Two D ecades of M olecular E cology: where are we and where are we heading?

The twentieth anniversary of the journal M olecular E cology was celebrated with a symposium on the current state and the future directions of the field. The event, organized by T im V ines and L oren R ieseberg, took place on the opening day of the F irst J oint C ongress on E volutionary B iology organized by the A merican S ociety of N aturalists ( ASN ), the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution ( CSEE ), the E uropean S ociety for E volutionary B iology ( ESEB ), the Society for the Study of Evolution ( SSE ) and the S ociety of S ystematic B iologists ( SSB ) in O ttawa ( C anada) from 6–10 July 2012. The get together of these five societies created a truly international and exciting “ E volution conference” and the ideal framework for the M olecular E cology symposium. Its thirteen talks were grouped into the five different subject areas of the journal: Speciation and H ybridization; Landscape G enetics, P hylogeography and C onservation; E cological G enomics and M olecular A daptation; K inship, P arentage and B ehaviour; E cological I nteractions. Each session was followed by a panel discussion on the future direction of the subfield. That more than 300 colleagues registered for this special symposium illustrates the broad interest in, and appreciation of, molecular ecology – both the field and the journal.