Novel ideas or theories that made senior ecologists famous likely originates from years of experience, building up on earlier work, often from early career stages. Like seeds that germinate, grow, mature, bloom and disperse for the next generation!
Early Career Researchers (ECR) are the future generation of scientists and their work will form the stepping stones for tomorrow’s discoveries. All the more reason to pay attention to their findings and promote their research! This Blog Special Issue is a compilation of video podcasts, highlighting research from ECRs who published a paper in Journal of Ecology over the past 5 years. The Blog Special Issue is divided in three part covering:
- Part 1 – Competition, plant enemies and defence mechanisms
- Part 2 – Global changes in terrestrial and marine ecosystems
- Part 3 – Biodiversity and plant functional traits
All videos can also be found on the Journal of Ecology YouTube channel (English subtitles available).
Happy viewing!
Pierre Mariotte, Associate Editor of Journal of Ecology
Early Career Researchers #ECR are the future generation of scientists, share and promote them!
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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 communities, as well as, how these mycorrhizal fungi affect plant interactions. Felipe is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University studying the role of native Oomycetes in structuring plant communities in North-West USA.
Luisa Conti’s video podcast: How to resist plant invasion? It is all about traits!
Luisa Conti is a plant ecologist. She is interested in the interactions between plant functional patterns and community assembly processes, in plant invasions dynamics and their impacts, as well as in global change effects on vegetation. Luisa got her PhD from Roma Tre University in Italy and then did a postdoc with the Department of Botany at the University of South Bohemia in Czech Republic.
Emily Bruns’s video podcast: Is there a disease-free halo at species range limits? The codistribution of anther-smut disease and its host species
Emme Bruns is a disease evolutionary ecologist. Her work is focused on understanding the impact of infectious disease on host abundance and distribution in natural populations, and how these ecological effects intersect with the evolution of critical host and pathogen traits such as resistance and transmission. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Biology in the Biology department at the University of Virginia.
Marco Visser’s video podcast: What do liana-infested trees and WWII bombers have in common?
Marco Visser is interested in confronting theory with empirical data. Generally, his work has one overarching theme: linking ecological patterns across spatio-temporal scales, and biological organization levels. Marco is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University’s department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Laura Martin’s video podcast: Historically browsed jewelweed populations exhibit greater tolerance to deer herbivory than historically protected populations.
Laura Martin is currently a Ziff Environmental Fellow in the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Department of the History of Science. Laura’s research aims at understanding how humans intentionally and unintentionally shape the distribution and diversity of other species. She is thus working at the interplay between environmental history, social and ecological science.
Timothy Thrippleton’s video podcast: Arrested succession in European forest: How can this happen?
Timothy Thrippleton is interested in understanding the processes that drive the long-term dynamics of forest ecosystems. In particular, his research focuses on the role of vegetation interactions between the herbaceous understorey and trees under the influence of changing climate and disturbance regimes, using dynamic vegetation models. Timothy is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Forest Ecology at ETH Zurich.
Have a look at Blog Special Issue: Early Career Researchers – Part 2 – Part 3
Journal of Ecology Blog 