Author Sally Archibald discusses newly published article: “Browsing is a strong filter for savanna tree seedlings in their first growing season” by Archibald, Twine, Mthabini, & Stevens. This research found that establishment limitation through early browsing is an under-recognised constraint on savanna tree species distributions When trying to explain why an organism is found in…
The Editor’s Choice for our May issue is “Herbivore dung stoichiometry drives competition between savanna trees and grasses” by Judith Sitters & Harry Olde Venterink. This article shows that browsing and grazing herbivores potentially help maintain the tree‐grass balance in African savanna, through variation in the nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) ratio of their dung! Here the…
The Editor’s Choice for our April issue is “Dynamic feedbacks among tree functional traits, termite populations and deadwood turnover” by Guo, Tuo, Ci, Yan & Cornelissen. The findings of this article imply that tree functional composition, with variation in deadwood quality through decomposition time, can help to sustain termite populations and thereby forest carbon turnover. Here…
The cover image for our April issue shows a rodent herbivore alongside black mangrove seedlings, in a Florida salt marsh. Author and photographer, Rachel S. Smith, describes how she and her team tracked down this mystery mangrove muncher!This image relates to recently published research article: “Dead litter of resident species first facilitates and then inhibits sequential life…
The cover image for our new issue shows an ant standing on the tip of a Lafoensia pacari leaf in the Cerrado, Brazil. Author Kleber Del-Claro shares the story behind this stunning image, which was taken by co-author Denise Lange and relates to their recent research article “Climate seasonality drives ant–plant–herbivore interactions via plant phenology in an extrafloral…
Here we take a closer look at a fascinating plant defense article by Calixto et al., which has recently been published in Journal of Ecology. Author Kleber Del-Claro explains different methods for anti-herbivore plant defenses and shares the results of this research, which is the first to show that ant recruitment via extrafloral nectar follows…
Journal of Ecology recently published an exciting new research paper by Johnson et al. “Seagrass ecosystem metabolic carbon capture in response to green turtle grazing across Caribbean meadows.” Author Robert Johnson discusses this research in more detail and presents further insights into how green turtle grazing affects carbon dynamics, within seagrass ecosystems. Green turtle abundance is…
The cover image for Journal of Ecology’s latest issue was taken by Johan Martinelli. Here Johan retells the story behind capturing this incredible reindeer photograph. This photo relates to recently published research article “Experimental evidence of the long‐term effects of reindeer on Arctic vegetation greenness and species richness at a larger landscape scale” by Sundqvist et al. I…
The Journal of Ecology has recently published new research by Villar et al. “The cryptic regulation of diversity by functionally complementary large tropical forest herbivores.” Read more about their work in this post & Part 1, written by authors Nacho Villar & Mauro Galetti. To Janzen or not to Janzen? The standard Janzen-Connell hypothesis (JCH)…
The Journal of Ecology has recently published new research by Villar et al. “The cryptic regulation of diversity by functionally complementary large tropical forest herbivores.” Read more about their work in this post & Part 2, written by authors Nacho Villar & Mauro Galetti. The empty forest The “empty forest” syndrome described by Redford (1992)…
Journal of Ecology Blog 