Ecological Society of America

The Ecological Society of America (ESA), representing 7,500 ecological researchers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 62 other countries, was founded in 1915 as a non-profit, scientific organization and today is the nation's leading professional society of ecologists. Members include ecologists from academia, government agencies, industry, and non-profit organizations. In pursuing its goal of promoting "the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems," the Society publishes reports, membership research, and three scientific journals a year, and it provides expert testimony to Congress. In addition, ESA holds a conference every summer attended by more than 3,000 scientists and students at which members present the latest ecological research. The Society's three journals are: Ecology (eight issues per year), Ecological Monographs (four issues per year), and Ecological Applications (four issues per year). ESA also publishes a bimonthly member newsletter.

A milestone in the Society's development was its 1991 proposal for a Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI), which was published in a 1991 issue of Ecology as a "call-toarms for ecologists." Based on research priorities identified in the proposal, ESA chartered the SBI Project Office in the same year to focus on global change, biodiversity , and sustainable ecosystems. The SBI marked a commitment by the Society to more actively convey its members' findings to the public and to policy makers, and, as such, included research, education, and environmental decision-making components. The three-pronged SBI proposal grew out of a "period of introspection" during which ESA led its members to examine "the whole realm of ecological activities" in the face of decreasing funds for research, an urgent need to set priorities, and "the need to ameliorate the rapidly deteriorating state of the environment and to enhance its capacity to sustain the needs of the world's population."

Since the SBI Project Office was chartered, it has focused on linking the ecological scientific community to other scientists and decision makers through a multi-disciplinary 12-member Steering Committee and five-member staff. For instance, in 1995, the SBI began a series of semiannual meetings with federal government officials to discuss "overlapping areas of interest and possible collaborative opportunities." In addition, SBI has hosted discussions of key ecological topics, such as a symposium on " The Effects of Fishing Activities on Benthic Habitats" that SBI and the American Fisheries Society, the Ecological Society of America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , and the US Geological Survey organized in 2002 and another SBI-hosted discussion on "Ecosystem Simplification: Why a Patchwork Quilt is More Valuable than a Burlap Sack" at the ESA's 2002 Annual Meeting.

In 1993 ESA chartered a Special Committee on the Scientific Basis of Ecosystem Management to establish the scientific grounds for discussing the increasingly prominent ecosystem approach to addressing land and natural resource management problems. The committee published its findings in the August 1996 issue of Ecological Applications. Articles discussed the emerging consensus on essential elements of ecosystem management, including its "holistic" nature—incorporating the biological and physical elements of an ecosystem and their interrelationships—and the concept of "sustainability" as the "essential element and precondition" of ecosystem management.

ESA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., consistent with the SBI's goal of broader public education, includes a Public Affairs Office. Its Publications Office is in Ithaca, New York.

[David Clarke ]

RESOURCES

PERIODICALS

"Forum: Perspectives on Ecosystem Management". Ecological Applications, 6, no. 3 (August 1996): 694–747.

"The Sustainable Biosphere Initiative: An Ecological Research Agenda". Ecology, 72, no. 2 (1991): 371–412,

ORGANIZATIONS

Ecological Society of America, 1707 H St, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. USA 20006 (202) 833-8773, Fax: (202) 833-8775, Email: [email protected], <http://www.esa.org>