“Alien plants and flower visitors disrupt the seasonal dynamics of mutualistic networks” by Arroyo-Correa, Burkle & Emer has just been published in Journal of Ecology. This study provides one of the first empirical reports of alien species shaping the seasonal dynamics of plant–flower visitor networks. Author, Blanca Arroyo-Correa, provides further insight into this research. The…
The Editor’s Choice article for Volume 108 Issue 1 is “Growth–trait relationships in subtropical forest are stronger at higher diversity“ by Bongers et al. This study assessed how growth–trait relationships at the individual tree level are impacted by species richness at community and local neighbourhood scales. This Editor’s Choice article highlights the impact that species richness can have…
The cover image for Journal of Ecology’s latest issue was taken by Robert Streit. Here Robert and co-authors, Sterling Tebbett and David Bellwood, discuss the story behind this amazing underwater photograph. This photo relates to recently their published research article “A 3D perspective on sediment accumulation in algal turfs: Implications of coral reef flattening“ Images of coral…
Volume 108 Issue 1 of Journal of Ecology is now available online! Our latest issue contains research articles covering a diverse range of topics. From tree survival and growth responses in the aftermath of an earthquake to the role of freeze tolerance in mangrove range expansion and using remote sensing to measure ploidy level in quaking aspen.…
Coming to the BES Annual Meeting? Planning to submit a paper to a BES journal? Then you should sign up for the Speed Review Session on Thursday 12 December! (sign-up sheets will be on the BES Stand in the Exhibition Hall.) Find out more about this session below. What is a Speed Review Session? Essentially, Speed Review is…
Biodiversity and plant functional traits Connor Fitzpatrick’s video podcast: Phylogenetic relatedness, phenotypic similarity and plant–soil feedbacks Connor is a plant ecologist who got his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. He studies the ecological and evolutionary importance of interactions between plants and soil and focuses on how variation within and among plant…
Global changes in terrestrial and marine ecosystems Lucia Fuchslueger’s video podcast: Drought history affects plant and microbial C turnover after a subsequent drought event Lucia Fuchslueger received her PhD from the University of Vienna (supervised by Andreas Richter and Michael Bahn). Lucia is currently a postdoc at Antwerpen University investigating how soil microbes mediate processes involved in organic matter…
Happy #WorldSoilDay! In 2013, in an effort to raise global awareness of the critical role of soils in the natural system and in human wellbeing, the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations designated December 5th as World Soil Day. And in fact, soil is more than just critical – 95% of our food depends on it. The theme for…
Competition, plant enemies and defense mechanisms Felipe Albornoz’s video podcast: Native soilborne pathogens equalize differences in competitive ability between plants of contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies Felipe Albornoz did his PhD at The University of Western Australia where he worked on mycorrhizal fungi in a 2 million years chronosequence. He studied how pedogenesis and plant communities influenced ectomycorrhizal…
The 2019 Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society is coming up! It’s time to finalise (or maybe start!) preparing talks and posters, but also to get ready for one of the best scientific events of the year! Whether you’re attending the meeting for the first time or are a regular attendee, this blog post…
Journal of Ecology recently published new research article by Clark et al. Predicting species abundances in a grassland biodiversity experiment: Trade‐offs between model complexity and generality Author Adam Clark discusses the paper in more detail and explores the trade‐off between bias and variance when modelling ecological systems. It is common knowledge that increasing the number of…
Journal of Ecology recently published an exciting new research paper by Johnson et al. “Seagrass ecosystem metabolic carbon capture in response to green turtle grazing across Caribbean meadows.” Author Robert Johnson discusses this research in more detail and presents further insights into how green turtle grazing affects carbon dynamics, within seagrass ecosystems. Green turtle abundance is…
Last week I attended the 2-day New Phytologist symposium on ‘Above- and below-ground Biodiversity for Sustainable Ecosystems‘ that was organised by Associate Editor Marcel Van Der Heijden at Agroscope (Reckenholz, Switzerland) on behalf of the BiodivERsA “#DiggingDeeper” project. I personally loved the symposium, not only because of the great line-up of speakers and because it…
In this new video podcast, Marc-Olivier Martin-Guay highlights the role of belowground responses in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship, asking three main questions: does adding below-ground biomass change diversity effect estimations? Do species shift their biomass allocation strategies within mixtures? Do we interpret correctly the origins of these diversity effects when ignoring below-ground biomass? Have a look at the…
Brock et al. recently published their new article “The hare, tortoise and crocodile revisited: Tree fern facilitation of conifer persistence and angiosperm growth in simulated forests” in Journal of Ecology. Author James Brock discusses this research in more detail and explains how tree fern understories are important determinants of forest structure. Establishing how conifers compete…
