This blog post is part of the blog series ‘Authors in Asia’, to accompany the recent Virtual Issue in Journal of Applied Ecology. You can read other posts in this series here. This post features three manuscripts which look at managing impacts of land use change. First, Kei Uchida discusses his paper ‘Land abandonment and intensification diminish spatial and temporal β-diversity of grassland plants and … Continue reading Managing impacts of land use change
This blog post is part of the blog series ‘Authors in Asia’, to accompany the recent Virtual Issue in Journal of Applied Ecology. You can read other posts in this series here. This post features two manuscripts which look at the science of healthy ecosystems. First, Fei-Hai Yu discusses his paper ‘Understanding the effects of a new grazing policy: the impact of seasonal grazing on … Continue reading The science of healthy ecosystems
In this post Michał Żmihorski discusses his paper ‘Effects of water level and grassland management on alpha and beta diversity of birds in restored wetlands’ A lot of species associated with wetlands are rare and declining and therefore large economical resources are being put into the conservation of wetlands given that they are hotspots for wetland birds and wet grassland birds. However, few studies have … Continue reading Conservation of wet grassland birds
In this blog post Associate Editor Brian Wilsey discusses a paper he recently handled by Kate Gallagher and Stuart Wagenius ‘Seed source impacts germination and early establishment of dominant grasses in prairie restorations’ Growing propagules from wild populations in cultivation could alter their genetics. For example, it has long been known that the selection pressures differ between hatchery-raised salmon and wild salmon (Waples 1991). Similar … Continue reading Seed source matters for prairie restorations
In this post Ryan Fisher discusses his paper ‘Extreme precipitation reduces reproductive output of an endangered raptor‘ in the latest Issue of Journal of Applied Ecology When we think of threats to species around the globe, we typically think of the usual, and very important, culprits of habitat loss and fragmentation. Unfortunately, the large and sometimes catastrophic effects of extreme weather on wildlife often get … Continue reading Extreme rainfall will pose a challenge for management of endangered burrowing owls in Canada
In this post Matthew Hethcoat discusses his recent paper, with Anna Chalfoun ‘Towards a mechanistic understanding of human-induced rapid environmental change: a case study linking energy development, nest predation and predators‘, which is published in Issue 52:6 of Journal of Applied Ecology, out today. North America’s sagebrush steppe, also known as the big empty, holds a secret. The sparrows, thrashers, and other songbirds that inhabit this … Continue reading The stage is set: Will expanding development be a sea change?
In this post Associate Editor Paul Kardol discusses a paper he recently handled by Yuanhu Shao and colleagues ‘Subordinate plants sustain the complexity and stability of soil micro-food webs in natural bamboo forest ecosystems’ Is it the dominant plant species that rule the system? Some theories suggest so. But, the idea that only the dominants are important is too simplistic and there is increasing evidence … Continue reading The role of subordinate plant species in supporting soil food web stability
In this post Peter Manning discusses his recent paper ‘Simple measures of climate, soil properties and plant traits predict national-scale grassland soil carbon stocks‘ Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, but the future of this reserve is uncertain – will it remain in the ground or be released into the atmosphere, potentially amplifying climate warming by several degrees in a worst … Continue reading What is the future of soil carbon stocks?
In this post Kei Uchida and Atushi Ushimaru discuss their recent paper “Land abandonment and intensification diminish spatial and temporal β-diversity of grassland plants and herbivorous insects within paddy terraces” For our recent article published in the Journal of Applied Ecology we studied the traditional paddy terraces of the agricultural lands in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan (Photo 1, Uchida & Ushimaru 2015) and compared them with … Continue reading Biodiversity restoration in the rice terraces of Japan
The Applied Ecologist 