FE Haldane 2020: Shortlisted author Anderson Feijo talks to Senior Editor Lara Ferry

Haldane Prize 2020

FE Haldane 2020:  Anderson Feijo talks to Lara Ferry

Ken Thompson, senior editor for Functional Ecology, discusses Simon Pierce's new paper, "Implications for biodiversity conservation of the lack of consensus regarding the humped-back model of species richness and biomass production" 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12147/abstract

KenThompson discusses the humpback model, biodiversity and  Simon Pierce's new commentary.

As part of our new Mechanisms of Plant Competition Special Feature, Susan Schwinning talks to Alan Knapp about plant competition in water-limited environments.

Water is the primary factor limiting the growth and productivity of land plants, and fluctuations in plant-available water are ubiquitous in most terrestrial environments, due to variable and unpredictable rainfall. Evolution has produced numerous strategies of compromise between the conflicting goals of maximizing growth and reproduction when water is available and minimizing the risk of mortality when it is not. Because no species is able to pre-empt all opportunities for water and nutrient uptake, many plant species can coexist. However, the mechanisms responsible for making this stable, competitive coexistence possible are often hidden and difficult to study experimentally.

Understanding and predicting how plant communities will respond to contemporary climate change remains a challenge to science, but one that can be guided by addressing the fundamental ways in which fluctuations in plant-available water interact with competition, between either adults or seedlings.

Schwinning, S., Kelly, C. K. (2013), Plant competition, temporal niches and implications for productivity and adaptability to climate change in water-limited environments. Functional Ecology, 27: 886–897. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12115

For more on this, check out our Special Feature page: http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/specialfeatures.html

FE: Susan Schwinning talks to Alan Knapp about plant competition in water-limited environments

How best can international journals support applied ecologists in emerging economies
Workshop held at INTECOL congress in London, 20th August 2013 organised by E.J. Milner-Gulland and Jos Barlow, sponsored by Journal of Applied Ecology
As the world’s emerging economies (including Brazil, China, India and Russia) continue to develop, there is increasing concern about the likely ecological cost, both at home and internationally. There is an acute and urgent need for influential and effective applied ecologists in these countries, but international ecological discourse is still dominated by science from Europe and the rich, English-speaking world. As a global community of ecologists, we need to be proactive to ensure that we are engaging with the myriad challenges of this new world order. In this workshop we aim to explore the ways in which international journals, their publishers, and ecologists worldwide can support applied ecology in countries with emerging economies. The speakers and organisers bring a diverse range of expertise and perspectives to the workshop, ensuring a lively debate and innovative ideas.

Journal of Applied Ecology INTECOL Workshop

Liesje Mommer talks about using molecular techniques to look at below-ground plant competition and facilitation as  the keynote speech for our Mechanisms of Plant Competition symposia.

FE INTECOL Symposium: Liesje Mommer for Mechanisms of Plant Competition

Amelia Macho chats to Functional Ecology author Patrick Finnerty about his recently published research article "Odour information enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar, leading to predictable plant associational effects". 

The team demonstrated that elephants can make patch choice decisions from afar using plant odour cues alone, and that these decisions lead to predictable associational effects on the susceptibility of high-quality focal plants to be being eaten. They also used a new method to reduce an entire complex odour profile of a low-quality plant species and reproduce this odour information artificially. This simplified odour set was as effective as real low-quality neighbours in shaping elephant patch choice and subsequently providing associational refuge to the focal plant.

This research could offer a new tool to influence herbivore foraging decisions, with implications for wildlife management and conservation, including plant protection.

Read the full research article here:
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14665

Check out our YouTube channel for a video of an elephant walking through the giant Y-maze Patt and his team built:
https://youtu.be/OBY_xsbU-0k

Patrick Finnerty: Plant odour enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar

Lara Ferry talks to Daniel Fitzgerald about his Haldane prize-winning paper, "Using trophic structure to reveal patterns of trait‐based community assembly across niche dimensions".

Haldane

FE: Lara Ferry talks to Daniel Fitzgerald, winner of the 2017 Haldane Prize

Coping with stress: some species survive by breaking the rules, as Lanna Desantis explains to Robbie Wilson as part of the Special Feature: The Ecology of Stress 

For more information, read the lay summary (http://bit.ly/VQU0Xx) and article (http://bit.ly/14qsdBq)

FE: Ecology of Stress - Robbie Wilson interviews Lanna Desantis

Recent analysis of global datasets has shown that plants are constrained in how they allocate resources to their leaves, with trade-offs between building sturdy leaves with a long lifespan that are inefficient in capturing light or building flimsy leaves with a short lifespan and high efficiency. However, it is unknown whether similar patterns occur at more local scales, particularly when you consider the same plant species growing under different conditions. In this study, Justin P. Wright talks with Alan Knapp about the surprising results of examining the effects of varying nitrogen availability and water table depth on the form and function of leaves of over 20 species of wetland plants and what that means for ecologists looking to predict how the addition or subtraction of species will affect the way that ecosystems function.

Read the paper here: http://bit.ly/XTUD5H or the lay summary here: http://bit.ly/142W5Gh

FE: Justin Wright talks with Alan Knapp for Functional Ecology

Robbie Wilson interviews David Jachowski on his work "Unravelling complex associations between physiological state and movement in African elephants."
Understanding animal movements involves a complex association of factors.  In addition to anatomical constraints and factors like the surrounding environment, more cryptic factors can play a role-- such as an animal's internal, physiological state, or navigational capacity.  Complex movement models have been constructed in an attempt to infer an animal's internal state based on movement behaviours, but direct studies of the effect of an individual’s internal state on movement behaviour have been lacking. 
African elephants are known to alter their behaviour in response to their physiological state, with elevated stress hormone concentrations being associated with reclusive behaviour and aggression towards humans. A better understanding of the link between internal, physiological state and the use of space in relation to the proximity of environmental features and refugia is important in mitigating human-elephant conflict. 
Read the lay summary here: http://bit.ly/11KoGeb
Read the paper here: http://bit.ly/126B33e


FE: Unravelling associations between body state and movement in African elephantsDavidJochowski

Podcasts from the British Ecological Society

Patrick Finnerty: Plant odour enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar

British Ecological Society

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