Journal of Ecology is pleased to welcome Pierre Mariotte as a new Associate Editor with special responsibility for overseeing this blog. Pierre is a Swiss NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia where he works on community ecology particularly plant-soil interactions and feedbacks. He has published several papers in the Journal including Kardol…
A recent survey sponsored by the L’Oréal Foundation and led by Nobel Prize winning scientist Elizabeth Blackburn reported that ‘67% of Europeans think that women do not possess the required capabilities in order to access high-level scientific positions’. That is two-thirds of the general public in Europe. And that statistic means that many women, as…
The Editor’s Choice paper for issue 103:6 is “Fog as a source of nitrogen for redwood trees: evidence from fluxes and stable isotopes” by Templer et al. Journal of Ecology Editor Amy Austin has written a commentary on the paper below, which is part of a new Special Feature on biogeochemical cycling edited by Amy…
Biogeochemical cycling traces the pathways by which elements pass through both biotic and abiotic steps on their journeys between the earth and the atmosphere. Plants are a critical step in this process for many elements; however, traditional biogeochemistry views typically take a top down approach, treating plants as a ‘green box’ and failing to appreciate…
Associate Editor Carol Thornber has edited a Virtual Issue, of papers published in the Journal of Ecology, focussed on marine ecology. You can access the Virtual Issue here. Executive Editor also interviewed Carol at ESA back in August about all things marine ecology.
With an estimated >27,000 species, the orchid family is one of the most speciose plant families within the Angiosperms. At the same time, it harbours a large number of threatened species, making it one of the most vulnerable plant families as well. Due to their spectacular floral diversity, orchids have long attracted wide attention from…
Why aren’t cushion plants always the best facilitators? Consequences of eco-evo processes in alpine systems. In recent decades facilitation in plant communities has moved from being largely neglected to a well-established phenomenon (Brooker et al. 2008). However, the simple picture of greater facilitation in stressful environments is gradually fading. Not only does abiotic stress change…
The annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America took place a bit over a week ago (Aug 8-14th 2015) in the city of Baltimore, MD. The centennial of largest national ecological society in the world was no joke, and I can’t imagine how much work must have gone behind the scenes for the impeccable…
Plant invaders: same difference? To paraphrase Tolstoy, is each plant invader alike, or is each invasive in its own way? Among the hundreds of papers on this subject that have been published in the last two decades, a paper by Bezeng and colleagues stands out as an unusually thorough investigation in a flora of great…
Happy International Fascination of Plants Day from Journal of Ecology! In celebration Executive Editor, David Gibson, has interviewed Anthony Davy about the Journal’s Biological Flora of the British Isles series.
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