For Black History Month, the British Ecological Society (BES) journals are celebrating the work of Black ecologists from around the world and sharing their stories. The theme for UK Black History Month this year is Time for Change: Action Not Words. Londiwe Mokoena—a postgraduate student at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa—shares her story…
Written by Anthony Davy and John Lee. In a time of increasing specialisation, few British plant ecologists have been as influential on such a broad front as Professor Christopher Donald Pigott, who has died at the age of 94. He served the Journal of Ecology as editor of the Biological Flora of the British Isles…
The editor’s choice for our October issue is “The evolution, complexity and diversity of models of long-term forest dynamics” by Harald Bugmann and Rupert Seidl. Here, Associate Editor Pieter Zuidema explains the importance of this research: Forests worldwide are confronted with a multitude of changes: climate change, increasing disturbances such as fires, and shifting societal demands. Forest…
The cover image for our September issue features a pollinator approaching flowers of an alpine carnation with anthers carrying dark spores of the anther-smut pathogen. This image relates to the research article: Can disease resistance evolve independently at different ages? Genetic variation in age-dependent resistance to disease in three wild plant species, by Emily Bruns et al.…
Coline Jaworski discusses her recent paper: Long-term experimental drought alters floral scent and pollinator visits in a Mediterranean plant community despite overall limited impacts on plant phenotype and reproduction. Find out more about how drought can affect floral scent and the implications of climate change for pollination. Everyday, climate change is more present and dramatic…
The INTECOL2022 conference (@intecol2022, #INTECOL2022) held earlier this month in Geneva (Switzerland), was a hybrid congress with the option to attend in-person or online (live or through recorded video talk). Many talks were presented online and the number of attendants in Geneva was slightly reduced compared to previous INTECOL conferences. Nevertheless, the presentations were of…
The editor’s choice for our September issue is “Combining biogeographical approaches to advance invasion ecology and methodology” by Dean Pearson et al. Here, Associate Editor Ayub Odour explains the importance of this research: Invasions by alien plant species reduce native biodiversity, alter ecosystem processes, and subvert essential ecosystem services. Therefore, understanding the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that…
The cover image for our August issue features an Erythronium americanum leaf (the Yellow trout lily). This image relates to the research article: Citizen science across two centuries reveals phenological change among plant species and functional groups in the Northeastern US, by Kerissa Fuccillo Battle et al. Here, Kerissa tells us the story behind the image. This photograph shows…
Carlos M. Herrera, Mónica Medrano and Conchita Alonso discuss their recent paper: Ecological significance of intraplant variation: Epigenetic mosaicism in Lavandula latifolia plants predicts extant and transgenerational variability of fecundity-related traits. Plants are nonunitary entities Charles Darwin emphasized long ago that, given the constellation of features which set them apart, terrestrial plants and animals are…
Tomáš Závada discusses his recent paper ‘Radical shift in the genetic composition of New England chicory populations‘. Find out more about how genetic diversity and structure of Cichorium intybus populations have changed over time and the importance of herbarium specimens in this discovery. Herbarium collections represent a goldmine of botanical data. These days, herbarium specimens…
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