The Gonzalez Lab at the ESA 2023 in Portland

Every year, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) brings together the largest number of practitioners in the field of ecology for a full week of talks, workshops and training.

The 2023 ESA annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, saw over 4000 attendees from a broad spectrum of institutions: academic, private, governmental and NGOs.  Both Prof. Andy and Flavio (PhD candidate) attended the conference to present the lab’s work to this large audience.

Andy’s talk focused on the importance of considering evolutionary dynamics of populations to improve conservation outcomes for biodiversity. The talk discussed the concept of evolutionary rescue, an ecological process that happens when a meta population of species is sufficiently large and dispersal between locations is possible, enabling populations to preserve local and regional diversity and shift their habitat as it changes.

Flavio presented an upcoming paper on implementing a new methodology to monitor ecosystem services and look for the cause-and-effect relationships driving changes in the interaction between nature and society. His talk introduced the new concept of essential ecosystem service variables proposed by GEO BON and highlighted its role in supporting the needs of global agreements to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.

Both talks were well received and stimulated interesting conversations between participants working to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, paving the way for new collaborations. Conferences such as ESA are how the international scientific community stays in touch and how new ideas are born, leading to new exciting science and real world impacts on conservation and business.