Stress and strategy for salt marsh plants

“Multiple trait dimensions mediate stress gradient effects on plant biomass allocation, with implications for coastal ecosystem services” by De Battisti et al. is a new research article published in Journal of Ecology. In this blog post, author Davide De Battisti summarises the recent advances in understanding how coastal plants respond to stress. Salt marshes are highly appreciated ecosystems…

Fire as a fundamental ecological process

“Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers” by McLauchlan et al. is the newest essay review to be published in Journal of Ecology. In this blog post, authors S. Yoshi Maezumi, Jessica R. Miesel, Philip E. Higuera and Leda Kobziar summarise the recent advances and frontiers in fire ecology research, within the…

Can we use remote sensing technology as a practical short-cut to explore trait-mediated ecosystem functioning impacts?

Author Kenny Helsen discusses recently published Journal of Ecology article: Optical traits perform equally well as directly‐measured functional traits in explaining the impact of an invasive plant on litter decomposition by Helsen et al. Discover whether the optical traits of an invasive plant species can be used to explain their ecosystem impacts. Is the data…

In late-successional forest communities, how much does history matter?

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…

Disentangling how alien species shape the seasonal dynamics of plant-pollinator communities

“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…

Cover Stories: Issue 108 Volume 1

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…