British Ecological Society Journals

Early-life environments in bank voles affect their next generation! Paper–Intergenerational fitness effects of the early life environment in a wild rodent https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13039 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

The effect of plant diversity on the genetic structure of aphids Paper–Effect of plant chemical variation and mutualistic ants on the local population genetic structure of an aphid herbivore https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12995 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

The effect of fishing and climate change on marine fish Paper–Fishing constrains phenotypic responses of marine fish to climate variability https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12999 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Inbreeding badgers prone to age and sex-dependent diseases Paper– Inbreeding intensifies sex-and age-dependent disease in a wild mammal https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12878 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Diet-dependent gut microbe diversity in pikas Paper–Gut microbial communities of American pikas (Ochotona princeps): Evidence for phylosymbiosis and adaptations to novel diets https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12692 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Can bacteria help manage environmental stress in aphids? Paper-The influence of symbiotic bacteria on reproductive strategies and wing polyphenism in pea aphids responding to stress https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12942 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Size of the fish we catch affects the species’ sexual behavior Paper–Size‐selective harvesting fosters adaptations in mating behavior and reproductive allocation, affecting sexual selection in fish https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13032 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Metabolic rate in ants is adapted to the elevation they live at Paper–Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13007 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Restoration of Florida’s cat from an imminent danger Paper– A cat’s tale: the impact of genetic restoration on Florida panther population dynamics and persistence https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12033 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Diversity of skin microbiome on salamanders depends on the environment they live in Paper– Effects of host species and environment on the skin microbiome of Plethodontid salamanders https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12726 With some exceptions, universities rarely teach STEM undergrads how to communicate science to a general audience. This is our initial step towards undergrad science education and teaching them how to communicate science to a wider audience. Find out more on the JAE blog: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2019/12/19/audio-abstracts-podcasts-on-the-journal-papers-scripted-and-recorded-by-undergrads/

Journal of Ecology's Executive Editor, David Gibson, interviews Helen Alexander - the 2019 winner of our annual Eminent Ecologist award.

Large, wild herbivores are declining worldwide, losses that have a number of knock-on effects, including changing the resilience of ecosystems to change, plant regeneration, and how much plant growth an area is capable of. Even though ecologists have long studied these effects using experimental fencing, there is little consensus about how these herbivores impact important ecosystem functions and impacts of large herbivore removal are highly variable, as Elizabeth Forbes discusses in this podcast and in her recent paper: Synthesizing the effects of large, wild herbivore exclusion on ecosystem function https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13376

Chuck Fox and Jane Hill chat about Functional Ecology's new experiment looking at single vs double-blind review. You can find out more about this experiment here: http://j.mp/BES_DoubleBlind

David Gibson (Executive Editor) interviews Iain Stott(Associate Editor) at this year's Ecological Society of America annual meeting #ESA2019 ~ Journal of Ecology

David Gibson (Executive Editor) interviews Nicole Rafferty (Associate Editor) at this year's Ecological Society of America annual meeting #ESA2019 ~ Journal of Ecology

On this episode, JAE Multimedia Editor Ravi interviews Liam Bailey of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin. They discuss climate change, R software, fieldwork stories and much more.

In this episode, Ken Thompson talks to Rannveig Jacobsen, recently shortlisted for the Haldane Prize for Early Career researchers for her paper, "Exclusion of invertebrates influences saprotrophic fungal community and wood decay rate in an experimental field study". You can find this paper, along with the other shortlisted papers, here: http://bit.ly/Haldane2018

Ken Thompson, Editor of BES sister journal Functional Ecology catches up with Kevin at the annual meeting to ask him: Why now? Why this journal? And what is reason for the well-evidenced positive relationship between human happiness and nature/biodiversity?

Ken Thompson talks to Emma Sayer, Reviews editor for Functional Ecology, about what makes a good review paper, where they come from and how she identifies them (see her recent paper: The anatomy of an excellent review paper https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13207 (free access)

The reproducibility and transparency of research in science and social science is increasingly questioned, both within the academic community and across society in general. In "The prevention and detection of human error in ecological stable isotope analysis", David J. Hawke, Julie C. S. Brown and Sarah J. Bury pick up an issue that applies to complex, hi-tech measurements made in specialist science laboratories that are often remote from the researcher: the potential for inadvertent errors to occur in reported results. We argue that the researcher and the specialist laboratory both need to take a no-blame, quality management-based approach to preventing and detecting error. Although we have focused on one particular technique widely used in ecology (stable isotope analysis), the principles apply to any complex laboratory measurement. Read the full Methods in Ecology and Evolution article here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13077