Ecology Podcast

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: arbuscular mycorrhizal angiosperms, arbuscular mycorrhizal conifers, ectomycorrhizal angiosperms and non-mycorrhizal proteoid plants.

- See more at: http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/grants-awards/honours_awards_prizes/prize-for-the-best-paper-by-a-young-author/haldane-prize

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 that changes in precipitation and standing biomass are more important than effects of elevated [CO2] or temperature on tree transpiration rates.

Hasper, T. B., Wallin, G., Lamba, S., Hall, M., Jaramillo, F., Laudon, H., Linder, S., Medhurst, J. L., Räntfors, M., Sigurdsson, B. D. and Uddling, J. (2015), Water use by Swedish boreal forests in a changing climate. Funct Ecol. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12546

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12546/abstract

JEC: David Gibson interviews Scott Collins by Ecology Podcast