Emma R. Neigel, University of Lethbridge, discusses her article, Dispersal limitation and seed predation drives rarity of a plant species at its range edge Ecological theory proposes that three ‘filters’ determine which species are present in a community: (1) the suitability of abiotic conditions (e.g., soil moisture and temperature), (2) dispersal limitation – the ability…
Huixuan Liao and Qian Gan, Sun Yat-sen University School of Life Sciences, discuss their article: ‘Spatiotemporal interaction of risk-spreading strategies for a seed-dimorphic plant’ Background Maternal modification of offspring stress tolerance is a ubiquitous phenomenon in plant and animal kingdoms that affects population persistence and growth. When looking into this phenomenon, one can’t help but…
Throughout May, we will be featuring all the articles that were shortlisted for the Harper Prize 2020. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early career research paper published in Journal of Ecology. To start off this blog series, we hear from Michał Bogdziewicz! Michał’s article, “Do benefits of seed dispersal and…
Authors, Víctor Martín-Vélez and Andy J. Green, discuss their recent study which highlights the importance of non‐frugivorous waterbirds as vectors for long‐distance plant dispersal: Spatial patterns of weed dispersal by wintering gulls within and beyond an agricultural landscape. You can also read the Press Release for this article here. Weeds are plants that spontaneously grow…
Diego Anjos is an early career ecologist from Brazil, who’s research focuses on plant-insect interactions and multilayer networks in the Brazilian savanna. This post by Diego is part of the BES journal’s Black History Month blog series, which will be taking place throughout October 2020. We want to acknowledge and celebrate the work of Black…
Author Joseph Hawes discusses recently published Journal of Ecology article: A large-scale assessment of plant dispersal mode and seed traits across human-modified Amazonian forests by Hawes et al. Find out more about the effects of disturbance on functional traits related to seed dispersal in a tropical forest and the implications of this for the future.…
To celebrate Chinese New Year we’ve compiled a list of rodent-related papers that have been published in Journal of Ecology. Rodents act as seed predators and seed dispersers for many different plant species. While it’s the Year of the Rat we will be featuring research on many different members of the rodent family! Find out…
The Editor’s Choice article for Volume 107 Issue 6 is a study by Quintana‐Ascencio et al., which looks at the role of seed dormancy, dispersal and fire history on plant population dynamics, distribution and abundance. Associate Editor, Shurong Zhou, discusses this new research paper in more detail. Biodiversity conservation and management depend on our understanding of population dynamics at…
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)…
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