Variability is the name of the game: diverse effects of fire in a N. American subalpine forest over 4000 yrs

In this blog post, Kyra Clark-Wolf discusses the research behind her recent co-authored article: Fire-regime variability and ecosystem resilience over four millennia in a Rocky Mountain subalpine watershed. 🔥 Fire: what does it do? Fire is a longstanding process that has been part of the Earth System for millions of years. Typically, vegetation regrows following…

Black History Month 2023 – Dr Nomthandazo Samantha Manqele 

For Black History Month 2023, the British Ecological Society (BES) journals are celebrating the work of Black ecologists from around the world and sharing their stories. In this blog, Dr Nomthandazo Samantha Manqele shares their story and journey in academia.  Name: Dr Nomthandazo Samantha Manqele  Affiliation: Social Ecologist at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa …

Meet our new Blog Editors: Tessa Ditner Amorosi & Daire Carroll

We delighted to introduce our 2 new Blog Editors! Tessa Ditner Amorosi and Daire Carroll will be helping to manage the Journal of Ecology blog and publish new and interesting content. Find out a bit about them below: Name: Tessa Ditner AmorosiLocation: Central Saint Martins, UKKeywords: Future Food, Plant & Fungi Tech, Ecological Alternative Protein, Speech…

Editor’s Choice (111:10): What determines the severity of Ash Dieback Disease?

The editor’s choice for our October issue is ‘Neighbours matter and the weak succumb: Ash dieback infection is more severe in ash trees with fewer conspecific neighbours and lower prior growth rate’ by David Cracknell et al. Here, Associate Editor Anne Kempel discusses the importance of this research: For nearly three decades, European woodlands have grappled with…

Plant defences as functional traits: A comparison across savannahs differing in herbivore specialization

Grime reviews are a series of Reviews honouring eminent ecologist J. Philip Grime. In this blog post, Tara Massad discusses her recent review ‘Plant defences as functional traits: A comparison across savannas differing in herbivore specialization‘, and the influence that Grime’s approaches to ecology had on her work: J.P. Grime’s development of the field of…

Phil Grime’s impact on the present & future of plant ecology

In this post Reviews Editor, Jason Fridley, highlights papers from the third Grime Reviews series that honors the intellectual contributions of ecologist J. Philip (Phil) Grime and how they continue to inform our understanding of ecosystems, from trait-based adaptive evolution to food web dynamics and beyond: In Differences in trait-environment relationships: implications for community weighted…

The evolution of peer review at the BES

An introduction to peer review Peer review is the evaluation of a scientific article by other scientists who are experts in the field. The feedback is generally used to improve the article, and to help the editors of a journal decide whether it merits publication. The integrity of the scientific literature rests on a peer…

Shaping tropical montane orchid communities

Edicson Parra-Sanchez discusses his recent article, ‘Neutral-based processes overrule niche-based processes in shaping tropical montane orchid communities across spatial scales‘: Orchid species are among the richest and most popular horticultural plants on the planet. They have been featured in films, used as symbols of biodiversity in governmental institutions, and utilized in traditional medicine for centuries.…