Category: Research summaries

Agriculture, Grasslands, Research summaries, Restoration

Reintroducing Grazing in California’s Vernal Pools—Can we reverse the effects of past management?

In disturbance-adapted ecosystems, the removal of disturbance can lead to losses of diversity and sometimes irreversible changes in community composition. In their latest research, Michaels and colleagues identify the thresholds at which changes occur and explore the reversibility of these shifts in a vernal pool ecosystem in Northern California. If you head out in search of one of California’s famous vernal pools, you’ll have to … Continue reading Reintroducing Grazing in California’s Vernal Pools—Can we reverse the effects of past management?

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Agriculture, Grasslands, Research summaries, Themed collections

Diversifying plant communities in vineyards to increase natural pest control services

Léa Beaumelle and Adrien Rusch introduce their team’s latest research exploring different landscape contexts to identify ways to best foster natural pest control on agricultural lands. Insects and arthropods play key roles in agricultural systems. Arthropods comprise pests, such as aphids or caterpillars, but also beneficial organisms: predators such as spiders and ground beetles (natural enemies) prey upon insect pests and limit pest populations. As … Continue reading Diversifying plant communities in vineyards to increase natural pest control services

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Agriculture, Monitoring and methods, Pathogens and disease, Research summaries

One-size does not fit all: Insights from a novel outbreak of Mycobacterium bovis in Northern England

The control of tuberculosis is an ongoing issue worldwide. A new study by Rossi and colleagues shows how genomic surveillance and a deep knowledge of the micro-scale landscape can provide invaluable insights on the effective control policies to tackle this issue. How do novel pathogen problems emerge? Have local conditions changed, making an outbreak more likely? How did the outbreak originate, and what will the … Continue reading One-size does not fit all: Insights from a novel outbreak of Mycobacterium bovis in Northern England

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Grasslands, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

A deep learning model for pollinator plant surveys

Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) feeding on the nectar of Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) flowers © Damien Hicks Authors Damien Hicks and Christoph Kratz introduce their team’s latest research demonstrating the use of machine learning for quadrat surveys to improve accessibility and resource efficiency of current methods for floral vegetation monitoring. The nectar sugar contained in flowers is a key driver of pollinator abundance and diversity. … Continue reading A deep learning model for pollinator plant surveys

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Monitoring and methods, Research summaries, Restoration

Forest regeneration can help preserve the evolutionary history of tropical wildlife

In their latest research, Farneda and colleagues show how secondary forest regeneration affects the evolutionary dimension of bat diversity in the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) landscape, Central Amazon, Brazil. Land-use change across the tropics is pervasive, leading to widespread habitat loss and fragmentation. It is also a key driver of biodiversity loss. However, the agricultural abandonment in many tropical regions has led … Continue reading Forest regeneration can help preserve the evolutionary history of tropical wildlife

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Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Connect the dogs: A framework to inform countrywide connectivity conservation of India’s wild dogs

Conserving threatened species requires taking a landscape or regional scale approach to maintain connectivity among populations. In a new study, Rodrigues and colleagues propose a framework for informing countrywide connectivity conservation for large carnivores, focusing on the endangered Asiatic wild dog in India. Why conserve connectivity? The increase in human footprint and rapid changes in land-use patterns threaten the existence of several endangered species. Recent … Continue reading Connect the dogs: A framework to inform countrywide connectivity conservation of India’s wild dogs

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Conferences and events, Research summaries, The Applied Ecologist community

Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science-policy agendas

This year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) will be held in Glasgow in November. In the lead up to the conference, we’re asking our editors and authors to share their research at the interface of climate and ecology. In this post, Nathalie Pettorelli (ZSL) explains how the conference presents a clear window for developing coherent policy frameworks that align targets across the nexus of biodiversity … Continue reading Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science-policy agendas

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Citizen science, Freshwater, Infographic, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries, Themed collections, Urban ecosystems

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

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Coastal and marine, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Tracking data can provide a data-driven approach for high seas conservation

A new Policy Direction by Davies and colleagues showcases a candidate high seas marine protected area (MPA) in the Northeast Atlantic, identified primarily from seabird tracking data, that is being taken forward under a regional process: the North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Seamount (NACES) MPA, under the OSPAR Commission.  The high seas are international waters beyond any country’s jurisdiction. Although out-of-sight, beyond 200 nautical miles … Continue reading Tracking data can provide a data-driven approach for high seas conservation

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Grasslands, Research summaries, Restoration, Themed collections

Rewilding old fields: why additional effort is needed to restore wildflowers

Why has restoring old fields been a challenge for practitioners for decades? In their latest research, Tina Parkhurst, Suzanne Prober and Rachel Standish explore the efficacy of intervention efforts to understand limitations in current practices. Globally, there is a trend towards widespread abandonment of marginal agricultural land. Land abandonment is often associated with land degradation following long-term unsustainable agricultural practices, resulting in low productivity. Whilst … Continue reading Rewilding old fields: why additional effort is needed to restore wildflowers

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