2021 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers

The Haldane Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Functional Ecology written by an early career author. Here is the shortlist for the 2021 Haldane Prize. Alexander Austin: Solitary bee larvae prioritize carbohydrate over protein in parentally provided pollen Audrey Barker Plotkin: Defoliated trees die below a critical threshold of stored carbon Bálint Uveges: Chemical defence effective against multiple … Continue reading 2021 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers

Lara Ferry

We welcome our new Executive Editor, Lara Ferry

Hello!  I am so thrilled to be able to write this post and introduce myself to you all!  Some of you have surely worked with me in the past several years as I have been a Senior Editor for the journal, Functional Ecology, for about four years now.  I am sure I will be getting to know even more of you soon.  I am excited … Continue reading We welcome our new Executive Editor, Lara Ferry

"Bat Sunset" by ejmc is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Bat Week Quiz

It’s bat week this week, and we’re celebrating with a quiz all about our lovely winged relatives. Bats are some of the most fascinating and diverse groups of mammals, the only mammals to live on every continent on earth (except Antarctica) bats fly using wings that are highly adapted hands. Think you know all about our echolocating friends? Test your knowledge with this quiz then … Continue reading Bat Week Quiz

Updated Animal Ethics Policy 

Originally posted on Animal Ecology in Focus:
We’ve recently updated our policy on animal research ethics for all the BES journals (Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution?and?People and Nature).?We’ve made this update to ensure we’re in line with the most up to date thinking on animal ethics, and to ensure all our… Continue reading Updated Animal Ethics Policy 

World bee day 2021: bee research collection

The 20th May marks world bee day, an opportunity for all of us to appreciate these little creatures that make our modern food economy possible. Bees are extremely valuable as pollinators and ecosystem services, but they are also fascinating creatures in their own right with complex social structures and communication methods. Here, we’ve curated our favourite bee-based research from Functional Ecology, as well as some … Continue reading World bee day 2021: bee research collection

2020 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers

The Haldane Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Functional Ecology written by an early career author. The winner of the Haldane Prize 2020 is Renato Morais with his fantastic paper on coral reef energetic shifts following natural disaster. Severe coral loss shifts energetic dynamics on a coral reef – Renato A. Morais – read the blog behind the … Continue reading 2020 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers

Selfie of Dr Adam Frew

Meet the editors: Adam Frew

Adam is an ecologist interested in plant-microbe and plant-insect interactions. His research investigates plant defences against herbivores, the ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and everything in-between. He usually employs experimental approaches in controlled environment (glasshouse/growth chamber) and field studies to tease apart the functional ecology of the interactions between mycorrhizal fungi, plants, and herbivores. He recently took up an ongoing position at the University of … Continue reading Meet the editors: Adam Frew

Sandra Varga setting up a field experiment to exclude pollinators in Lincoln, UK.

Meet the editors: Sandra Varga

Sandra is an evolutionary ecologist deeply interested in understanding how plants interact with their environment, linking aboveground and belowground processes. Specifically, she explores the relationships between plants, mycorrhizal fungi, pollinators and herbivores. She is particularly interested in the evolution and maintenance of sexually dimorphic plant breeding systems, and how these systems and their associates are impacted by climate change. She combines observational approaches with manipulative … Continue reading Meet the editors: Sandra Varga