Brown study wins Ecological Society of America prize

by Ricardo Howell

For four decades scientists in ecology and paleoecology (ancient ecology) debated the answer to an unexplained riddle: Why are there no modern counterparts to certain plant and animal communities, which existed during the recent geological past?

In 2001 in a study published in Ecology, Brown geological science researchers presented a compelling solution - that unique groupings of plants and animals arise when variables in the climate are also unique.

The study, authored by then-graduate students John Williams and Bryan Shuman, and Professor of Geological Sciences Thompson Webb III, has been awarded the 2004 William S. Cooper Award, the Ecological Society of America's highest honor for book- or paper-length research in plant ecology.

The ESA award committee noted that the study "set a new standard for paleoecological syntheses," praising the paper for its excellence and scope, including the paper's broad combination of quantitative modeling and natural history.

Williams, Shuman and Webb compared eastern North America fossil pollen samples from the last 25,000 years - the late-Quaternary period - to climate modeling of the era provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

According to Webb, the group's analyses demonstrated that unique combinations of temperature and precipitation, as well as the varying seasonality of temperature and precipitation, accompanied unique groups of biological species.

The study notes that evidence of climate change in the past and current climate change lead scientists to expect that future plant formations will include plant associations not currently seen. That trend may be affected by man-made disturbances as well as the responses of plants to rapid changes in climate.

Webb says much of the credit for the work goes to lead author Williams, now research associate at the Limnological Research Center, department of geology and geophysics at the University of Minnesota, who spearheaded the work as part of his dissertation research, and to Shuman, now assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.

"I take great pride in mentoring students who produce research that fuels their career, and research that has such influence on the field," says Webb.

In the brief period since its publication the study has made a substantial impact, says the ESA. In addition to appearing as an "Editor's Choice" in Science, the study has been widely cited by other geological scientists - appearing as a reference in more than a dozen subsequent studies, according to the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).