Tag: human-impacted systems

Research summaries

Mapping risk: new method to synthesize spatial data on human and animal use of coastal waters

In this post Erin Ashe discusses a new article from Esther Jones and colleagues ‘Seals and shipping: quantifying population risk and individual exposure to vessel noise‘ An exciting new paper (Jones et al. 2017) outlines a rigorous and widely applicable framework to predict ship noise levels in coastal waters, assess noise exposure for two seal species, and explicitly incorporate these results into risk assessments and … Continue reading Mapping risk: new method to synthesize spatial data on human and animal use of coastal waters

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Research summaries

Designing waterfronts that work for fish and people

In this post Stuart Munsch discusses his new article ‘Effects of shoreline armouring and overwater structures on coastal and estuarine fish: opportunities for habitat improvement‘ Shallow ecosystems facilitate the development and survival of juvenile fish. These areas are productive and provide fish with an abundance of small invertebrates produced in intertidal substrate, backshore vegetation, and the water column. In addition, predators are rare or ineffective … Continue reading Designing waterfronts that work for fish and people

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Careers, Journal news, The Applied Ecologist community

One year on: a Q&A with 2015 Southwood Prize winner Dustin Ranglack

Today sees the announcement of this year’s winners of the BES Early Career Researcher Awards. Journal of Applied Ecology awards the Southwood Prize each year to the best paper in the Journal by an early career author at the start of their career. Dustin Ranglack won last year’s Southwood Prize for his paper ‘Competition on the range: science vs. perception in a bison–cattle conflict in … Continue reading One year on: a Q&A with 2015 Southwood Prize winner Dustin Ranglack

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Research summaries

Innovative measure enables identification of threats to biodiversity

In this post BES Policy Team Intern Rick Parfett discusses a new metric, Relative Impact Potential, which allows rapid and accurate assessment of potential threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services from invasive alien species. The metric was published by Jaimie Dick and colleagues in their article ‘Invader Relative Impact Potential: a new metric to understand and predict the ecological impacts of existing, emerging and future … Continue reading Innovative measure enables identification of threats to biodiversity

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Human-wildlife interactions, Research summaries, Themed collections

Spotlight: How do renewable energy installations affect wildlife?

In the first post of its kind for The Applied Ecologist’s blog, Dr Lucy Wright, RSPB Principal Conservation Scientist, discusses five articles published in the latest issue of Journal of Applied Ecology, which have been grouped into a special profile on wildlife and renewable energy. All five papers are currently free to read online. Renewable energy is widely accepted to be a vital part of … Continue reading Spotlight: How do renewable energy installations affect wildlife?

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Research summaries

Traditional forest management practices stop forest succession and bring back rare plant species

In this post Jan Douda discusses his recent paper ‘Traditional forest management practices stop forest succession and bring back rare plant species‘ The past management practices may continue to influence ecosystem functions and processes for decades, centuries or even longer after they have been abandoned. Until now, few authors have attempted experiments which test the effects of restoring some of these past management practices on long-term forest … Continue reading Traditional forest management practices stop forest succession and bring back rare plant species

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Research summaries

Gone with the wind: canopies of next generation tropical forests will function differently based on today’s understory recruitment

In this post Jarrah Wills discusses his recent paper ‘Next-generation tropical forests: reforestation type affects recruitment of species and functional diversity in a human-dominated landscape‘ Diverse understory development within forest plantations can provide conservation value in highly modified tropical landscapes, but how many species should be used to establish a framework to encourage recruitment: one species, two species, more? And how does the quality of … Continue reading Gone with the wind: canopies of next generation tropical forests will function differently based on today’s understory recruitment

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Research summaries

Fine-scale salmon diversity sustains fisheries and supports food security of indigenous communities

A new study from Holly Nesbitt and Jonatahn Moore at Simon Fraser University shows that high biodiversity in salmon fisheries supports the food security of indigenous people. Salmon-folios Instead of analyzing market returns of different financial portfolios, this study examined indigenous fisheries with different “salmon-folios”. Like a well-balanced financial portfolio that can smooth market fluctuations, fisheries that caught a more diverse portfolio of salmon populations … Continue reading Fine-scale salmon diversity sustains fisheries and supports food security of indigenous communities

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Research summaries

Radar technology may help design raptor-proof wind farms in the future

In this post, Miguel Ferrer and Des Thompson discuss the recently published paper by Sergio Cabrera-Cruz and Rafael Villegas-Patraca ‘Response of migrating raptors to an increasing number of wind farms’ This study has for the first time used radar trajectories of more than 3.7 million migrant raptors, over six years, to measure responses to a wind farm. Essentially, in an experimental situation of pre- and … Continue reading Radar technology may help design raptor-proof wind farms in the future

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Research summaries, Video

Hunting and hiking are not so bad for wildlife populations

In this post Roland Kays discusses his paper ‘Does recreation or hunting affect wildlife communities in protected areas?‘ published today in Journal of Applied Ecology. Public wild lands have dual mandates to protect animals and provide recreational opportunities for people. These goals could be at odds if recreation, ranging from quiet hiking to legal hunting and trapping, hurts the wildlife community.  Past studies have clearly … Continue reading Hunting and hiking are not so bad for wildlife populations

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