The editor’s choice for our July issue is ‘The more microplastic types pollute the soil, the stronger the growth suppression of invasive alien and native plants‘, by Yanmei Fu et al.: The ecological consequences of microplastic pollution for plants remain largely unknown, and the few studies that have tested the effects usually focused on a single type…
Plants, as sessile organisms, depend on seed dispersal as a crucial mechanism for colonizing new areas. This has driven the evolution of various dispersal strategies in plants, including the development of ‘megafruits’—fruits typically larger than 4 cm containing up to 5 large seeds. Megafruits are thought to have evolved primarily for dispersal by megafauna, the…
Happy Pride Month! Join the British Ecological Society in this annual, global celebration as we share stories from STEM researchers who belong to the LGBTQ+ community. In this post, Jill Love (she/her), PhD candidate at Tulane University of New Orleans, shares her perspectives as a field researcher on why Pride in National Parks is more…
Eric Duell, from the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, discusses his article: ‘Mycorrhizal-herbivore interactions and the competitive release of subdominant tallgrass prairie species‘ Tallgrass prairies of central and eastern North America are characterized by diverse plant communities consisting of grasses and forbs (often called wildflowers or broadleaves) which possess a variety of…
O Papel de Capivaras e ratões-do-banhado em Áreas Úmidas / The Role of Capybaras and Nutrias in Wetlands Capivaras na área de estudo / Capybaras at the study site (Foto: Pedro Hoffmann) Roedores como pequenos camundongos, esquilos e porquinhos-da-índia, são mundialmente conhecidos por sua aparência amigável e fofa. Assim como os maiores roedores do mundo…
Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time. Although reducing energy use and limiting the emission of greenhouse gases are the most effective solutions, this may not be feasible in many countries yet. On the other hand, replacing naturally treeless ecosystems (such as grasslands, shrublands and wetlands) with tree plantations (afforestation)…
Biological Flora author (and editor) Anthony Davy introduces a fascinating coastal species that offers many more ecological insights than one might imagine. This account of the Sea Campion (Silene uniflora) is the latest contribution to the long-running Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland series. The article itself has a long history: unusually, the authors include…
Huixuan Liao and Qian Gan, Sun Yat-sen University School of Life Sciences, discuss their article: ‘Spatiotemporal interaction of risk-spreading strategies for a seed-dimorphic plant’ Background Maternal modification of offspring stress tolerance is a ubiquitous phenomenon in plant and animal kingdoms that affects population persistence and growth. When looking into this phenomenon, one can’t help but…
The editor’s choice for our May issue is ‘Simulating past and future fire impacts on Mediterranean ecosystems‘, by Christoph Schwörer et al. Here, Associate Editor Anping Chen discusses the importance of this research: Characterized by a distinct climate with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, the Mediterranean region is also often associated with frequent and…
Plant enemies like insect herbivores and fungal pathogens eat or degrade plant tissue. How does this affect performance? Photo: Josh Brian We are invasion biologists, studying how and why species become invasive. One of the biggest hypotheses in our field is the ‘enemy release hypothesis’, which says that species become invasive because they escape from…
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