Environmental Law Institute - National Wetlands Awards

Dr. Paul A. Keddy received a Ph.D. in plant ecology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He served on the faculty at the University of Guelph and the University of Ottawa before becoming the first holder of the Edward G. Schlieder Endowed Chair for Environmental Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. He became a leader in the field of wetland plant ecology very early in his 30 years of service.

Dr. Keddy has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers on wetland ecology and plant conservation, authored three books: Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation; Competition; and Plants and Vegetation: Origins, Processes, Consequences, and co-edited two books: The World’s Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation and Ecological Assembly Rules: Perspectives, Advances, Retreats. He received a Society of Wetland Scientists Merit Award for his Wetland Ecology book, two awards for Competition, and was designated as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information. Dr. Keddy and his former students and collaborators completed a host of studies in wetlands of Ontario and elsewhere that largely define the current understanding of plant competition and responses to environmental gradients and various forms of disturbance in northern temperate wetlands. Since moving to Louisiana, his focus has been on competitive interactions among freshwater wetland plants and responses to environmental disturbances, including herbivory, burning, sedimentation, nutrient influx, and hurricane impacts.

Dr. Keddy has repeatedly carried his work beyond reporting of results to address conservation and management implications in wetlands and to further the theoretical understanding of how wetland plant communities function.