Author: AER | ESE

Plant and soil ecology, Research summaries

What’s hiding beneath our feet? A new way to sample life in dryland soils

By Walter R Jubber, Andrea Fuller, Maria Paniw Drylands cover over 40% of Earth’s land surface. When we think about biodiversity in drylands, we often picture aboveground shrubs, flowers sprouting after rain, grazing animals, and maybe insects scurrying across the surface. But a key adaptation to extreme temperatures and aridity, especially for invertebrates, is spending most of their life below ground. Soil invertebrates hidden below … Continue reading What’s hiding beneath our feet? A new way to sample life in dryland soils

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Prawns and crayfish as biocontrol agents against disease-transmitting freshwater snails

Moscovitz et al. share their experience comparing between predation preferences of a prawn and a crayfish over four species of snails which are aquacultural pests, explaining the observed preferences – or lack thereof – by quantifying snail traits. Freshwater snails are tiny – but in aquaculture systems, they loom large. In fishponds around the world, snails act as intermediate hosts for parasitic trematodes that harm … Continue reading Prawns and crayfish as biocontrol agents against disease-transmitting freshwater snails

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Can rule-based mapping support nature recovery planning?

Reliable habitat maps sit at the heart of biodiversity monitoring, natural capital accounting and nature recovery planning. Recent policy developments in the UK have made this even more important. The UK Land Use Framework highlights the need for a coherent national land-use evidence base and better integration of spatial data across sectors. However, producing consistent habitat maps at large scales is not straightforward. Field surveys … Continue reading Can rule-based mapping support nature recovery planning?

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Conservation is becoming more evidence-based, but it still has a long way to go

Written by Alec Christie, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. For more than two decades, conservationists have been encouraged to use the best available evidence to inform their decisions – a concept called ‘Evidence-based Conservation’. The idea is simple: rather than relying only on personal experience, tradition, or intuition, practitioners should draw on evidence from the wider literature and other forms of knowledge to … Continue reading Conservation is becoming more evidence-based, but it still has a long way to go

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Winner – Sylvia Ascher: Misplaced fears? What the evidence reveals of the ecological effects of tidal power generation

Shortlisted for the Georgina Mace Prize About the research Overview Our paper focuses on understanding whether the ecological fears surrounding tidal energy are actually backed by evidence. Tidal power is a reliable, clean, and predictable renewable energy source, yet projects are frequently delayed or cancelled due to concerns about environmental harm. We systematically reviewed the empirical literature, 54 papers spanning decades, covering both tidal range (barrages) … Continue reading Winner – Sylvia Ascher: Misplaced fears? What the evidence reveals of the ecological effects of tidal power generation

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Muhammad Iqbal Md Jamaluddin: Ecological corridors enhance adaptation success of translocated conflict elephants

Shortlisted for the Chico Mendes Prize About the research Overview My research investigates the ecological adaptation of a translocated sub-adult male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) as a strategy to mitigate increasing human-elephant conflict (HEC). By tracking a satellite-collared individual relocated from its original conflict zone, I sought to determine if a relocated elephant can successfully integrate into new habitats without exhibiting homing behaviour or resuming conflict. … Continue reading Muhammad Iqbal Md Jamaluddin: Ecological corridors enhance adaptation success of translocated conflict elephants

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Winner – Allan Edelsparre: Fast-tracking species at risk conservation: A framework for addressing recovery actions through multi-agency collaboration

Shortlisted for the Chico Mendes Prize About the research Overview Our paper asks a simple but uncomfortable question: why do so many species recovery strategies fail to translate into recovery outcomes? Using more than a decade of collaborative work on the endangered semi-aquatic queensnake (Regina septemvittata) in Ontario, we developed and tested a framework for coordinating recovery actions across agencies and organizations. Recovery actions are … Continue reading Winner – Allan Edelsparre: Fast-tracking species at risk conservation: A framework for addressing recovery actions through multi-agency collaboration

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Jessica Gauld: Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: A practical guide to research co-production

Shortlisted for the Georgina Mace Prize About the research Palaeoecology – the ecology of the past – has much to offer in addressing complex conservation challenges. By providing a long-term perspective of ecological change, palaeoecology can provide insight on pre-disturbance conditions, long-term processes, and the responses of ecological systems to dynamic climatic and anthropogenic change. However, the persistence of a palaeoecology research – conservation practice … Continue reading Jessica Gauld: Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: A practical guide to research co-production

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Rachel Nichols: Forming and managing a Farmer Cluster for improved farmland biodiversity in Europe

Shortlisted for the Chico Mendes Prize About the research Overview Farmer Clusters are groups of neighbouring farmers that come together to select their own biodiversity targets in a “bottom-up” approach and therefore offer an amazing opportunity to tackle agricultural biodiversity declines across the landscape. They allow farmers to take control of the conservation initiatives on their land, each tailored to their specific goals, and work … Continue reading Rachel Nichols: Forming and managing a Farmer Cluster for improved farmland biodiversity in Europe

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Munib Khanyari – Finding the ghosts: Snow leopard density and distribution in the multi-use region of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Shortlisted for the Georgina Mace Prize About the research Overview Jammu and Kashmir has been an extremely understudied area, especially its high elevation. Over 2 years of political instability has made this task even more challenging. In this paper, we wanted to first understand where snow leopards are found in Jammu and Kashmir. Following this large-scale survey, we then wanted to understand the status and … Continue reading Munib Khanyari – Finding the ghosts: Snow leopard density and distribution in the multi-use region of Jammu and Kashmir, India

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