British Ecological Society Journals

Journal of Ecology Executive Editor David Gibson meets with Associate Editor Charlie Canham at ESA 2016 to discuss the theme of the meeting (Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene), as well as Charlie's research.

Journal of Ecology Executive Editor David Gibson meets with Associate Editor Emily Farrer at ESA 2016 to discuss the theme of this year's meeting (Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene), as well as Emily's research.

Journal of Ecology Executive Editor meets Associate Editor Jacquelyn Gill at ESA 2016 to discuss the theme of the meeting (Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene) and Jacquelyn's research.

Joe Bailey talks to Alan Knapp about his special feature (guest-edited with Jen Schweizer)on Ecosystems, Evolution and Plant–Soil Feedbacks, out in the July Issue of Functional Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fec.2016.30.issue-7/issuetoc

Julia Cooke talks to FE editor Ken Thompson about our latest Special Feature: The Functional Role of Silicon In Plant Biology. Browse the lay summaries here (http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/summaries/LaySummariesVol30Iss08.html) or read the articles in the August Issue of Functional Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435/currentissue

Alan Knapp talks to Brian Steidinger, the winner of the 2015 Haldane Prize for Early Career Research, about his paper "Variability in potential to exploit different soil organic phosphorus compounds among tropical montane tree species" (Functional Ecology, 29:1, pp 121–130) Soil phosphorus is as essential as water for plant growth, but its low availability in some areas forces plants to develop different strategies to acquire it. Mycorrhizal associations, symbiotic associations between a fungus and a vascular plant, represent the most common strategy for access to the different pools of soil P by plants and it therefore seems reasonable to assume that different symbiotic fungal species will be differently able to exploit this non-renewable resource and that non-mycorrhizal species could have a competitive disadvantage. Brian Steidinger and his co-authors tested this hypothesis by comparing phosphatase enzyme activity and performance of five tropical tree species belonging to different functional groups: arbu

Jason Kolbe discusses his paper (Kolbe, J. J., Battles, A. C. and Avilés-Rodríguez, K. J. (2015), City slickers: poor performance does not deter Anolis lizards from using artificial substrates in human-modified habitats. Funct Ecol. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12607) with Functional Ecology editor, Duncan Irschick How do lizards adjust to life in the city? Urbanization transforms natural environments into a mix of buildings, roads, parks and natural habitats. Lizards may use fences, posts and walls as they do trees in natural forests, but they may not find walls as easy to walk up as trees. How does this effect where these urbanized lizards choose to go and how might natural selection shape these "city slickers" in the future.

Journal of Ecology blog editor Pierre Mariotte interviews the 2014 Harper Prize winner Michiel Veldhuis.

In this podcast Andrew Suggitt interviews Owen Greenwood about their paper ‘Using in situ management to conserve biodiversity under climate change’ published in the Journal of Applied Ecology - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12602/full.

Emma Sayer and Ken Thompson talk about Emma's virtual issue: Making the Most of Microbes: http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/virtualIssues/VI_mostofmicrobes.html Microorganisms carry out a large number of fundamental processes that underpin ecosystem function. The enormous diversity and high functional overlap of soil microbes in particular makes this an exciting but challenging area of research in functional ecology. This virtual issue takes a look at some of the advances in ecosystem research made possible by considering microbial processes and populations within the bigger picture of ecosystem function.

Thomas Hasper and Johan Uddling talk to FE Editor Alan Knapp about their recent paper "Water use by Swedish boreal forests in a changing climate." The ongoing increases in atmospheric CO2 and temperature have the potential to alter the flux of water vapor through plant leaf ‘stomata’, tiny and actively regulated pores in the leaf surface, but relatively little is known about the water-use responses of boreal forests. In their study, the authors examined the water-use responses of Swedish boreal forests to climate change by using long-term monitoring as well as experimental data. They used climate and runoff data of large-scale boreal landscapes from the past 50 years to explore historical trends and patterns, as well as we examining explicit tree water-use responses to elevated [CO2] and/or air temperature in a whole-tree chamber experiment using mature Norway spruce trees. Their findings have important implications for projections of the future hydrology of European boreal coniferous forests, indicating th

JEC: David Gibson interviews Scott Collins by British Ecological Society Journals

Executive Editor, David Gibson, interviewed Carol Thornber at ESA 2015 about all things aquatic ecology.

Robbie Wilson talks to Amy Hahs about using urban ecosystems to expand fundamental ecological knowledge. Amy Hahs guest-edited our latest Special Feature: Ecology of Organisms in Urban Environments with Karl Evans. You can read the Special Feature here: http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/specialfeatures.html#urbaneco

Droughts are predicted to become increasingly frequent and intense in Amazonia, and empirical evidence for the vulnerability of Amazonian trees to drought has grown over the past decade. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms or the diversity of drought tolerance in tropical trees and, it has been difficult to quantify drought tolerance in tropical trees, due to a lack of consensus on a relevant tree functional trait, practical to measure for the hundreds of tree species occurring in tropical forests. In this study, Isabelle Marechaux and her co-authors looked at leaf water potential at wilting or turgor loss point (πtlp), which determines tolerance of leaves to drought stress. By using a new method based on a demonstrated association between πtlp and another trait, the leaf osmotic water potential at full hydration, they were able to estimate πtlp for 165 trees of 71 species, at three sites within forests in French Guiana. This dataset represents a significant increase in information for tropical

Alan Knapp talks to Anita Narwani and Patrick Venail about their new Extended Spotlight: Community Phylogenetics and Ecosystem Functioning: http://j.mp/FE29I5

Duncan Irschick talks to Coleman M. Sheehy III about how arboreality and the associated gravitational stress on blood circulation have influenced the evolution of tail length in snakes. Since their evolutionary origins about 100 million years ago, snakes have diversified into a wide variety of aquatic, burrowing, terrestrial, and arboreal habitats where they experience various levels of gravitational stress on blood circulation. At the extremes, these stresses range from low to none in fully aquatic species living in essentially “weightless” environments, to relatively high in climbing species, especially arboreal forms specialized for climbing trees. As a result, arboreal snakes exhibit many adaptations for countering the effects of gravity on blood circulation, including relatively tight tissue compartments in the tail. However, patterns of tail length in relation to arboreal habitats and gravity have not been previously studied. You can read the paper, "The evolution of tail length in snakes associated wi

In celebration of Fascination of Plants Day on 18 May 2015: Journal of Ecology's Executive Editor, David Gibson, has interviewed Anthony Davy about the Journal's Biological Flora of the British Isles series.

Alan Knapp talks to the 2014 Haldane Prizewinner Scott Ferrenberg about his paper, "Smooth bark surfaces can defend trees against insect attack: resurrecting a ‘slippery’ hypothesis". The concept of smooth bark on trees and shrubs acting as an anatomical defence against epiphytic vegetation and phytophagous insects has, for some time, fallen out of favour. Ferrenberg and Mitton, in a study of bark beetle attack on Pinus flexilis – a pine species that exhibits both smooth and rough bark surfaces – set out to test the role of bark defence against insects. http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/fecBESYoungInvestigator2014.html

The Editors of the Journal of Ecology are pleased to honour Professor Deborah Goldberg in our continuing Eminent Ecologist series. Deborah is the Elzada U. Clover Collegiate Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan, USA. More than that, Deborah is a hugely influential community ecologist having published a large body of highly cited work investigating the processes underlying patterns in plant community dynamics. In recognition of her work we have selected 10 of her most influential papers published in the Journal of Ecology. To provide some context, Deborah has written a fascinating post for the Journal of Ecology blog (https://jecologyblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/eminent-ecolog…borah-goldberg/). In addition, I was fortunate enough to interview Deborah in August 2014 during which we reflected over the insights, and controversies, arising from her work, as well as some of the non-ecological work that she has been involved with. This interview i