Author: Journal of Applied Ecology

Plain language summaries, Research summaries

Navigating river obstacles: The influence of the typology of low-head dams and river hydrology on fish genetic connectivity

Rivers are dotted with countless small dams that slow the flow of water and disrupt connections between fish populations. These structures, known as low-head dams, typically stand only a few metres tall, yet millions exist worldwide. Since removing all of them is unrealistic, it is crucial to identify which ones most strongly hinder aquatic wildlife movement. In our study, we set out to understand how … Continue reading Navigating river obstacles: The influence of the typology of low-head dams and river hydrology on fish genetic connectivity

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Plain language summaries, Research summaries

Coral reef connections could collapse under climate warming –but one island may offer hope

We discovered that climate change could dramatically break the natural highways that connect coral reefs across the southwestern Pacific Ocean, but one location may survive as a critical refuge. Coral reefs don’t exist in isolation. When reefs are damaged by bleaching or storms, they recover through baby corals (larvae) that drift from healthy reefs on ocean currents. These “larval highways” connect reefs across hundreds of … Continue reading Coral reef connections could collapse under climate warming –but one island may offer hope

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Careers, Research summaries, Restoration

Mateus Silva: A tool to facilitate seed provenancing for climate-smart ecosystem restoration

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview Seeds can accelerate the restoration of degraded landscapes. But where should practitioners source them, especially as the climate changes? In our latest paper, we address this by proposing a spatially explicit tool that identifies the best areas for sourcing seeds for ecosystem restoration under different strategies, from prioritising local seeds to nonlocal seeds preadapted to future … Continue reading Mateus Silva: A tool to facilitate seed provenancing for climate-smart ecosystem restoration

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Careers, Coastal and marine, Research summaries

Amanda Hsiung: Effectiveness of novel hybrid mangrove living shorelines is context dependent

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview Coastal areas are increasingly vulnerable to hazards such as erosion and flooding, and there is growing recognition that nature-based approaches can play an important role in coastal protection because they can adapt to changing environmental conditions. As new approaches are developed, it is important to test how well they perform under different environmental contexts and to … Continue reading Amanda Hsiung: Effectiveness of novel hybrid mangrove living shorelines is context dependent

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Careers, Human-wildlife interactions, Research summaries

Qing Cao: Coexistence between Przewalski’s horse and Asiatic wild ass in the desert

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview Our paper explores how two closely related wild equids—Przewalski’s horses and Asiatic wild asses—coexist in the extremely water-limited deserts of the Dzungarian Gobi. Classical niche theory would predict competitive exclusion under such scarcity, especially since horses are more water-dependent. By combining controlled water-use experiments with long-term camera trap data, we asked: what defines their fundamental water … Continue reading Qing Cao: Coexistence between Przewalski’s horse and Asiatic wild ass in the desert

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Plain language summaries, Research summaries

Messier forest stands support more spider species under retention forestry

Background Managed forests often become structurally simple: fewer layers, less deadwood, and a poorer understory. Retention forestry tries to avoid this by keeping key habitat features during timber use. Spiders matter because they are common predators in forests, but we still need clearer evidence on which forest features support them, and whether food availability plays a role. What did we study? We worked in 55 … Continue reading Messier forest stands support more spider species under retention forestry

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Careers, Human-wildlife interactions, Research summaries

Akshay Bharadwaj: Microclimatic niche shifts predict long-term survival and body mass declines in a warmer and more degraded world

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview The eastern Himalaya is a global biodiversity hotspot housing nearly 10% of the world’s bird diversity. In recent years, the region has experienced rapid climate warming (three times faster than the global average), which is further compounded by habitat degradation. The determinants of how various bird species respond physiologically and demographically to these synergistic changes is … Continue reading Akshay Bharadwaj: Microclimatic niche shifts predict long-term survival and body mass declines in a warmer and more degraded world

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Careers, Coastal and marine, Research summaries

Leia Navarro-Herrero: Seabird-vessel interactions in industrial fisheries of Northwest Africa

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview Seabirds and fisheries almost inevitably meet at sea because we depend on the same marine resources. Interactions become direct when seabirds deliberately follow vessels to take advantage of what seems like an easy meal. We have long known this can pose a serious threat. A seabird may dive for bait on a longline or approach a … Continue reading Leia Navarro-Herrero: Seabird-vessel interactions in industrial fisheries of Northwest Africa

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Careers, Grasslands, Research summaries

Hudson Fontenele: Consequences of seven consecutive annual dry-season fires to the unburned Cerrado grass layer

Shortlisted for the 2025 Southwood Prize About the research Overview Our paper explores the community, population, and functional aspects of tropical savanna grasses in response to an extreme, prolonged fire regime of seven consecutive annual dry season fires. We were interested in understanding how the repeated fires would affect community composition, species persistence, population turnover, functional composition and structure, and ecosystem functioning. So, we used permanent … Continue reading Hudson Fontenele: Consequences of seven consecutive annual dry-season fires to the unburned Cerrado grass layer

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Plain language summaries, Research summaries

Why we need new monitoring tools in drying rivers

Rivers are increasingly drying up worldwide due to ongoing global change. This poses a major challenge for how we effectively protect them. We often assess the health of a river using a scoring system where higher scores of sensitive species show a healthier river, while their absence together with lower scores from tolerant taxa suggests the river is under human impact (e.g., pollution). However, these … Continue reading Why we need new monitoring tools in drying rivers

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