The Tansley Lecture is in full swing as we speak. A number of Journal of Ecology’s Associate Editors have also made some suggestions about what they are looking forward to seeing at #BES12.

Gerlinde de Deyn

And what a program it is!

I bet all of us will have some difficulties choosing where to go and what to see.

In addition to the talks already flagged up from a Sheffield perspective I am happy to add a couple from a Wageningen perspective:

•  The talk by Marina Semchenko et al. on how Plant root exudates mediate neighbour recognition and trigger complex behavioural changes (13:15 on Wednesday).
•  In the Evolutionary Ecology and Climate Change Ecology (Thursday before lunch) catchy titles that triggered my attention: Bedroom choice in flower visiting insects (Allan G Ellis et al.) on insect sleeping behavior, heat reward and pollination; Running out of luck: Uphill plant race in the Himalayas (Petr Macek et al.) fell running of big and small ones…
•  Thematic topic 3 (Wednesday) on Delivering sustainable agriculture in the UK – promoting dialogue between ecologists and economists sparks my interest. Sustainability, what does it mean to who and how universal is that? Can we have it all? Sparing or sharing, what, where and when?
•  In the Climate Change Ecology session on Wednesday Don A’Bear et al. talks on Interactions between decomposer fungi and soil invertebrates in a changing climate and on Thursday Eoin J O’Gorman et al. on how Warming alters species interactions, size structure and complexity of natural ecosystems present work in terrestrial and aquatic systems on shifts in trophic interactions and energy flows under climate change. In relation to that also the Size-dependent traits and the resilience of marine populations and communities by Julia L Blanchard (12:15 Wed in the Thinking inside the box TT) is surely of interest.
•  Human wildlife in the Parasites Pathogens and Wildlife Disease session (Wed 10) the talk at 10 by Emily C Griffiths et al. Modelling how ecological interactions between coinfecting parasites alter treatment outcomes; will make you think twice about which treatment to choose when aiming for a cure.

Roberto Salguero-Gomez

Here are some things that I’m looking forward to:

• Big Data for Big Ecology, Part 1: an introduction to various big datasets (and also Part 2)
•  Using plant functional traits to map ecosystem service delivery in arable systems – Jonathan Storkey (Rothamsted Research)
•  Variability in functional traits mediates plant interactions along stress gradients –  Christian Schöb (The James Hutton Institute), Cristina Armas (Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas EEZA-CSIC), Manuela Guler (Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas EEZA-CSIC), Ivan Prieto (Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive CNRS), Francisco I Pugnaire (Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas EEZA-CSIC)
• Senescence and terminal investment: Age-specific reproduction in the wandering albatross – Hannah Froy (University of Edinburgh), Daniel H Nussey (University of Edinburgh), Sue Lewis (University of Edinburgh), Richard A Phillips (British Antarctic Survey)
•  Bedroom choice in flower visiting insects – Allan G Ellis (Stellenbosch University), John S Terblanche (Stellenbosch University), Susana Clusella-Trullas (Stellenbosch University)
•  Facilitation-competition balance in Mediterranean woody plant communities along a gradient of aridity from southern Spain to Morocco – Pedro J Rey (Universidad de Jaén), Julio M Alcántara (Universidad de Jaén), Antonio J Manzaneda (Universidad de Jaén), Alfonso M. Sánchez-Lafuente (Universidad de Jaén)

Scott Chamberlain

I think the following will be particularly interesting:

•  “Climate change and farmland ecosystem services: Impacts of experimental warming and increased precipitation on plant-insect-parasitoid foodwebs” by Stephane A.P. Derocles
• “Can we avoid the ‘curse of the Latin binomial’ by using a trait-based approach to construct mutualistic networks?” by Thomas Ings
• “Do niche-structured plant communities exhibit phylogenetic conservatism? A test case in an endemic clade” by Jonathan Silvertown
• “A Fractal Explorer For the Tree of Life” by James Rosindell
• “Landscape heterogeneity and land-use effects on pollinator diversity and space use” by Mark Gillespie