Category: Guest post

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Is beta-diversity the elephant in the room?

Do you understand beta-diversity? If not, you are likely not alone. Here to explain this under-appreciated concept is Dr Ollie Wearn, an AXA Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, London. He is interested in a broad-range of topics, including land-use change, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity monitoring and practically anything involving camera-trapping and-or mammals. There’s a problem in land-use change research, and we’re not talking about … Continue reading Is beta-diversity the elephant in the room?

Unknown's avatarSarah MarleyLeave a comment
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Ecophysiological feedbacks under climate change

Variability in heat tolerance among populations modifies the climate-driven periods of diurnal activity expected for ectotherm species. This phenomenon is illustrated for Iberian lizards in a paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Lead author Dr Salvador Herrando-Pérez is a generalist ecologist with expertise in community ecology, demography, ecophysiology and palaeoecology, and currently undertaking his second postdoc. Here, he explains the approach used … Continue reading Ecophysiological feedbacks under climate change

Unknown's avatarSarah Marley3 Comments
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How can you help Arctic skuas?

Continuing from last week’s post describing the challenges faced by Arctic skuas, Dr Allan Perkins (RSPB Centre for Conservation Science) is back with some advice on what you can to to help. Arctic skuas may well be heading towards extinction as a breeding species within the UK. That is the stark warning from our recent study, which found that Arctic skuas have declined by 81% in Scotland. What … Continue reading How can you help Arctic skuas?

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Understanding what’s driving Arctic skua declines in Scotland

Dr Allan Perkins is a Senior Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. Here, he describes some of the challenges faced by Arctic skuas and his paper assessing ‘bottom-up’ processes, which was recently published in JAE. Arctic skuas are spectacular birds, pirates among our seabird communities. Having spent the winter, off Namibia and South Africa, they return each spring to nest on the coastal … Continue reading Understanding what’s driving Arctic skua declines in Scotland

Unknown's avatarSarah MarleyLeave a comment
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Guppies only avoid infected shoalmates when they pose the highest risk of transmission

Jess Stephenson is a new Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. She is interested in factors affecting the spread of infectious diseases through natural populations, and how these ecological factors might affect the evolution of both host and parasite. Here, she describes her most recent paper on the role of host behaviour in disease transmission and shares the #StoryBehindThePaper. Across animal taxa, individuals … Continue reading Guppies only avoid infected shoalmates when they pose the highest risk of transmission

Unknown's avatarSarah MarleyLeave a comment
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Understanding ecosystem function (and each other)

Proponents of interdisciplinary work can range from grant reviewers to department chairs, but what goes into this type of collaboration? Alva Curtsdotter (ecologist) and Amanda Laubmeier (mathematician) talk about the process behind their recent paper on dynamic food web modelling. Alva: There has for some time now been an increasing interest in using dynamic food web models in ecosystem function research. These mathematical models describe … Continue reading Understanding ecosystem function (and each other)

Unknown's avatarSarah MarleyLeave a comment
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Streamlining Biologging Technology

The understanding of the interplay of movement, behaviour and physiology that biologging offers has applied relevance for a range of fields, including evolutionary ecology, wildlife conservation and behavioural ecology. In recognition of this, the Journal of Animal Ecology has an upcoming Special Feature on Biologging  (submissions due 20th September). Bio-telemetry devices are used ubiquitously across vertebrates in studies of movement and behavioural ecology and can provide scientists with … Continue reading Streamlining Biologging Technology

Unknown's avatarSarah Marley1 Comment
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Stopovers for sickly songbirds

The understanding of the interplay of movement, behaviour and physiology that biologging offers has applied relevance for a range of fields, including evolutionary ecology, wildlife conservation and behavioural ecology. In recognition of this, the Journal of Animal Ecology has an upcoming Special Feature on Biologging  (submissions due 20th September). This blog posts is written to accompany a recent publication in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Lead-author Dr Arne … Continue reading Stopovers for sickly songbirds

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I Set Out To Track Birds, but Ended Up Tracking Predators

The understanding of the interplay of movement, behaviour and physiology that biologging offers has applied relevance for a range of fields, including evolutionary ecology, wildlife conservation and behavioural ecology. In recognition of this, the Journal of Animal Ecology has an upcoming Special Feature on Biologging  (submissions due 20th September). But sometimes, you don’t end up tracking exactly what you expect… This was the case for Dylan Smith, an … Continue reading I Set Out To Track Birds, but Ended Up Tracking Predators

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Biologging: squiggly lines, new methods and big ideas

The understanding of the interplay of movement, behaviour and physiology that biologging offers has applied relevance for a range of fields, including evolutionary ecology, wildlife conservation and behavioural ecology. In recognition of this, the Journal of Animal Ecology has an upcoming Special Feature on Biologging  (submissions due 20th September). An advantage of biologging is that it can be applied to a wide range of animal species. To demonstrate … Continue reading Biologging: squiggly lines, new methods and big ideas

Unknown's avatarSarah Marley2 Comments