Forests, Policy, Practitioners, Research summaries

Effective knowledge exchange in forestry: What is it and what’s effective?

Co-authors Jenna Hutchen and MJ Robertson discuss how their latest research in interdisciplinary forest science led to a topology of Knowledge Exchange practices. Managing forests is not as simple as growing or cutting down trees. Global forest management is the complex interplay of government policies and directives, cultural and spiritual values, stakeholder perspectives, and efforts from both industry and conservationists to maintain ecological functions of … Continue reading Effective knowledge exchange in forestry: What is it and what’s effective?

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Careers, Journal news, The Applied Ecologist community

Southwood Prize 2022: Shortlist announced for early career researcher award

Every year Journal of Applied Ecology awards the Southwood Prize to the best paper in the journal by an author at the start of their research career. With entries spanning the 59th volume of the journal, our Senior Editors carefully shortlisted the following 12 papers. Chongzhe Zhang with ‘Leveraging functional traits of cover crops to coordinate crop productivity and soil health’ Elizabeth Koziol with ‘Manipulating plant microbiomes … Continue reading Southwood Prize 2022: Shortlist announced for early career researcher award

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Careers, Journal news, The Applied Ecologist community

Georgina Mace Prize 2022: Shortlist announced for early career researcher award

Each year, Ecological Solutions and Evidence awards the Georgina Mace Prize to the best research article published by an early career author. Today, we present the shortlisted articles for this year’s award based on the previous volume of the journal. This is the third year we’ll be awarding the prize in honour of Professor Dame Georgina Mace, a pioneer in conservation science and policy who was … Continue reading Georgina Mace Prize 2022: Shortlist announced for early career researcher award

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Agriculture, Human-wildlife interactions, Pollinators, Research summaries

Smart orchard design improves crop pollination

In their new research article, Mina Anders (University of Göttingen, Germany) and colleagues compared the effects of agronomic practices, including agronomic inputs (irrigation and managed honey bees), orchard design without external inputs (spatial orchard structure), and landscape factors on nut production in South African macadamia orchards. The need for sustainable agricultural practices Conventional agricultural intensification causes biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. To reduce these impacts, … Continue reading Smart orchard design improves crop pollination

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Coastal and marine, Human-wildlife interactions, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

How can soundscapes enhance recruitment and habitat building on new oyster reef restorations?

Author Dominic McAfee talks us through his and colleagues’ recently published research article which experimented with the use of home-made speakers to boost oyster recruitment at sites throughout Australia. We’ve all, at one time or another, used music as a band aid. Perhaps to mend a broken heart, or to help us through challenging times. And in this regard, it seems we are not alone … Continue reading How can soundscapes enhance recruitment and habitat building on new oyster reef restorations?

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Monitoring and methods, Practitioners, Research summaries, Urban ecosystems

FAR-sighted conservation: Facing the inevitability of ongoing environmental change

Chris Thomas and colleagues describe their latest Perspective article outlining a new framework – Facilitate-Accept-Resist (FAR) – that operationalizes conservation decision-making in a way that leads to greater adoption of positive biodiversity change. Conservation is in a bind. The biological world is changing, and so are our human priorities. When we declare a nature reserve on the basis of a particular species, for example, is … Continue reading FAR-sighted conservation: Facing the inevitability of ongoing environmental change

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Agriculture, Human-wildlife interactions, Research summaries

M²-gardens to probe the rural landscape

Frederik Gerits discusses their recently published article. Published in Journal of Applied Ecology, the article shows how variation in local land use types influence both biotic (e.g. presence and abundance of predatory arthropods and pollinators) and abiotic parameters (e.g. microclimate variation) in a peri-urban landscape. Our hypothesis is that these influences of landscape composition might further play a role in the resilience of landscapes in … Continue reading M²-gardens to probe the rural landscape

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Coastal and marine, Human-wildlife interactions, Research summaries

The threat to seabirds and the Barents Sea

Feature photo: The Hornøya cliffs with nesting seabirds, including Kittiwakes, Common Guillemots and possibly Razorbills © Biotope In their latest research, Sam Hodges and colleagues present a novel solution that may help guide ecosystem management practices by predicting the effects of climate change and yearly variation in sea surface temperature on foraging seabird hotspots in the Barents Sea. Seabirds have historically been shown to be … Continue reading The threat to seabirds and the Barents Sea

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Human-wildlife interactions, Invasive species, Research summaries

Regulation is required to mitigate the high cumulative propagule pressure exerted by escaped pet parrots

Margaret Stanley, Ellery McNaughton, Rachel Fewster and Josie Galbraith talk us through their recent research that uses reports of lost pet birds to estimate the cumulative propagule pressure that the pet trade exerts on the establishment of introduced bird species. Although concerns about the billion-dollar global pet trade industry have usually focused on issues associated with the trade of endangered species, the pet trade also … Continue reading Regulation is required to mitigate the high cumulative propagule pressure exerted by escaped pet parrots

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Desert and semi-arid, Forests, Research summaries, Restoration

Phylogenetic distance controls plant growth during early restoration of a semi-arid riparian forest

Leonardo H. Teixeira and colleagues share their latest research investigating the influence of species richness and phylogenetic relatedness during early restoration of a riparian forest in north-eastern Brazil. Restoration projects offer the opportunity to locally assess the effects of plant diversity on the assembly and functioning of restored ecosystems. In semi-arid areas of north-eastern Brazil, the extremely harsh environmental conditions are limiting plant establishment from … Continue reading Phylogenetic distance controls plant growth during early restoration of a semi-arid riparian forest

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