Gentle Giants, Robust Communities: Unpacking the Hidden Impact of Asian Elephants in Tropical Forests

This blog post is provided by Li-Li Li and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Asian elephants are associated with a more robust mammalian community in tropical forests”, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study provides insights into the role that Asian elephants play as “architects of abundance” in maintaining mammalian communities. Deep within the incredibly complex and vibrant worlds of … Continue reading Gentle Giants, Robust Communities: Unpacking the Hidden Impact of Asian Elephants in Tropical Forests

Terrestrial birds mediating their responses to droughts through biological traits

This blog post is provided by Lyu Bing Zhang and Yang Liu and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the paper “Biological traits and biome features mediate responses of terrestrial bird demography to droughts”, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. In their study, Lyu Bing, Yang and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 204 species to find that droughts generally have a negative impact … Continue reading Terrestrial birds mediating their responses to droughts through biological traits

To Breed or Not to Breed: Skipped Breeding Can Obscure True Population Dynamics in Colonially Breeding Seabirds

This blog post is provided by Emma J. Talis and tells the #StoryBehindthePaper for the paper ‘Variability, Skipped Breeding, and Heavy-tailed Dynamics in an Antarctic Seabird‘, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. The authors show that the presence of variable rates of skipped breeding in Adélie penguins can challenge our interpretation of abundance fluctuations and obscure relationships with key environmental drivers. Considered … Continue reading To Breed or Not to Breed: Skipped Breeding Can Obscure True Population Dynamics in Colonially Breeding Seabirds

Time to use some mussel: Exploring drivers of parasite community structure

This blog post is provided by Joshua Brian and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Abundance data applied to a novel model invertebrate host sheds new light on parasite community assembly in nature“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. As much as we might try to avoid thinking about this, parasites are everywhere! However, the last couple of decades have seen a major shift in the … Continue reading Time to use some mussel: Exploring drivers of parasite community structure

Citizen Science Podcast: Heather Williams

The fourth episode in our Citizen Science Special Issue podcast is live. Heather Williams tells us about their paper Support for a relationship between demography and modeled habitat suitability is scale dependent for the purple martin Progne subis, which was part of the Citizen Science Special Feature. Featured image: Purple martin nestlings (about 2 days old). © Adam Wilson. COMING UP: 25/02/2021 – Journal of Animal Ecology: Citizen Science … Continue reading Citizen Science Podcast: Heather Williams