Dr. Lauren Nadler, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Nova Southeastern University, explains how parasites can be energetically costly, even before infection, in her paper “A brain-infecting parasite impacts host metabolism both during exposure and after infection is established.” Dr. Nadler further discusses how she became involved in ecology, and why she enjoys the field.

Jamie Waterman is a PhD Candidate at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University studying the mechanisms behind plant defences against insect herbivores. In this insight, he discusses his recent paper Short‐term resistance that persists: Rapidly induced silicon anti‐herbivore defence affects carbon‐based plant defences.

Anna Katharina Pilsbacher introduces her M.Sc. work at the Arctic University of Norway ‘Interfering with neighbouring communities: Allelopathy astray in the tundra delays seedling development’, speaks about the importance of understudied interactions and her journey from ecology to linguistics.