Shifting Urban Realities and Nature Beyond Parks

Traditionally, cities have been thought of as distinct from nature.  In fact, they have often been considered to be the antithesis of nature.  Ecological science in the past seemed to […]

October is BES Annual Meeting Season

In America we seem to follow a regular rhythm of holidays signaled by changing displays to encourage seasonally linked consumption.   So as Halloween decorations begin to appear in stores, […]

A Change in the BES Community: A New Position for Peter Groffman

One of the founding members of BES, who has been at the Cary Institute since the project was in its formative phase, is pursuing a new career direction.  Peter helped […]

American Urban Ecology Comes of Age

The 100th Anniversary meeting of the Ecological Society of America was held in Baltimore this year.  Some 4,600 members of the society gathered to share scientific insights, hold workshops on […]

BES at the 100th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, in Baltimore

The Ecological Society of America is the world’s largest organization of professional ecologists.  Its members include not only research scientists at various career stages, from students, through postdoctoral associates, academic […]

A Background Reading for the June 2015 Quarterly Project Meeting

Several of us have been working on an essay to describe more fully than an earlier post here, a theory of urban heterogeneity.  That essay is not complete yet, but […]

The Science of Connection in a Disconnected Place

The news from Baltimore has been sad and disturbing over the past few weeks.  Urban ecologists, like all ecologists, I think, love the places where they work.  So I must […]

The Evolution of Urban Heterogeneity Thinking

The heterogeneity of cities has been acknowledged as one of their most striking features for a very long time.  Spatial heterogeneity characterized the ancient, cosmologically oriented cities of the Middle […]

The 2015 BES Data Jam: A Contest of Science, Creativity, and Communication

The idea of data jamming, exploring openly available data in a collaborative way, sounds a lot like jazz.  A data jam is an event that brings people together to explore […]

Urban Ecology: Knowing or Making?

Our friend and colleague, Alex Felson, of the Yale School of Architecture and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has a unusual perspective on what urban ecology is […]