Introduction to Series

Abstract

Several years ago, then President of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), Ronald Pulliam, appointed Vice President Judy Meyer to chair a committee to evaluate whether ESA should publish a series of white papers designed to better communicate scientific findings on environmental issues to elected officials and the public. The committee recommended that such a series be initiated, and the recommendation was approved by the membership. The concept ultimately evolved into Issues in Ecology, a new series of publications jointly sponsored by ESA and the Pew Foundation, and edited by David Tilman. Each Issues in Ecology report will present the findings of a Review and Synthesis Panel composed of scientists with expertise on a particular environmental issue. Each report will undergo full peer and editorial review. Typically, two forms of each report will be produced. The first will be the official technical report of the Review and Synthesis Panel, and the second will be a report rewritten by a science writer to make it more accessible to nonscientists. The nontechnical report' will be published as a 12-20 page pamphlet that can be distributed to interested audiences, including elected officials, federal and state agency personnel, other decision-makers, and educators of high school and college students. In addition, it seems desirable that the official technical reports also be made available to the scientific community through publication in a scientific journal. Given the applied nature of the topics to be addressed in Issues in Ecology, and the fact that these will be reports of the Ecological Society of America, it is appropriate that the technical reports be considered for publication in Ecological Applications. We now present the first Issues in Ecology report to be published in Ecological Applications. This timely report on Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: sources and was produced by a panel chaired by Peter Vitousek. This report describes the extent and magnitude of human impacts on the nitrogen cycle, pointing out the diverse consequences that human activities can have. The report is an ideal one with which to initiate the series, given the extent to which nitrogen-related problems are at the forefront of environmental issues worldwide and the degree to which ecological science has contributed to an improved understanding of the nitrogen cycle and human effects on it. Other panels of ecologists currently are working on additional reports for the Issues in Ecology series. We anticipate the publication of additional reports in future issues of Ecological Applications and hope that readers find these reports to be timely and informative.