Ecology Podcast

Karen Strier, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and Susan Alberts, Duke University, USA and Institute of Primate Research, Kenya, talk with Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Co-ordinator, about their work with co-authors: The Primate Life History Database. This online database is based on long-term datasets that researchers at several institutions in North America have created to make data comparable across studies. It will aid future comparative analyses of primate data and the creation of easily archivable output. The most important features of this database, as Susan points out, are its structure and the use of a common vocabulary. Karen and Susan hope that it will be applicable to studies of most vertabrates and certainly of mammals.

Read the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2010.00023.x/full

Graziella Iossa interviews Jean-Pierre Moussus, MNHN - EGB about his work with co-authors Romain Julliard and Frederic Jiguet on phenological estimators using simulated data.

Read the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2010.00020.x/full

Doug Barron answers what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "Meta-analysis of transmitter effects on avian behaviour and ecology". Further, he explains how their meta-analysis advances methodology in ecology and evolution and finally shows how the findings of their study could be applied by anyone using transmitters on birds.

Read the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2010.00013.x/full

Matt Baker talks to Graziella about TITAN, their method for measuring ecological community thresholds that should be able to inform about conservation of rare and threatened species.

Read the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2009.00007.x/full

In this latest podcast, Alan Knapp, Editor of Functional Ecology, interviews Ryan Sponseller and his co-authors on their paper 'Variation in monsoon precipitation drives spatial and temporal patterns of Larrea tridentata growth in the Sonoran Desert'.

Read the paper: Ryan A. Sponseller et al. (2012), Variation in monsoon precipitation drives spatial and temporal patterns of Larrea tridentata growth in the Sonoran Desert.: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.01979.x/full

Alan Knapp interviews Amy Austin about her paper co-authored with Victoria Marchesini where they examined how a massive bamboo flowering event, which occurred in 2001 over 200,000 hectares in Patagonia, Argentina , impacted carbon and nutrient cycling in a native old-growth forest.

Read the paper on Functional Ecology:

Austin, A. T. and Marchesini, V. A. (2011), Gregarious flowering and death of understorey bamboo slow litter decomposition and nitrogen turnover in a southern temperate forest in Patagonia, Argentina. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01910.x/abstract

In Functional Ecology's first podcast, Phil Hulme talks to Alan Knapp, about his study which is the first comparison testing for consistency in flowering phenology of species established in the wild in both their native Europe and as introduced aliens in North America.

Read the paper here: Hulme, P. E. (2011), Consistent flowering response to global warming by European plants introduced into North America. Functional Ecology, 25: 1189–1196.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01899.x/abstract