Paul A. Keddy (born May 29, 1953 in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

) is a Canadian

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

. He has studied plant

population ecology Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration. The discipline is import ...

and

community ecology In ecology, a community is a group or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area at the same time, also known as a biocoenosis, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s and many other habitats in eastern Canada and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States. He began his formal training in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

in 1969 at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and finished his PhD at Dalhousie University with Evelyn C. Pielou. He has been professor of

for 30 years, first at the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

(1978–1982), then the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

(1982–1999) and then held the ''Edward G. Schlieder Endowed Chair for Environmental Studies'' at

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it becam ...

(1999 to 2007). He has published over 150 scholarly articles, written seven books, and edited two books. He has been designated a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information. He received the National Wetlands Award for Science Research in 2007 from the

Environmental Law Institute The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., that seeks to "make law work for people, places, and the planet" through its work as an environmental law educator, convener, publ ...

. Although he has worked on many types of plant communities and a broad array of ecological questions, the focus of his work has been upon the principles that organize plant communities, with particular emphasis upon wetlands.

Books

Synthesis is one of Paul Keddy's major contributions to wetland ecology and

plant ecology Plant ecology is a subdiscipline of ecology which studies the distribution and abundance of plants, the effects of environmental factors upon the abundance of plants, and the interactions among and between plants and other organisms. Examples ...

. His first book, ''Competition'', won both the George Lawson Medal of the

Canadian Botanical Association Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and the Henry Allan Gleason Award of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

. A second edition of ''Competition'' was published in 2001. A major area of research for Keddy, ecological

assembly rules Community assembly rules are a set of controversial rules in ecology, first proposed by Jared Diamond. Rules The rules were developed after more than a decade of research into the avian assemblages on islands near New Guinea. The rules assert th ...

(the constraints (rules) on community formation and maintenance (assembly), was the topic of his co-edited synthesis ''Ecological Assembly Rules: Perspectives, Advances, Retreats''. In 2006 Keddy was honoured by the

Society of Wetland Scientists The Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) is an international, professional non-profit organization devoted to promoting understanding, conservation, protection, restoration, science-based management, and sustainability of wetlands. Society membersh ...

with the Merit Award for ''Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation''. A new edition of ''Wetland Ecology'' was published in 2010. This textbook is used in courses around the world. In 2005 he focused on the world's largest wetlands which had not previously been described, ranked or compared, and co-edited ''The World's Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation''. In 2007, he published ''Plants and Vegetation: Origins, Processes, Consequences'', a textbook on plant ecology. In addition to scientific writing, Keddy has prepared guides to the natural history of two regions of North America. For the

State of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

he authored ''Water, Earth, Fire: Louisiana's Natural Heritage''. For

Lanark County Lanark County is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is Perth, which was first settled in 1816.Brown, Howard Morton, 1984. Lanark Legacy, Nineteenth Century Glimpses of on Ontario County. Corporation of the Cou ...

, Ontario, he wrote ''Earth, Water, Fire: An Ecological Profile of Lanark County''. For this contribution Keddy was given a Champion of Nature Award (2008) by the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists and the Lanark County Award of Excellence—Heritage and Ecology by the county (2009).

References

External links

Paul Keddy's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keddy, Paul 1953 births Canadian ecologists Living people