DURHAM, N.C. -- William H. Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, has been elected president of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) for 2003-2004. He will serve as president-elect until taking office.

Founded in 1915, the ESA is the country's primary professional organization of ecologists, representing more than 7,600 scientists in the United States and around the world.

In other action, Norman L. Christensen Jr., Nicholas School professor of ecology, was elected vice president for finance, replacing Schlesinger. Another Nicholas School professor, James S. Clark, Hugo Blomquist Professor of Biology and Earth and Ocean Sciences, serves as vice president for science.

Schlesinger, James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, has served in various positions with the ESA since 1988, and has been on the governing board since 1996. As president, he will be primary spokesperson for the society and will interact with other societies, government officials and the public on behalf of the ESA.

Schlesinger is an expert on global warming, particularly the role of soils in the global carbon cycle and on desert ecosystems. He also leads the FACE (Free Air CO₂ Experiment) site in Duke Forest, which is designed to determine how forest vegetation and soils respond to the increased atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities. His latest study results, which show that soils and trees don't store as much carbon dioxide as researchers had predicted, was published in the May 24, 2001, research journal Nature.