Scaling Up Phenology: What Millions of Volunteer Observations Can Tell Us About the Effects of Climate Change on Plants

Amanda Gallinat, Colby College, USA, and Theresa Crimmins, USA National Phenology Network, discuss their article: Combined volunteer and ecological network observations show broad-scale temperature-sensitivity patterns for deciduous plant flowering and leaf-out times across the Eastern USA Around the globe, the timing of seasonal activity in plants and animals – termed phenology – is shifting substantially…

The critical role of plant phenology in the biomass production of alpine plants under climate change

Miaojun Ma, Gansu Gannan Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, discusses his article: Asynchronous phenological responses to warming affect biomass production contrastingly in flowering functional groups Background Plant phenology and productivity changes represent two of the most critical climate-induced changes…

Microclimatic gradients regulate germination phenology in alpine communities

Clara Espinosa del Alba, Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB, University of Oviedo – CSIC – Principality of Asturias), part of the Vegetation and Biodiversity Lab, discusses her article: Microclimatic variation regulates seed germination phenology in alpine plant communities, in English, Spanish, and Catalan. Background Seeds are essential for plant regeneration, but not only the quantity and…

Rainbow Research: Nature

To celebrate UK Pride Month, the British Ecological Society journal blogs are posting a Rainbow Research series, which aims to promote visibility of STEM researchers from the LGBTQ+ community. Each post will be connected to a theme represented by one of the colours shown in the Progress Pride flag. In this post, Bradley Neal shares the…

Cover stories: Volume 109 Issue 2

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…

Cover stories: Volume 108 Issue 6

The cover image for our new issue was taken by David Cappaert and shows a sweat bee and the blister beetle on the flower of a cutleaf silverpuff (Microseris laciniata). This image relates to the article Experimental shifts in exotic flowering phenology produce strong indirect effects on native plant reproductive success by Waters, Chen & Hille Ris…

Climate driven seasonal patterns in an ant–plant–herbivore interaction

How do seasonal changes in climate influence ecological interactions in an extrafloral nectary‐bearing plant community? Find out in recently published Journal of Ecology paper by Calixto et al. Author Kleber Del-Claro explains how climate can directly and indirectly impact ant–plant–herbivore interactions, and how we can better understand these changes by considering plant phenology over time.…

Cover Stories: Issue 107 Volume 6

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…