MammalWeb: The potential of citizen science for large-scale mammal monitoring

Feature photo: A camera trap photo © MammalWeb (CC BY-SA 2.0) In their latest article, Pen-Yuan Hsing et al. describe the processes involved in launching and running MammalWeb – a successful camera trapping project that has produced over 440,00 classified image sequences and videos over the past decade. It is unlikely to come as a shock to readers of the Applied Ecologist that the world … Continue reading MammalWeb: The potential of citizen science for large-scale mammal monitoring

Research stories: The power of participatory research

Lead author Rachel Aronoff recalls her discovery of Hackuarium, a community laboratory, whose study on lake water quality demonstrates how meaningful environmental monitoring can be achieved with participatory research. It was late in 2015 when I first encountered Hackuarium and its ‘biohacker’ members while organising a biosensor course in collaboration with several of its members – I had never seen anything like it. Who were … Continue reading Research stories: The power of participatory research

Infographic: Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself

New research from Breeze and colleagues demonstrates that a well-designed monitoring scheme provides  excellent value for money, compared with traditional research funding models, and could help save species and protect UK food security. This infographic provides an overview of their work. ‘Our findings demonstrate that long‐term systematic monitoring can be a cost‐effective tool for both answering key research questions and setting action points for policymakers. … Continue reading Infographic: Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself

Infographic: factors affecting carcass detection at wind farms using dogs and human searchers

New research from Jon Domínguez del Valle and colleagues demonstrates that dogs outperform humans when it comes to finding bird and bat carcasses in a wide range of situations. This is particularly evident when searching for small species in dense vegetation. This infographic summarises their work into detection at wind farms. ‘Our results provide evidence that dogs perform with high success rates at detecting bird … Continue reading Infographic: factors affecting carcass detection at wind farms using dogs and human searchers

Let’s not turn big horns into little horns

In their new research, Testing the importance of harvest refuges for phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted populations, Poisson and colleagues explain why closing hunting seasons earlier could be vital to the future of bighorn sheep. This illustration by Benoît Leblanc summarises the key implications of their work. Read the full article, Testing the importance of harvest refuges for phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted populations in Journal of … Continue reading Let’s not turn big horns into little horns

Loss of bumblebees is a loss to farmers 

New research by Néstor Pérez‐Méndez et al. highlights the economic implications of declining pollinator species. Here the authors summarise their work. Recent expansion and intensification of agriculture to meet growing food demands is among the main drivers of the alarming loss of insect diversity worldwide. This decline can lead to a marked degradation of the ecosystem services that insects provide, such as pollination or regulation of crop … Continue reading Loss of bumblebees is a loss to farmers 

What can we learn from pollution trading to help us create biodiversity offset markets that do not undermine conservation goals?

Katherine Needham aims to answer this question following her recent  Commentary, Designing markets for biodiversity offsets: Lessons from tradable pollution permits, published in the journal. At the start of 2018, the UK Government outlined its ambitious 25 Year Environment Plan. The very first action is to embed an ‘environmental net gain’ principle for all future developments, including housing. Reconciling the need to build 300,000 new … Continue reading What can we learn from pollution trading to help us create biodiversity offset markets that do not undermine conservation goals?

Sustainable intensification: our quest for the ‘holy grail’

Is it possible to meet food demands and increase production without the damaging costs to the environment? Patrick White et al. tackle this challenge in their recently published research in the journal. As the world population grows, our finite land is put under increasing pressure to meet food demands. Historically we have increased agricultural yields by increasing the intensity of agricultural practices – for example … Continue reading Sustainable intensification: our quest for the ‘holy grail’

Infographic: Dynamic management tools

Heather Welch et al. provide an operationalization framework for implementing dynamic management tools to tackle a range of disturbance management goals, including minimization of protected species bycatch. See their work presented as an infographic here: Read the full open access article, Practical considerations for operationalizing dynamic management tools in Journal of Applied Ecology. Continue reading Infographic: Dynamic management tools