DURHAM, N.C. – Forty faculty members, research associates and students from the Nicholas School of the Environment at 91 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. 2-7 in Albuquerque, N.M.

Faculty, staff or students associated with the school are listed as lead authors or co-authors on 28 presentations.

Norman L. Christensen Jr., professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School, is past-president of ESA.  Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change, is ESA’s vice president for science.

“Having a major presence at the ESA conference, and in ESA’s leadership, is a measure of the Nicholas School's international leadership in forging a sustainable future through strategic, multidisciplinary research, teaching and outreach,” says William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School. “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 School 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 2009 presentations authored or co-authored by Nicholas School or affiliated 91 faculty members and students:

  • “Greater Seed Production in Elevated CO2 is Not Accompanied by Reduced Seed Quality in Loblolly Pine,” by Danielle Way, Shannon LaDeau, Heather McCarthy, James Clark, Ram Oren, Adrien Finzi and Robert Jackson;

  • “Examining Nitrogen Processing in Urban and Forested Streams,” by Brooke Hassett, Emily Bernhardt and Elizabeth Sudduth;

  • “Why Generalist Fungi May Matter in Shaping Plant Diversity: Parsing Out Fungal Function in a Multispecies Context,” by Michelle Hersh, James Clark and Rytas Vilgalys;

  • “A Metagenomic Study of the Gut-Associated Microbiota in Very Low Birthweight Infants,” by Patrick Seed, Sean Berthrong, Michael Cotton and Robert Jackson;

  • “Hydraulic Lift Enhances Nitrogen Acquisition of a Grass Species,” by John Kim, Cristina Armas, Timothy Bleby and Robert Jackson;

  • “Evaluating the Role of Root Exudates in Coupling Ecosystem C and N Cycling Using a Rhizosphere Simulator in Forest Soils,” by Andrea Martin, Jacquelyn Burmeister, Adrien Finzi, Emily Bernhardt and Rochard Phillips;

  • “A Global Meta-analysis of Soil Exchangeable Cations, pH, Carbon and Nitrogen with Afforestation,” by Sean Berthrong, Esteban Jobbagy and Robert Jackson;

  • “Impacts of Ionic Silver and Nanosilver on Denitrifying Bacteria Community Function,” by Si-Yi Wang, Benjamin Coleman and Emily Bernhardt;

  • “Flood Regime versus Plant Species Effects on Soil N Cycling in Semiarid Riparian Forests,” by Jennifer Follstad Shah, Mary Harner, Teresa Tibbets, Clifford Dahm and Robert Sinsabaugh;

  • “Transformations of Pine Forest-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter in a Temperate Zone Soil,” by Megan Mobley, Daniel Richter, Song Qian, Ryan Fimmen and Paul Heine;

  • “Contrasting Patterns of Dispersal and Gene Flow in Two Populations of Red Oak (Quercus Rubra),” by Emily Moran and James Clark;

  • “Integrating New Paradigms in C and N Cycling: Rhizo-Accelerated Mineralization and Priming in an Elevated CO2 Forest,” by Ryan Phillips, Adrien Finzi and Emily Bernhardt;

  • “When Multiple Pathogens Infect Multiple Hosts: Inference for Incidence, Infection and Impact,” by James Clark and Michelle Hersh;

  • “Can Differences in Stomatal Regulation Explain Competitive Differences among Tree Species?” by David Bell, Eric Ward, James Clark and Ram Oren;

  • “Does Soil Type Affect Soil Nitrogen Response to Changing CO2 Concentrations?” by Alexia Kelley, Philip Fay, Wayne Polley and Robert Jackson;

  • “Biogeochemical Tradeoffs in Wetland Restoration: Storage and Export of C, N and P in a Hydrologically Reconnected Agricultural Landscape,” by Emily Bernhardt, Marcelo Ardon, Jennifer Morse and Medora Burke-Scroll;

  • “Forest Biodiversity is not Maintained by the Immigration-Extinction Balance,” by Sean McMahan, James Clark, Pankaj Agarwal and Michael Dietze;

  • “Tradeoffs between N and P Retention Due to Drought and Saltwater Intrusion in a Restored Wetland Ecosystem,” by Marcelo Ardon, Jennifer Morse, Martin Doyle and Emily Bernhardt;

  • “Landscape-level Fuel Treatments Alter Pyrogenic Carbon Emissions but Reduce Long-Term Carbon Storage,” by Stephen Mitchell, Mark Harmon, Kari O’Connell and Frank Schneckenberger;

  • “Relaxation rate: A Consistent Metric for Linking Habitat Fragmentation to Extinction Threat,” by Jessica Schnell, Gareth Russell, Grant Harris and Stuart Pimm;

  • “Nitrification and Denitrification as Sources of Nitrous Oxide in Coastal Plain Wetlands under Contrasting Land Uses,” by Jennifer Morse, Marcelo Ardon and Emily Bernhardt;

  • “Altered Organic Matter Dynamics in Urban Stream Ecosystems,” by Elizabeth Sudduth, Brooke Hassett and Emily Bernhardt;

  • “Will Trait Plasticity across Environmental Gradients Sink Trait-based Ecology?” by Justin Wright, Samir Arora and Ariana Sutton-Grier;

  • “Diameter Growth across an Altitudinal Gradient in the Cloud Forest Tree Genus Weinmannia,” by Joshua Rapp, Miles Silman and James Clark;

  • “Evaluating Atmospheric CO2-induced Microbial Feedbacks on Plant Productivity in a Microcosm Experiment,” by Andrew Procter, Alexia Kelley and Robert Jackson;

  • “Protecting Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in the World’s Watersheds,” by Gary Luck, Kai Ming Chan and John Fay;

  • “Functional Diversity and Denitrification: Evidence that Greater Plant Biodiversity Buffers Variability in Denitrification Potential over Changes in Season and Soil Condition,” by Bonnie McGill, Ariana Sutton-Grier and Justin Wright;

  • “Lemur Disease Ecology: Linking Health, Ecosystem Viability and Conservation in Madagascar,” by Meredith Barrett and Randall Junge;

  • “A Return to Observational Ecology,” by Raphael Sagarin and Anibal Pauchard;

  • “Reimagining the Public Trust Doctrine to Conserve U.S. Ocean Ecosystems,” by Mary Turnipseed;

  • “The Promise and Peril of Geoengineering,” by Robert Jackson; and

  • “Integrating Local Ecological Knowledge in the Blue Crab Fishery into Political Design to Protect Ecosystem Function and Resilience,” by Amy Freitag.