Based on a media release of the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
The Ecological Society of America has announced the winners of its 2025 awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity and lifelong commitment to the profession.
This year’s W.S. Cooper Award has been awarded to the authors of the iDiv paper “Harmonizing taxon names in biodiversity data: A review of tools, databases and best practices,”: Matthias Grenié, Emilio Berti, Juan D. Carvajal‐Quintero, Gala Mona Louise Dädlow, Alban Sagouis and Marten Winter. The paper was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution in January 2022.
William S. Cooper was a pioneer of physiographic ecology and geobotany, with a particular interest in the influence of historical factors — such as glaciations and climate history — on the pattern of contemporary plant communities. The Cooper Award thus honors the authors of an outstanding publication in the field of geobotany, physiographic ecology, plant succession or the distribution of plants along environmental gradients.
The authors systematically categorized and reviewed taxonomic databases as well as software for accessing and reconciling them with one another, generated an app for users to explore and compare these tools and provided best-use guidelines for taxonomic harmonization. Their work has proven incredibly useful for studies evaluating changes in species distributions over space and time and will continue to strengthen the fields of geographic botany, plant succession and the distribution of organisms across environmental gradients.
The synthesis of big data has become critical for addressing important ecological questions. However, species names often differ across databases, and linking information about species among databases is fraught with issues. The authors’ tremendous work to overcome these issues has already had an impressive impact and has been cited an average of 24 times per year. Their paper symbolizes the shift in ecology toward using big data to address important ecological questions, and is a great service to the field.
The ESA awards are designed to not only reward past achievements, but also to inspire a broad audience of scientists, educators and students, opening the door to new insights and collaborations that will further the impact of ecological research.
“It’s a privilege to recognize this year’s outstanding award recipients,” said ESA President Stephanie Hampton. “Their accomplishments demonstrate the wide breadth of talent and dedication within our ecological community. These individuals and teams not only deepen our scientific understanding but also contribute meaningfully to society through their work, and we are proud to celebrate their efforts.”
ESA will present the 2025 awards during a ceremony at the Society’s upcoming Annual Meeting, which will take place in Baltimore, Maryland Aug. 10–15.
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 Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science.
Contact
Dr Marten Winter
Head of sDiv
Leipzig University
Telephone: +49 341 9733129
Email: marten.winter@idiv.de
Prof Dr Matthias Grenié
Former sDiv Postdoc
Laboratoire d’Écologie Alpine (LECA)
Email: matthias.grenie@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
Kati Kietzmann
Media and Communications
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Phone: +49 341 97 39222
Email: kati.kietzmann@idiv.de