• Did you know that bird feather structure relates very nicely to its habitat preference? If you want to know more about this, and how this is phylogenetically determined, read this paper by Péter Pap and colleagues.
• One of my recent favourites in Functional Ecology is this paper by Grégoire Freschet and Catherine Doumet,  who discuss very neatly which root sampling strategies can better inform about plant and soil functions. As already mentioned in my intro, I would further recommend reading Dwyer and Laughlin, 2017: Ecology Letters, doi:10.1111/ele.12781 which discusses how climate change can alter trait co-variance, to then affect biodiversity.
• Whilst the US seems about to pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight globe warming, France wants to the be an example on how to deal with environmental issues.
• Finland wants to reform its already outstanding school system by teaching students how to think more connectedly, and not by subject.
• If you have to abbreviate journal names in your reference list and your referencing program is not up to the job, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape research has a great website to help you.

Bjorn Robroek is the blog editor for Functional Ecologists.