We have been lamenting with ecological colleagues (while sheltering in place and communicating remotely) how we used to feel important as plant ecologists studying global climate change. Currently, however, we feel much less important than the human epidemiologists, health care and other front-line workers who are the heroes during the COVID-19 global pandemic. “I measure…
The cover image for our new issue shows an ancient bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California. Author and photographer, Connie Millar shares her insight into this unique landscape, her stunning cover image and her related research paper “Symbiotic interactions above treeline of long‐lived pines: Mycorrhizal advantage of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) over Great…
The Editor’s Choice article for Journal of Ecology’s latest issue Volume 108 Issue 3 is “Seagrass ecosystem metabolic carbon capture in response to green turtle grazing across Caribbean meadows” by Johnson et al. Associate Editor Randall Hughes explores this paper in more detail and explains what makes this paper so novel and valuable. Vegetated marine ecosystems such…
Volume 108 Issue 3 of Journal of Ecology is now available online! Our latest issue features a range of articles, including research on how functional diversity improves tropical forest resilience, evidence that the masting behaviour of oak trees is changing with rising temperatures and a meta-analysis of below‐ground responses to insect herbivory in ecosystems with woody plant canopies.…
The John L Harper Early Career Researcher Award is given each year to the best paper in the journal by an early career author at the start of their career. We’re delighted to announce that the 2019 winner is Maria Leunda her article ‘Ice cave reveals environmental forcing of long‐term Pyrenean tree line dynamics. The…
Author Kerry Woods discusses recently published Journal of Ecology article: Over 80 years without major disturbance, late‐successional Białowieża woodlands exhibit complex dynamism, with coherent compositional shifts towards true old‐growth conditions by Brzeziecki et al. Find out more about the importance of long-term data when considering old-growth forest dynamics. Thirty years ago, John Magnuson wrote of the…
Authors Robert Whelan and David Ayre provide further insight into their recently published Journal of Ecology article: Long inter‐fire intervals do not guarantee a large seed bank in a serotinous shrub (Banksia spinulosa Sm.) Find out how fires influence the seedling recruitment of an Australian shrub. This research is especially poignant in the wake of the…
Resilience has emerged as a key concept in ecology and conservation biology to understand and predict ecosystem responses to global change. In its broadest and original sense, resilience describes the ability of an ecosystem to resist, and recover from, a disturbance. However, the application of such a concept in different sub-disciplines of ecology and in…
The Harper Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Journal of Ecology written by an early career author. Today we are pleased to present the shortlisted papers for this year’s award. These papers were published in 2019 (Volume 107, Issues 1-6). The winner will be selected in the coming weeks so…
The cover image for Journal of Ecology’s latest issue was taken by Philippe Cohen. This photo relates to research article: Fire history and plant community composition outweigh decadal multi‐factor global change as drivers of microbial composition in an annual grassland by Qin, Zhu, Chiariello, Field & Peay. This article was also selected as the Editor’s Choice paper for…
Volume 108 Issue 2 of Journal of Ecology is now available online! Our latest issue features a range of research articles, including community assembly of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, animal driven seed dispersal patterns across fragmented landscapes and modelling reproductive interactions in plant communities. You can also read our new Biological Flora of the British Isles account on…
Author Adam Pellegrini discusses the findings of his new Journal of Ecology article – “Frequent burning causes large losses of carbon from deep soil layers in a temperate savanna.” Find out more about how fire frequency can impact carbon storage and root biomass in deep soil layers. Fires are dramatically changing in frequency and intensity, due…
Journal of Ecology has just published a new research article by Donald et al. “A test of community assembly rules using foliar endophytes from a tropical forest canopy” Authors Julian Donald, Léonie Péllissier and Uxue Suescun discuss how they used endophytes as a model system to test what factors best explain the assembly of diverse…
To celebrate Chinese New Year we’ve compiled a list of rodent-related papers that have been published in Journal of Ecology. Rodents act as seed predators and seed dispersers for many different plant species. While it’s the Year of the Rat we will be featuring research on many different members of the rodent family! Find out…
“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…
