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Summary: 145
© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org
Ecology is concerned with understanding the abun-
dance, diversity, and distribution of organisms in
nature, the interactions among organisms and between
organisms and their environment, and the movement and
flux of energy and nutrients in the environment. Along
with an understanding of the principles that shape funda-
mental parameters, such as the organization of communities
and the cycling of resources in ecosystems, the basic knowl-
edge of ecologists should include information from other
physical and environmental sciences to address today's most
pressing environmental issues. In January 2006, the US
National Science Foundation convened a panel to discuss
the "frontiers of ecology" (www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_
summ.jsp?pims_id=12823&org=DEB&from=home) and to
make recommendations for research priority areas in popu-
lation and community ecology. This article summarizes the
panel's recommendations.
The last such panel was convened in 1999 (Thompson
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