News
August 2012. Nothing is more embarrassing at a party, or a comprehensive exam, than finding people are talking about a scholar, or a field of knowledge, about which one is entirely ignorant. Really, one should just know about topics like Darwin’s finches, or Galapagos tortoises, or carnivorous plants, or peat bogs, just as one should know something about Beethoven or Shakespeare. But where you do start in your reading? Now available on line -- a guide to basic reading in ecology, from Dampier and Darwin to modern sources. Short essays with an annoted bibliography.
In the middle of May Paul spent two mornings with a film crew from Stornaway Productions who are working on a project tentatively called “Watershed”. They arrived at his home in the forest, and set up two cameras focused on one lone white chair, with a beaver pond in the background. The first morning with Paul in that chair was spent on the scientific principles underlying wetland ecology, particularly flooding and fertility, and the need for simple general principles to unify ecological research. A muskrat put in an appearance, voluntarily. The second morning was spent on the relationship between science and conservation, which led to a wide-ranging inquiry into how humans can appear to be blind to the consequences of their harmful actions. Topics included the fall of Troy, The March of Folly, Easter Island, and Hurricane Katrina.
On 1 May 2012 over 120 people came to Arnprior to hear Paul give a public talk entitled "No Place Like Home in the Ottawa Valley" to the Macnamara Field Naturalists' Club. Drawing in part upon his book on Lanark County, and in part upon Wetland Ecology, Paul explored the importance of deciduous forests, the wetlands of the Ottawa River and introduced some of the most important natural areas in the region.
For more on the ecology of the Ottawa Valley, see here and here.
Paul spoke in Toronto for World Wetlands Day on 2 February 2012. The topic was "Science in the Service of Wetland Conservation: Advances, Retreats, Opportunities".
The talk can be viewed here. A two page summary to download is here. Download poster. View conference web site at Science in the Service of Wetland Conservation: Advances, Reatreats, Opportunities.
Coming soon ... a new online bibliography to supplement Competition
Keddy, Paul A. 2012. Competition in Plant Communities. In: Oxford Bibliographies Online: Ecology. Ed. David Gibson. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
You can consult it immediately (and at no cost) here.
September 2011. The first chapter of Competition, "Studying Competition", is now posted online.
June 2011. Paul gave the plenary address at the International Association for Vegetation Science in Lyon, France.
March 2011. "Where the Wild Things Are". Public lecture in Lanark, Ontario, on the importance of wild places in Lanark County, for the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy.
Ecologist will discuss 'wildness' in area (download newspaper article)
Where the Wild Things Are (download newspaper report)
2010. Symposium address to the Society of Wetland Scientists in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Looking back and looking ahead: Is there progress in wetland ecology? (download abstract) (view presentation on-line at vimeo)
2008. Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists give Paul a Champion of Nature award in a ceremony at Union Hall in Lanark County.
2008. Public lecture "Earth, Water, Fire: Lanark County's Natural Heritage" in Almonte, Ontario.
download poster
2008. The future of the Louisiana coast requires that cypress swamps be protected.
Keddy, P.A. 2008. Cypress logging and the Louisiana Coast. The Ponchatoula Times (download article)
2007. The Society of Wetland Scientists presents Paul with a Merit Award at their meeting in Sacramento, California.
2006. Hurricane Katrina destroys Turtle Cove Experimental Marsh
download story from the Bulletin of the British Ecological Society
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