Trans*ient Worlds

Abstract How should we tell the story of ecology? In this essay, the authors draw from a long and deep history of ecology, in which more affective approaches to nature become visible, ones that are attuned to both plants and their contexts and aligned with trans* studies. The authors offer the many synergistic possibilities and shared ideas between plant community ecology and trans* ecologies and propose a vegetal trans* ecology that can bridge trans* studies with plant ecological studies. The article raises inconvenient phenomena in community ecology for trans* ecologies to play with, including alternative stable states, mutualisms, and coexistence. The authors believe that trans* studies, with highly developed conceptual languages for indeterminacy, contingency, and change, can support reconfiguration in ecology. Their confidence emerges from a growing group of ecologists who seek interdisciplinary collaboration, and they encourage cross-pollinations through a lens of vegetal trans* ecology. Finally, this article reflects on the importance of affective engagement for ecologists, which relocating the field within a natural history tradition can account for, and suggest again that trans* studies can influence place-based, contingent, and situated ecological knowledge.