Ecology Podcast

In this podcast for Functional Ecology, Assistant Editor, Frank Harris, sits down with two Guest Editors—Pablo García-Palacios and Ji Chen— to discuss our recently published Special Feature on soil carbon storage. Read the Special Feature for free here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652435/2022/36/6 A transcript of this podcast is available to read here: https://functionalecologists.com/2022/06/30/emerging-relationships-among-microbes-soil-carbon-storage-and-climate-change-podcast-transcript/ The Guest Editors' Functional Ecology blogpost can be read here: https://functionalecologists.com/2022/06/07/pablo-garcia-palacios-ji-chen-emerging-relationships-among-soil-microbes-carbon-dynamics-and-climate-change/ The Special Feature identifies emerging findings from soil microbial ecology and climate change research that can reduce uncertainty if incorporated into theory and models. The contributions span from novel perspectives on the priming effect and soil microbial enzymes, to understudied key biomes for global soil C such as tropical forests, to plant inputs–microbial necromass–mineral interactions, to soil C and microbial responses to changing precipitation patterns and recent advances in trait-based and soil C modelling. Together, this collection of papers draws attention to novel frameworks and ideas that can pave the road for future research on microbial contribution to soil C turnover and storage under climate change.

Blog Associate Editor, Julie Koch Sheard, sits down with the Guest Editors of Journal of Animal Ecology's Special Feature, Understanding climate change response in the age of genomics. As global temperatures continue to rise, there is a major threat to species and ecosystems worldwide. In order to develop conservation and mitigation strategies, and understanding of how animal populations respond to changing environments is crucial. Recent genomics-based studies have begun to shed light on the mechanisms by which animal populations respond to climate change and offer methods to predict how they will respond in the future. This Special Feature highlights emerging genomics approaches and their applications across a diverse range of animal species; exploring range shifts, phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation of animal populations. By connecting these topics and their ecological implications, this feature aids researchers in using genomics to understanding climate change response.

JOURNAL CLUB: Jane Catford interviews Prof. David Tilman about his mini-review: Extinction, climate change and the ecology of Homo sapiens. Listen to the podcast, and then join Dave online for a live Twitter discussion! (full details below) • 00:00 Introductions and a summary of the paper. • 03:12 What’s led you from the start of your career, to asking these big questions around the impacts of agriculture, fossil fuels, and the intersection of human health and the environment? • 06:25 You say in your abstract that ‘ecology needs to become a more mechanistic and predictive science’ - how can we achieve that, and what do you think has been holding us back? • 08:42 If we had more mechanistic predictive models, do you think we could have better anticipated those unintended consequences that came out from mandating that we use maize for fuel? • 12:13 You make a strong argument that we need to be doing more multi-disciplinary thinking and working - in practice, how do we do that? • 19:10 Which strategies should be used to best communicate our science to policy makers and decision makers? • 21:24 The messages from your paper are very sobering, how do you deal with this and stay optimistic as you look to the future? • 24:40 Live Twitter discussion details Read the full paper here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2745.13847 If you’d like to chat to Dave about his research, join us for a JOURNAL CLUB discussion, LIVE on Twitter, and tag us in your questions and comments: 🗓️DATE: Tuesday 24th May 2022, 3pm (UK time) 📌TWITTER TAGS: #JEcolJournalClub @GDavidTilman Or, leave your questions in the comments below, by the above date.

Lara Ferry talks to Lillian Tuttle, an early career researcher shortlisted for the 2021 Haldane Prize, about how a small-yet-mighty fish, the cleaner goby, may be relatively immune to lionfish predation for an unexpected reason. Read the research here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13806

Emma Sayer talks to Kelsey Shaw, an early career researcher shortlisted for the 2021 Haldane Prize, about how parasites thrive or suffer when embedded in different ecological communities. Read the review here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13892

Enrico Rezende talks to Ummat Somjee, an early career researcher shortlisted for the 2021 Haldane Prize, about New Zealand giraffe weevils and the wonder of exhibiting an extreme 30-fold range in male body mass. Read the research here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13888

This is an audioblog provided by Christyn Bailey, telling the #StoryBehindThePaper: ‘It’s a hard knock life for some: heterogeneity in infection life-history of salmonids influences parasite disease outcomes‘, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

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

JAE Blog editor Julie Sheard interviews Mark Ditmer from Colorado State University. They discuss citizen science and Mark’s paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology for the special issue on citizen science by the British Ecological Society Journals.

JAE Blog editor Julie Sheard interviews Heather Williams, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. They discuss citizen science and Heather’s paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology for the special issue on citizen science by the British Ecological Society Journals.

JAE Blog editor Julie Sheard interviews Chris Latimer, a research associate ecologist at the Nature Conservancy. They discuss citizen science and Chris’ paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology for the special issue on citizen science by the British Ecological Society Journals.

JAE Blog editor Julie Sheard interviews Frank La Sorte, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. They discuss citizen science and Frank’s paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology for the special issue on citizen science by the British Ecological Society Journals.

This podcast is part of the British Ecological Society cross journal Special Feature on citizen science

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

Journal of Ecology is delighted to honour Bernhard Schmid in our continuing Eminent Ecologist series. Here our Executive Editor, David Gibson, interviews Bernhard about his ecological career and his groundbreaking research across several areas of plant ecology. This includes the population ecology of clonal plants, mechanisms of competition, community assembly, and more recently on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. In honour of this award, Bernhard has curated a collection of published papers - which are freely available to read in this Eminent Ecologist Virtual Issue: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2745.Bernhard-Schmid-2020

Senior Editor, Romina Rader, chats to Ségolène Humann‐Guilleminot, winner of the Southwood Prize for the best paper by an early career researcher published in the 56th (2019) volume of Journal of Applied Ecology. This year's prize was awarded in spring 2020.

Aaron Ellison, Romina Rader, Andrew Beckerman and Sara Cousins give their advice to new Associate Editors on how to confidently handling manuscripts. They discuss how to assess a manuscript on initial submission, how to assess reviewer comments, handling revisions, and writing good recommendation letters to authors. This podcast was recorded at the BES 2019 Annual Meeting in Belfast. For more advice check out the BES journals Associate Editor training centre: https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/publications/associate-editor-support-centre/associate-editor-training/

In this podcast Ken Thompson (of Functional Ecology) interviews Marc Cadotte as they discuss the British Ecological Society’s bold and innovative project, Applied Ecology Resources, and its open access journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence. This podcast was recorded at the BES Annual Meeting 2019 in Belfast.

"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).

"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).

GPS tracking helps uncover bull elephant reproductive tactics during Musth Paper–Movement reveals reproductive tactics in male elephants https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13035 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

The buzz about urban bee adaptations Paper–Urban bumblebees are smaller and more phenotypically diverse than their rural counterparts https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13051 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Can bacteria help manage environmental stress in aphids? Paper-The influence of symbiotic bacteria on reproductive strategies and wing polyphenism in pea aphids responding to stress https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12942 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Inbreeding badgers prone to age and sex-dependent diseases Paper– Inbreeding intensifies sex-and age-dependent disease in a wild mammal https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12878 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Restoration of Florida’s cat from an imminent danger Paper– A cat’s tale: the impact of genetic restoration on Florida panther population dynamics and persistence https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12033 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Diversity of skin microbiome on salamanders depends on the environment they live in Paper– Effects of host species and environment on the skin microbiome of Plethodontid salamanders https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12726 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Early-life environments in bank voles affect their next generation! Paper–Intergenerational fitness effects of the early life environment in a wild rodent https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13039 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Metabolic rate in ants is adapted to the elevation they live at Paper–Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13007 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Size of the fish we catch affects the species’ sexual behavior Paper–Size‐selective harvesting fosters adaptations in mating behavior and reproductive allocation, affecting sexual selection in fish https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13032 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

The effect of fishing and climate change on marine fish Paper–Fishing constrains phenotypic responses of marine fish to climate variability https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12999 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Diet-dependent gut microbe diversity in pikas Paper–Gut microbial communities of American pikas (Ochotona princeps): Evidence for phylosymbiosis and adaptations to novel diets https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12692 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

The effect of plant diversity on the genetic structure of aphids Paper–Effect of plant chemical variation and mutualistic ants on the local population genetic structure of an aphid herbivore https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12995 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Journal of Ecology's Executive Editor, David Gibson, interviews Helen Alexander - the 2019 winner of our annual Eminent Ecologist award.

Large, wild herbivores are declining worldwide, losses that have a number of knock-on effects, including changing the resilience of ecosystems to change, plant regeneration, and how much plant growth an area is capable of. Even though ecologists have long studied these effects using experimental fencing, there is little consensus about how these herbivores impact important ecosystem functions and impacts of large herbivore removal are highly variable, as Elizabeth Forbes discusses in this podcast and in her recent paper: Synthesizing the effects of large, wild herbivore exclusion on ecosystem function https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13376

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

David Gibson (Executive Editor) interviews Iain Stott(Associate Editor) at this year's Ecological Society of America annual meeting #ESA2019 ~ Journal of Ecology

David Gibson (Executive Editor) interviews Nicole Rafferty (Associate Editor) at this year's Ecological Society of America annual meeting #ESA2019 ~ Journal of Ecology

On this episode, JAE Multimedia Editor Ravi interviews Liam Bailey of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin. They discuss climate change, R software, fieldwork stories and much more.

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

Ken Thompson, Editor of BES sister journal Functional Ecology catches up with Kevin at the annual meeting to ask him: Why now? Why this journal? And what is reason for the well-evidenced positive relationship between human happiness and nature/biodiversity?

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)

The reproducibility and transparency of research in science and social science is increasingly questioned, both within the academic community and across society in general. In "The prevention and detection of human error in ecological stable isotope analysis", David J. Hawke, Julie C. S. Brown and Sarah J. Bury pick up an issue that applies to complex, hi-tech measurements made in specialist science laboratories that are often remote from the researcher: the potential for inadvertent errors to occur in reported results. We argue that the researcher and the specialist laboratory both need to take a no-blame, quality management-based approach to preventing and detecting error. Although we have focused on one particular technique widely used in ecology (stable isotope analysis), the principles apply to any complex laboratory measurement. Read the full Methods in Ecology and Evolution article here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13077

People and Nature managing Editor speaking about the strengths and difficulties of peer review for an interdisciplinary journal.

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

David Gibson, Executive Editor of Journal of Ecology, interviews Carla Staver at ESA2018, New Orleans.

David Gibson, Executive Editor of Journal of Ecology, interviews Cristina Garcia at ESA2018, New Orleans.

Journal of Ecology Executive Editor David Gibson interviews Managing Editor Emilie Aimé at ESA2018, New Orleans.

On this episode, JAE Multimedia Editor Ravi interviews Elton Prize, Natalie Clay. They talk about ants, art, girls in STEM, nutritional ecology, and her award-winning paper.

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/

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".