Cary Conferences | Goals | Schedule | Participants | Management | Definitions

In 1985, the Institute of Ecosystem Studies inaugurated a biennial series of Cary Conferences. These conferences have become an important forum for intensive discussion of challenging issues at the forefront of ecology and ecosystem science; they bring together a diverse group of participants for several days of invited talks and focused discussion. A hallmark of all of the Cary Conferences has been an emphasis on topics that can help unify and advance the field, in contrast to more narrowly defined issues within a sub-discipline. To date, over 575 scientists from over 20 countries have attended Cary Conferences. Results of all of the conferences have been synthesized in books (Table 1).

Table 1. Past Cary Conferences

Conference Title	Year	Attendees	Publication
Status and Trends in Ecosystem Science	1985	50	Likens et al. (1987)
Long Term Studies in Ecology	1987	50	Likens (1989)
Comparative Analysis of Ecosystems	1989	70	Cole et al. (1991)
Humans as Components of Ecosystems	1991	68	McDonnell and Pickett (1993)
Linking Species and Ecosystems	1993	65	Jones and Lawton (1995)
Establishing an Ecological Basis for Conservation	1995	90	Pickett et al. (1997)
Successes, Limitations and Frontiers in Ecosystem Science	1997	95	Pace and Groffman (1998)
Understanding Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier for Science and Education	1999	87	Berkowitz et al. (2003)
Understanding Ecosystems: The Role of Quantitative Models in Observation, Synthesis, and Prediction	2001	90	Canham et al. (2003)