Ecology Podcast

Douglas Cirino, shortlisted for the Southwood Prize 2022, talks to Lydia Groves about his research article ‘Balanced spatial distribution of green areas creates healthier urban landscapes’ as well as what he's been up to since the prize nomination.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14195

In this podcast, Amelia Macho chats with Ricardo Correia - Assistant Professor at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku - about his paper 'The searchscape of fear: A global analysis of internet search trends for biophobias'.

This research was published in People and Nature in July 2023. It investigated Google search trends for biophobias between 2004 and 2022. Its findings, that 17 out of the 25 biophobias investigated increased in search prevalence worldwide, particularly in urban populations, suggest an increasing disconnectedness from nature, which has implications for perceptions towards biodiversity conservation.

Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10497

Read the Plain Language Summary here: https://relationalthinkingblog.com/2023/06/14/plain-language-summary-internet-searches-reveal-the-prevalence-of-multiple-biophobias-across-the-world/

Hissing Cockroach sound clip from Pixabay

Hillary Smith joins Lydia Groves, publishing assistant for Journal of Applied Ecology, to discuss the research article ‘Sea-weeding: Manual removal of macroalgae facilitates rapid coral recovery’.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14502

In this podcast, Frank Harris sits down with Michael Belitz—a Post-Doc at Michigan State University, USA—to discuss his recently published paper: Phenological research based on natural history collections: Practical guidelines and a lepidopteran case study.

This paper featured in a Special Feature on Natural History Collections was published jointly in Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology and Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Belitz et al. provide a set of best practice recommendations to utilize NHC data for phenology and showcase these practical guidelines through a case study that utilizes natural history collection data to test hypotheses about trends in when North American adult butterflies and moths are in flight.

* Special Feature: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/leveraging_natural_history?=

* Article: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.14173

*PLS: https://fesummaries.wordpress.com/2022/09/06/guidelines-for-using-natural-history-collections-to-better-understand-how-seasonal-biological-events-are-responding-to-global-change/

In this podcast for Functional Ecology, Assistant Editor, Frank Harris, sits down with Fernanda Santos, Joe Bailey, and Jen Schweitzer who guest edited the recently published Functional Ecology special feature titled "Fire as a dynamic ecological and evolutionary force."

This collection of studies provide recommendations on how to: engage in developing ecological and evolutionary databases for fire ecology; integrate hierarchical genetic structure or phylogenetic structure; develop new experimental frameworks that limit context dependent outcomes,; increase sample size and availability of curated datasets; increase functional trait knowledge; and increase representation of ecological communities in the literature and context-dependency.

In this podcast, Frank Harris sits down with Nicki Mitchell—Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia, and Deputy Director at the UWA Oceans Institute—to discuss her recently published paper: Activity of a freshwater turtle varies across a latitudinal gradient: Implications for the success of assisted colonisation

Nicki et al's results conclude that poor growth of turtles in the southern wetland was likely a result of lower body temperatures, stemming from a reduced ability to thermoregulate in water. Consequently, for assisted colonisation of juvenile P. umbrina to be successful, recipient wetlands must offer aquatic microclimates that are sufficiently warm to promote foraging activity that leads to growth, and ultimately to maturation.

* Article: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.14338

* PLS: https://fesummaries.wordpress.com/2023/05/15/seeking-a-just-right-site-for-the-western-swamp-turtle/

In this podcast for Functional Ecology, Assistant Editor, Frank Harris, sits down with Philip Zylstra—Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Australia—to discuss his recently published paper: Mechanisms by which growth and succession limit the impact of fire in a south-western Australian forested ecosystem

Philip’s paper shows that, left alone, Red Tingle forests burn with much smaller flames, store far more carbon, and provide safe habitat for the many species now threatened by frequent fire. Once we know such natural controls on fire, it is possible to work with and reinforce them.

* Article: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.14305

* Plain language summary: https://fesummaries.wordpress.com/2023/03/21/forests-that-keep-fires-small-and-how-they-do-it/

In this podcast for Functional Ecology, Assistant Editor, Frank Harris, sits down with Matthias Schleuning—one of the three guest editors (also Joseph Tobias & Dani Garcia)—to discuss the recently published Special Focus titled, "Animal Functional Traits."

This collection of studies shows how precise measurements of morphological or physiological traits can increase mechanistic understanding of community assembly across trophic levels, particularly of the mechanisms underpinning large-scale biodiversity patterns.

Special Focus: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435.animalfunctionaltraits

Blogpost: https://functionalecologists.com/2023/01/05/animal-functional-traits-a-functional-ecology-special-focus/

Mark Huxham joins Lydia Groves, publishing assistant for Journal of Applied Ecology, to discuss the research article 'Where to fish in the forest? Tree characteristics and contiguous seagrass features predict mangrove forest quality for fishes and crustaceans'.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14421

In this episode, Assistant Editor for Functional Ecology, Frank Harris, sits down with Robin Heinen who has been nominated for the 2022 Haldane Prize. This prize is awarded to the best research from an early career researcher.

Robin has been nominated for her paper: Foliar herbivory on plants creates soil legacy effects that impact future insect herbivore growth via changes in plant community biomass allocation

Paper: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.14006

PLS: https://fesummaries.wordpress.com/2022/01/26/insect-feeding-leaves-a-detectable-footprint-in-the-soil-that-causes-plants-that-grow-in-it-to-hide-belowground/

Blogpost: https://functionalecologists.com/2022/03/01/robin-heinen-feeding-from-up-to-bottom-belowground-herbivory-impacts-on-plant-soil-feedbacks/