Field work for this study was done at Lizard Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, where the authors were lucky to have access to great infrastructure and exceptional autonomy. Photo by Victor Huertas.

Renato Morais: Mass coral mortality affects energetic functioning of coral reefs

Renato Morais, a Ph.D. student at James Cook University in Australia, gives us a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of his research on the energetic effects of coral mortality, related to his recent publication in Functional Ecology entitled “Severe coral loss shifts energetic dynamics on a coral reef”.

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Ana Alexandre at workAna Alexandre at work

Ana Alexandre: Seagrass nutrition altered by ocean warming

Dr. Ana Alexandre, a postdoc at Centro de Ciencias do Mar at University of Algarve, presents in this Insights the findings of she and her colleagues on her latest paper titled, “Ocean warming increases the nitrogen demand and the uptake of organic nitrogen of the globally distributed seagrass Zostera marina”.

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The author, Keith W. Sockman. Photo by Keith W. Sockman.

Keith Sockman: Exploring link between latitude, daylight, and migration

Dr. Keith Sockman, an Associate Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, participates in our latest installation of Insights by discussing with us his paper, co-authored with Dr. Allen Hurlbert, titled, “How the effects of latitude on daylight availability may have influenced the evolution of migration and photoperiodism”.

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Andrii Zaiats during the experiment, Summer 2012.

Andrii Zaiats: Surface roots in a high desert shrub

2021 Update: The research discussed in this blog has been shortlisted for the 2020 Haldane Prize for early career researchers.

Andrii Zaiats, a PhD student at Boise State University, talks about his research into neighbouring plant interactions and competition for water, Intraspecific variation in surface water uptake in a perennial desert shrub – his first peer-reviewed publication.

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Zenon Czenze - In the Kalahari with a hot bird (Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill)

Zenon Czenze: Hot birds -thermoregulation in heat has co-evolved with drinking behaviour

Dr. Zenon Czenze is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pretoria, soon to begin a Lecturer position at the University of New England in Armidale. Here, Dr. Czenze shares his team’s observations that led to the paper “Regularly-drinking desert birds have greater evaporative cooling capacity and higher heat tolerance limits than non-drinking species.”

Zenon Czenze - In the Kalahari with a hot bird (Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill)
Zenon Czenze – In the Kalahari with a hot bird (Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill)
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Amy L. Brunton Martin: Sexually deceptive orchids elicit sperm wastage – a cost for pollinators!

Amy Brunton Martin talks about her new paper, Orchid sexual deceit affects pollinator sperm transfer, which shows the costs of being fooled for an orchid pollinator, and highlights the importance of considering both sides of a relationship when looking at deceptive interactions in nature.   

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Yingying Wang

Yingying Wang: Phylogenetic structure of wildlife assemblages shapes patterns of infectious diseases

In this Insight, Yingying Wang, a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, discusses her  paper Phylogenetic structure of wildlife assemblages shapes patterns of infectious livestock diseases in Africa – recently shortlisted for the Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers.

Yingying Wang
Yingying Wang
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Ximeng Li: More than iso/anisohydry

In this Insight, Ximeng Li talks about his paper More than iso/anisohydry: Hydroscapes integrate plant water use and drought tolerance traits in 10 eucalypt species from contrasting climates, recently shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s Haldane Prize. Ximeng recently finished his PhD at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University and has now returned to China, where he hopes to continue his research.

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Noémie Pichon: decomposition disentangled

2021 Update – The paper discussed in this blog by Noémie Pichon is shortlisted for the 2020 Haldane Prize. This blog is also available in French.

Noémie A. Pichon, a PhD student in the Allan Lab, talks about her recent paper Decomposition disentangled: a test of the multiple mechanisms by which nitrogen enrichment alters litter decomposition, the background behind this paper and the next steps in this field.

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