2007 – Theoretical Ecology

2007 Theoretical Ecology Section Report

The Section was formed in 1993 to (1) foster theoretical research in all areas of ecology; (2) sponsor meetings for the presentation of results; (3) foster communication and research collaboration between theoreticians and experimental/field ecologists; (4) encourage the application of ecological theory to the resolution of societal problems. Officers: Ottar Bjornstad will be stepping down as Chair at the end of the Section’s business meeting in San Jose . Cherie Briggs (the current Vice Chair) will take her place. The Section’s Secretary, Kim Cuddington, will step down to be replaced by Gregg Hartvigsen who will serve 2007-2009. Election for the next year’s Vice Chair is in progress, and the winner will be announced at the business meeting in San Jose . Awards: The Theoretical Ecology Section awards the Alfred J. Lotka and Vito Volterra prizes for the best presentations given by students during the Annual Meeting of the ESA. The award is open to graduate or undergraduate student members of the ESA who, as sole or first author, present a talk or poster at the ESA annual meeting on original research in theoretical ecology. All suitable approaches that yield theoretical insight to ecological phenomena are considered. Prizes are awarded on the basis of merit, originality, and clarity of presentation. The winner of the best talk in 2006 was Sean Michaletz ( University of Calgary ) for his presentation, “A heat transfer model of crown scorch in forest fires,” co-authored by Edward Johnson. The poster award was not presented this year.

This year the Section is sponsoring a symposium, “Ecological and economic theory in analyzing risk in biological invasions”, organized by David Lodge, Mark Lewis and Jason Shogren. The symposium will highlight new developments in ecological, economic, and risk analysis frameworks for nonindigenous species. The central public policy considerations are how much of society’s resources should be expended in response to nonindigenous species? And how should resources be allocated between different approaches to prevention and control?

Springer is kindly sponsoring the ESA ’07 theory section mixer and will be announcing the launch of the new journal Theoretical Ecology edited by Alan Hastings.