Category: Research summaries

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 typology 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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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

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology3 Comments
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?

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology2 Comments
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

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
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

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology3 Comments
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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Citizen science, Infographic, Monitoring and methods, Practitioners, Research summaries

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

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Agriculture, Grasslands, Plant and soil ecology, Practitioners, Research summaries

Can pasture-fed livestock farming practices improve the ecological condition of grasslands?

Innovative farmers are adopting agro-ecological approaches to producing beef which they believe are better for biodiversity and soils. Lisa Norton (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and colleagues investigated the validity of these claims by comparing their grassland to those across the wider countryside surveyed as part of the national GB Countryside Survey.  Public concerns about the environmental impacts of meat production add to the … Continue reading Can pasture-fed livestock farming practices improve the ecological condition of grasslands?

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