Recovery after disturbance is slow across space and time; can these patterns tell us how to actively restore ecosystems better?

Emma Ladouceur & Jonathan M. Chase discuss their recent article: The recovery of plant community composition following passive restoration across spatial scales. Find out more about what it takes for ecosystems to recover from disturbances and whether passive restoration is enough. Human disturbances can negatively impact species, biodiversity and ecosystems. Given enough time, will ecosystems…

Mangrove range expansion limited by ocean currents and coastal features

Jackie Raw discusses her recent article: Dispersal and coastal geomorphology limit potential for mangrove range expansion under climate change. Find out more about the implications of this work for modelling mangrove responses to climate change. Mangroves, often described as tropical swamp lands, are classic features of warm coastlines where sea-surface temperatures are above 20°C. These…

Genetic changes in New England Cichorium intybus since Thoreau’s times

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…

Protecting forests reinforces biotic resistance to invasive species

Ninad Avinash Mungi presents inferences from his recent article: Role of species richness and human-impacts in resisting invasive species in tropical forests. Find out how tropical forest manifest resistance towards invasive plants, when protected from anthropogenic impacts. As the decade of ecological restoration unfolds, we invest in strategies to restore ecosystems, uncertain about how our…

How is litter decomposition affected by climate change in Mediterranean forests? Soil fauna has the key

Lead author Pablo Homet discusses recently published article: Soil fauna modulates the effect of experimental drought on litter decomposition in forests invaded by an exotic pathogen. Find out more about how litter mesofauna plays an important role in litter decomposition in a Mediterranean forest. Decomposition processes of dead organic matter are fundamental for life cycling.…

Call for proposals: Leveraging natural history collections to understand the impacts of global change

Natural history collections in museums, herbaria, seed banks, and tissue banks provide some of the most valuable information sources in an ecologist’s toolbox: time series data. These collections not only permanently archive preserved specimens, but also critical historical and contemporary information about how species distributions, interactions, and phenotypes respond to global change across time scales.…

Citizen Science: Follow the steps of Charles Darwin and glimpse into cowslip flowers this Spring!

We’re spotlighting the Looking for Cowslips citizen science campaign! Organiser Tsipe Aavik shares more about this citizen science project, the findings so far and how you can take part in this campaign. If you’re interested in getting involved with a cowslip survey this Spring, you can find out more here! You can also read the…

Indigenous stewardship and the protection of plant biodiversity under global change

Georgia Hart-Fredeluces discusses her recently published Journal of Ecology article: ‘Simulated Indigenous fire stewardship increases the population growth rate of an understory herb‘. Find out more about about the importance of understanding Indigenous management practices to protecting plant biodiversity. Plant biodiversity is foundational to ecosystem integrity and human well-being, yet it continues to decline with…