One of my favourite manuscripts provides a detailed account as to why evolutionary biologists should be demographers (Metcalf & Pavard 2007). The authors argue that, because the propagation of genes into future generations depends on the st/age-specific vital rates of survival, fecundity and migration of individuals within and between populations, and such rates are precisely…
I am honored by the Editors’ decision to put together this Virtual Issue of some of the papers I have published in the Journal of Ecology and grateful for this opportunity to reflect on them—it has been many years since I have read most of these papers. I have been fortunate to work with an…
This is a guest post by Associate Editor Rich Shefferson, from the University of Tokio, who attended the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan last week in Kagoshima. Greetings from Kagoshima, the site of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan! Kagoshima is located at the southern end of Kyushu,…
Note from Executive Editor: The following post is written by Journal of Ecology Associate Editor Caroline Brophy in response to an announcement in a psychology journal regarding the use of p-values. The Journal of Ecology will continue to judge the appropriateness of the statistics in submitted manuscripts on a case-by-case basis. When I saw that a journal was…
Last year Roberto Salguero-Gómez (Associate Editor, Journal of Ecology) interviewed Hal Caswell and you can listen to the interview in its entirety below. Roberto and Hal are co-authors on “The COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database: an open online repository for plant demography“, which was published in Journal of Ecology in issue 1 of 2015. Roberto is…
Issue 103:2 of Journal of Ecology will be online very soon. The Editor’s Choice paper for this issue is Early human impact (5000–3000 BC) affects mountain forest dynamics in the Alps by Schwörer et al. One of Journal of Ecology’s Editors, Amy Austin, has written a commentary about the paper below. Editor’s Choice 103:2 When we think about…
What is so special about peat? To the untrained eye, these ecosystems appear to be desolate swamps, with limited value, biodiversity- or other-wise. To the seasoned wetland ecologist, the more apt question is what isn’t special about peat? These long-neglected ecosystems are vital reservoirs of fresh water for us thirsty humans; they contain 10 times…
How capable are forests in bouncing back from disturbances? Are they becoming less resilient during this time of rapid environmental change? Can forests deal with the changes, or are they approaching critical thresholds (i.e., tipping points) that will result in a permanent shift towards a different ecosystem state? These critical questions in forest research have…
Last week quite a few members of Journal of Ecology’s Editorial team were in Lille for the joint BES/SFE Annual Meeting. It was a fantastic few days. Associate Editor Ignasi Bartomeus has written about his highlights below. #BESsfe Quick summary of the talks that surprised me most: Lots of Pollination biology talks: the most surprising…
Editor’s Choice 103:1 Issue 103:1 of the Journal will be online soon. The latest Editor’s Choice paper is “Earthworm invasion, white-tailed deer and seedling establishment in deciduous forests of north-eastern North America” by Dobson & Blossey. Associate Editor Frank S. Gilliam has written a commentary on the paper below. The herbaceous layer of eastern hardwood forests:…
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