Tag: human-impacted systems

Research summaries

The stage is set: Will expanding development be a sea change?

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?

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Research summaries

Dining out: Fish switch from an aquatic to a terrestrial-based diet in streams impacted from metal contamination

In this post Justin Pomeranz and David Walters discuss their recent paper ‘Aquatic pollution increases use of terrestrial prey subsidies by stream fish’ Have you ever walked next to a high elevation, Rocky Mountain stream? Picked your way through downed trees, pushing your way through thick willows, listening to the water pour and bounce over rocks and settle into plunge pools? Have you ever fished … Continue reading Dining out: Fish switch from an aquatic to a terrestrial-based diet in streams impacted from metal contamination

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Careers, The Applied Ecologist community

Harnessing the power of Google Earth

Minerva Singh is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge and she is involved with the BES Conservation Ecology Special Interest Group. Her research focusses on using high resolution airborne data for mapping forest biophysical parameters and evaluating the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on them in the tropical ecosystems of the Greater Mekong region. In this post Minerva looks at harnessing the power of … Continue reading Harnessing the power of Google Earth

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Research summaries

Ecological traps in urban aquatic ecosystems: theory and practice

In this post Angela Strecker discusses a Review paper she recently handled by Robin Hale and colleagues ‘Identifying, preventing and mitigating ecological traps to improve the management of urban aquatic ecosystems’. Urbanization greatly alters ecosystems, yet management attempts to mitigate these effects can be confounded by incomplete information on the potential outcomes of management activities. In particular, the responses of organisms to management efforts to … Continue reading Ecological traps in urban aquatic ecosystems: theory and practice

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Research summaries

Using citizen science to protect Montagu’s harrier nests

In this post Andrea Santangeli discusses his recent paper ‘Identifying effective actions to guide volunteer-based and nationwide conservation efforts for a ground-nesting farmland bird’ Countless conservation actions are implemented by local practitioners worldwide with the intention to help target species to persist in landscapes under increasing pressure from human activities. Unfortunately, still very few implemented interventions are evaluated for their effectiveness (Ferraro & Pattanayak 2006). … Continue reading Using citizen science to protect Montagu’s harrier nests

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Research summaries

From seedling to adult assemblages: chronic disturbance drives the biological impoverishment of Brazilian Caatinga flora

In this post, Elâine Ribeiro writes about her recent paper with Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, Bráulio Santos, Marcelo Tabarelli and Inara Leal “Chronic anthropogenic disturbance drives the biological impoverishment of the Brazilian Caatinga vegetation”. Many studies worldwide are devoted to understand the reorganization of biological communities after human disturbances. However, a large proportion of these studies deal with acute (as opposed to chronic) forms of disturbance (Martorell … Continue reading From seedling to adult assemblages: chronic disturbance drives the biological impoverishment of Brazilian Caatinga flora

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Research summaries

A dilemma in conservation practice

In this post, Johan du Toit, focuses on a dilemma in conservation practice: should we do what seems best now or gather more information to (maybe) come up with a better plan? Johan handled the recent paper by Sean Maxwell (@Sean_Ecology)  et al. “How much is new information worth? Evaluating the financial benefit of resolving management uncertainty.“ Conservation practitioners are continually confronted by the question of whether … Continue reading A dilemma in conservation practice

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Research summaries

Energy production and wildlife: using syntheses for evidence-based decisions

In today’s post Chris Elphick (@ssts) discusses the recent review paper by Torre Hovick et al. and the importance of evidence-based syntheses for making informed decisions. This autumn, I saw my first Cape May warbler in the state where I live. Unfortunately, the sighting occurred when a colleague walked into my lab and handed me the corpse. Every year during migration, the ground around our … Continue reading Energy production and wildlife: using syntheses for evidence-based decisions

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Bringing land sparing and land sharing to the city

This post was written by Jonathan Rhodes, @j_r_rhodes, on the recent paper by Masa Soga et al. on land sharing and land sparing in urban systems. In agricultural landscapes the idea of choosing between strategies that intersperse intensive land-uses with areas set aside for biodiversity (land sparing) versus less intensive agriculture without set-asides (land sharing) to maximise biodiversity is relatively well developed (Green et al. … Continue reading Bringing land sparing and land sharing to the city

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Research summaries

Video: Plant diversity responses to organic farming and heterogeneity

Here’s a fantastic video from Romina Rader about her recently published paper “Organic farming and heterogeneous landscapes positively affect different measures of plant diversity“. Enjoy! You can also read more about the paper in this blog post from Journal Associate Editor Ailsa McKenzie. Continue reading Video: Plant diversity responses to organic farming and heterogeneity

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