panel activities include a virtual booth, organized oral session, Inspire session, and a mixer with the Vegetation Section. Don’t forget to register to access all of the activities!

For the past 25 years, the ESA Panel on Vegetation Classification has worked to ensure the scientific rigor of the classification and facilitate its development, collaborating with other organizations and agencies in the USNVC Partnership. The Panel oversees a peer review process to ensure the quality and consistency of proposed changes to the USNVC and conducts outreach activities to assist with awareness and implementation. The panel will be hosting a virtual booth titled: US National Vegetation Classification and ESA Panel on Vegetation Classification.

The Vegetation Panel has also planned an Organized Oral Session titled: Documenting and Tracking Vegetation in the 21st Century. This session will illustrate the current state of knowledge of vegetation classification. Presenters will discuss the importance of characterizing vegetation communities for monitoring, modeling, risk assessment, conservation planning, and using the classification system to answer questions about long-term ecological change. Habitat loss is the main factor that contributes to loss of biodiversity, which in turn negatively affects loss of ecosystem function. In order to mitigate the numerous anthropogenic impacts on habitat, standardized classification across regional, national, and international borders are more important than ever.

Butte Valley, image of grasslands with two trees in background

Source: U.S. Forest Service

The Plant Science Research Network will be hosting an Inspire Session  titled: The Plant Science Decadal Vision for 2020-2030: Reimagining the potential of Plants for a Healthy Future. The PSRN is developing a document representing plant sciences, from molecules to ecosystems, and is focusing on the research, people, and technology that will move plant sciences forward over the next 10 years. Presenters will discuss the potential of plants, community plant scientists, historic collections, genetics, and food security that will ultimately illustrate the decadal vision of plant sciences and highlight areas of interest to ESA members.

Finally, join us for the joint Vegetation Section and ESA Vegetation Panel mixer on Wednesday, August 5th from 4-5PM EST.

Find the full schedule for all ESA Live Q&A sessions as well as the on demand presentations and interactive features starting on Monday, August 3rd here.