Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

2025-07-10

(Press-News.org) The latest ecological research will be on full display at the Ecological Society of America’s upcoming Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, Aug. 10–15. A focal point of the conference, symposia consist of four 20-minute talks organized around a central theme of broad interest. These sessions consider topics from different angles, integrate multiple lines of evidence and offer new insights on ecological phenomena.

This year, Annual Meeting symposia will address the questions and tools at the frontiers of ecological research, wetland restoration in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, deep soil carbon storage, the return of buffalo to tribal lands and much more.

ESA invites staff journalists, freelance journalists, student journalists and press officers to register for free as media attendees up to and throughout the week of the Annual Meeting. For eligibility information, please visit ESA’s press registration credential policy page.

Members of the media will have access to all scientific sessions at the conference and to a press room where they can enjoy refreshments, internet access, a printer and an interview area.

Monday, August 11 1:30PM–3:00PM Advancing Our Ecological Knowledge and Perceptions: Current Ecological Issues and Research Developments (Part 1)
Presenters: Yude Pan, USDA Forest Service; David Schimel, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Harvard University; Jill Baron, USGS (retired); Richard Norby, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Hilton Key 9-10 3:30PM–5:00PM Advancing Our Ecological Knowledge and Perceptions: Current Ecological Issues and Research Developments (Part 2)
Presenters: Yude Pan, USDA Forest Service; Dennis Ojima, Colorado State University; Richard Pouyat, USDA Forest Service (retired); Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University; Chris Field, Stanford University
Hilton Key 9-10 3:30PM–5:00PM To Tree or Not to Tree: Floodplain Wetland Restoration as an Alternative Best Management Practice to Riparian Forest Buffers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Presenters: David Bowne, Elizabethtown College; David Goerman, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Dorothy Merritts, Franklin & Marshall College; Justin Spangler, LandStudies, Inc.
Hilton Key 5 Tuesday, August 12 8:00AM–9:30AM Lessons from COP16 and COP29
Presenters: Jeannine Cavender Bares, Harvard University; Gillian Bowser, Colorado State University; Pamela Templer, Boston University; Gwen Bridge, Gwen Bridge Consulting
Hilton Key 5 8:00AM–9:30AM The Ecology of Segregation beyond Redlining: Status and Directions of an Emerging Field
Presenters: Idowu Ajibade, Emory University; Lawrence Brown, Morgan State University; Diego Ellis Soto, University of California Berkeley; Melissa McHale, University of British Columbia
Hilton Key 11-12 10:00AM–11:30AM From Farmlands to Advanced Facilities: Exploring Subsoil Carbon Dynamics in Agroecosystems
Presenters: Emily Protain, West Virginia University; Edward Brzostek, West Virginia University; Manisha Dolui, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Emily Graham, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Hilton Key 6 10:00AM–11:30AM From Local to Global, Uncovering Barriers and Societal Benefits of the Research Enterprise
Presenters: Karen Bailey, University of Colorado Boulder; Na’Taki Osborne, Spelman College; Adriana Romero-Olivares, New Mexico State University; Aroloye Numbere, University of Port Harcourt
Hilton Key 11-12 1:30PM–3:00PM Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in Cultural Heritage Landscapes: Lessons from Transhumant Pastoral Systems
Presenters: Lynn Huntsinger, University of California Berkeley; J. Terrence McCabe, University of Colorado Boulder; Pablo Manzano, Basque Centre for Climate Change
Hilton Key 6 1:30PM–3:00PM Repairing the World Through Buffalo Restoration on Tribal Lands
Presenters: Gwen Bridge, Gwen Bridge Consulting; Joseph Gazing Wolf, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Colorado Boulder; Phil Two Eagle, Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council
Hilton Key 5 3:30PM–5:00PM Climate Change, Disturbance, and Tipping Points in Forest Ecosystems: Lessons Learned from a Diversity of Biomes
Presenters: Xiangtao Xu, Cornell University; Jennifer Baltzer, Wilfrid Laurier University; Monica Turner, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Yanlan Liu, the Ohio State University
Hilton Key 5 3:30PM–5:00PM eDNA is Everywhere: Moving eDNA from Research to Decision Making
Presenters: Corey Ridings, University of Washington; Matthew Barnes, Texas Tech University; Susanna Theroux, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project; Mehrdad Hajibabaei, eDNAtec
Hilton Key 6 Wednesday, August 13 8:00AM–9:30AM Marriage Therapy for Ecologists and Landscape Architects: Deepening a Collaborative Relationship to Landscape Change to Serve Society and Improve Biodiversity in the Design of Public Spaces
Presenters: Scott Jordan, Civitas, Inc.; Steven Handel, Rutgers University; Gena Wirth, SCAPE Landscape Architecture; Keith Bowers, Biohabitats, Inc.
Hilton Key 5 8:00AM–9:30AM People are Everywhere: Ecology for an Increasingly Human Planet
Presenters: Joseph Gazing Wolf, Heritage Lands Collective; Charles Mann, Professional Author; Jacquelyn Gill, University of Maine; Erle Ellis, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Hilton Key 9-10 8:00AM–9:30AM Plant-Microbe Interactions in a Changing World
Presenters: Michelle Afkhami, University of Miami; Jennifer Bhatnagar, Boston University; Smriti Pehim Limbu, Dartmouth College; Kimberly Komatsu, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Hilton Key 8 10:00AM–11:30AM Agroecology in the Global South
Presenters: Ben Iuliano, CUNY Baruch College; Frederi Viens, Rice University; John Vandermeer, University of Michigan; Maria Villalpando Paez, University of California Berkeley; Charles Midega, Poverty and Health Integrated Solutions; Sieglinde Snapp, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center; Estelí Jiménez Soto, University of South Florida
Hilton Key 8 10:00AM–11:30AM Metrics for Evaluating the Impacts and Contributions to Biodiversity Across Scales and Sectors
Presenters: Fabiola Rodríguez Vásquez, Cornell University; Robert McElderry, ETH Zürich; Louise Mair, Newcastle University; Courtney Davis, Cornell University
Hilton Key 5 10:00AM–11:30AM Tribal Leadership and Co-Management for Sustainable Stewardship of Our Natural Heritage
Presenters: Deondre Smiles, University of British Columbia; Kimberly Yazzie, Stanford University; James Rattling Leaf, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Colorado Boulder; Phil Two Eagle, Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council
Hilton Key 11-12 10:00AM–11:30AM Wild Animal Welfare is in Our Backyards: Exploring Wild Animal Welfare and Its Ecological Impacts Among Wild Animals in Urban Spaces
Presenters: M. Camille Hopkins, Harvard University; Bonnie Flint, Wild Animal Initiative; Dave Daversa, University of California Los Angeles; Jessica Wright-Lichter, Tufts University
Hilton Key 9-10 1:30PM–3:00PM Exploring the “Endless Frontier” for Ecology
Presenters: Stephanie Hampton, University of California Davis & ESA President; Jianguo (Jack) Liu, Michigan State University; Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Harvard University; Rita Colwell, University of Maryland
Hilton Key 5 1:30PM–3:00PM Microbial Ecology is Everywhere: Experimental and Trait-Based Approaches for Understanding the Assembly and Function of Microbial Communities
Presenters: Mar Schmidt, Cornell University; Jennifer Bowen, Northeastern University; Michael Strickland, University of Idaho; Peter Kennedy, University of Minnesota
Hilton Key 9-10 3:30PM–5:00PM Belowground Plant Traits and Their Key Functions: An Overview of Roots, Clonal Growth Organs, and Bud Banks and Their Role in Resource Acquisition, Resource Storage and Vegetative Regeneration
Presenters: Jitka Klimesova, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences; Luke McCormack, Morton Arboretum; Joseph Tumber-Davila, Dartmouth College; Jacqueline Ott, USDA Forest Service
Hilton Key 6 3:30PM–5:00PM Ecology in History, History in Ecology: Interdisciplinary Exchanges to Advance Ecological Knowledge
Presenters: Erika Milam, Princeton University; Lijing Jiang, Johns Hopkins University; Anita Simha, Louisiana State University; Aaron Ellison, Sound Solutions for Sustainable Science
Hilton Key 5 3:30PM–5:00PM Perspectives on the Origins and Future of Urban Ecology
Presenters: Steward Pickett, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies; Tara Trammell, University of Delaware; Paige Warren, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Charles Nilon, University of Missouri
Hilton Key 9-10 Thursday, August 14 8:00AM–9:30AM The Heartwork by Indigenous People with Native Seeds and Indigenous Plants
Presenters: Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College; Kaya DeerInWater, American Indian Higher Education Consortium; Juan De La Cruz, Fort Berthold Native American Church; James Rattling Leaf, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Colorado Boulder
Hilton Key 5 10:00AM–11:30AM How to Make an Impact: Translating Research to Action for Climate Adaptation and Conservation Initiatives
Presenters: Andrew Kadykalo, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks; Carolyn Enquist, USGS; Molly Cross, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Colorado Boulder; Lindsey Thurman, USGS
Hilton Holiday 5 10:00AM–11:30AM Strategies, Opportunities, and Challenges for Environmental Restoration in the Private Sector
Presenters: Carmen Rose, WEST Inc.;Aaron Stoler; Kevin Janni, GHD; Michael Van Laeken, WEST Inc.
Hilton Key 9-10 On-site Press Room Location: Room 330, Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Press Room hours:
Sunday, August 10: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Monday, August 11: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tuesday, August 12: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday, August 13: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday, August 14: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm

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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org

Follow ESA on social media:
Twitter/X – @esa_org
Bluesky – @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
Instagram – @ecologicalsociety
Facebook – @esa.org

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