Ecology in an Era of Globalization, held in Merida, Mexico on January 8-12, 2006

Ecological Society Of America, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This project will support a conference, Ecology in an Era of Globalization, which will be held in Merida, Mexico, January 8 - 12, 2006, co-hosted by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan and the Centro de Investigaciones Cientificas de Yucatan. This conference will be organized around three subthemes: invasive species and their spread due to ever increasing intra-hemispheric commerce and movement of merchandise and goods, human migration and its impacts on both source and recipient nations, and production systems, particularly the environmental impacts associated with the need to nearly double food production by mid-century. The conference results should have a broad impact on the environmental community. A special issue of the journal Frontiers will be distributed to all conference attendees, to all ESA members in 80 countries, and to subscribing libraries, providing a lasting and tangible product of the conference. This special issue will also be made available without charge on ESA's web site. Finally, this conference will develop a vision for an Ecological Knowledge Network that will promote the application of ecological knowledge and data to increase sustainability. It will enable users to rapidly access and synthesize existing information from multiple databases, link knowledge users with data and project-specific teams of local and international experts using web-conferencing facilities, and help researchers identify potential partners for collaboration. Finally, funding includes support for 33 US students, targeting members of underrepresented groups, to attend and participate in the conference.