Farewell, ESA Meeting 2009

As ESA’s Annual Meeting drew to a close today and the city of Albuquerque breathed a sigh of relief — now there might be places for locals to sit in a restaurant! — the echoes of the meeting were just beginning.  Scientific meetings are a place to bring together scientists from myriad subfields: in the case of ecology, from biogeochemistry to microbial ecology to agroforestry to physiological ecology…and the list goes on. When they all get together, magic often happens. This meeting was no exception, with large-scale issues such as invasive species, climate change and even — here’s a new one — warfare ecology on the bill.

Ecologists aren’t the only ones who think their work is important, either.  Reports have emerged from Nature magazine, the Albuquerque Journal, Scientific American and others.  (The Nature folks also blogged like crazy about the meeting.)  Watch for other stories that will come out within the next week in places like Land Letter and National Geographic News.

Either way you slice it, communication is key.  Ecologists communicating with each other = good. Ecologists communicating with the public = also good.  Ecologists doing both = slowly and steadily changing the world.

From the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel, goodbye, ESA meeting 2009.