How do mesocarnivores interact in an urban environment? And how did the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown affect it?

This blog post is provided by Julie Louvrier (Twitter: @LouvrierJulie) and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the paper “Spatiotemporal interactions of a novel mesocarnivore community in an urban environment before and during SARS-CoV-2 lockdown”, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Cities represent a novel environment for wildlife species: human activities and disturbance happen during the day; a high density of buildings and … Continue reading How do mesocarnivores interact in an urban environment? And how did the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown affect it?

Navigating through the R packages for movement

In the biologging Special Issue of the journal, we have new Review paper lead by Rocío Joo on Navigating through the r packages for movement. Rocío is a movement statistician based at the University of Florida and the blog tells the story behind the paper and a brief overview of the paper. Behind the scenes Two years ago, if someone would have asked me about … Continue reading Navigating through the R packages for movement

Do spatial sampling scales influence the understanding of ant-plant interaction network architecture?

Despite great interest in metrics to quantify the structure of ecological networks, the effects of sampling and scale remain poorly understood. However, a recent paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology seeks to change this! Lead author Dr Wesley Dáttilo (Instituto de Ecologia, Mexico) explains how studying ant-plant interaction networks helped develop a better understanding of spatial sampling scales. We know that no single species … Continue reading Do spatial sampling scales influence the understanding of ant-plant interaction network architecture?

Behind the scenes: An evolutionary framework outlining the integration of individual social and spatial ecology

Our latest #StoryBehindThePaper comes from Quinn Webber, a PhD student working with Dr Eric Vander Wal in the Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. Quinn is studying social and spatial behaviour of caribou on the Island of Newfoundland and Fogo Island. His work focuses on improving scientific unerstanding of how social network structure is related to habitat selection and space use, and how these … Continue reading Behind the scenes: An evolutionary framework outlining the integration of individual social and spatial ecology

Divergent Migration in Lake Sturgeon

Studying aquatic animals has never been easy. Hidden from view beneath the water surface, they can be hard to find let-alone study in terms of their long-range movements. A recent paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology investigated migratory behaviour in lake sturgeon. Lead author Steven Kessel from the Daniel P. Haerther Center for Conservation and Research at the John G. Shedd Aquarium is here to … Continue reading Divergent Migration in Lake Sturgeon

Social networks and disease transmission – A story of giraffes

World Giraffe Day celebrates the longest-necked animal on the longest day (or night, depending on your hemisphere!) of the year – 21st June.  Yet many aspects of giraffe ecology remain poorly studied.  Dr Kim VanderWaal, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, studies how animal social behaviour translates into contact networks and pathogen transmission patterns.  To mark World Giraffe Day, she tells us about her … Continue reading Social networks and disease transmission – A story of giraffes

Volume 86:4 slideshow

Issue 86:4 is now out. The In Focus in this issue is by Jonathan De Long and looks at the paper by Yuanhu Shao on “Nitrogen deposition cancels out exotic earthworm effects on plant‐feeding nematode communities”. We also an review paper by Remington J. Moll which features on the cover titled “The many faces of fear: a synthesis of the methodological variation in characterizing predation … Continue reading Volume 86:4 slideshow

Volume 86:3 slideshow

Issue 86:3 is now out. The In Focus in this issue is by Damien Farine and looks at the paper by Andrea Springer on “Dynamic vs. static social networks in models of parasite transmission: predicting Cryptosporidium spread in wild lemurs”. We also have papers on community ecology, trophic interactions, behavioural ecology, population ecology, spatial ecology and demography. As always to make the most of all … Continue reading Volume 86:3 slideshow

Volume 85:6 a slideshow

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Male Montagu’s Harrier Edwin on the hunt for grasshoppers near Djilas, Senegal. Ellinor Schlaich et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12583

Issue 85:6 is now online and for the first time we have two In Focus papers in the issue as we no longer want to limit ourselves to championing only one great paper!

The First is by Pedro Jardano and takes a look at the paper by Sazatornil et al. on morphological matches and the assembly of mutualistic hawkmoth–plant networks. The second is by Shawn Wilder and Punidan Jeyasingh and they review the paper by Zhang et al. on how warming and predation risk shape stoichiometry.

To make the most of all the great photos from our authors we have included a slideshow of the best images.

Read the full November 2016 issue here.

Continue reading “Volume 85:6 a slideshow”