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Butterflies and moths, collectively Lepidoptera, are integral components of ecosystems, providing key services such as pollination and a prey resource for vertebrate and invertebrate predators. Lepidoptera are a relatively well studied group of invertebrates. In Great Britain and Ireland numerous citizen science projects provide data on changes in distribution and abundance. The availability of high‐quality monitoring and recording data, combined with the rapid response of Lepidoptera to environmental change, makes them ideal candidates for traits‐based ecological studies. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of studies documenting traits‐based responses of Lepidoptera, highlighting the demand for a standardized and referenced traits database. There is a wide range of primary and secondary literature sources available regarding the ecology of British and Irish Lepidoptera to support such studies. Currently these sources have not been collated into one central repository that would facilitate and enhance future research. Here, we present a comprehensive traits database for the butterflies and macro‐moths of Great Britain and Ireland. The database covers 968 species in 21 families. Ecological traits fall into four main categories: life cycle ecology and phenology, host plant specificity and characteristics, breeding habitat, and morphological characteristics. The database also contains data regarding species distribution, conservation status, and temporal trends for abundance and occupancy. This database can be used for a wide array of purposes including further fundamental research on species and community responses to environmental change, conservation and management studies, and evolutionary biology. There are no copyright restrictions, and this paper must be cited if data are used in publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a meeting on freshwater ecology held at the Exeter, England-based University of Exeter from 3-7 July, 1964 and a meeting of the Tropical Group on patterns in dry tropical vegetation held in London, England-based Linnean Society on November 4, 1964. Series of papers presented at the meetings; Discussions on each paper; Participants of the meetings.

The article reports developments on the success of the "Journal of Ecology," the official publication of the British Ecological Society in Great Britain. The Impact Factor of the "Journal of Ecology" has increased by about 26 percent between 2004 and 2005. Jian-Ming Deng has awarded the 2006 John L. Harper Young Investigator's Prize for his paper about the relationship of plant mass-density and moisture gradient that was published in the journal. Meran Owen has been appointed as managing editor for the journal.

Traditional methodologies of mapping vegetation, as carried out by ecologists, consist primarily of field surveying or mapping from aerial photography. Previous applications of satellite imagery for this task (e.g. Landsat TM and SPOT HRV) have been unsuccessful, as such imagery proved to have insufficient spatial resolution for mapping vegetation. This paper reports on a study to assess the capabilities of the recently launched remote sensing satellite sensor Ikonos, with improved capabilities, for mapping and monitoring upland vegetation using traditional image classification methods. The location is Northumberland National Park, UK. Traditional remote sensing classification methodologies were applied to the Ikonos data and the outputs compared to ground data sets. This enabled an assessment of the value of the improved spatial resolution of satellite imagery for mapping upland vegetation. Post-classification methods were applied to remove noise and misclassified pixels and to create maps that were more in keeping with the information requirements of the NNPA for current management processes. The approach adopted herein for quick and inexpensive land cover mapping was found to be capable of higher accuracy than achieved with previous approaches, highlighting the benefits of remote sensing for providing land cover maps. Ikonos imagery proved to be a useful tool for mapping upland vegetation across large areas and at fine spatial resolution, providing accuracies comparable to traditional mapping methods of ground surveys and aerial photography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides instructions for contributors of articles in the journals of the British Ecological Society (BES). Copyright of all papers and manuscripts submitted the BES; Arrangement of typescript of articles; Specifications.

(1) The ecology and status of the declining butterfly, Lysandra bellargus, were studied by recording the behaviour of all stages of the life-cycle; by monitoring adult population changes on seven sites; and from surveys and habitat analyses of former and existing colonies. (2) L. bellargus forms local closed populations that fly in small discrete areas. It reaches its northern limit in Britain, and breeds, mainly on south-facing slopes in the extreme south, although its foodplant, Hippocrepis comosa, is common in most calcareous grassland. (3) The larvae are tended incessantly by ants after their first instar, Ants also tend pupae, which occur inside their nests or are buried in earth cells. (4) Egg-laying is virtually restricted to H. comosa growing in a 1-4 cm tall sward, perhaps because these situations are warm and support many ants. Monitored populations were larger when theft sites were closely-cropped, although very heavy grazing was harmful. No colony was found on a former site whose sward had grown above a mean height of 5 cm. (5) The number of L. bellargus colonies in Britain has halved every 12 years since the early 1950s. Perhaps seventy to eighty populations survive, of which most are small. (6) Most (perhaps all) extinctions, were due to habitat change. About one third resulted from the loss of H. comosa, mainly through ploughing or agricultural improvement. All other former sites support an abundance of foodplant, but few are sufficiently well grazed nowadays to support L. bellargus. Butterfly collectors, colony isolation, and bad weather are unlikely to have been important factors in the decline. (7) It is often uneconomic to graze unimproved grassland adequately for L. bellargus. Nor, since myxomatosis, have unstocked sites. been maintained by rabbits. It is predicted that most remaining colonies will become extinct unless conservation bodies intervenes Past measures have proved inadequate, and new advice is given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winner of the Southwood Prize 2002 Each year, each of the Journals of the British Ecological Society offers a prize for the best paper by a young author. In our case, the award is named in honour of Prof. Sir Richard Southwood. The editors of the Journal of Applied Ecology are delighted to announce that the Southwood Prize for 2002 has been awarded to Dr Stephanie Kramer-Schadt for her co-paper with E. Revilla, T. Wiegand, F. Knauer, P. Kaczensky, U. Breitenmoser, L. Bufka, J. Cerveny, P. Koubek, T. Huber, C. Stanisa & L. Trepl on: ‘Assessing the suitability of central European landscapes for the re-introduction of Eurasian lynx’ (Journal of Applied Ecology , 39 , 189–203). The editors particularly liked the strong conservation biology theme of this work, and also the way it addressed a very real management problem by blending state-of-the-art methods for modelling with a substantial set of real field data. It is particularly appropriate that the prize this year should be won by a young scientist from the European mainland, from where there is a continued growth of high-quality submissions to the Journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shares the author's views regarding the "Functional Ecology" journal in Great Britain. The author implies that the founding editors of the journal aimed a nearly empty niche in journal publishing by fostering the rapid publication of high-quality papers of ecological content, but with physiological and evolutionary biases.