Tag: infrastructure

Coastal and marine, Research summaries

A new approach for understanding the role of human-made structures in the North Sea

Hannah Tidbury and colleagues at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science recently used social network analysis to aid marine spatial planning. Here Hannah explains a little more about the approach behind their work and what it means for oil and gas infrastructure. Connectivity between communities of organisms that live within marine environment is important because isolated communities are more vulnerable to extinction. Therefore, … Continue reading A new approach for understanding the role of human-made structures in the North Sea

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Urban ecosystems

Green infrastructure: greenwashing or a tangible contribution to urban biodiversity?

What impact does green infrastructure really have on biodiversity in our cities? Associate Editor, Margaret Stanley looks at the recent synthesis and meta-analysis on this topic from Alessandro Filazzola and colleagues. Given the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity, there’s been growing momentum around the world for putting green infrastructure into cities. It’s often designed to support ecosystem services, such as stormwater regulation, but with implied … Continue reading Green infrastructure: greenwashing or a tangible contribution to urban biodiversity?

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Human-wildlife interactions, Pollinators, Research summaries

Protecting pollinators through better road verge management

In their recent study, Ben Phillips and colleagues reveal the importance of road verges as habitats for pollinators, as well as the negative impacts of current management actions. But how can we improve the situation? Most of us spend a good part of our days travelling on roads. The remains of the animals that stare back at us from the asphalt – the victims of … Continue reading Protecting pollinators through better road verge management

Journal of Applied Ecology6 Comments
Human-wildlife interactions, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Holiday snapshots can help us to understand conservation sites

In their recent article, Quantifying wildlife watchers’ preferences to investigate the overlap between recreational and conservation value of natural areas, Mancini et al. discovered just how much a trawl through photo sharing and social media sites can tell us about conservation value. Associate Editor, Yolanda Wiersma explains more. We have all have experienced seeing someone’s holiday through their camera lens. Prior to the advent of … Continue reading Holiday snapshots can help us to understand conservation sites

Journal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
Journal news, Research summaries

Issue 55:3

From fisheries management, to reintroductions and land use policies, here are some highlights from issue 55:3: Addressing global fisheries management challenges in a changing world Our latest Spotlight, showcasing high-quality and topical research Targeted supplementary feeding supports reintroduction of endangered raptors This issue’s Editor’s Choice Is environmental legislation conserving tropical stream faunas? Looking beyond the trees in tropical forest landscapes Evaluating the temporal effectiveness of marine reserves Species recovery … Continue reading Issue 55:3

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Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Where should we build wildlife crossings?

With wildlife crossing locations difficult to pinpoint, how do we know where to build crossing structures? Associate Editor, Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez explains how Bastille-Rousseau et al.’s new method and recent article, Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures using GPS telemetry help answer this question. There are over 40 million km of roads in the world (100 times the distance from the moon to Earth), with many millions … Continue reading Where should we build wildlife crossings?

Journal of Applied Ecology2 Comments
Research summaries

Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures for African elephants in Northern Kenya

Wildlife crossing structures are considered critical for animal movement, but how  do you choose where best to build them? Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau presents tools for planning crossing structures and the recently published article, Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures using GPS telemetry. Linear infrastructure development, including transportation and economic corridors, is considered to have outsized ecological impacts relative to their small physical footprints. In sub-Saharan Africa, … Continue reading Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures for African elephants in Northern Kenya

Journal of Applied Ecology2 Comments
Research summaries

Wind farms affect small birds too

Julia Gómez-Catasús explains the need for a 4.5km threshold between wind farms and small-sized birds, based on the recently published article, Wind farms affect the occurrence, abundance and population trends of small passerine birds: The case of the Dupont’s lark. Wind energy has experienced significant developments in recent decades, with China, United States, Germany, India and Spain being the main wind energy producers in the world. … Continue reading Wind farms affect small birds too

Journal of Applied Ecology4 Comments
Freshwater, Research summaries

Tributaries may reset the legacy of dams in large rivers

Tributaries, river management and damming. In this post, Associate Editor Tadeu Siqueira comments the recent article by John Sabo and colleagues, Pulsed flows, tributary inputs, and food-web structure in a highly regulated river. The damming of large rivers has been common practice, probably since Thomas Edison built one of the first hydroelectric stations in 1882. Most important rivers in economically developed regions have already been … Continue reading Tributaries may reset the legacy of dams in large rivers

Journal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
Coastal and marine, Research summaries

How important is seagrass for blue carbon?

Seagrass is key for carbon storage but shading from man-made structures is putting seagrass meadows at risk. Associate Editor Nathalie Butt discusses the recent article, Effects of small-scale, shading-induced seagrass loss on blue carbon storage: Implications for management of degraded seagrass ecosystems by Stacey Trevathan-Tackett et al. Carbon storage in the sea Given ever-increasing global emissions, natural systems and organisms that can absorb and store … Continue reading How important is seagrass for blue carbon?

Journal of Applied Ecology1 Comment