DURHAM, N.C. – Nearly 50 Nicholas School faculty members and students 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. 6 to 11, in Memphis, Tenn.

Faculty or students from the school are listed as lead authors or co-authors on 23 papers, posters or symposia.  Their topics cover a wide range of timely ecological issues, including global climate change, wetlands restoration, water quality monitoring, nutrient cycling, conservation of threatened or endangered species, marine ecosystem management and forest ecology. 

Norman L. Christensen, professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, will be sworn in as president of ESA at the meeting.  Election as ESA’s president represents a three-year commitment, during which time Christensen will serve as president-elect, president and past president.

“Having a major presence at the ESA conference is a measure of the Nicholas School’s leadership in environmental science and policy,” he said. “It underscores the fact that no other school in the U.S. can offer the breadth of environmental expertise you will find here.” 

William H. Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School and James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, served as ESA’s president in 2003-04. 

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. 

Following is a list of the 23 presentations authored or co-authored by Nicholas School or affiliated 91 faculty members and students at ESA this year:

  • “The Constant Light, Colder Nights Hypothesis on Breeding Timing in Tropical Birds,” by Jessica L. Hardesty;
  • “Evidence of Resource Partitioning and Niche Separation Between Humpback and Minke Whales in Antarctica,” by Ari S. Friedlaender and Gareth L. Lawson;
  • “Inter-specific Variation in Canopy Conductance With Tree Height,” by Kimberly A. Novick, Gabriel G. Katul, Jehn-Yih Juang and Mario Siqueira;
  • “Pastures to Plantations: Afforestation, Soil Microbes and Biogeochemistry in Temperate South America,” by Sean T. Berthrong and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “Bottlenose Dolphin Habitat Selection in Florida Bay Relative to Behavior, Habitat and Prey Availability,” by Leigh G. Torres and Andrew J. Read;
  • “Regional-scale Stressor Response Models in Aquatic Ecosystems,” by E. Conrad Lamon;
  • “Selection of Water Quality Variables for Nutrient Criteria Using Structural Equation Modeling,” by Melissa A. Kenney, Kenneth H. Reckhow and Robert T. Clemen;
  • “Regeneration of Dynamics in Large Forest Gaps: Assessing the Importance of Resprouting,” by Michael C. Dietze and James S. Clark;
  • “Effects of Severe Ice Storms on Regional Carbon Storage in Biomass and Detrital Pools,” by Heather R. McCarthy and Ram Oren;
  • “Changes in Hydrology and Water Quality, and Initial Restoration Success, Two Years After Construction of the Duke Forest Stormwater Improvement and Wetlands Restoration Project in the North Carolina Piedmont,” by James W. Pahl and Curtis J. Richardson;
  • “Explaining the Interannual Variability of Carbon Exchange in Successional Ecosystems,” by Paul C. Stoy, Gabriel G. Katul, Jehn-Yih Juang and Kimberly A. Novick;
  • “Effects of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Availability on Root Exudation in Loblolly Pine,” by Richard D. Phillips and Emily S. Bernhardt;
  • “The Role of Plant Species and Functional Diversity in the Restoration of Riparian Wetland Ecosystem Functions,” by Arianna E. Sutton-Grier and Justin P. Wright;
  • “Nutrient Cycling Interactions of Rhizodeposition and Water Flow Along Roots in a Temperate Forest,” by Eileen R. Thorsos and Robert B. Jackson;
  • “Bird and Prey Community Response to Typhoon-damaged Tree Plantations and Natural Stands in Hokkaido, Japan,” by John H. Kim and Masashi Murakami;
  • “The Three-dimensional Structure of Canopy Trees: How to Model Crowns for Light-Driven Growth,” by Michael S. Wolosin, James S. Clark, Sukhendu Chakraborty and Pankaj Agarwal;
  • “Presettlement Vegetation of the North Carolina Piedmont,” by Miguel J. Schwartz and Rebecca Dobbs;
  • “Directed Connectivity Among Fish Populations in a Riverine Network,” Robert S. Schick, Steven T. Lindley, Patrick N. Halpin and Dean L. Urban;
  • “Linking Hydraulic Architecture to Stomatal Conductance: The Influence of Nutrient Supply in Mature Norway Spruce Trees,” by Eric J. Ward, Bjarni D. Sigurdsson and Ram Oren;
  •  “A Multilevel Model for Analyzing Zero-inflated Count Data,” by Song S. Qian and Valerie Hickey;
  •  “Graph Models of Habitat Networks: Commonalities and Implications,” by Dean L. Urban, Emily S. Minor and Robert S. Schick;
  • “Three Time Scales for Understanding and Managing Soil Restoration,” by Daniel D. Richter;
  • “Effect of Density Dependence, Drought and Management Regime on an Insular Bighorn Sheep Population,” by Fernando Colchero, Rodrigo A. Medellin and Gabriel G. Katul.
  • "Rhizogenic Carbon-Iron Redox Cycling that Drives Mineral Weathering," by Daniel D. Richter, et al.