Ecological Society Of America Research Articles

Tropical forests and global change: biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023.

Tropical forests and global change: biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023.

Expression of Concern: Trait variation across biological scales shapes community structure and ecosystem function.

Start, D. and Gilbert, B., Trait variation across biological scales shapes community structure and ecosystem function. Ecology, 2019, (https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2769). This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 3 September 2019 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been published by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Ecological Society of America, Benjamin Gilbert and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The decision to express concern involves Figure S10, for which the Editor in Chief and co-author have been unable to reconcile the description in the Methods (which suggests a integer response variable for the number of Daphnia eaten in an individual trial) with the decimal values that appear in this supplemental figure. We therefore cannot be certain in the finding reported in the first paragraph of the Results of a concave-down relationship between Daphnia consumption and Epitheca activity. Our attempts to seek clarification from the author (Dr. Start) went unanswered.

Twenty years of Frontiers

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Our two decades in publication offer much to celebrate! Under the expert leadership of founding editor-in-chief Sue Silver, Frontiers was introduced as an experiment in publishing for the Ecological Society of America (ESA). A new type of journal, Frontiers bucked the norm in several ways. One of Frontiers’ hallmarks – part of its ongoing legacy – was its inclusion of non-peer-reviewed content, including editorials, science news, and essays, as well as themed series (such as “Ethical Issues in Ecology”, “Natural History Notes”, and “Exploring Ecological Careers”), all of which appealed to and provided insight for a diverse audience. Perhaps most influentially, Frontiers challenged the prevailing standards in ecological publishing and expanded the breadth of ESA's existing journals by taking a broadly multidisciplinary – and increasingly interdisciplinary – approach to applied science. The experiment worked! Frontiers’ content created new standards for ESA's publishing endeavor, in which pushing the traditional boundaries of ecological science became normalized. Soon thereafter, prospective authors working at or beyond those boundaries found a home at ESA, followed quickly by research professionals outside of academia. Frontiers has prided itself on uniting diverse audiences around the greater goal of applied environmental and ecological problem solving. For a professional society that has had its share of internecine debates over the role of basic versus applied science, Frontiers helped a forward-looking ESA bolster its position in the field of applied science. Along the way, Frontiers established itself as a premier international science journal. No longer experimental, Frontiers’ diverse content promoted new norms in interdisciplinary problem-oriented science while enjoying broad and meaningful appeal – as reflected in its rapid growth in both quantity and quality of submissions, increased selectivity, upward slope in impact factor, and enviable rankings among both ecology and environmental science journals. Frontiers’ achievements owe so much to its dedicated staff – managing editor Pete Mooreside, assistant editor Sabrina Levey, and their predecessors – and to its extensive community of editorial board members and peer reviewers. This gratitude is of course true for all of ESA's journals, where we care deeply about the roles played and respect deserved by the many individuals whose efforts are essential to our accomplishments. Frontiers’ success has allowed us to focus attention on the concerns of the communities we wish to support. Among the most important challenges we face is to overcome barriers – both longstanding and newly developing – that impede the participation of historically under-represented individuals in publishing. The history of scholarly publishing has been largely white, male, and geographically North American and Western European. At Frontiers, as at ESA more broadly, we take very seriously the challenge of inclusion and equity in publishing. In the past few years, we have made strides to move beyond self-imposed boundaries in our beliefs about the nature of science and its connection to the diverse cultural norms and experiences of the people who undertake it. In this vein, Frontiers, other ESA journals, and ESA programs have partnered with the Society's Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Black Ecologists sections, worked closely with member communities inordinately disadvantaged by the pandemic (such as researchers who are also primary caregivers), and collaborated with other societies and groups to advance goals of equity and inclusion in our publishing endeavors. As scholarly publishing evolves, we will redouble our efforts to face the challenges ahead. Applied ecological and environmental science remains vital to addressing climate instability, landscape change, biodiversity loss, political volatility, and much else. We continue striving to integrate our many goals, most especially publishing cutting-edge, relevant science while elevating the voices of under-represented groups of scholars and practitioners who are dedicated to building the communities that will be necessary to address these problems. I take solace in these efforts as I announce that I will be leaving my position as editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. In the coming weeks, I will step into the role of ESA's Director of Publishing and a new Frontiers editor-in-chief will be named. I am excited to maintain my close relationship with Frontiers and the entire ESA journal portfolio. I close with a half-serious history lesson. One under-recognized aspect of Frontiers’ backstory is that it was “the first Frontiers” – launched in 2003, its title predated those from a subsequent family of unrelated but similarly named journals now ubiquitous in the pantheon of science publishing. In our 20 years, ESA's Frontiers has strived to set a very high standard for inclusive, equitable, cutting-edge science. We look forward to continuing that tradition!

The Intersection of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Open Access in Scholarly Publishing: A Summary from the Ecological Society of America’s Workshop on Exploring Barriers and Solutions

The intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and open access (OA) is a subject the scholarly publishing community has begun to earnestly grapple with in recent years. The focus is to identify barriers to equitable opportunities, how to better understand which principles of social and racial justice and inclusivity can be applied to promote equitable access to scholarly research and knowledge, and strategies to promote equitable opportunities in scholarly publishing.1 By promoting diverse representation, addressing equity barriers, and fostering inclusive practices, DEI principles can be integrated into OA initiatives to promote a scholarly ecosystem that is accessible to, inclusive of, and representative of all.2 Over the course of a day-and-a-half workshop (February 1–2, 2023) organized by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), with funding from the National Science Foundation and hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Washington, DC, thought leaders who care deeply about this issue convened to share their perspectives, wrestle with difficult questions, and develop ideas for how to move the community forward in a more unified direction in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion. Diversity, in the context of this workshop, refers to racial and ethnic diversity, gender diversity, and/or other forms of diversity. The following is a summary of the workshop’s presentations, written by 3 members of the Council of Science Editor (CSE) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee who attended the workshop. The goal of this article is to provide those who were not in attendance a general overview of the workshop’s […]

Art‐based perceptual ecology

Much discussion and effort have been directed toward developing a more diverse membership at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and other professional scientific societies. To better meet diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, these societies must expand their views of diversity, yielding broader participation in the sciences. I am the founder of and research director at Citizen Artist, a participatory science research platform employing art-based perceptual ecology (ABPE) research methodologies to study ecological systems change. At Citizen Artist, we honor multiple ways of knowing – exploring and investigating differently; engaging in unbounded curiosity, imagination, and creativity; and embracing holistic, integrative approaches to scientific practice and thinking. We offer alternative methodologies, tools, and field practices – non-conventional approaches that attract underrepresented populations to participate in science. Extending the parameters of how ecologists conduct field-based science may bolster participation and lead to unexpected and revolutionary solutions for our most pressing issues, such as the impacts of climate change, loss of habitat, and biodiversity decline. Duly note, Citizen Artist is an approved scientific content provider for ESA's Professional Certified Ecologist Program. In the early 1990s, during my graduate studies in art therapy, I was introduced to art-based research (ABR) methodologies, which originated in the social sciences and were designed to work with a human population. I recognized they could have great potential and application to more than human populations. Simultaneous with pursuing a PhD in environmental studies, I envisioned how I could expand ABR methods and frame them within ecological and biological principles to serve field-based scientific research. Through an iterative process, I developed a new methodology and set of tools responding to applied questions within the natural sciences, specifically in studying environmental change. The evolution of this process resulted in the birth of ABPE research methodologies. Historically, ecologists have discussed the need to include interdisciplinarity within our professional practice. At Citizen Artist, we engage in a transdisciplinary approach to science practices – weaving together multiple disciplines’ perspectives, theories, and methods, transcending their traditional boundaries to generate knowledge and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. When creating and collecting data in the field using ABPE methods, the researcher engages in art-based inquiry through a kinesthetic act of “making with the hands” in which neural connections are established and knowledge is constructed. Grounded in multimodal knowledge systems and sensory-based learning, ABPE data communicate through multiple “languages” to tell the land’s story, including the visual language of mark making or drawing, and the languages of metaphor and symbol. Using the visual language at the inquiry stage of scientific thinking has historical ties: consider these connections to important discoveries, such as Galileo's drawings of the moon, or Maria Sibylla Merian's paintings of insect metamorphosis. According to ABPE methods, both the process and the product hold equal value. The art-making process offers a springboard for new insight and questions to arise, ones that had not been considered previously as the information was not yet available. The art product (data) concretizes original knowledge; provides context and frames of reference; and deepens the researcher's understanding of ecological phenomena. The data do not offer finality, but rather a turn in the conversation that often leads to more questions than answers. At Citizen Artist, we are building a diverse, global community trained in best practices within a transdisciplinary research framework, to mutually learn from and explore new pathways to address current ecological challenges. Since the summer of 2020, I have taught an online course, “Introduction to Citizen Artist and Art-Based Research Methods”, offering training in ABPE methodologies for field-based practices and increasing access to science for underserved populations. To date, more than 120 individuals – including researchers, educators, and doctoral and master's students hailing from 14 countries and 22 states – have taken the course, 95% of whom belong to science disciplines (within which 15% are interdisciplinary) and 3% of whom are in the arts. Each of these individuals is working with a larger constituency of stakeholders at universities, government agencies, NGOs, and Indigenous communities. Contrary to our name, there is no need for artistic skills to take the class or engage in ABPE. In conclusion, I believe integrative approaches to science diversify and strengthen the field. Including transdisciplinary approaches to both scientific practices and ways of thinking opens the field to communities of creative co-collaborators, expanding the boundaries of scientific innovation and transformative solutions. For more information on Citizen Artist programs, visit www.citizen-artist.com.

Historically excluded groups in ecology are undervalued and poorly treated

Hostile workplaces undermine efforts to make the ecological sciences more inclusive and welcoming. Survey responses by members of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and subscribers to the ECOLOG‐L listserv provide a snapshot of a range of workplace experiences in ecology. The bottom line: identity matters. Although the majority of respondents reported positive workplace experiences (for instance, receiving mentorship), historically excluded groups – including scientists of color; women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, asexual, and other non‐heterosexual (LGBQPA+) individuals; and those who identify as disabled – on average were 1.5 times more likely to encounter negative workplace experiences (for instance, sexual harassment, interpersonal mistreatment, and insulting behaviors) as compared to their counterparts in the historical majority. Moreover, historically excluded groups were more likely to report opting out of professional opportunities, more likely to have considered leaving their institution, and twice as likely to consider a career change. We provide recommendations for professional associations, academic institutions, and other employers of ecologists to address interpersonal mistreatment through culture and policy changes.

Peer‐Reviewed Embedded Pedagogy: A New Approach to Promote and Improve Active Learning in Science Education

Active learning increases student performance in STEM disciplines. Open educational resources (OERs) offered by the Ecological Society of America and other entities offer free, accessible, and peer-reviewed active learning exercises in ecology and other fields. Here, we propose a new method, which we call peer-reviewed embedded pedagogy (PREP), to improve the creation, implementation, and quality of OERs. Under PREP, a research laboratory publishes an OER before, instead of after, the research that it is predicated upon goes to press and then embeds a link to the OER in the scientific manuscript. We describe four ways that PREP might incentivize the creation and use of OERs by research scientists and three ways that it could improve the quality of OERs for students. Together, these benefits address eight AAAS benchmarks in science education and offer a win–win situation for both students and the scientists who instruct them.

Ecologists' Big Step Forward: Opening the Ecological Society of America’s Washington Office in 1983

AbstractIn a bold move, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) decided in 1982 to open a Washington Office. Promoting an ecological viewpoint at the national level and providing advice on matters of national and international importance were the long‐term objectives. Seemingly few if any ESA actions have been more significant. ESA President Lawrence Bliss appointed Richard Forman to spearhead the effort, while Frank Golley, Arthur Cooper, Francis Evans, and Elliott Norse played major roles, and some 33 of our other leading ecologists contributed significantly. Golley chaired a Search Committee which selected Elliott Norse, former member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, as Washington Office (WO) Director. Forman chaired the Public Affairs Committee which worked intensively in uncharted territory to delineate policies and practices for WO and oversee the Office and Director. The search for an office considered some 50 locations and ended next to the World Wildlife Fund at Dupont Circle. The primary immediate goals and approaches of the WO were outlined: (1) widely introduce ESA, as a source of ecological expertise, to Washington agencies, organizations, and decision makers; and (2) develop a list of qualified and willing ESA members who could provide advice or testimony on specific environmental issues to national decision makers. Not just another environmental lobby organization, ESA should fill an unfilled role in Washington. Endless problems arose and were solved, but gradually time spent on accomplishing goals predominated. Keeping the ESA Executive Committee, Council, and membership informed on progress remained a key mission. After several months Cooper chaired a committee which reviewed the WO and its Director and reported favorably on progress. Encapsulating 180 documents, mostly correspondence and reports, reveals the remarkable process of opening ESA’s pioneering Washington Office. Exactly one year after approving the WO effort, the office was operating and building a record of accomplishment. No one, including Bliss, Forman, and other key ESA leaders, had expected this success. Four decades of accomplishment now highlight the wisdom of ESA’s action.

Undergraduate student conceptions of climate change impacts on animals

AbstractClimate change is a critical environmental issue and is a recommended core concept in the Ecological Society of America’s 4‐Dimensional Ecology Education framework. Limited work describes K‐12 students’ conceptions of the biotic impacts of climate change, yet research is lacking to explore undergraduate students’ conceptions on this topic. Our goal was to describe undergraduate student conceptions of the biotic outcomes of climate change, and characterize how these student conceptions of animal responses to climate change align with accepted scientific ideas. We used an interpretive qualitative research design and interviewed 13 undergraduate students who were enrolled in either an introductory biology or general ecology course. Through two independent codings of the same dataset, we separately addressed each of our research goals. Prior to this study, we identified three general biotic outcomes from climate change, which were confirmed by outside experts: changes to an animal’s Growth and Survival, their Reproduction, or their Distribution. Our student interviewees as a whole mentioned all three of these outcomes, and most individuals mentioned all three in their responses. Additionally, we found that most student ideas were aligned with Scientific conceptions, while a third of student ideas contained some scientific conceptions but were incomplete. Only a small percent of conceptions voiced in our sample were identified as alternative conceptions that did not align with accepted scientific ideas. These findings are important for educators who teach climate change, as they suggest that undergraduate students come to our classes with productive resources; however, our findings also identify concepts where students may struggle or enter classrooms with a more incomplete understanding.

Human Dimensions: Traditional Ecological Knowledge—Finding a Home in the Ecological Society of America

Human Dimensions: Traditional Ecological Knowledge—Finding a Home in the Ecological Society of America

Promoting Action Ecology Research Through Integration of Environmental Justice in Undergraduate Ecology Education

For the last three decades, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) has been urging ecologists to include human community outreach and human welfare concerns in its sustainable biosphere and Earth stewardship initiatives (Lubchenco et al. 1991, Chapin et al. 2011). For the science of ecology to solve societal environmental problems, it requires the intentional collaboration of ecologists and community leaders in the co-development of innovative approaches in order to enhance Earth stewardship and limit environmental injustices (Bowser and Cid 2020). Ecologists have provided considerable guidance on how to integrate Earth stewardship in the training of graduate students (Colón-Rivera et al. 2013), in developing the multidisciplinary research teams needed for these comprehensive investigations (Cheruvelil et al. 2014), and in providing alternative measures for professional success that value interdisciplinary collaborations in ecology (Goring et al. 2014). ESA’s efforts on developing a diverse and community-engaged environmental workforce were started nearly 25 years ago (Mourad et al. 2018) with its Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity, and Sustainability (SEEDS) initiative. ESA education staff and ESA ecology leaders have co-developed the SEEDS STEM undergraduate student leadership and ecology mentoring programs, which promote students as agents of change in ecology. In 2009, two SEEDS students, Ana Elisa Pérez and Leonardo Calle, coined the term “action ecology” to define the intentional approach to designing and conducting ecological research and education that addresses the environmental issues of concern in socioecological systems (Bonilla et al. 2012). Such targeted research can provide a fast analysis of existing regional data sets, creating new data that leads environmental management and decision making over temporal and spatial scales (White et al. 2015). SEEDS has retained 71% of its alumni in ecology careers, and many of them are involved in community outreach projects that promote equal access to ecosystem benefits (Mourad et al. 2018). Given such exceptional ESA efforts, why has not action ecology research, and the community outreach plans provided by ESA student leaders, not become central to applied ecological scholarship? “... ecologists must consider the responsibility of taking their findings beyond the academic realm into disciplines and mediums for communication they may never have considered before. Translating this knowledge into direct action through conservation initiatives, environmental justice, sustainability, and community efforts, or into doing research on how best to accomplish these goals, is what we have termed action-oriented ecology.” Rivera et al. (2010) What does it mean for students to be agents of change? Ecology students have motivated their mentors to pursue action ecology and fuel needed social change. Ecology educators can now teach students how to connect basic ecology concepts to environmental justice through the human-centered, place-based approach (Fig. 1; Cid and Pouyat 2013, White et al. 2015, Klemow et al. 2019). Action ecology connects to the four components of the Environmental Justice Collection of articles recently released by Wiley (Bowser and Cid 2020, full collection available online1 1 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)9999-0005.environmental-justice-in-ecological-research ). In this collection of ESA journal publications, four areas of environmental justice research in ecology are highlighted and two (access to knowledge and access to natural resources) echo the core concepts identified in action ecology: for example, biocultural conservation and science, and political action. These topical areas highlight the overlap between the concepts of action ecology, environmental justice research, and ecological education (Rivera et al. 2010). “...honor diversity when thinking about your research questions, methodologies, and the communication of your findings. Science that leads to social change is at the crux of action ecology and a noble way of addressing the broader impacts of our research.” Marshall et al. (2011) Who is affected by the lack of environmental justice research? The demographics of the U.S. population are changing while the diversity of students in ecology has not. Given this imbalance, how do we empower agents of change who are representative of the population at large? Moving forward ten years after action ecology ideas were proposed, the question of human dimensions and culture within ecological inquiry remains on the edges of ecology education practices (Reiners et al. 2017). To fully address environmental justice issues using co-creating paradigms, ecological research and education strategies need to fully embrace human dimensions as part of the ecosystem. In 2018, ESA endorsed a four-dimensional ecology education curricular framework (4DEE) that elevates the human dimension in the teaching of ecology (Klemow et al. 2019). The Environmental Justice Collection highlights ecological research, bridging the first discussion of action ecology to the current landscape that includes the Black Lives Matter movement, greater health risks of people of color in the COVID19 pandemic, and a continuing lack of diversity within the environmental sciences. More than ever, human dimensions need greater incorporation into ecological education and research to reap the benefits of action ecology. “Action ecology is conducting research that has broader socio-ecological implications for the welfare of society as well as the ecosystems, and it requires collaboration with other disciplines, stakeholders, and any sectors that compose the socio-ecological system.” Bonilla et al. (2012) Moving the discipline toward action ecology means changing how research questions are generated. Co-creating research questions that include cultural contexts important to today’s diverse youth plays an essential role in solving environmental challenges. Access to knowledge about environmental threats, from extreme climate events to harmful pollutants or pandemics, is important to biocultural conservation and eliminating environmental injustices (Chapin et al. 2011, Krasny and Tidball 2012, Bowser and Cid 2020). Translating ecological knowledge into direct community action needs the human-centered environmental focus of ESA’s 4DEE (Klemow et al. 2019). Action ecology needs to be policy-ready (White et al. 2015), and training students to identify the intersectionality of science and culture within ecological space is critical (Fig. 2). Ecological practices that integrate the human dimension of 4DEE teach students to communicate research to policy makers and community members. This is a critical skill within the action ecology framework. “A world in which the human rights of every young person are realized; that ensures every young person is empowered to achieve their full potential; and that recognizes young people’s agency, resilience and their positive contributions as agents of change.” United Nations Youth Strategy (2018) The future of ecology and Earth stewardship requires bringing agents of change into action, prioritizing the integration of environmental justice concerns, and promoting the achievement of a global sustainable future. The leadership of students within ecology has given us a blueprint for improving ecological inquiry, leading the discipline to be more inclusive of both people and justice issues that affect ecological and societal wellbeing. Access to knowledge and access to natural resources become elements of environmental injustices, and action ecology is a vehicle to address defying future research that includes the community (Fig. 3). The recently published Environmental Justice Research Collection provides insights into gaps in ecological research that can be addressed by recruiting and retaining more students as agents of change. ESA’s Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice Task Force 2020 has started the conversation on the integration of action ecology principles (recommendations from the task force available online2 2 https://www.esa.org/about/diversity-in-ecology/deij-recommendations/ ). One of the recommendations is to elevate the focus on environmental justice to diversify ESA membership and the associated scientific publications represented within the family of journals that ESA manages. The era of climate justice and sustainability needs to define how we teach undergraduates so they are prepared to solve worldwide environmental problems and be the agents of change. We would like to thank all the ecologists, ESA administrative staff, and ESA SEEDS students who, for decades, have collaborated creatively and tirelessly to improve the diversity of research and educational perspectives needed for the 21st century science of ecology.

The Ecology Underground coalition: building a collaborative future of belowground ecology and ecologists.

Rising to meet global, interconnected challenges, such as food security and ecosystem resilience to global change, requires insights from across the Earth. This is especially true for belowground terrestrial ecological processes. Soil ecologists have answered this call: like mushrooms, large global datasets and databases on soil physics, chemistry and ecology are sprouting up everywhere (e.g. Fine‐Root Ecology Database (Iversen et al., 2018), FunFun (Zanne et al., 2020), GlobalFungi (Větrovský et al., 2020), COntinuous SOil REspiration (Jian et al., 2020), Global distribution of earthworm diversity (Philips et al., 2019) etc.). It is now time to leverage synergies among these datasets to link the continuum of belowground processes to ecosystem functions (e.g. decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil respiration). Built on interdisciplinary and international collaborations, data synthesis that leads to a holistic understanding is one of the best ways of predicting the future of terrestrial ecosystems and for preserving ecosystem services under global change. In 2020, global interconnectedness was on display as we saw a pandemic sweep across the world in weeks. The pandemic allowed the Ecological Society of America (ESA) to enter a new digital era by holding a fully virtual conference. While technology cannot yet replicate all aspects of an in‐person conference, the virtual platform increased accessibility and reduced the climate impact of the annual conference. It also provided an opportunity for early‐career plant and microbial ecologists from five ESA Organized Oral Sessions and one Inspire Session to organize Ecology Underground, a two‐day program of live virtual talks and open discussions on integrative belowground ecology on 4 and 5 August 2020. Ecology Underground was sponsored by New Phytologist, the ESA Soil Ecology Section, the US Department of Energy, Biological and Environmental Research program and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), and gathered 453 participants over two days. The online platform allowed for participation across the globe (37 countries were represented; Fig. 1) and was an opportunity to think creatively about how scientific discussions and global collaborations can take place, now and in the future. Open in a separate window Fig. 1 The online platform of Ecology Underground allowed for participation across the globe.

Collaborations and Moving Past COVID‐19: The Human Ecology and Applied Ecology Sections

The Applied Ecology and Human Ecology sections of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) have collaborated for several years, given their overlapping and common interests in the human dimensions of ecology. Starting in 2008, the sections have worked together on combined activities at annual meetings, including field trips, BioBlitzes, collaborative workshops, and mixers (Fig. 1). While each section has its own mission and objectives concerning the integration of human dimensions into ecological scholarship, our combined efforts have led to greater participation among ESA members in selected cities. Going forward, our sections' visions will continue to elevate our collaborative relationship, which is grounded in integrating human dimensions into our activities and scholarship. Photo credit: Gillian Bowser. Human Ecology was first constituted within ESA in 1950 as the Committee for Human Ecology. One of the main roles of the Committee for Human Ecology was to provide advice from ESA to the United Nations on conservation strategies. By the end of the 1950s, Human Ecology was on the brink of being awarded section status, which would have made it one of ESA's first sections, although not as old as Applied Ecology. It is unclear why this formalization never went ahead at the time (for an historical account, see Dyball 2017). Although work of a human ecological nature continued within ESA, it was another 50 years until a Human Ecology section was inaugurated at ESA's 93rd annual conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2008. The section was conceived of as a home for ecologists concerned with the human dimension of ecological change, including justice and fairness issues. The founding bylaws read: “The objectives of the Section shall be to encourage cross-disciplinary research and publication in areas relating to the interface of humans and the environment and to explicitly encourage linkages between practicing scientists and researchers in the social sciences, arts and humanities” (draft bylaws for the Human Ecology section, passed in 2007). Applied Ecology is one of the oldest sections within ESA and is the second largest section in the society, with 659 members at the end of 2019. Section members focus on combining ecological research with human and society needs and encouraging the application of ecological principles to solutions for practical environmental problems. The Applied Ecology section specifically advocates for active and sustained relationships with and among those specialists who use ecological principles in the resolution of their problems, such as in public policy and administration, law, engineering, education, urban and regional planning, public health, political science, agriculture, and natural resources. Both the Applied Ecology and Human Ecology sections are concerned with the nature of the interactions linking humans, their cultures, and their ecosystems where those interactions are problematic (i.e., they cause unsustainable environmental harm, are unethical, or both). Both promote a biosensitive worldview, within which ecologically literate people can understand, respect, and work to enhance environmental processes and realities and, in so doing, enhance their health and well-being. In that sense, the sections share philosophies regarding sustainable environmental solutions for both people and the planet. Human Ecology's particular concern for justice and fairness sees these problem-solving challenges as inextricably linked to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Applied Ecology section includes concerns for ecosystem services, management of ecosystem services, and the associated organisms. Both embrace the co-production of knowledge with stakeholders or communities, including basic data gathering activities such as BioBlitzes and community participation in research design. The two sections (with the Environmental Justice section) co-hosted BioBlitzes from 2010 to 2015, beginning at the ESA annual meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. BioBlitzes are pre-arranged, day-long community events that typically partner with minority or disadvantaged groups. ESA conference attendees volunteer their time to help these community members gather and identify various organisms (typically plant and invertebrate species) on an urban site of the community's choosing. For example, the Brownfield BioBlitz in Pittsburgh was hosted in partnership with the Liberty Neighborhood, a predominately African American neighborhood that had created several vegetable gardens on abandoned lots. ESA members joined the Applied Ecology, Human Ecology, and Environmental Justice sections, and SEEDS students on a BioBlitz that included participation from the Carnegie Museum and other local institutions. The success of this joint effort led to three more BioBlitzes, each centered in a lower-income neighborhood within the host city of the ESA annual meeting, including Sacramento, California, Austin, Texas, and Baltimore, Maryland (Fig. 2). Starting with the BioBlitz in 2013, citizen science databases such as Project Noah (https://www.projectnoah.org) and iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org) were utilized to create long-term records of the BioBlitz (Figs. 3, 4). Invertebrate and plant specimens collected during the Pittsburgh and Austin BioBlitzes were donated back to the community or partnering organization to provide an accessible record for community members of the species found. In Pittsburgh, each insect was carefully labeled and pinned by a six-year-old community member who hand-printed each label and scientific name! Photo credit: Gillian Bowser. Photo credit: Gillian Bowser. Photo credit: Gillian Bowser. The Applied Ecology section has held multi-section social mixers for at least the last decade. Human Ecology section members were informally invited to join these events from the outset. The first effort, promoted as “Mega Mixah” with a long drawn out “h” at the end, was formally listed in the conference handbook for the ESA annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2013 and included the Applied Ecology and Human Ecology, Environmental Justice, Urban Ecosystem Ecology, and Agroecology sections. The collegial atmosphere, forum for informal exchange of ideas, and networking opportunities proved popular and were thus expanded as the “Section Bash” in Sacramento, California, in 2014. The Mega Mixah was designed to encourage partnership across sections and to bring section members together in a fun, social event. In 2015, the Baltimore Centennial Conference was the largest Mega Mixah held to date. Applied Ecology and Human Ecology banded together to host one big mixer that embraced multiple sections including Environmental Justice, Early Career, Education, Urban Ecology, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. The event featured section leaders asking short quiz questions for small prizes. These large events were expensive, not least because they were catered by the conference centers, and the funding format was to split the bill from ESA pro rata to the membership of participating sections. This allowed larger sections, such as Applied Ecology, to cross-subsidize smaller sections, such as Human Ecology and Environmental Justice. Later, the model allowed the participation of new sections, such as Inclusive Ecology and Black Ecologists, to attend even without sufficient funding to contribute. The Mega Mixah tradition continued up to and including Portland, Oregon, in 2017. Here, an unfortunate space allocation onto a long narrow balcony precluded mingling and caused some sections to question its value. For New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2018 and Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019, the Applied and Human Ecology sections held off-site social gatherings (although Inclusive Ecology joined in 2019, as it had selected the same off-site venue). The personal connections, friendships, and serendipitous exchanges of ideas that occur in social spaces were some of the great achievements of the Mega Mixah, and the tradition was revived in 2020. Even though COVID-19 forced the Mega Mixah to become an online social session, it was still well received with more than 100 members participating. Joint Inspire sessions between the Applied and Human Ecology sections have occurred since Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2013 and continued through 2020. The Inspire format is a rapid-fire presentation, comprising 20 slides of largely visual material on 15-second auto-advance. The sessions are quick and lively with six speakers sharing a lot of information in a short period of time. The sections have used them to provide updates on section activities, introduce award winners, and announce officer vacancies. The New Orleans, Louisiana, 2018 Inspire session, “Expanding Ecology: Your ESA sections and chapters focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion,” gave rise to the Human Dimensions Collaborative workshop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019. A second Inspire session co-sponsored with the Early Career section produced a published series of short articles in Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution. Such collaborations resulting in scholarship on human dimensions in ecology are envisioned products for future virtual and hybrid meetings (see also Expanding ecology: Your ESA sections and chapters focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion). The Human Dimensions Collaborative workshop in 2018 was a joint session with the Union of Concerned Scientists that brought together the usual participant sections: Applied Ecology, Human Ecology, Policy, Environmental Justice, Communication and Engagement, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Inclusive Ecology, Agroecology, and Urban Ecology. At the close of the 2018 New Orleans, Louisiana, conference, a group of section members discussed the prospect of semi-formalizing the various interactions among participating sections to augment their primary purpose. A Long-Range Planning Grant, applied for in the name of the Human Ecology section, was submitted to initiate that collaboration and seek ESA funds to host a 2019 pre-conference workshop in Louisville, Kentucky. The proposal was written specifically to bring together several ESA sections oriented around the human dimensions of environmental problems and the unjust distribution of their burdens. The grant resulted in a day-long workshop where section delegates participated in a systems-based collaborative visioning processes to see what, if any, common core values and goals they had that they would do well to work on together (Fig. 5). Photo credit: K. Gentner for Human Ecology section. The workshop outcome found agreement that there was great potential for the work of the Human Dimensions Collaborative to inform interdisciplinary research questions, cultivate knowledge-to-practice exchange through professional projects, develop new forms of communications bridges leveraging contemporary technology, foster new funding opportunities, and/or build cross-sector bridges to support diverse career development opportunities for both early and later career scientists (Fig. 5). Specific outcomes, other than reinstating the Mega Mixah, were to continue with jointly organized paper sessions and Inspire sessions and to propose that ESA commits to work with local communities and leave a legacy of improved environmental management in its annual meeting program. The plan was to implement a demonstration at the Salt Lake City, UT, conference in 2020 and then to make activities become regular sessions at the annual meetings starting with Long Beach, California, in 2021 (Fig. 6). Photo credit: K. Gentner for Human Ecology section. Looking forward, future plans for joint activities between the Human Ecology and Applied Ecology sections are to propose joint multi-section organized oral sessions. Topics that these sessions might explore include our new virtual realities and how community connections can be developed and maintained as part of the Applied Ecology and Human Ecology section activities. Topics that can be jointly pooled across sections could help create multi-input presentations on challenges, such as determining the vital connections in ecology from a human dimensions perspective; engaging with communities and leaving a legacy; determining the challenges and opportunities of advising non-tokenistic inclusion; prospecting online access and connection for open democratic access to knowledge and research globally; and networking and mentoring beyond knowledge silos. Collaborating and moving past COVID-19 will require ESA to rethink activities associated with the annual conference and how sections serve their membership. Hands-on activities that include field trips to communities may be less popular, especially as issues of personal health and well-being during a pandemic will outweigh any membership benefits of a field activity. Such decisions will be difficult as at the time of this writing, vaccines are just appearing, and the pandemic continues to restrict public gatherings. What a future conference will look like post-COVID-19 is hard to say. The future vision of sections such as the Applied Ecology and Human Ecology needs to include how to incorporate human dimensions into ecological research, scholarship, and community while operating in virtual spaces.

Toward Conceptualizing Student Outcomes in Undergraduate Field Programs and Employer Expectations for Field Positions

AbstractA key outcome of an effective undergraduate experience is for students to gain disciplinary knowledge and develop a range of skills and habits of mind that prepare them for career success. In 2018, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) entered into an agreement with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to recruit students and recent graduates and place them into field ecology/biology internship positions at research sites across the United States. This paper focuses on field research jobs and presents a literature review to gain an understanding of workforce development issues and preliminary perspectives on critical skills in which employers might be interested. This paper is based on a case study of one employer (USGS) and investigates the potential alignment between employer expectations, field training, and perceived student outcomes. To conceptualize new graduates’ readiness and employer expectations, we identified a set of skill categories sought by field research sites. We did this by analyzing the job descriptions available through the 2019 ESA/USGS Cooperative Summer Internship Program and prior literature. These categories were incorporated into a new post‐internship student survey that was used to collect data from students. We found a potential gap in some transferable skills in both fieldwork and office work expected by employers and those offered by undergraduate field training programs. This could be explored in future studies involving a more extensive set of employers who seek to hire students with field ecology/biology skills.

Integrating environmental justice into applied ecology research: Somebody else's problem?

Environmental injustice can be expressed through lack of access to resources, unequal exposure to toxins, and limited access to knowledge about the unsustainable environmental practices that impact communities (Bullard 2018). The ecological processes that contribute to the "perfect storm" of conditions that create environmental injustices are well documented in applied ecology scholarship; yet the human dimension or the co-production of research on those impacts seem to fall into the range of "somebody else's problem." In a literature review of the last 15 years of research published in the Ecological Society of America's family of journals, we explored the intersections of environmental processes and social justice issues, searching for themes, gaps, and opportunities. The resultant is a collection of articles on environmental justice topics that includes issues on access to resources and unequal exposure to environmental hazards and pollutants. This collection highlights gaps in the integration of natural science with social justice topics along with the need for stronger integration of interdisciplinary knowledge that is co-produced with community stakeholders and researchers to build a robust interdisciplinary field of climate justice and global environmental sustainability.

Redefining Boundaries: Ruth Myrtle Patrick's Ecological Program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1947-1975.

Ruth Myrtle Patrick (1907-2013) was a pioneering ecologist and taxonomist whose extraordinary career at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia spanned over six decades. In 1947, an opportunity arose for Patrick to lead a new kind of river survey for the Pennsylvania Sanitary Water Board to study the effects of pollution on aquatic organisms. Patrick leveraged her already extensive scientific network, which included ecologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson, to overcome resistance within the Academy, establish a new Department of Limnology, and carry out the survey, which was a resounding success and brought much needed money to the Academy. As demand for her expertise grew among industrial companies, such as the chemical company DuPont, Patrick became more active in the world of applied science. She repurposed data and instruments from her river surveys to run new experiments, test ecological theories, and conduct long-term ecological studies. Through these studies, she advanced an argument that biologist Thomas Lovejoy dubbed the "Patrick principle," the idea that the ecological health of a body of water could be measured by the relative abundance and diversity of species living there. Patrick was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1970, became a board member of DuPont in 1975, and received two of the most prestigious awards in ecology: the Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America in 1972 and the Tyler Ecology Award in 1975. This article analyzes Patrick's unusual success in bridging the worlds of science and industry and her unusual ability to cross, and redefine, the perceived boundary between basic and applied fields in biology. It argues that Patrick's position at the Academy, an institution of natural history that was both willing and able to accept money from industrial corporations, is key to understanding her success in, and influence on, the field of river ecology.

Niyi Osundare : The ‘Eco Elegist’ Echoes through his Elegies

The biggest enemy we face is anthropocentricism. This is that common attitude that everything on this earth was put here for (human) use.” −Eric Pianca, Eminent Ecologist, Ecological Society of America. A poet dons many roles to ring in a change, to bring in a transformation, blows a clarion to call caution, envisages a dream and battles for a better world. Niyi Osundare, the Nigerian poet, activist fits into this bill perfectly. His heart heaves heavy as he whines over the imbalance in the ecology imbued by the brutish and selfish humans. He grieves over the loss of the green cover, wails over the woods being cleared, moans over the mountain ranges being razed to the ground and sheds tears on seeing the ‘tear’ in the sky. Osundare wears the mantle of the typical ‘eco elegist’, who earnestly laments over the degradation, deforestation and death of the ecology and human destiny thereafter. Following the lines of traditional elegies, Nyi Osundare begins his poems on a highly pessimistic note over how, man pounds and plunders the earth for his selfish motives. He imbues his lines with melancholic mood as he moans on seeing the morose, unsightly sights around him.

Vegetation Classification Exercise for the Pawnee National Grasslands, USA

Aims: Vegetation classifications are useful for a variety of management purposes as well as scientific exploration. Local classifications are common throughout the United States but only recently have been integrated into a national classification system, which is now expected for local classifications. Study Area: The Pawnee National Grasslands (PNG) in northeastern Colorado, USA, has not been classified using plot data, and is thus a gap on the baseline knowledge of the PNG plant communities that hinders impact assessment of various anthropogenic activities. Methods: Here, we use 128 plots to classify the vegetation of the PNG using a two-step process: first, classifying the PNG plots alone to characterize local uniqueness, and then employing a semi-supervised classification with an additional 64 plots from areas to the north and east of the PNG, using standard classification procedures. Results: We document on the PNG the occurrence of two Classes, three Subclasses, four Formations, five Divisions, six Macrogroups, seven Groups and eight Alliances and Associations already described in the USNVC. Conclusions: The PNG is dominated by the Bouteloua gracilis-Buchloe dactyloides Grassland Association, which we further subdivide and describe as three local subassociations. The mixed-grass concepts in the USNVC do not exist in the PNG. Taxonomic reference: Hazlett (1998). Syntaxonomic reference: USNVC (2016). Abbreviations: BLM = Bureau of Land Management; CPER = Central Plains Experimental Range; ESA = Ecological Society of America; EST = Ecological Site Type; GPS UTM = Global Positioning System Universal Transverse Mercator; NEON = National Ecological Observatory Network; PNG = Pawnee National Grasslands; USNVC = United States Vegetation Classification.

Increasing the Impact of Public Engagement Within and Beyond the Ecological Society of America

Increasing the Impact of Public Engagement Within and Beyond the Ecological Society of America

Beyond the numbers: understanding how a diversity mentoring program welcomes students into a scientific community

AbstractPrograms designed to broaden participation in science are often deemed “successful” based on quantitative evidence such as student participation rates, retention, and persistence. These numbers alone only explain that a program met its goals; they seldom critically explain how, specifically, the program achieved its success. To address this gap, we studied students’ perspectives about and experiences with the Ecological Society of America's award‐winning education and diversity mentoring program, Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS). The persistence rate in ecology by SEEDS participants is three times greater than the national average, but the numbers alone do not explain the program's impact. We explored the reasons why this program has been so successful by gathering qualitative data as direct evidence explaining how SEEDS influenced participants’ decisions to study science and pursue science careers, and the resulting integration into a scientific community. We coded open‐ended survey responses from SEEDS alumni against a social influence theoretical framework that proposes three dominant processes that predict students’ integration into a scientific community: scientific self‐efficacy, scientific identity, and shared values with the scientific community. We not only found emergent evidence for all three processes, but we also gained a deeper understanding of how—in participants’ own words—SEEDS achieves its success. Specifically, SEEDS successfully welcomes students into a science community by (1) providing both breadth and depth of programming that offers flexible, multilayered approaches to developing self‐efficacy to fit the needs of diverse students, (2) enabling participants to integrate a science identity into other preexisting identities, and (3) implementing programming that intentionally helps participants to consciously connect their values with those of their communities.