Find us the Southwest Chapter in Baltimore!

We are excited to see you all at these year’s Annual Meeting in Baltimore! Please save these to your program and hope to see you there! 🙂

1. Mentorship joint event w/ Rangeland Section: ‘Career Central – Pathways to Dryland Ecology: Interactive Mentorship for Early Career Researchers’ (Wed Aug 13, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM @Career Central Room 2 (Exhibit Hall))
   
2. OOS: ‘Water in the US Southwest: Past, Present and Future’ (Wed Aug 13, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM @TBD)
   
3. Southwest Chapter & Rangeland Ecology Joint Business Mixer: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
   EDT @Leinie Lodge & Beer Garden (Food and non-alcoholic will be provided and, for 21yo+, one courtesy drink ticket. Other items will be available for purchase.). Come mingle with Chapter/Section members, prospective members and friends of the Southwest and Rangelands. We will be awarding the travel award winners, announcing new members, and thanking the departing members for their time and contributions to the Chapter.
   
4. We will have an exhibit hall table! Please come find us to chat with our members and get some Southwest Chapter swag!
   
5. Lastly, not organized by our Chapter, but we want to highlight that the New Phytologist Foundation Keynote speaker this year is the amazing and fearless Dr. Sasha Reed from the USGS. Dr. Reed investigates how drought, warming, and other climate stressors affect soil, plants, and microbial communities of aridlands; and she will most likely talk about her body of work during this Keynote. Definitely a must!

• We are excited to announce the winners of the Southwest Chapter Awards! A small panel of Chapter members blind-reviewed an exceptional pool of applications. It was a very tough decision, but we are happy to be able to assist these students in attending ESA and presenting their amazing research from the arid US Southwest. Please join us at the Business Mixer to congratulate the winners!
  
  Check out the winning presentations:
  o Parikrama Sapkota (University of Texas, El Paso): “Fungal, but not bacterial, communities show strong differences across dryland transition states” (Wed, Aug 13 5-6:30 PM)
  o Rebecca Senft (University of Utah): “Invasion in the Southwest: Can Water Use Efficiency Confer an Advantage to Stress?” (Wed, Aug 13 3:30-5PM)
  o Cassandra Fernandez (Moorpark College): “Endangered Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly: Host plant flexibility” (Mon, Aug 11 5-6:30 PM)