Podcasts for the journal Functional Ecology

Functional Ecology

Alan Knapp talks to Brian Steidinger, the winner of the 2015 Haldane Prize for Early Career Research, about his paper "Variability in potential to exploit different soil organic phosphorus compounds among tropical montane tree species"
(Functional Ecology, 29:1, pp 121–130)

Soil phosphorus is as essential as water for plant growth, but its low availability in some areas forces plants to develop different strategies to acquire it. Mycorrhizal associations, symbiotic associations between a fungus and a vascular plant, represent the most common strategy for access to the different pools of soil P by plants and it therefore seems reasonable to assume that different symbiotic fungal species will be differently able to exploit this non-renewable resource and that non-mycorrhizal species could have a competitive disadvantage. Brian Steidinger and his co-authors tested this hypothesis by comparing phosphatase enzyme activity and performance of five tropical tree species belonging to different functional groups: arbuscular mycorrhizal angiosperms, arbuscular mycorrhizal conifers, ectomycorrhizal angiosperms and non-mycorrhizal proteoid plants. 
- See more at: http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/grants-awards/honours_awards_prizes/prize-for-the-best-paper-by-a-young-author/haldane-prize

FE Alan Knapp interviews Haldane Prizewinner Brian Steidinger

Julia Cooke talks to FE editor Ken Thompson about our latest Special Feature: The Functional Role of Silicon In Plant Biology. Browse the lay summaries here (http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/summaries/LaySummariesVol30Iss08.html) or read the articles in the August Issue of Functional Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435/currentissue

FE: Julia Cooke and Ken Thompson on plant silicon

Joe Bailey talks to Alan Knapp about his special feature (guest-edited with Jen Schweizer)on Ecosystems, Evolution and Plant–Soil Feedbacks, out in the July Issue of Functional Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fec.2016.30.issue-7/issuetoc

FE: Alan Knapp talks to Joe Bailey about Ecosystems, Evolution and Plant–Soil Feedbacks

Do more diverse mixtures of plants function more efficiently and take up more carbon? Previous studies have suggested this occurs frequently in grasslands when species are mixed. Other studies have now suggested that the same can be true of genetic mixtures within a species.
In this podcast, Dylan G. Fischer talks about the results of the first forest ecosystem-scale experiment designed to test if more diverse mixtures of genetic stock result in more productive forests

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12733/full

FE: Alan Knapp talks to Dylan G Fischer

Duncan irschick Talks to Tiphaine Jeanniard-du-Dot about accelerometers, energy expenditure and Antarctic fur seals

Jeanniard-du-Dot, T., Guinet, C., Arnould, J. P.Y., Speakman, J. R. and Trites, A. W. (2016), Accelerometers can measure total and activity-specific energy expenditures in free-ranging marine mammals only if linked to time-activity budgets. Funct Ecol. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.1272

Functional Ecology`

FE: Duncan & Tiphaine Jeanniard-du-Dot on accelerometers, energy expenditure and Antarctic fur seals

Plant genotypic variation and intraspecific diversity trump soil nutrient availability to shape old‐field structure and function

Authors
    Lara Souza, Katharine L. Stuble, Mark A. Genung, Aimee T. Classen
Read the paper in full here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12792/abstract

FE: Lara Souza and Alan Knapp talk about the factors affecting old-field structure and function

This is the first of four podcasts from the 2017 Symposium on Insect-Plant Interactions. In this podcast, Functional Ecology Associate Editor Alison Bennett from the James Hutton Institute talks to Noah Whiteman, Jean Christophe Simon and Ainhoa Martinez Medina about their research, current challenges and the future of plant-microbe-insect interactions.

SIP 2017

Alison Bennett talks to Noah Whiteman, Jean Christophe Simon and Ainhoa Martinez Medina

This is the second of four podcasts from the 2017 Symposium on Insect-Plant Interactions. In this podcast, Functional Ecology Associate Editor Alison Bennett from the James Hutton Institute talks to Kay Moisan, David Giron, Enric Frago and Nicole Van Dam about their research, current challenges and the future of plant-microbe-insect interactions.

Alison Bennett talks to Kay Moisan, David Giron, Enric Frago and Nicole Van Dam

This is the third of four podcasts from the 2017 Symposium on Insect-Plant Interactions. In this podcast, Functional Ecology Associate Editors Sergio Rasmann and Alison Bennett, along with NIOO researcher, Ana Pineda talk about their research, current challenges and the future of plant-microbe-insect interactions.

Sergio Rasmann, Alison Bennett and Ana Pineda talk at SIP 2017

This is the fourth of four podcasts from the 2017 Symposium on Insect-Plant Interactions. In this podcast, Functional Ecology Associate Editor Alison Bennett from the James Hutton Institute talks to Lucille Chretien, Arjen Biere, Michael Thomas-Poulsen and Einat Zchori-fein about their research, current challenges and the future of plant-microbe-insect interactions.

Alison Bennett talks to Lucille Chretien, Arjen Biere, Michael Thomas-Poulsen and Einat Zchori-fein

At the BES Annual Meeting, Ken Thompson caught up with Jitka Klimešová  and discussed her work on a recent Functional Ecology paper, Herben et al's Effects of disturbance frequency and severity on plant traits: An assessment across a temperate flora http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13011/full

FE: Ken Thompson and Jitka Klimešová on disturbance frequency, severity and effects on plant traits

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

In this podcast, Gesche Blume-Werry and Ken talk about snowmelt, root-growth and phenology - and the importance of looking underground. Gesche's paper "Root phenology unresponsive to earlier snowmelt despite advanced above‐ground phenology in two subarctic plant communities" was a Highly Commended paper by an early career author - read this paper, along with other prizewinning and highly commended papers here: http://bit.ly/BESECR2017
For more on Gesche's research, read her posts from the field on the functionalecologists.com blog: https://functionalecologists.com/tag/gescheblume-werry/

FE: Ken Thompson & Gesche Blume-Werry talk about snow-melt, phenology and roots

Ken Thompson, Senior Editor of Functional Ecology talks to Sylvain Coq of CEFE about two recent papers on leaf litter decomposition and the role of macroinvertebrates

FE: Ken Thompson and Sylvain Coq on leaflitter and detritivores

Ken Thompson talks to Emma Sayer, Reviews editor for Functional Ecology, about what makes a good review paper, where they come from and how she identifies them (see her recent paper: The anatomy of an excellent review paper https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13207 (free access)

FE: Emma Sayer, Ken Thompson and the anatomy of a synthetic review

In this episode, Ken Thompson talks to Rannveig Jacobsen, recently shortlisted for the Haldane Prize for Early Career researchers for her paper, "Exclusion of invertebrates influences saprotrophic fungal community and wood decay rate in an experimental field study". You can find this paper, along with the other shortlisted papers, here: http://bit.ly/Haldane2018

FE:  Ken Thompson talks to Rannveig Jacobsen about the influence of insects on decomposer fungi

Chuck Fox and Jane Hill chat about Functional Ecology's new experiment looking at single vs double-blind review. You can find out more about this experiment here: http://j.mp/BES_DoubleBlind

Jane Hill interviews Chuck Fox about FE's new Single vs Double-blind experiment

"Breaking down leaves is basically hard work, so if the fungi have the option of an easier life, they take it?"

Why - and how - do algae slow the rate of leaf decomposition in aquatic ecosystems? In this podcast, Ken Thompson interviews Hal Halvorson about his paper "Periphytic algae decouple fungal activity from leaf litter decomposition via negative priming", recently shortlisted for Functional Ecology's Haldane prize.
(Find this and the other shortlisted papers at http://j.mp/2019HaldaneShortlist).

FE Ken Thompson & Hal Halvorson: algae, fungi and leaf decomposition

"It seems that both groups are picking the flowers when they're feeding - they're walking about and you can see them pick flower after flower after flower after flower."

In this podcast, Jurene Kemp talks about her paper, Cryptic petal coloration decreases floral apparency and herbivory in nocturnally closing daisies - recently shortlisted for Functional Ecology's Haldane Prize.
(Find this and the other shortlisted papers at j.mp/2019HaldaneShortlist).

FE: Ken Thompson &  Jurene Kemp: Daisies that close at night use colour to hide from herbivores

Terries Williams talks to Emma Sayer about Hunters vs Hunted, Narwhales vs iPhones, the difficulties of bribing grizzly bears and her new paper on new perspectives on the energetic costs of survival at the top of the food chain - the first ever Calow-Grace review.
Read the paper here:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13649

FE: Terrie Williams talks to Emma Sayer on the costs of surviving at the top of the food chain

Podcasts from the British Ecological Society