Ecology Podcast

Katie Field, Associate Editor for Functional Ecology, talks to Ken Thompson about her new Virtual Issue: Mycorrhizal networks in ecosystem structure and functioning.

The vast majority of land plants form mutualistic symbioses with soil-dwelling fungi known as mycorrhizas, which can link many plants in a common mycelial network. These networks can be enormous, with around 200m of mycorrhizal fungal hyphae present in a single gram of typical forest soil. The flow of nutrients between plants and mycorrhiza and the resulting redistribution of nutrients throughout a community is an area of much recent research with important contributions having been made by publications in Functional Ecology.

Survival of the weakest seems an unlikely title for paper in ecology, but that is exactly what they found in their Haldane prizewinning paper, as Kyle Demes explains in this podcast.

Demes, K. W., Pruitt, J. N., Harley, C. D.G., Carrington, E. (2013), Survival of the weakest: increased frond mechanical strength in a wave-swept kelp inhibits self-pruning and increases whole-plant mortality. Functional Ecology, 27: 439–445. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12067

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12067/abstract

Reichmann, L. G., Sala, O. E. (2014), Differential sensitivities of grassland structural components to changes in precipitation mediate productivity response in a desert ecosystem. Functional Ecology, 28: 1292–1298. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12265

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12265/abstract

In this podcast, Robbie Wilson discusses a recent paper showing that long term exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide ca damage bees’ ability to forage for pollen – and may be changing their choices of which flowers to visit – with co-author Nigel Raine. This study, conducted at Royal Holloway University of London by Nigel Raine and Richard Gill, monitored bee activity using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags (similar to those used by courier firms to track parcels), and demonstrated how long-term pesticide exposure can affect individual bees’ day-to-day behaviour. Nigel Raine also discusses the implications for this, including whether risk assessment guidelines for pesticide use should be reformed to give bees more protection and include more tests that are done over extended periods to detect the effects of long-term, chronic exposure.

Gill, R. J., Raine, N. E. (2014), Chronic impairment of bumblebee natural foraging behaviour induced by sublethal pesticide exposure. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12292

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12292/abstract

Cynthia Chang talks with Alan Knapp on her paper:

Chang, C. C., Smith, M. D. (2014), Resource availability modulates above- and below-ground competitive interactions between genotypes of a dominant C4 grass. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12227

Plants compete for essential resources like light, water, and nitrogen, and understanding how plants coexist when these resources are limiting helps explain how they persist in a changing environment. Dominant species (the most abundant species in a community) are ecologically important because they contribute a disproportionate amount to ecosystem functions like productivity, invasion resistance, and resilience to climate change, so it is particularly important to understand how individuals within a dominant species coexist when resources are limiting.

In this podcast Cynthia Chang and Alan Knapp look at why naturally co-occurring genotypes coexist, providing insight into how genetic diversity within dominant plant species is maintained and how this can affect important ecosystem processes

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12227/abstract

At INTECOL 2013, Methods’ Associate Editor, Barb Anderson, interviewed a number of delegates and asked them: What method has transformed your field the most, during your career?

Visit the Methods blog to find out who gave the answers: http://bit.ly/1gULB02

At INTECOL 2013, Methods’ Associate Editor, Barb Anderson, asked a number of delegates what method they would like to be invented.

Visit the Methods blog to find out who gave the answers: http://bit.ly/1jGiUEO

Music credit:

- Artist: Josh Woodward http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/

- Song: Once Tomorrow (Instrumental Version) http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/Breadcrumbs/JoshWoodward-Breadcrumbs-NoVox-09-OnceTomorrow

Professor J. Philip Grime is one of the UK’s most influential, and controversial, plant ecologists. Phil is a Fellow of The Royal Society, and also a member of the Dutch Royal Society, and has received numerous awards including The Marsh Award, Honorary membership of the BES and ESA, and the Alexander von Humboldt Award. In recognition of his many achievements we have collected together 15 of his most influential papers in the Journal of Ecology as a Virtual Issue: all the papers have been made free to access. To give some background to the papers Phil has very kindly written a post for the Journal of Ecology blog, which briefly introduces Phil’s research approach and puts the papers in context. There are some great photographs of the people, places and various experiments at the end of the post. In addition to this there is also a podcast where Phil reflects on his career and the changes in ecology over the last 50 years - he also answers several questions sent in via Twitter.

We hope that readers will enjoy this Virtual Issue, which highlights the breadth of Phil’s scientific contributions within the Journal of Ecology.

Mark Rees

Editor, Journal of Ecology

Music credit:

-Artist: Josh Woodward http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/

-Song: Once Tomorrow (Instrumental Version) http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/Breadcrumbs/JoshWoodward-Breadcrumbs-NoVox-09-OnceTomorrow