The Ecological Society of America's committee selected Gremer, J.R. and D.L. Venable. 2014. Bet hedging in desert winter annual plants: optimal germination strategies in a variable environment. Ecology Letters 17: 380-387 (.pdf) to receive the 2016 Mercer Award. The George Mercer Award is given for an outstanding ecological research paper published within the past two years by a younger researcher (the lead author of the paper must be 40 years of age or younger at the time of publication). Nominees may be from any country and need not be ESA members.