DURHAM, N.C. – More than 45 faculty members, senior staff members and students from the Nicholas School and Nicholas Institute will present findings from new research at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the year's most important ecological science conference, Aug. 3-8 in Milwaukee, Wis.

Faculty, staff or students associated with the school and institute are listed as lead authors or co-authors on 22 presentations.

Norman L. Christensen Jr. professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School, is president of ESA. 

“Having a major presence at the ESA conference is a measure of the Nicholas School's international leadership in forging a sustainable future through strategic, multidisciplinary research, teaching and outreach,” he says. “It underscores our school-wide commitment to marshalling our resources to help solve the world’s most critical environmental challenges.”

ESA is the world’s largest organization of ecologists, with more than 9,000 members.  It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1915 to promote ecological science by encouraging communication and collaboration among scientists, increasing public awareness of the field’s relevance, and ensuring the use of sound science in environmental decision making by enhancing communication between scientists and policymakers. 

Other current and former Nicholas Schnool faculty members have served ESA as elected officers during recent years, including William H. Schlesinger, former dean of the Nicholas School, who served as ESA’s president in 2003-04, and James S. Clark, H.L. Blomquist Professor of Biology, who served as ESA’s vice president for science from 1999-2004.
Below is a list of the 2008 presentations authored or co-authored by Nicholas School, Nicholas Institute or affiliated 91 faculty members and students:

  • “Links Between Soil Microbial Metagenomics and Biogeochemical Functions in Afforsted Grasslands in Southern South America,” by Sean T. Berthrong, Christopher W. Schadt and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “A Network Platform for Understanding Biodiversity Change: Data and Models to Maximize Learning,” by James S. Clark, Michael C. Dietze, Richard W. Lucas, Andrew M. Latimer, Sean McMahon and Jessica E. Metcalf;
  • “Effects of the Non-native Invasive Microstegium vimineum on Nitrogen Cycling: Comparing N Cycling Between a Monoculture Invasive and a Diverse Community,” by Julie E. DeMeester and Daniel D. Richter;
  • “Dispersal Dynamics and Neutral Theory in Amazonian Tree Communities,” by Kyle G. Dexter, John Terborgh and Cliff Cunningham;
  • “Generalist Fungal Pathogens and Seedling Recruitment in a Temperate Mixed Hardwood Forest,” by Michelle H. Hersh, Rytas Vilgalys and James S. Clark;
  • “Valuing Ecosystem Services from Wetlands Restoration in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley,” by W. Aaron Jenkins, Brian C. Murray, Randall A. Kramer and Stephen P. Faulkner;
  • “Evolution in Plant Populations Can Drive Ecological Changes in the Structure of Associated Arthropod Communities,” by Marc Johnson;
  • “Interaction of Soil Type and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Grassland Soil Pore Water Nitrogen Concentrations,” by Alexia M. Kelley, Philip A. Fay, Virginia L. Jin, H. Wayne Polley and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “Using Transients to Understand the Processes Driving Viral Dynamics,” by Katia Koelle;
  • “Four-decade Responses of Soil trace Elements to an Aggrading Old-Field Forest: B, MN, ZN, CU and Fe,” by Jianwei Li, Daniel D. Richter, Arlene Mendoza and Paul Heine;
  • “Simulating Future Forests: Process Uncertainty, Individual Differences and the Importance of Frailty to Predicting Forest Community Dynamics,” by Sean McMahan, James S. Clark, Pankaj K. Agarwal and Hai Yu;
  • “Tree Growth Interference When the Point of Measurement Changes: Modeling Around Buttresses in Tropical Forests,” by Jessica E. Metcalf and James S. Clark;
  • “Spatial Genetic Structure in Two Populations of Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra): Implications for Seed and Pollen Movement and Demographic Processes,” by Emily V. Moran, James S. Clark and John Willis;
  • “Linking Trace Gas Emissions and Hydrologic Variability in Coastal Plain Wetlands Under Contrasting Land Uses,” by Jennifer L. Morse, Marcelo Ardon and Emily S. Bernhardt;
  • “Regulation of Carbon Metabolism in Two Cohorts of Pine Foliage Growing Under Elevates Carbon Dioxide,” by Catarina Moura and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “Impact of Physical Disturbance, Grazing and Seasonal Flooding in a Typha-dominated Neotropical Wetland (Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica),” by Michael J. Osland, Curtis J. Richardson and Eugenio Gonzalez;
  • “Soil Type Mediates Soil Respiration Response to a Carbon Dioxide Gradient in Tallgrass Prairie,” by Andrew Proctor, Alexia W. Kelley, Philip A. Fay, Virginia L. Jin, H. Wayne Polley and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “Learning in and with the Community: A Review of How Science Educators Connect Classroom and Community Learning,” by Julie A. Reynolds and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson;
  • “Effects of Plant Functional Traits on Nitrous Oxide and Methane Emissions from a North Carolina Restored Wetland,” by Eileen Thomas, Ariana Sutton-Grier, Robert B. Jackson and Justin Wright;
  • “Limitations of Current Sequence Data in Fungal Taxa Guilds,” by Rytas Vilgalys;
  • “Linking Structure and Function: Consistent Shifts in Denitrifying Bacteria Communities in Polluted Urban Streams,” by Si-Yi Wang, Matthew D. Wallenstein, Emily S. Bernhardt and Justin Wright; and
  • “Fast Versus Slow Succession in Eastern North America: Why Do Old Fields Persist in the North?” by Justin Wright.

For more information about the 2008 ESA annual meeting, visit the ESA Web site at.