DURHAM, N.C. – More than 50 researchers, policy analysts and students from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at 91 will present findings from new research or policy analysis at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the year’s most important ecological science conference, Aug. 5 to 10, in San Jose, Calif.

Faculty, staff or students from the school or institute are listed as lead author or co-author on 40 presentations in all. Their topics cover a wide range of timely ecological issues, including global climate change, wetlands ecology, invasive species management, sustainable forestry, and ecosystem restoration following degradation or disturbances caused by agricultural or urban development.

Norman L. Christensen Jr, professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School serves as ESA’s incoming president.

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

ESA is the world’s largest organization of ecologists, with more than 8,100 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 ESA presentations slated to be made by Nicholas School faculty members, Nicholas Institute staff members, and students:

“Plants Passing Gas: Plant Traits and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a North Carolina Restored Wetland,” by Eileen Thorsos, Ariana Sutton-Grier, Song Qian, Robert B. Jackson and Justin Wright;

“Interacting Life History Schedules of Trees: Implications for Biodiversity,” by James S. Clark, Michelle H. Hersh, Michael Wolosin and co-authors;

“Shifts in Soil Microbial Community Composition and Function Caused by Afforestation with Exotic Tree Species in Southern South American Grasslands,” by Sean T. Berthrong and Robert B. Jackson;

“Effects of Fungal and Oomycete Pathogens on Seedling Recruitment in a Temperate Mixed Hardwood Forest,” by Michelle H. Hersh, 91, James S. Clark and Rytas Vilgalys;

“Estimation of Age-specific Survivorship When Age is Unknown,” by Fernando Colchero and James S. Clark;

“Contrasting Water-Use Patterns Among Coastal Semiarid Plant Species,” by Cristina Armas, Robert B. Jackson and co-authors;

“The Effects of Organic Acids on Soil Microbial Activity and Nutrient Availability in a Forest Soil,” by Jacquelyn D. Burmeister, Richard P. Phillips and Emily S. Bernhardt;

“Do Canopy Gaps Give Rare Tree Species an Advantage Via the Storage Effect?” by Jessica E. Metcalf and co-authors;

“Ecological Functional Assessment and Biodiversity as Indices of Restoration in the Mesopotamian Marshes of Southern Iraq,” by Curtis Richardson and co-author;
“Can 15 years of Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Research Contribute Anything Useful to Restoration Ecology?” by Justin Wright;
“Linking the Ivory Tower to the Sausage Factory: Placing Academia at the Service of Society,” by Lydia Olander;

“Carbon and Water Relations: Pinus taeda Gene Expression Under Elevated Carbon Dioxide,” by Catarina Mouraand Robert B. Jackson;

“Linking Spatial Data and Predictive Models to Forecast Alternative Options and Futures in Managed Landscapes,” by John Fay and co-authors;

“Interannual Variability in the Hydrologic Budget of a Mixed Deciduous Forest,” by A. Christopher Oishi,Ram Oren, Gabriel Katul and co-authors;

“Plant Diversity and Composition in the Absence of the Exotic Invasive, Microstegium vimineum, at a Wetland Restoration Site in Raleigh, North Carolina,” by Julie E. DeMeester and Daniel D. Richter;

“Plant Functional Diversity and the Restoration of Riparian Wetland Ecosystem Function,” by Ariana Sutton-Grier, Justin Wright, Song Qian and Curtis Richardson;

“Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Losses from Forested Watersheds Across the Southern Appalachians,” by Emily S. Bernhardt and co-authors;

“Selection of Water Quality Variables for Nutrient Criteria Using Structural Equation Modeling,” by Melissa A. Kenney and Kenneth H. Reckhow;

“Water on the Move: Hydraulic Redistribution of Underground Stream Water and Rainfall by Deep-rooted Woody Plants in Central Texas,” by Timothy M. Bleby, Robert B. Jackson and co-authors
“Towards a Rhizocentric View: The Importance of Root Exudation in Forests Exposed to Elevated CO2,” by Richard P. Phillips and Emily S. Bernhardt;
“An Assessment of Native Bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea) Establishment After the Removal of an Invasive Exotic Shrub (Ligustrum sinense) in a Southeastern U.S. Riparian Forest,” by Michael J. Osland, James W. Pahl, Mengchi Ho and Curtis J. Richardson;

“Pervasive Distance Effects (and Not Conspecific Density per se) Control Early-stage Tree Recruitment in a Lowland Amazonian Rainforest,’ by Varun Swamy;

“Woody Shrub Encroachment Lowers Groundwater Recharge Rates Across a Precipitation Gradient,” by 
John Kim and Robert B. Jackson;

“Restoration of Grasslands After Agriculture: Insights from Regional Chronosequences” by Robert B. Jackson and co-authors;

“Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in Southern African Savannas,” by Stefano Manzoni, Amilcare Porporato and co-authors;

“Amount or Pattern? Grassland Responses to the Heterogeneity and Availability of Two Key Resources,” by  James F. Reynolds and co-authors;

“Canopy Photosynthesis Drives Diel Patterns of Fine Root Respiration in a Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) Forest Exposed to Elevated CO2 and Nitrogen Deposition,” by Gabriel Katul and co-authors;

“Fine Root Dynamics in a Loblolly Pine Forest Exposed to FACE: An Eight-Year Minirhizotron Study,” by Ram Oren and co-authors;

“Sprouting Ability of Diverse Tropical Tree Species Depends on Environmental Conditions,” by Carl F. Salk and James S. Clark;

“Simultaneous Parentage and Dispersal Estimation in Monoecious Plants: A Bayesian Approach, Combining Genetic and Spatial Data,” by Emily V. Moran and James S. Clark;

“Maintenance of Genetic Diversity: Protected Polymorphisms and Stochasticity,” by Jessica E. Metcalf and co-authors;

“Photosynthetic Water Use Efficiency and Biomass of Sorghastrum nutans and Solidago Canadensisin Three Soils Along a CO2 Concentration Gradient,” by Dafeng Hui, Andrew Procter, Robert B. Jackson and co-authors;

“Biogeochemical Consequences of North Carolina’s Largest Wetland Mitigation Project,” by 
Marcelo Ardon, Emily Bernhardt, Jennifer L. Morse and co-authors;

“Applying Bayesian Inference on a Conceptual Hydrological Model,” by Wei Wu, James S. Clark and co-authors;

“Restoration as Experimental Manipulation: Is Channel Structure or Watershed Condition More Important in Predicting Ecosystem Function in Urban Streams?” by Elizabeth B. Sudduth, Brooke Hassett, Emily Bernhardt, Peter Cada and co-authors;

“Eco-Health Impacts of Urban Tropical Wastewater in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Msimbazi River Case Study,” by Amani N. McHugh;

“Research Service Learning:  An Emerging Pedagogy with Significant Payoffs for Faculty, Students, and the Community,” by Julie A. Reynolds and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson;

“Applying the Dahlem Desertification Paradigm (DDP) to Assess Key Supporting Ecosystem Services in a Coupled Human-ecological System: A Case Study in La Amapola, Mexico,” by James F. Reynolds and co-authors;

“Reassessment of Carbon Accumulation at the Duke Free Air CO2 Enrichment Site: Interactions of Atmospheric [CO2] with Nitrogen and Water Availability and Stand Development,” by Heather R. McCarthy, Ram Oren, Robert B. Jackson, Charles W Cook and co-authors; and “Closing Plenary: Reflections by Distinguished Ecologists,” by Norm Christensen and colleagues.

In addition to these presentations, Ariana Sutton-Grier organized the symposium“Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration in a Changing World” and Justin Wright served as her co-organizer.