Dear Members of the Ecological Section of the Botanical Society of America,

NEWSLETTER FOR ECOLOGICAL SECTION
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

We are looking forward to an exciting joint congress between the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Plant Biologists in Chicago, IL on July 7-11, 2007. Please make plans to attend if you have not already done so.

Botany & Plant Biology 2007--Ecological Section Planned Activities
Sessions including 34 posters and 38 papers

Co-sponsors for the following symposia:

• Conservation Biology of Eastern Tallgrass Prairie: Integrating Issues of Management and Restoration for the 21st Century ($600 support)
• Evolution in a Glaciated Landscape: Contribution of Endemism to Great Lakes Biodiversity (Name only support)
• Plant-Fungal Interactions (Name only support)
• The Evolution and Maintenance of Mixed Mating Systems ($600 support)
• The Functional Significance of Leaf Shape Variation—Towards a Consensus from Gene to Community ($400 support)

Co-sponsor for the following workshop:

• Measuring Eco-physiology of Plants from Cells to Ecosystems with Nondestructive Techniques ($400 support)

Requests for Input

• Janice Coons’ term as Chair of the Ecological Section will end after the Botany & Plant Biology 2007 Congress in Chicago, IL. Hence, we need nominations for a new Chair following those meetings. Please forward nominations to Janice Coons (jcoons@eiu.edu) indicating “Ecological Section Chair Nominee” as the email subject by June 8, 2007. In your nomination, please include a brief statement from the candidate. These statements will be posted for an online election of our new Chair.
• At the Botany & Plant Biology 2007 Congress, the Ecological Section will be giving student awards for the best talk and for the best poster. We need judges to interact with these students and make decisions relative to the award recipients. This job is very important to our section and our students. If you are willing to judge, please forward your name, email address, and which you prefer to judge (talks or posters) to Janice Coons (jcoons@eiu.edu) indicating “Ecological Section Judge” as the email subject by June 8, 2007.

Items of Interest

• We look forward to working with Colette Amici who has volunteered to help lead an effort for members of the Ecological Section to develop topics for “plant talking points” on the BSA website. These webpages will be simple thinking topics that might highlight important ecological concepts, and will be used for discussions by middle and high school students. Examples are at www.botany.org/planttalkingpoints/endosperm.php and at www.botany.org/planttalkingpoints/CO2andTrees.php. We will discuss this activity in Chicago.
• A change is being recommended in the amount of our section dues to fund our Student Travel Awards which were initiated for Botany 2006 in Chico, CA. Currently dues are $2/year, generating $800-900/year. The recommendation is to increase dues to $4/year to provide a large portion of the money needed to support our Student Travel Awards which are $1000/year. Without this increase, the Ecological Section will be faced with either reducing the amount provided for student awards or the amount provided to support symposia/workshops. This recommendation will be discussed in more detail followed by a vote in Chicago.

Student Travel Awards
The Ecological Section had 25 applicants for Student Travel Awards for Botany & Plant Biology 2007 making it difficult to choose from the many impressive applications. Congratulations to the following students who were selected to receive these awards:

• Cassandra Broadway of Grand Valley State University who will present a poster on “Growth and Nodulation in Trifolium repens and Glycine max in Response to Ailanthus altissima Extracts” (co-authors Jeff Dock and Gary Greer)
• John Geiger of Florida International University who will present a paper on “Experimental Seed and Seedling Performance of the Endangered Vine Ipomoea microdactyla Griseb. (Convolvulaceae)
• Daniel Hewins of Rider University who will present a poster on “Jack of All Trades: Biological Invasion Facilitated by Use of Multiple Forms of Nitrogen” (co-authors Danielle Cheong, Sheena Gayomba, and Laura Hyatt)

Thanks to our judges for these student travel awards (Timothy Bell, Jeffrey Walck, and Carl Weekley).

Submitted by Janice Coons
Chair, Ecological Section, Botanical Society of America
5/29/07

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.

The objectives of The Society are to: sustain and provide improved formal and informal education about plants; encourage basic plant research; provide expertise, direction, and position statements concerning plants and ecosystems; and foster communication within the professional botanical community, and between botanists and the rest of humankind through publications, meetings, and committees.