The 31 July–1 August 2004 Governing Board meeting was attended by President Bill Schlesinger, Past-President Ann Bartuska, President-Elect Jerry Melillo, Members-at-Large Ed Johnson, Oswaldo Sala, and Margaret Palmer, Vice President for Science Jim Clark, Vice President for Education and Human Resources Carol Brewer, Vice President for Public Affairs Sonny Power, Secretary Jill Baron, and incoming board members Nancy Grimm (President-Elect), Gus Shaver (Vice President for Science), David Inouye (Secretary), Shahid Naeem and Dee Boersma (Members-at-Large). Vice President for Finance Norm Christensen was not present. ESA staff members present included Executive Director Katherine McCarter, Director for Public Affairs Nadine Lymn, Director of Finance Elizabeth Biggs, Director for Science Cliff Duke, Director for Education Jason Taylor, Managing Editor for Ecology and Ecological Applications David Baldwin, Editor-in-Chief for the ESA Bulletin Allen Solomon, Editor-in-Chief for Frontiers Sue Silver, and Associate Managing Editor David Gooding.

I. ROLL CALL

A. Adopt Agenda

1) The agenda was adopted

B. Ratification of Votes

1) Peer Review Statement
A voice vote approved the statement, with one abstention from Past-President Bartuska.

C. Adopt minutes from May 2004 GB meeting

Minutes unanimously approved, and thanks to David Inouye for serving as Secretary for the May meeting.

II. REPORTS

A. Report of the President

President Schlesinger reported he has had an easy job since May thanks to HQ staff.

B. Report of the Executive Director

1) Update: Portland will be the largest meeting ever. Abstracts will be available on CD only in future. Executive Director McCarter will be in Australia through August; Lymn will be Acting Executive Director. Several ESA staff are leaving, including Lori Hidinger and Maggie Smith. Applications for Smith’s replacement are arriving.

2) Science

   a) Science Director Duke reported Karen Dalles, from the National Parks Foundation, accepted the ESA offer to become Science Program Manager, replacing Lori Hidinger.
   b) Phase 1 of the Visions Report is complete; four posters are to be presented at the meeting.
   c) A report from the NOAA-sponsored National Harmful Algal Bloom workshop (March 2004) will be published in fall 2004. ESA organized and ran this workshop, but the report will not be an Ecological Society of America publication. ESA will get an acknowledgment.
   d) Issues in Ecology No. 12 is available. Member-at-Large Sala suggested the 12 issues now available be bundled for sale. Executive Director McCarter and Managing Editor Baldwin will report back at the October GB meeting.
   e) There will be a multisociety summit in September on general data-sharing issues with a goal of deriving a consensus statement with 11 other societies. Canada, EU, BES, Chile will participate, among others. Past President Bartuska strongly suggests the summit organizers become aware of and involve the Federal Committee on Environment and Natural Resources subtask on data management. Similarly, the summit should include and acknowledge efforts by NCEAS and the ESA Publications Committee.
   f) ESA has been approached to develop an advisory body for the Marine Mammal Commission. ESA will work to broaden the community participating in the workshops sponsored by MMC, and MMC will provide full-time funding for a staffer.

3) Public Affairs

   a) Local media are giving continuous coverage to the ESA Annual Meeting, including the Oregonian newspaper and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
   b) Amy Carrel, staff member with the House Subcommittee on Environment and Science, will be the guest of ESA at the Annual Meeting. Her specific interests include climate change and ecological restoration of the Great Lakes.

4) Publications

   a) Submissions to the journals are way up (10% increase in 2003, almost 20% increase in submissions in 2004 to date). The success is possibly related to the reduced turnaround time to publication, the on-line submission capability, and calls for shorter papers. Managing Editor Baldwin suggests this could provoke future GB action to consider increasing page numbers or staff. Ecological Archives increasingly publishes tables and appendices that help authors reduce page length.
   b) The LBA supplement is published in Ecological Applications. NASA ordered 1000 reprints, as well as paying for production costs.
   c) Membership marketing: Plan to stuff a flyer for membership in the front of supplemental issues.
   d) Copies of supplements (especially the LBA studies and the one on marine reserves) should be sent to members of the Federation of the Americas. Future supplements should routinely be forwarded to Federation members.

5) Education

   a) TIEE Volume 2 is now available.
   b) The SEEDS program is strong, and has received funding for 2 more years from Mellon Foundation with the expectation of one additional 2-year grant in the future. The program supports field trips, postgrad experiences, fellowships, and SEEDS Chapters. Enrollment is increasing yearly. A suggestion was made to better publicize SEEDS activities with press releases, and also to better integrate SEEDS activities with the rest of ESA.

6) Administration

   a) ESA has more than 8000 members. An E-version of the ESA membership database will be added, allowing members to make their own updates and corrections, in 2004.
   b) The Millennium Fund is bringing in about $25,000–30,000 each year, but not increasing greatly in numbers of supporters or dollar amount. The GB allocates about $18,000–20,000 yearly to various projects deemed important to the Society.

7) Frontiers

   a) A bundled set of the Ethical Issues articles in book form is now available.
   b) An Education series for college level will replace Ethical Issues.

III. DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

A. Visions Priorities Updates

   1) Rapid Response Teams (RRTs)

A list of possible teams and team members was distributed and commented upon. The teams themselves should be organized creatively so that potential users will be able to readily find pertinent topics. Keywords, grand challenges, and a cross-referenced index were all suggested as ways to advertise the appropriate topics. Issues of biotech, GMOs, nanotechnology, ecosystem services, environmental credit trading are currently topics of interest; that kind of list needs to be cross-referenced with the teams. It was suggested that no RRT member serve on more than one team; ESA should take advantage of having 8000 members. Team members should be drawn from more than just academia, and could serve a fixed term, or be called on some number of times before rotating off. Team members will get Leopold-like training and other opportunities to reward their effort. The Public Affairs Office will need to advertise to policy makers that a one-phone-call request for information to ESA gets a quick response. ESA will use RRTs in a proactive mode as well as reacting to requests. Future plans may include linking the RRTs with other societies whose topics overlap.

   2) International efforts

A meeting on the Ecology and Globalization will be held in Merida, Mexico, 9–12 January 2006, for 300–500 participants. Suggestions for financial sponsors include OAS, corporations with interest in globalization, TNC, Conservation International, USDA. Note that the 2005 Montreal meeting is also international.

   3) Frontiers international expansion

Submissions from international scientists come primarily from talking with authors at conferences. Requests for manuscripts should be solicited from the Chinese Ecological Society, Sino-Eco Society, and the new Mexico Chapter.

   4) Other

   a) The Federation of the Americas welcomes Bolivia as a new member. There will be a Federation activity in Montreal in 2005. ESA will try to raise funds to bring Federation members together in Montreal. Vice President Power will appoint Member-at-large Sala to become Chairman of the International Affairs committee in order to continue to promote the Federation.
   b) Public Information Campaign: Communicate basic principles of ecology, elevate the status of ecological issues that affect people’s daily lives, bring the concept of ecosystem services into public understanding, emphasize how environment affects human health. How to be most effective? A business plan from HQ is necessary to figure out how to make this happen. SeaWeb was introduced as an example and a marketing resource. President-elect Melillo suggested a four-pronged approach:

   1) Start the cycle by articulating a goal for the ad campaign.

A goal for the campaign was articulated as Desired Future Conditions. What do we want the public to do differently 20 years from now? What needs to be done now so that people will demand certain activities and behaviors from their peers, corporations, government? Where are there opportunities for environment to perform services Society now pays for? How can we capitalize on the way people like the idea of clean, healthy environment by teaching them enough basic ecology that they know how to weigh trade-offs and then act on them?

   2) Hold a meeting of like-minded people (experienced ad groups or advocacy groups) to get a message honed. NGOs involved with Visions may want to help.
   3) Identify a small group of communications firms to work with. These will be invited to each present a prospectus for the major Public Information Campaign.
   4) The successful communication firm helps ESA draft a fundraising plan.

B. Report of the Vice President for Finance (presented by Biggs and McCarter)

   1) Fourth quarter unaudited finances show subscriptions bounced back after the problem with Rowecom. There is a budget surplus of ~$116,000, which is within 2% of estimated budget for the year. Staff and the GB are commended for being fiscally wise and conservative. The ESA budget has been positive for the past 9 years. The reserve fund, however, is only 5% of operating expenses, and GB may want to increase this proportion.
   2) Investment update. Did not occur owing to Christensen’s absence.

C. FY 2004–2005 ESA budget

   1) The budget was presented, and a motion to approve the budget for presentation to the Council was seconded. The motion was unanimously approved.
   2) Committee funds: There was a motion that the committee funds be allocated for meetings of Public Affairs, EHR, and Science/SB committees. The remaining $5600 should be kept available for unanticipated meetings at the discretion of President and Executive Director, but the GB should be told how the money is spent. Approved by GB.
   3) Long-Range Planning Grants Review Committee. A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved that the Secretary, Members-at-Large, and Vice Presidents without conflicts of interest make up the review committee.
   4) Discussion of Council Budget presentation: occurred.

D. Nominations for the 2005 GB Ballot

Past President Bartuska presented the following slate of candidates who have been contacted and agreed to serve:

   President: Alan Covich, Bill Murdoch
   VP-Public Affairs: Rich Pouyat, Paul Ringold
   VP-Finance: Bill Parton, Tom Swetnam
   Member-at-Large: Dennis Ojima, Peter Groffman
   Board of Professional Certification: Rebecca Sharitz, Kevin Erwin, Geoffrey Henebry, Bill Michener.

The slate was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved.

Bartuska noted the difficulty in getting international scientists and women to agree to serve. There was discussion that future boards might include corporate members, NGOs, and an agreement to hold a discussion with the Nominating Committee as to what kind of expertise is needed on the board. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to: (a) alter the statement of nominees to include a candidate statement along with a brief biography, describing why they are interested in serving ESA; and (b) have entire statement not to exceed 400 words.

E. Yearly public policy priorities

The suggested list of Forest Management, Endangered Species Act, Marine Issues, and Invasive Species was moved, seconded, and approved by the GB. Other topics brought up included water issues and climate change. GB will revisit the list of priorities in January.

F. Women and Minorities in Ecology (WAMIE) Report

A draft report will be finalized for the fall GB meeting. Preliminary results show there has been a change in ESA leadership to include more women, but ethnic membership still lags. Other activities suggested in the first 1994 WAMIE report are now routine: childcare and facilities for disabled at ESA meetings, more women in leadership (but not symposia sponsorship), SEEDS. The EHR committee will update profiles of ecologists. A suggestion was made that Corporate Award winners be tapped for expertise and advice. Tangentially related to this topic, the GB suggested future student breakfast bagels meetings be free of charge.

H. Annual Meeting Leadership Appointments

The nominations of Kerry Woods to be program chair for 2007 and Lou Gross for 2008 were moved, seconded, unanimously accepted. The nomination of Gretchen Meyer as local host for Milwaukee was moved, seconded and unanimously approved.

I. Update on Portland Annual Meeting from Tom Swetnam

The largest meeting ever has 2722 abstracts, up 975 from 2003. There were 60 proposals for symposia, and section chairs were involved in symposia review. In addition there are showcase sessions, 36 organized oral sessions (OOS), 142 contributed paper sessions. The OOS may have boosted attendance, since these are 300 invited, mid-level speakers who might not otherwise have come. Special sessions are scheduled. The 950 contributed posters marks another record. There is a record number of exhibits, a Jobmart, abstract kiosks. As in previous years, ~49–50% of meeting participants are attending their first meeting. With a new program chair each year it is essential to have an assistant. David Grow, who will continue to work for Paul Ringold for next year, has been terrific, and has offered good judgment and stability for the past two years. GB may need to budget for an assistant in future years to ensure the same type of continuity. Ellen Cardwell has done a phenomenal job building relationships with AV specialists, travel operators, etc., in order to build continuity, lower costs. There was a suggestion the 100th Annual Meeting be held in Washington. (This is now the 89th Annual Meeting.)

J. Meeting with E-I-C Don Strong

Strong has transformed Ecology and addressed issues related to overly long papers, overloaded editors, editor retention, and declining submissions over the past 3 years. Some papers now come out in less than a year. Papers are clear, concise, exciting. Monographs are still truly complex, special, accompanied by digital material. There is a formal process for reconsideration of rejection. Editors now number ~100 who agree to review only as much as they want to, ranging from 2 to 20 papers per year. There are three Associate E-I-Cs. Unlike in the past, Ecology now publishes deep-time papers, paleo-ecology, global oceanic marine ecology, statistical ecology, mathematical ecology, and fosters gender and geographical diversity among editors.

Future directions include shorter publications and shorter time to publish in the future in order to keep up with some of the fastest publications. Since there are a fixed number of pages, other options include electronic Monographs and Ecology. A proposed model for Ecology journals could be three publications: Ecology Reports, Ecological Monographs, Ecology (which becomes very slim). Recall the Brown report made this same suggestion years ago. There is a need to build in better communication between E-I-C and GB, maybe through review committee. Need for continued appreciation, awareness of challenges, discussion of direction.

A fiscal consideration is that the products need to look like something a library will pay for, so as not to lose the revenue. But we need to keep current with how people now read manuscripts. Strong analogy here to outdated General Motors technology when confronted with Hondas and hybrids. Geophysical Research Letters—quick concept papers that “mark the territory” followed up by longer papers. The process of reviewing Ecology Letters is similar to Science/Nature in that everything is fast. If we had a journal that was short, fast, and all ecology, the content would be appealing to ecologists. Make Ecology Reports like Science. Frontiers could become the AMBIO analog. President Schlesinger suggests the topic of what the ESA journals look like be revisited in future meetings.

L. Certification—Emeritus Status Proposal

The GB moved and seconded a motion to adopt a recommendation from the Board of Professional Certification to allow senior certified ecologists to move into an emeritus status. The motion was unanimously declined.

M. Meeting with E-I-C Allen Solomon

There is a need to make sure the Bulletin stays in the loop of information for members, and in particular, the E-I-C of the Bulletin must be kept informed of Society affairs. The records of the Society are kept in the Bulletin. Electronic archives of old Bulletin papers are still very popular. The GB greatly appreciates the 12 years of editorial service provided by Solomon, and welcomes Ed Johnson as the new E-I-C in 2005.

N. Meeting with E-I-C Sue Silver

The journal provides cross-disciplinary reading for ecologists and educational tools. Frontiers does not yet have the circulation that attracts advertising to meet advertising targets, but a new marketing manager has been hired. ESA’s marketing consultant, Barbara Myers, is making lists of potential advertisers and potential institutional subscribers (such as libraries). In order to achieve financial solvency, Frontiers will need to become self-sufficient. The GB will want to address the content within the next couple of years. Is there a mechanism after two years of issues to review and see how effective the journal is, including an external evaluation and comprehensive readership survey? (There were 330 respondents from the first survey.) The GB suggests the Publication Committee examine Frontiers in the context of the other ESA publications. Institutional subscriptions will be vital to making the journal viable.

O. Meeting with E-I-C Dave Schimel

Citations of Ecological Applications are high, submissions are high, feedback is excellent. First-rate publications on actual applications are coming in. Future Introductions and Abstracts of new papers will explicitly address the usefulness of the research.

President-Elect Melillo asks that the editors, the GB, and the Publications Committee update and develop very concise mission statements for all journals.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. The Council on Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) is asking for names to replace retiring NSF DEB Director Mary Clutter

ESA GB is to discuss the nature of its response on Friday — do we submit names or do we describe the kind of person we think appropriate? Once we decide we will respond directly to NSF.

B. Dates for the Fall GB meeting: 25–26 October for fall meeting, 24 October for New Board Member orientation.

Respectfully submitted,
Jill Baron, Secretary

Minutes of the ESA Council
1 August 2004
Portland, Oregon

The Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America Council convened at 2:00 pm on 1 August, in Portland OR. Council members present included:

David Baldwin, ESA Managing Editor; Jill Baron, Secretary; Ann Bartuska, Past President; Elizabeth Biggs, ESA Finance Director; Dee Boersma, Member-at-Large elect; Carol Brewer, VP Education and Human Resources; Judie Bronstein, Awards Committee Chair; Jacoby Carter, International Affairs Section Chair; Margaret Carreiro, Urban Ecosystem Ecology Chair; Norm Christensen, VP for Finance; Steve Chaplin, Meetings Committee Chair; Jim Clark, VP for Science; Beverly Collins, Vegetation Section Chair; Rodolfo Dirzo, Mexican Chapter Chair; Laurie Drinkwater, Agroecology Section Chair; Cliff Duke, ESA Science Director; Kevin Erwin, Board of Professional Certification Chair; David Gooding, Associate Managing Editor; Nancy Grimm, incoming President-elect; David Inouye, Secretary-elect; Rebecca Irwin, Plant Population Ecology Section Chair; Ed Johnson, Member-at-Large; Jeff Lake, Student Section Chair; Harbin Li, Asian Ecology Section Chair; Jim Lukin, Southeast Chapter Chair-elect; Nadine Lymn, ESA Public Affairs Director; Katherine McCarter, ESA Executive Director; Jerry Melillo, President-elect; Shaheed Naeem, Member-at-Large elect; Charlie Nilon, Education Section Past-Chair; Margaret Palmer, Member-at-large; Sonny Power, VP for Public Affairs; Jim Reichman, Publications Committee Chair; Oswaldo Sala, Member-at-Large; David Schimel, E-I-C Ecological Applications; Bill Schlesinger, President; Paul Schmalzer, Southeast Chapter Chair; Gus Shaver, VP-elect for Science; Bryan Shuman, Paleoecology Section Chair; Sue Silver, E-I-C of Frontiers in Ecology and Environment; Allen Solomon, E-I-C, Bulletin of the ESA; Jason Taylor, ESA Education Director; Julie Whitbeck, Soil Ecology Section Chair

I. REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

President Schlesinger talked about the Visions Report and the activities sponsored by ESA over the past year.

II. COMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVE AND ROLE OF COUNCIL

President-elect Melillo introduced the idea of a major Public Information Campaign and led a discussion with Council on their ideas and suggestions. Melillo raised the question of what infrastructure is needed to conduct such a campaign. Suggestions include:
   1) The Public Affairs Office is the logical office to take the lead in helping members and chapters become involved in the campaign.
   2) Nonacademic practitioners are ideal members to include in such an effort. Need to figure out ways to include them.
   3) State, federal, and regional governments are important to contact. How does one identify regional issues? Maybe need a clearing house for who is doing what?
   4) Regional Governors’ Associations are good centers for information on issues.
   5) A regional pilot study is a good idea before moving to national coverage.
   6) Fact sheets are a useful way of disseminating objective information.
   7) ESA publications present a valuable database of peer-reviewed literature that can be used as an information base for speaking as an honest broker of information. It would be useful to have a database with key words to retrieve documentation on particular issues.
   8) The Bulletin is a good venue for communication on progress made on this topic.
   9) The regional climate change reports put together by ESA and UCS might serve as a model for presenting issues.

III. PRESENTATION OF THE BUDGET

The FY 2004–2005 ESA budget was presented. It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved to accept the budget.

IV. CANADA CHAPTER

The new Canada Chapter was moved, seconded, and unanimously voted into existence.

V. REPORTS FROM LONG RANGE PLANNING GRANT AWARDEES

    1) The Education Section reported they are conducting a survey of ESA members to update the women and minority in ecology report. The purpose of this survey is to follow up on the 1992 survey and try to get back into a 10-year cycle to see membership trends.
   2) The Public Affairs Section sponsored a staff member of the House Science Committee to attend the ESA Annual Meeting.
   3) The Professional Board of Certification is developing a mobile display about professional certification that will promote ethics and describe the reasons for professional certification. The display will be taken to many professional society meetings, in addition to being displayed at ESA meetings.

VI. RECOGNITION OF GOVERNING BOARD MEMBERS LEAVING THE BOARD

President Schlesinger thanked Past-President Bartuska, Vice President for Science Clark, Secretary Baron, Members-at-Large Sala and Johnson, for their contributions to the Governing Board.

Respectfully submitted,
Jill Baron, Secretary

Minutes of the ESA Governing Board
6 August 2004
Portland, Oregon

Members Present: Jerry Melillo (President), Bill Schlesinger (Past-President), Nancy Grimm (President-Elect), Gus Shaver (Vice President for Science), Norm Christensen (Vice President for Finance), Carol Brewer (Vice President for Education and Human Resources), David Inouye (Secretary), Shahid Naeem (Member at Large).

Staff Present: Katherine McCarter (Executive Director), Cliff Duke (Director of Science), Elizabeth Biggs (Director of Finance), Sue Silver (Editor), Jason Taylor (Director of Education), Nadine Lymn (Director of Public Affairs), David Baldwin (Managing Editor).

8:40 am. Discussion of the SEEDS program, and how successful the Diversity in Ecology lunch was, with testimonials from the SEEDS students about how valuable the program was for them.

I. ROLL CALL, 8:58 AM

A. The GB unanimously adopted the proposed agenda.

II. GOVERNING BOARD AGENDA FOR 2004–2005

Report of meeting between Nancy Grimm and Jerry Mellilo about tasks for the coming year.

   1) Publications (for October meeting): Get mission statements for each journal to define the uniqueness of each. Board members are asked to review the Brown report and Frontiers business plan that will be distributed before the October Board meeting.
   2) A review of core activities ongoing in each of the following major programs:
      a) Science—Fall 2004
      b) Finance/Fundraising (development officer)—Spring 2005
      c) Publication policies writ large (e.g., digital publications, open access)—Summer 2005
      d) Public policy—Fall 2005
      e) Education—Fall 2006
   3) Rapid response teams
      a) Suggestions have been made for other categories. Invitations to participate on teams will go out beginning in September. Public Affairs Committee and Public Affairs staff will refine the list of names.
   4) Public information campaign. Six goals were identified at the meeting held Sunday, 1 August 2004:
      a) Goals statement—develop some measures of success for the October meeting.
      b) Meet with other organizations; set up some meetings before the spring Board meeting for a subset of the Board.
      c) Identify communication specialists and solicit plans/bids
      d) Select one
      e) Develop a fund-raising campaign
      f) Start the campaign

At the October meeting: Take up the idea of an advisory committee and what we would want them to do.
   5) Establish a Business Council as a sounding board for the public information campaign and for help and advice on fund raising
      a) The Corporate award winners might be a good group to start with. A goal might be to have them contribute financially as well as with advice. Maybe have a reception each year for the Council at the Annual Meeting.
   6) INTECOL planning
      a) Nothing new to report at this time; planning for the joint meeting is ongoing. Any profits (or deficit) from the meeting will be split according to the number of people who register from each Society (only one can be designated on the registration form). Other ecological societies will be encouraged to submit symposium proposals and to participate in the meeting.
   7) International connections
      a) The committee for the Mexico meeting had a long meeting, and plans are progressing. “Ecology in the context of globalization” is a possible meeting theme, with four subthemes being considered.

III. REPORT FROM ESA CONGRESSIONAL FELLOW

Evan Notman was associated with Senator Harkin’s staff on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Issues have included the Healthy Forests initiative, tax incentives for wind power, peer review. Evan is moving on to another policy fellowship.

IV. FOLLOW-UP OF THE VISIONS STATEMENT GOALS

We should try to map what we are now doing (SEEDS, support for NEON, etc.) to the advertised goals of the Visions statement. Jerry will work with Nadine, Cliff, and Jason on a list for an editorial/letter for Frontiers (the special issue on Visions).

V. NEW BUSINESS

   1) The Board discussed making a response to NSF from ESA about the Associate Director’s position. They agreed not send in a list of names, but a list of characteristics that we would like to see in an appointee. Individual ESA members could then send in suggestions of particular people. Nancy Grimm agreed to write an initial draft, to be run by Jerry and Bill for submission later this month.
   2) The awards committee seeks Board approval to stop rotating every year among the six categories for the Corporate Award, because they don’t always get nominations for that year’s category. They also would like to institute a pre-application process for the nominations for Honorary Member and the Odum Education Award. The committee suspects that the reason for the small number of nominations for these awards now is because of the onerous nomination procedure. Motion: The Board approves these two suggestions from the Awards Committee. Seconded, approved unanimously. The new procedure will be announced in the October Bulletin.

V. OTHER AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE FALL MEETING

1) NEON; ESA needs to play an important role; some past-Presidents are on the committee.
2) Leveraging of the SEEDS program.
3) Expanding solicitation of donations to the Millenium Fund.

Carol Brewer did well soliciting at the Education Committee meeting. Board members are encouraged to do more to contact potential donors; ideas for recognizing donors and facilitating donations were discussed.

VI. REPORT ABOUT THE ONGOING MEETING

A report from Ellen Cardwell: 4,077 people registered. About 164 were staff, VIP, or exhibitors (152 guests). General consensus is that the meeting has been a big success. Logistics worked well, the facility worked well.

VIII. ADJOURNMENT 10:55 AM

Respectfully submitted,
David Inouye

2004 Edward S. Deevey Award

Edward S. Deevey, a founder of modern paleoecology, was a dedicated student advisor who mentored many investigators active in the field today. To honor his memory and encourage high-quality research by graduate students, the Paleoecology Section presents an award to the student or recent graduate making the best oral or poster presentation in paleoecology at the ESA Annual Meeting. Jason McLachlan, a recent Ph.D recipient from the Biology Department at Duke University, won the 2004 Deevey Award for his talk titled “The importance of small populations in the postglacial dynamics of eastern forests.” Dr. McLachlan’s presentation, which he conducted with coauthors James S. Clark and Paul S. Manos, used patterns of genetic variation in modern tree populations and fossil pollen data to reconstruct patterns of postglacial migration in eastern North America.

Both data sources provided important information about past range dynamics, but results suggested that previous estimates of rapid migration based on pollen data alone may be unreliable.

The presentation synthesized results recently published in Forest Ecology and Management and currently in review in Ecology. The judges’ committee was particularly impressed with his innovative methodology and the significance of his work to future paleoecological research. Dr. McLachlan has a B.A. in Geography from Columbia University and an M.S. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington. This fall, he is starting a postdoctoral appointment at the Harvard Forest, where he will continue to integrate fossil pollen data with molecular markers and statistical models to understand the historical population dynamics of forests. Philip Higuera received honorable mention for his presentation titled “When does a charcoal peak represent a fire? Insights from a simple statistical model.” Mr. Higuera is a graduate student in the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington. Coauthors Daniel G. Gavin and Matthew E. Peters assisted Mr. Higuera with this research. The Paleoecology Section thanks students who competed for this year’s Deevey Award and encourages others to participate in the 2005 competition, to be held at the Annual Meeting in Montréal, Canada. The Section also appreciates the efforts of the 2004 Deevey Award Selection Committee: Jason Lynch (Chair), Lisa Carlson, Allen Solomon, Bob Booth, Don Falk, and Bryan Shuman.

Grazing effects

photograph by F. Louault

Sheep grazing on one of the experimental plots at Theix (France) in September 2001.
Photo © F. Louault, used by permission, all rights reserved.
Click on photo for a larger image.

Look for the article by A. K. Patra et al., “Effects of grazing on microbal functional, groups involved in soil N dynamics,” in the February 2005 issue of Ecological Monographs 75(1).

Plant–herbivore interaction is one of two parts of the first trophic transfer of energy and nutrients between organisms in ecosystems (the other part being the dead plant–detritivore path). Despite its importance in understanding life on Earth, students in general seem to have limited knowledge of what we have learned about plant–herbivore interaction (Stamp 2004). That can translate into the public not having adequate background to evaluate government policy, for instance, relative to effects of global warming on agriculture and forestry, genetic modification of crops, insect pest and weed control, range management, or zoonotic diseases reflecting human disturbance of plant–herbivore systems (e.g., Lyme disease).

The purpose of this review of ecology textbooks was to see how the community of plant–herbivore researchers is doing in terms of getting our messages across to the authors of ecology textbooks, and therefore, by implication, to students and, in turn, the college-educated public. About 10 years ago, a survey of seven current ecology texts revealed that there was relatively little coverage of plant–herbivore interactions, which led to my trying to organize what the key messages might be (Stamp 1996). Using those messages of plant–herbivore interactions as a basis, I developed a list of what I thought were the current key messages, concepts, terms, and case studies, and then broadened that somewhat as I began reviewing ecology textbooks. This time I surveyed ecology textbooks published from the 1960s through 2003, for a total of 54 texts, including multiple editions. I was somewhat generous in giving texts credit for including the messages. That is, if there was strong inference, even though not an explicit statement, then I gave the text credit for it. So I chose to err in favor of the authors. This means that while some students would probably have gotten the message, no doubt others did not. Overall, this review indicated not only that we need to improve the presentation of plant–herbivore interactions in ecology textbooks, but also the presentation of ecological concepts in general.

Historical perspective

Given its era, each text had information, presentation, and features to recommend it. In the 1970s, there was an average of 0.4% of the text devoted to plant–herbivore interactions and plant–herbivore population dynamics, and another 0.2% on plant defense. The emphasis was on “predator–prey” interactions, especially conspicuous patterns of consumption of and damage to plants. In the 1980s, there was an average of 0.6% on plant–herbivore interactions and dynamics, with another 0.6% on plant defense. The descriptions tended toward the “arms-race” view of plant–herbivore interactions. In the 1990s, there was an average of 0.7% on plant–herbivore interactions and dynamics, with another 0.5% on plant defense, but the messages tended to be diluted by the emphasis on specific examples. In the 2000s, there was an average of 0.7% on plant–herbivore interactions and dynamics, with another 0.8% on plant defense, but the messages still weren’t coming across as clearly as needed.

Messages in recent ecology textbooks

Below are some key messages of plant–herbivore interactions and how they are (or are not) presented in ecology textbooks published in the last 10 years.

Defensive chemicals are widespread among plant species (rather than the impression that this or that species has a particular chemical or morphological defense). This message was present in 67% of the texts, but more importantly, not in 33% of the texts! Related to this idea, only 22% of the current texts mentioned the role of fruit chemistry (in terms of change in defense, color, and nutrients) as fruits ripen, which affects herbivory and frugivory (i.e., fruit eating that facilitates seed dispersal). Yet that is key to understanding how the mutualism of frugivory evolves from herbivory of seeds (Stiles 1980, 1984).

Individual plants or species have an array of defenses (rather than one or a few chemicals, or a morphological defense such as thorns). Of the current texts, 74% had that message, but 26% did not! This