News

Road to COP26: Global warming but local heat exposure

What climate change means for India’s and Africa’s growing populations – Tamir Klein Climate change is here and is not showing any sign of moving away from the headlines. Headlines which come from every point on the globe, showing that the impact is indeed global. Wildfires in Australia are followed by heatwaves in North America, and so forth. However, as ecologists, we know that impacts … Continue reading Road to COP26: Global warming but local heat exposure

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George Perry conducting research.
Behind the paper

George Perry: So, how far might extinct birds have moved seeds?

In this instalment of “Behind the Paper”, Professor George Perry (he/him/his) of the University of Auckland shares with us the background of the paper “Reconstructing ecological functions provided by extinct fauna using allometrically informed simulation models: an in silico framework for ‘movement paleoecology”. About the paper Imagine if you could attach a high-resolution biotelemetric tracker on a dinosaur or a moa or a giant ground … Continue reading George Perry: So, how far might extinct birds have moved seeds?

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Marco Chiminazzo
Behind the paper

Marco Chiminazzo: ‘your best buds are worth protecting’, plant strategies to cope with fire in Cerrado (Brazil)

In our latest post PhD candidate at Universidade Estadual Paulista, Marco Chiminazzo, presents his work ‘Your best buds are worth protecting: woody species exhibit different types of bud protection’, discuss about the importance of plant traits to cope with fire and shares how he got inspiration from Punk music to pursue his research career. About the paper In this paper we analysed how bud traits … Continue reading Marco Chiminazzo: ‘your best buds are worth protecting’, plant strategies to cope with fire in Cerrado (Brazil)

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Author Xibin Sun, PhD Candidate, Sun Yat-sen University
Behind the paper

Xibin Sun: Divergent responses of symbiotic and asymbiotic N2 fixation to seawater additions

In this post Xibin Sun, phd candidate at Sun Yat-sen University, shares the insights of his paper ‘Divergent responses of symbiotic and asymbiotic N2 fixation to seawater additions’, presents his future research plans and shows his love for their study site landscapes.    What’s your paper about? This paper reports responses of symbiotic N2 fixation (SNF) and asymbiotic N2 fixation (ANF) to seawater additions. We … Continue reading Xibin Sun: Divergent responses of symbiotic and asymbiotic N2 fixation to seawater additions

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Vincent Pan sticking more seeds to more things. Photo by Eric LoPresti.
Behind the paper

Vincent Pan: Why are some seeds sticky?

In our latest post from Vincent Pan of Oklahoma State University explored the sticky world of seed mucilage and how it impacts granivory. About the paper Our whole journey down the seed mucilage rabbit hole was started when one summer Eric LoPresti, upon reading Fuller & Hay’s (1983) natural history note on sand coated Salvia columbariae seeds, got his mind blown. It happened that there … Continue reading Vincent Pan: Why are some seeds sticky?

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Anushika with her daughter in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, NSW, Australia
Behind the paper

Anushika Herath: Animal personality drives individual dietary specialisation across multiple dimensions in a mammalian herbivore

In this new post, Anushika. P.H.M. Herath, a post-doctoral research associate from The University of Sydney presents her work on the influence of animal personality of individual diet specialisation and the describes her experience working with Australian native fauna. About the paper Within a species, individuals vary in numerous traits including their sex, personality, and physiology. These traits affect how individuals interact with the environment … Continue reading Anushika Herath: Animal personality drives individual dietary specialisation across multiple dimensions in a mammalian herbivore

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Félicie Dhellemmes floating in a shark bucket holding the last datasheet for the year
Behind the paper

Félicie Dhellemmes: Bridging the gap between animal personality and individual foraging specialisation

In this month’s cover image story, we delve into the lives of juvenile lemon sharks in Bimini Research Station with Félicie Dhellemmes and learn about the complexity of animal personality and behaviour The concepts of animal personality and individual foraging specialisation describe two seemingly related phenomenon: The fact that individuals within populations consistently differ in their behaviour (for the former) and in their foraging habits … Continue reading Félicie Dhellemmes: Bridging the gap between animal personality and individual foraging specialisation

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Bálint Üveges
Behind the paper

Bálint Üveges: Toad poison is a Swiss army knife against multiple enemies

In this post Bàlint Uvëges, postdoc at Bangor University, present his latest work ‘Chemical defence effective against multiple enemies: Does the response to conspecifics alleviate the response to predators?’, discuss the multiple ways animals have to avoid predation and shares his passion for venomous creatures. About the paper Predation is commonplace in nature, so prey animals need to continuously survey their environment and respond to … Continue reading Bálint Üveges: Toad poison is a Swiss army knife against multiple enemies

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Margaux Didion-Gency at the Lago di Nambino, Italy.
Behind the paper

Margaux Didion-Gency: Interactive effects of tree species mixture and climate on foliar and woody trait variation in a widely distributed deciduous tree.

Margaux Didion-Gency, Ph.D. at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) of Birmensdorf (Switzerland), presents her first published paper and discusses the importance of tree species interactions in the context of climate change. About the paper This study was motivated by previous research that reported the positive effect of species richness on grassland resistance to extreme events. However, we noticed that … Continue reading Margaux Didion-Gency: Interactive effects of tree species mixture and climate on foliar and woody trait variation in a widely distributed deciduous tree.

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Behind the paper

Dustin Marshall: Mother-offspring conflicts: Temperature can change selection on offspring size

Professor Dustin Marshall, Australian Research Council Fellow and the Head of the Marine Evolutionary Ecology Research Group / Centre for Geometric Biology at Monash University, discusses with us his recently accepted paper “Temperature-mediated variation in selection on offspring size: a multi-cohort field study.” What is the background to your paper? We know offspring size varies enormously and understanding this variation is a long-standing goal of … Continue reading Dustin Marshall: Mother-offspring conflicts: Temperature can change selection on offspring size

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