To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, we are excited to share a collection of blog posts showcasing the work of some of the BES community. In each post, they discuss their experiences in ecology, as well as what this year’s theme, ‘Accelerate Action’, means to them. Katie FieldProfessor of Plant-Soil Processes University of Sheffield, UK What work do you do? I am a Professor of … Continue reading International Women’s Day 2025 – Katie Field
In our new post Kenji Suetsugu, professor at Kobe University (Japan), presents his work ‘Mycorrhizal specialization toward each distinct Oliveonia fungus in two closely related photosynthetic Dactylostalix orchids’. He talks about the symbiotic relationships between orchids and mycorrhizal fungi, shows his surprise when finding unexpected results and highlights the need to combine multiple techniques to unveil the secrets of nature. Have you ever wondered how … Continue reading Unveiling the Hidden Partnerships of Rare Orchids: A Journey into Symbiotic Mysteries
In this new blog post, Mary Woodruff presents her recent work ‘Heat alters diverse thermal tolerance mechanisms: An organismal framework for studying climate change effects in a wild bird‘. She explains the importance of understanding thermal tolerance for conservation decision-making in the face of climate change, discusses the challenges of collecting data from nestling birds, and shares the factors she believes contribute to excellent research. … Continue reading Mary Woodruff: How do nestling birds cope with heat?
In this blog post Carly Stevens, professor at University of Lancaster, presents her work ‘Large changes in vegetation composition seen over the last 50 years in British limestone pavements’. She shares her motivation behind surveying all limestone pavements in Great Britain, presents the conservation challenges faced by this habitat, and encourages every ecologist to go into the field to collect data. About the paper Limestone … Continue reading Carly Stevens: Exploring Great Britain’s limestone pavements
In this ‘Postcards from the Field’ blog post, Sebastian Moreno – a researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst – discusses the remarkable intersection of human behavior with ecological conservation, and the importance of bringing underrepresented communities to conversation. Profile: My research area combines my passion for birds and the intersection of human behavior with ecological conservation. Studying how urban environments influence … Continue reading Sebastian Moreno: Backyard birding elevates underrepresented voices in protecting urban biodiversity
In this post Laura Riggi from University of Wageningen (Netherlands) presents her work ‘Strip-cropping legacy enhances potato plant defence responses to aphids via soil-mediated mechanisms’. She talks about the importance of diversity for agriculture, discusses the connections between above- and belowground organisms, and shares how her love for arthropods guided her to made agriculture more sustainable. About the research Intensive agriculture focuses on growing a … Continue reading Laura Riggi: Strip cropping improves plant defenses against herbivorous insects via the soil
In this post Yunpeng Luo, an ecologist at The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape WSL, shares insights from his recent work “Internal physiological drivers of leaf development in trees: Understanding the relationship between non-structural carbohydrates and leaf phenology”. He highlights that plants’ carbon sink-source activities and concentration of non-structural carbohydrates could be the key eco-physiological drivers that influence the plant phenology. Additionally, … Continue reading Yunpeng Luo: Leaf phenology may be physiologically regulated by carbon sink-source dynamics & non-structural carbohydrates
In this new post Rutger Wilschut and Hanna Ruppert from University of Wageningen present their work ‘Contrasting responses of naturalized alien and native plants to native soil biota and drought’. Here they discuss how origin has important implications for biotic interactions, show the key role of soil biota for plants, and share their experiences which led them to pursue lives as ecologists. About the paper … Continue reading Rutger Wilschut & Hannah Ruppert: Contrasting responses of naturalized alien & native plants to native soil biota & drought
En este nuevo post, Carlos Matallana-Puerto, doctorando de la Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brasil), presenta su trabajo “Sex, flies, and flower trap: trapping trichomes and their function in polination“. Habla de la importancia de los rasgos funcionales que se pasan por alto, comparte algunos trucos para utilizar el algodón en la investigación y anima a los jóvenes ecólogos a trasladarse al extranjero para seguir su … Continue reading Carlos Matallana-Puerto ¡Los tricomas resbaladizos influyen en el éxito reproductivo de las flores trampa! (Español)
In this new post Carlos Matallana-Puerto, PhD candidate at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), presents his work ‘Sex, flies, and flower trap: trapping trichomes and their function in pollination’. He talks about the importance of overlooked traits, shares some tricks for using cotton in research, and encourages young ecologists to move abroad to pursue their research path. A Spanish translation of this blog post is … Continue reading Carlos Matallana-Puerto: Slippery hairs influence the reproductive success of trap flowers!
Functional Ecologists 