Author: functionalecologist

Marko Spasojevic
Journal content, Meet the Editor

Associate Editor Profile: Marko J Spasojevic

Marko Spasojevic
Marko Spasojevic

We’re happy to welcome Marko J Spasojevic, (University of California Riverside, USA) to the board. Marko is community ecologist working at the interface of ecology, biogeography, and conservation. His broad goal is to understand the mechanisms that influence patterns of biodiversity, and then to use that understanding to address environmental issues. His research combines large-scale observational studies across biogeographic regions, field experiments, functional and phylogenetic approaches, and advanced statistics and modeling to address environmental issues and to explore fundamental questions in ecology

We asked Marko to tell us about his current research and select some papers from the journal to recommend. Continue reading “Associate Editor Profile: Marko J Spasojevic”

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Tom Houslay on a boat
Journal content

Associate Editor Profile: Tom Houslay

We’re happy to welcome Tom Houslay, (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK) to the board. Tom is an evolutionary ecologist whose research focuses on how genetic, environmental and social factors interact to shape multivariate phenotypes. He uses a combination of experimental manipulations and correlative (individual and quantitative genetic) studies to investigate variation in – and covariation between – life history and labile traits, including … Continue reading Associate Editor Profile: Tom Houslay

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Régis Céréghino
Behind the paper

Insights: Régis Céréghino

In Insights we discover the story (and the people) behind a recent publication in Functional Ecology: what inspired the authors to do the research, how did the project develop and what wider impact might the work have?

In this week’s Insights, Régis Céréghino, from the Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionelle et Environnement (EcoLab) at the Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, France, talks about his papers on his work on food webs in Tank Bromeliads (Constraints on the functional trait space of aquatic invertebrates in bromeliads; Functional traits and environmental conditions predict community isotopic niches and energy pathways across spatial scale; Ecological mechanisms and phylogeny shape invertebrate stoichiometry: a test using detritus-based food webs across Central and South America)

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Manrico Sebastiano (on the right) during the manipulation of a sick frigatebird chick to administer antioxidants.Picture taken by Nicolas Defaux
Behind the paper

Insights: Manrico Sebastiano

In Insights we discover the story (and the people) behind a recent publication in Functional Ecology: what inspired the authors to do the research, how did the project develop and what wider impact might the work have?

In this week’s Insights, Manrico Sebastiano from the University of Antwerp (Belgium) talks about his paper on the mechanisms that underlie the impact of viral disease. These mechanisms are relatively unknown and studies tend to focus on a few conventional laboratory species. Sebastiano and his colleagues have set-out to study the effects of resveratrol on viral infections in the free-living Magnificent frigatebird.

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Live performances provide an artistic break from scientific presentations.
Community+Ecology

A Congress with Concerts and Koalas: Ecoacoustics 2018 in Brisbane

Richard Beason, regular contributor to our InSite/Out column, was at the 2018 Ecoacoustics Comgress in Brisbane. He reports back on a conference that included ecology, music, conservation, bioacoustics, technology and more. As my fieldwork was finished for this year, in this blog I set off for the 2018 Ecoacoustics Congress in Brisbane. Not only was this my first international conference, it was also the first … Continue reading A Congress with Concerts and Koalas: Ecoacoustics 2018 in Brisbane

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Behind the paper

Insights: Jitka Klimešová

In Insights we discover the story (and the people) behind a recent publication in Functional Ecology: what inspired the authors to do the research, how did the project develop and what wider impact might the work have?

In this week’s Insights, Jitka Klimešová, Head of Trebon’s section of the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, talks about how she integrates coarse and ‘non-acquisitive’ root traits to achieve a more comprehensive and realistic view of belowground plant and ecosystem functioning. This was the focus of her recent review paper, Belowground plant functional ecology: Towards an integrated perspective (Klimešová et al, 2018).

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Community+Ecology

Ecology of Soil Microorganisms meeting 2018 in Helsinki (17-21 June)

Elly_lachendPreviously organized by Peter Baldrian (and held in Prague), for the first time the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms conference was hosted by Taina Pennanen and Hannu Fritze of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), and was held in the Kulttuuritalo in the centre of Helsinki. Elly Morriën, a soil ecologist at the University of Amsterdam and Associate Editor for Functional Ecology, attended the meeting and reported back.

  Continue reading “Ecology of Soil Microorganisms meeting 2018 in Helsinki (17-21 June)”

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