Search

There is a contemporary trend in many major research institutions to de‐emphasize the importance of natural history education in favor of theoretical, laboratory, or simulation‐based research programs. This may take the form of removing biodiversity and field courses from the curriculum and the sometimes subtle maligning of natural history research as a "lesser" branch of science. Additional threats include massive funding cuts to natural history museums and the maintenance of their collections, the extirpation of taxonomists across disciplines, and a critical under‐appreciation of the role that natural history data (and other forms of observational data, including Indigenous knowledge) play in the scientific process. In this paper, we demonstrate that natural history knowledge is integral to any competitive science program through a comprehensive review of the ways in which they continue to shape modern theory and the public perception of science. We do so by reviewing how natural history research has guided the disciplines of ecology, evolution, and conservation and how natural history data are crucial for effective education programs and public policy. We underscore these insights with contemporary case studies, including: how understanding the dynamics of evolutionary radiation relies on natural history data; methods for extracting novel data from museum specimens; insights provided by multi‐decade natural history programs; and how natural history is the most logical venue for creating an informed and scientifically literate society. We conclude with recommendations aimed at students, university faculty, and administrators for integrating and supporting natural history in their mandates. Fundamentally, we are all interested in understanding the natural world, but we can often fall into the habit of abstracting our research away from its natural contexts and complexities. Doing so risks losing sight of entire vistas of new questions and insights in favor of an over‐emphasis on simulated or overly controlled studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are in the midst of a crisis of climate change and environmental degradation that will only get worse, unless significant changes are rapidly made. Globally, the healthcare sector causes a large share of our total environmental footprint: 4.4% of greenhouse gases. Sustainable healthcare has emerged as a way for healthcare sectors in high‐income countries to help mitigate climate change by reducing their emissions. Whether global health should be sustainable and what ethical grounds might exist to support such a claim are not questions that have been investigated. The paper argues that global health practice—the delivery of health services to underserved populations in resource‐poor areas of the world—should be sustainable as a matter of climate justice and solidarity. Reducing climate change‐related risks and harms for the vulnerable is integral to the mission of global health and thus it is necessary to consider the climate impact of its practice. The field has a duty to provide sustainable health services that are responsive to climate change‐related changes in the local burden of disease and to build sustainable health system infrastructure. Specific responsibilities for global health funders, managers, and implementers to uphold the duty are proposed. To conclude, the paper considers what limits might be placed on the duty to deliver sustainable global healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversifying curricula is of increasing interest in higher education, including in ecology and evolution and allied fields. Yet, many educators may not know where to start. Here we provide a framework for meeting standard curriculum goals while enacting anti‐racist and anti‐colonial syllabi that is grounded in the development of a sustainable network of educators. In addition to highlighting this professional learning process and sharing the list of resources our group has developed, we provide suggestions to help educators highlight contributions of minoritized groups, explore multiple ways of knowing, and perform critical assessments of foundational views of life and environmental science fields. We further discuss the key classroom dynamics that affect the success of such anti‐racist and anti‐colonial initiatives. The retention and success of minoritized students in ecology and evolution depends on whether we address injustices in our fields. Our hope is that our fellow educators will use this paper to catalyze their own efforts to diversify their courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremely narrow endemic plant species (ENEs) are generally connected with microrefugia characterized by particular environmental conditions. In‐depth knowledge of the ecological requirements of ENEs is fundamental to plan appropriate conservation measures. Using cross‐cutting technology, this paper gives a multifaceted approach to collect on‐site data on the ecology of ENEs, defines the protocols for a correct sampling design and describes the type of equipment, the time and expenditure needed. Our sampling approach is based on two orthogonal transects, long enough to extrapolate the whole ecological gradient across the area of occupancy of the target species. Microclimatic data are recorded all along the transects through iButton technology, plus a weather station installed at the intersection of the transects. Microtopographic data are recorded with high‐resolution digital elevation model and sub‐metric GPS. Edaphic data are recorded along the transects through standard soil analyses and on‐site evaluation of the seasonal decomposition rate of organic matter. Additionally, vegetation sampling in 4 m2 plots and on‐site germination tests allow to collect data on auto‐ and synecological factors that regulate the life cycle of the target species. Our approach has proved to be cost‐effective and efficient in terms of time spent in the field against the data collected. The most demanding activities were the establishment of the transects and the vegetation sampling. The time spent downloading microclimatic data and testing seed germination was relatively short. Our sampling design allows: (i) to catch as much micro‐topographic variability as possible, both within and out of the tolerance range of the target species, (ii) to minimize the risk of recording identical micro‐topographic conditions compared with a random sampling scheme, and (iii) to ensure quick and relatively easy retrieval of the plots and the equipment both on a multi‐seasonal and multi‐annual basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government policies attempting to slow the spread of COVID‐19 have reduced access to research laboratories and shifted many scholars to working from home. These disruptions will likely influence submissions to scholarly journals, and affect the time available for editors and reviewers to participate in peer review.In this editorial we examine how journal submissions, and editorial and peer review processes, have been influenced by the pandemic at six journals published by the British Ecological Society (BES).We find no evidence of a change in the geographic pattern of submissions from across the globe. We also find no evidence that submission of manuscripts by women has been more affected by pandemic disruptions than have submissions by men—the proportion of papers authored by women during the COVID period of 2020 has not changed relative to the same period in 2019.Editors handled papers just as quickly, and reviewers have agreed to review just as often, during the pandemic compared to pre‐pandemic. The one notable change in peer review during the pandemic is that reviewers replied more quickly to emails inviting them to review (albeit only 4% sooner), and those who agreed to review returned their reviews more quickly (17% sooner), during the pandemic.We thus find no evidence at these six ecology journals that submissions and peer review processes have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Also, contrary to analyses in other disciplines, we do not find evidence that there have been disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on female authors and reviewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of optimising the thermal environment and design parameters of underground cable lines for cable crossings with the aim of increasing the ampacities of cables is considered in this paper. Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm, formulated as a continuous non‐linear optimisation problem with constraints, for solving this hot spot problem is applied. It is found, using the PSO algorithm, that there are a suitable size of cable bedding and an arrangement of cables within that bedding, which can eliminate or significantly mitigate the hot spot effect without the use of any additional cooling equipment. In this manner, the ampacities of both crossing cable lines increase by about 15% on average with respect to the case of a similar crossing with installation parameters commonly used. In addition, it is shown how the cross‐sectional areas of the conductors and metal screens and the metal screen bonding methods affect the optimal solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have long suffered from a lack of diversity. While in recent years there has been some progress in addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less attention. In this study, we surveyed 188 early career scientists (ECRs), defined as within 10 years of completing their PhD, in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and related disciplines. We examined associations between ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex, socioeconomic background, and disability, with measures of career progression, namely publication record, number of applications made before obtaining a postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications made. We also queried respondents on perceived barriers to progression and potential ways of overcoming them. Our key finding was that socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with measures of career progression. While there was no difference in the number of reported first‐authored papers on PhD completion, ethnic minority respondents reported fewer other‐authored papers. In addition, ECRs from a lower socioeconomic background were more likely to report being in teaching and research positions, rather than research‐only positions, the latter being perceived as more prestigious by some institutions. We discuss our findings in the context of possible inequality of opportunity. We hope that this study will stimulate wider discussion and help to inform strategies to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in the fields of ecology and evolution, and STEM subjects more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental conditions can have a lasting epigenetic impact on development, and there is increasing evidence that these effects can be transmitted across generations. Evidence for parental transmission of epigenetic variation to offspring has been primarily focused on paternal epigenetic influences induced by a male's experience of nutritional, social and toxicological exposures.There is an assumption in the literature that paternal influence on offspring in non‐biparental species is mediated exclusively through epigenetic transmission via the germline. However, integration of concepts from behavioural ecology into the study of parental transmission of environmental effects reveals the importance of mating tactics and maternal–paternal interplay in shaping resource allocation towards offspring in considering the mechanism(s) of epigenetic transmission.This paper describes the current state of knowledge regarding paternal epigenetic germline effects, the interplay between maternal and paternal influences and the importance of considering the complex nature of reproduction when predicting the transmission of phenotype across generations. Further, this paper highlights how incorporating concepts from behavioural ecology into the study of epigenetic transmission can refine predictions of phenotypes that emerge and create a more integrated notion of development and inheritance.It is proposed that theoretical and methodological approaches that consider the impact of reproductive context, which include mating dynamics, fertility, variation in parental life history and assessment of maternal effects, could improve the predictions made within studies of paternal epigenetic effects on offspring development. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional diversity is increasingly recognized by microbial ecologists as the essential link between biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, determining the trophic relationships and interactions between microorganisms, their participation in biogeochemical cycles, and their responses to environmental changes. Consequently, its definition and quantification have practical and theoretical implications. In this opinion paper, we present a synthesis on the concept of microbial functional diversity from its definition to its application. Initially, we revisit to the original definition of functional diversity, highlighting two fundamental aspects, the ecological unit under study and the functional traits used to characterize it. Then, we discuss how the particularities of the microbial world disallow the direct application of the concepts and tools developed for macroorganisms. Next, we provide a synthesis of the literature on the types of ecological units and functional traits available in microbial functional ecology. We also provide a list of more than 400 traits covering a wide array of environmentally relevant functions. Lastly, we provide examples of the use of functional diversity in microbial systems based on the different units and traits discussed herein. It is our hope that this paper will stimulate discussions and help the growing field of microbial functional ecology to realize a potential that thus far has only been attained in macrobial ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature imposes a constraint on the rates and outcomes of ecological processes that determine community-and ecosystem-level patterns. The application of metabolic scaling theory has advanced our understanding of the influence of temperature on pattern and process in marine communities. Metabolic scaling theory uses the fundamental and ubiquitous patterns of temperature-dependent metabolism to predict how environmental temperature influences patterns and processes at higher levels of biological organization. Here, we outline some of these predictions to review recent advances and illustrate how scaling theory might be applied to new challenges. For example, warming can alter species interactions and food-web structure and can also reduce total animal biomass supportable by a given amount of primary production by increasing animal metabolism and energetic demand. Additionally, within a species, larval development is faster in warmer water, potentially influencing dispersal and other demographic processes like population connectivity and gene flow. These predictions can be extended further to address major questions in marine ecology, and present an opportunity for conceptual unification of marine ecological research across levels of biological organization. Drawing on work by ecologists and oceanographers over the last century, a metabolic scaling approach represents a promising way forward for applying ecological understanding to basic questions as well as conservation challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The productivity and performance of men is generally rated more highly than that of women in controlled experiments, suggesting conscious or unconscious gender biases in assessment. The degree to which editors and reviewers of scholarly journals exhibit gender biases that influence outcomes of the peer‐review process remains uncertain due to substantial variation among studies. We test whether gender predicts the outcomes of editorial and peer review for >23,000 research manuscripts submitted to six journals in ecology and evolution from 2010 to 2015. Papers with female and male first authors were equally likely to be sent for peer review. However, papers with female first authors obtained, on average, slightly worse peer‐review scores and were more likely to be rejected after peer review, though the difference varied among journals. These gender differences appear to be partly due to differences in authorial roles. Papers for the which the first author deferred corresponding authorship to a coauthor (which women do more often than men) obtained significantly worse peer‐review scores and were less likely to get positive editorial decisions. Gender differences in corresponding authorship explained some of the gender differences in peer‐review scores and positive editorial decisions. In contrast to these observations on submitted manuscripts, gender differences in peer‐review outcomes were observed in a survey of >12,000 published manuscripts; women reported similar rates of rejection (from a prior journal) before eventual publication. After publication, papers with female authors were cited less often than those with male authors, though the differences are very small (~2%). Our data do not allow us to test hypotheses about mechanisms underlying the gender discrepancies we observed, but strongly support the conclusion that papers authored by women have lower acceptance rates and are less well cited than are papers authored by men in ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there have been significant advances in the technology used to collect data on the movement and activity patterns of humans and animals. GPS units, which form the primary source of location data, have become cheaper, more accurate, lighter and less power‐hungry, and their accuracy has been further improved with the addition of inertial measurement units. The consequence is a glut of geospatial time series data, recorded at rates that range from one position fix every several hours (to maximize system lifetime) to ten fixes per second (in high dynamic situations). Since data of this quality and volume have only recently become available, the analytical methods to extract behavioral information from raw position data are at an early stage of development. An instance of this lies in the analysis of animal movement patterns. When investigating solitary animals, the timing and location of instances of avoidance and association are important behavioral markers. In this paper, a novel analytical method to detect avoidance and association between individuals is proposed; unlike existing methods, assumptions about the shape of the territories or the nature of individual movement are not needed. Simulations demonstrate that false positives (type I error) are rare (1%–3%), which means that the test rarely suggests that there is an association if there is none. In this paper, we introduce a novel statistical method that can be used to establish whether individuals or groups are more or less often in close proximity of each other than expected by chance. Moreover, it does so in a way that is independent of the size and shape of the individuals' ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we strive to lift up a diversity of voices in science, it is important for ecologists, evolutionary scientists, and educators to foster inclusive environments in their research and teaching. Academics in science often lack exposure to research on best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion and may not know where to start to make scientific environments more welcoming and inclusive. We propose that by approaching research and teaching with empathy, flexibility, and a growth mind‐set, scientists can be more supportive and inclusive of their colleagues and students. This paper provides guidance, explores strategies, and directs scientists to resources to better cultivate an inclusive environment in three common settings: the classroom, the research laboratory, and the field. As ecologists and evolutionary scientists, we have an opportunity to adapt our teaching and research practices in order to foster an inclusive educational ecosystem for students and colleagues alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining mathematical terms and objects is a constant issue in ecology; often definitions are absent, erroneous, or imprecise. Through a bibliographic prospection, we show that this problem appears in macro‐ecology (biogeography and community ecology) where the lack of definition for the sigmoid class of functions results in difficulties of interpretation and communication. In order to solve this problem and to help harmonize papers that use sigmoid functions in ecology, herein we propose a comprehensive definition of these mathematical objects. In addition, to facilitate their use, we classified the functions often used in the ecological literature, specifying the constraints on the parameters for the function to be defined and the curve shape to be sigmoidal. Finally, we interpreted the different properties of the functions induced by the definition through ecological hypotheses in order to support and explain the interest of such functions in ecology and more precisely in biogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid shift to online teaching in spring 2020 meant most of us were teaching in panic mode. As we move forward with course planning for fall and beyond, we can invest more time and energy into improving the online experience for our students. We advocate that instructors use inclusive teaching practices, specifically through active learning, in their online classes. Incorporating pedagogical practices that work to maximize active and inclusive teaching concepts will be beneficial for all students, and especially those from minoritized or underserved groups. Like many STEM fields, Ecology and Evolution shows achievement gaps and faces a leaky pipeline issue for students from groups traditionally underserved in science. Making online classes both active and inclusive will aid student learning and will also help students feel more connected to their learning, their peers, and their campus. This approach will likely help with performance, retention, and persistence of students. In this paper, we offer broadly applicable strategies and techniques that weave together active and inclusive teaching practices. We challenge instructors to commit to making small changes as a first step to more inclusive teaching in ecology and evolutionary biology courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many barriers to fieldwork including cost, time, and physical ability. Unfortunately, these barriers disproportionately affect minority communities and create a disparity in access to fieldwork in the natural sciences. Travel restrictions, concerns about our carbon footprint, and the global lockdown have extended this barrier to fieldwork across the community and led to increased anxiety about gaps in productivity, especially among graduate students and early‐career researchers. In this paper, we discuss agent‐based modeling as an open‐source, accessible, and inclusive resource to substitute for lost fieldwork during COVID‐19 and for future scenarios of travel restrictions such as climate change and economic downturn. We describe the benefits of Agent‐Based models as a teaching and training resource for students across education levels. We discuss how and why educators and research scientists can implement them with examples from the literature on how agent‐based models can be applied broadly across life science research. We aim to amplify awareness and adoption of this technique to broaden the diversity and size of the agent‐based modeling community in ecology and evolutionary research. Finally, we discuss the challenges facing agent‐based modeling and discuss how quantitative ecology can work in tandem with traditional field ecology to improve both methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 presented the world with trauma and isolation, but many people, including educators, have offered bright spots of creativity and engagement. As we confronted these issues in our own ecology classroom, we sought solutions to carry‐forward the learning objectives we set for our students in January 2020, yet encourage interaction with the sensitivity that a pandemic requires. In the rapid transition to online course delivery, we opted to retain the original end‐of‐semester poster project in our introductory ecology course. However, we experimented with a new virtual platform where students could disseminate their work and communicate with the community. In this paper, we discuss the Mozilla Hubs virtual reality platform that we used for our event. We also collected qualitative data to share the benefits and challenges of this experience felt by the students, the instructors, and external observers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐glacial Permian coal‐bearing sedimentary successions are traditionally interpreted as fluvially deposited within the Gondwanaland continental set‐up throughout the globe. Recent attempts to reinterpret such successions in terms of marine flooding events, mainly based on sedimentological and ichnological attributes, raised doubt on the existing palaeogeographic model of the Late Palaeozoic Gondwanaland. Reassessing these sedimentary successions using other proxies, like petrographic and geochemical properties, may provide more reliable clues to improve the present understanding. In this paper, petrographic and geochemical analysis of sandstones, sandstone–mudstone heteroliths, and mudstones of the early Permian Barakar Formation of Lower Gondwana Supergroup, Raniganj coal Basin, India, is presented to understand the provenance, palaeoweathering pattern and palaeodepositional conditions. Petrographically, the sandstones are arkosic to sub‐arkosic in nature, with abundant unstable components and heavy minerals. Clay minerals in the matrix and the mudstones are dominated by kaolinite, illite‐smectite with authigenic glauconite, indicating a marine diagenetic realm. Mineralogical assemblage attests to sedimentation in craton interior passive margin conditions. Geochemically, the lithounits show large variations in major element and trace element (including rare earth element) concentrations. Chemical index of alteration and A–CN–K ternary plot indicate moderate to strong chemical weathering, leading to deposition of compositionally immature sediments close to their source without much recycling. Ratios of major elements (e.g., MgO, K2O, Fe2O3, Al2O3, and SiO2) signify a continental–marine transitional depositional environment developed in a stable passive margin setting under gradually warming up climatic conditions. Trace element ratios manifest an estuarine depositional setting during Barakar sedimentation, comparable with modern major river mouth estuaries. Thus, this paper provides unequivocal evidence of significant marine influence during sedimentation in the Lower Gondwana basins in India, particularly during the Permian time, and signifies the importance of re‐examining the so called “continental fluvial” coal‐bearing deposits as considerably marine‐influenced. The interpretations provide important clues in understanding and reconstructing the Permian Lower Gondwana palaeogeography in eastern peninsular India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The foundational concept of habitat lies at the very root of the entire science of ecology, but inaccurate use of the term compromises scientific rigor and communication among scientists and nonscientists. In 1997, Hall, Krausman & Morrison showed that ‘habitat’ was used correctly in only 55% of articles. We ask whether use of the term has been more accurate since their plea for standardization and whether use varies across the broader range of journals and taxa in the contemporary literature (1998–2012). We searched contemporary literature for ‘habitat’ and habitat‐related terms, ranking usage as either correct or incorrect, following a simplified version of Hall et al.'s definitions. We used generalized linear models to compare use of the term in contemporary literature with the papers reviewed by Hall et al. and to test the effects of taxa, journal impact in the contemporary articles and effects due to authors that cited Hall et al. Use of the term ‘habitat’ has not improved; it was still only used correctly about 55% of the time in the contemporary data. Proportionately more correct uses occurred in articles that focused on animals compared to ones that included plants, and papers that cited Hall et al. did use the term correctly more often. However, journal impact had no effect. Some habitat terms are more likely to be misused than others, notably ‘habitat type’, usually used to refer to vegetation type, and ‘suitable habitat’ or ‘unsuitable habitat’, which are either redundant or nonsensical by definition. Inaccurate and inconsistent use of the term can lead to (1) misinterpretation of scientific findings; (2) inefficient use of conservation resources; (3) ineffective identification and prioritization of protected areas; (4) limited comparability among studies; and (5) miscommunication of science‐based findings. Correct usage would improve communication with scientists and nonscientists, thereby benefiting conservation efforts, and ecology as a science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authorship is intended to convey information regarding credit and responsibility for manuscripts. However, while there is general agreement within ecology that the first author is the person who contributed the most to a particular project, there is less agreement regarding whether being last author is a position of significance and regarding what is indicated by someone being the corresponding author on a manuscript. Using an analysis of papers published in American Naturalist, Ecology, Evolution, and Oikos, I found that: (1) the number of authors on papers is increasing over time; (2) the proportion of first authors as corresponding author has increased over time, as has the proportion of last authors as corresponding author; (3) 84% of papers published in 2016 had the first author as corresponding author; and (4) geographic regions differed in the likelihood of having the first (or last) author as corresponding author. I also carried out an online survey to better understand views on last and corresponding authorship. This survey revealed that most ecologists view the last author as the 'senior' author on a paper (i.e., the person who runs the research group in which most of the work was carried out), and most ecologists view the corresponding author as the person taking full responsibility for a paper. However, there was substantial variation in views on authorship, especially corresponding authorship. Given these results, I suggest that discussions of authorship have as their starting point that the first author will be corresponding author and the senior author will be last author. I also suggest ways of deciding author order in cases where two senior authors contributed equally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ecological Society of Australia was founded in 1959, and the society's journal was first published in 1976. To examine how research published in the society's journal has changed over this time, we used text mining to quantify themes and trends in the body of work published by the Australian Journal of Ecology and Austral Ecology from 1976 to 2019. We used topic models to identify 30 'topics' within 2778 full‐text articles in 246 issues of the journal, followed by mixed modelling to identify topics with above‐average or below‐average popularity in terms of the number of publications or citations that they contain. We found high inter‐decadal turnover in research topics, with an early emphasis on highly specific ecosystems or processes giving way to a modern emphasis on community, spatial and fire ecology, invasive species and statistical modelling. Despite an early focus on Australian research, papers discussing South American ecosystems are now among the fastest‐growing and most frequently cited topics in the journal. Topics that were growing fastest in publication rates were not always the same as those with high citation rates. Our results provide a systematic breakdown of the topics that Austral Ecology authors and editors have chosen to research, publish and cite through time, providing a valuable window into the historical and emerging foci of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite substantial progress for women in science, women remain underrepresented in many aspects of the scholarly publication process. We examined how the gender diversity of editors and reviewers changed over time for six journals in ecology and evolution (2003–2015 for four journals, 2007–2015 or 2009–2015 for the other two), and how several aspects of the peer review process differed between female and male editors and reviewers. We found that for five of the six journals, women were either absent or very poorly represented as handling editors at the beginning of our dataset. The representation of women increased gradually and consistently, with women making up 29% of the handling editors (averaged across journals) in 2015, similar to the representation of women as last authors on ecology papers (23% in 2015) but lower than the proportion of women among all authors (31%) and among members of the societies that own the journals (37%–40%). The proportion of women among reviewers has also gradually but consistently increased over time, reaching 27% by 2015. Female editors invited more female reviewers than did male editors, and this difference increased with age of the editor. Men and women who were invited to review did not differ in whether they responded to the review invitation, but, of those that responded, women were slightly more likely to agree to review. In contrast, women were less likely than men to accept invitations to serve on journal editorial boards. Our analyses indicate that there has been progress in the representation of women as reviewers and editors in ecology and evolutionary biology, but women are still underrepresented among the gatekeepers of scholarly publishing relative to their representation among researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial gastropods do not only inhabit humid and cool environments but also habitat in which hot and dry conditions prevail. Snail species that are able to cope with such climatic conditions are thus expected to having developed multifaceted strategies and mechanisms to ensure their survival and reproduction under heat and desiccation stress. This review paper aims to provide an integrative overview of the numerous adaptation strategies terrestrial snails have evolved to persist in hot and dry environments as well as their mutual interconnections and feedbacks, but also to outline research gaps and questions that remained unanswered. We extracted relevant information from more than 140 publications in order to show how biochemical, cellular, physiological, morphological, ecological, thermodynamic, and evolutionary parameters contribute to provide an overall picture of this classical example in stress ecology. These mechanisms range from behavioral and metabolic adaptations, including estivation, to the induction of chaperones and antioxidant enzymes, mucocyte and digestive gland cell responses and the modification and frequency of morphological features, particularly shell pigmentation. In this context, thermodynamic constraints call for processes of complex adaptation at varying levels of biological organization that are mutually interwoven. We were able to assemble extensive, mostly narrowly focused information from the literature into a web of network parameters, showing that future work on this subject requires multicausal thinking to account for the complexity of relationships involved in snails' adaptation to insolation, heat, and drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical models have been highly successful in simulating global carbon and nutrient cycles in today's ocean, together with observed spatial and temporal patterns of chlorophyll and plankton biomass at the surface. With this success has come some confidence in projecting the century‐scale response to continuing anthropogenic warming. There is also increasing interest in using such models to understand the role of plankton ecosystems in past oceans. However, today's marine environment is the product of billions of years of continual evolution—a process that continues today. In this paper, we address the questions of whether an assumption of species invariance is sufficient, and if not, under what circumstances current model projections might break down. To do this, we first identify the key timescales and questions asked of models. We then review how current marine ecosystem models work and what alternative approaches are available to account for evolution. We argue that for timescales of climate change overlapping with evolutionary timescales, accounting for evolution may to lead to very different projected outcomes regarding the timescales of ecosystem response and associated global biogeochemical cycling. This is particularly the case for past extinction events but may also be true in the future, depending on the eventual degree of anthropogenic disruption. The discipline of building new numerical models that incorporate evolution is also hugely beneficial in itself, as it forces us to question what we know about adaptive evolution, irrespective of its quantitative role in any specific event or environmental changes. Key Points: Marine microbes are key drivers of global biogeochemical cycles and have an immense capacity for evolutionEarth system models do not currently include microbial evolution and thus may miss key feedbacks in a fully coupled systemUnderstanding these feedbacks requires that ecology, evolution, and environment are dynamically represented and linked in models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Global ecology – the study of the interactions among the Earth's ecosystems, land, atmosphere and oceans – depends crucially on global observations: this paper focuses on space‐based observations of global terrestrial ecosystems. Early global ecology relied on an extrapolation of detailed site‐level observations, using models of increasing complexity. Modern global ecology has been enabled largely by vegetation indices (greenness) from operational space‐based imagery but current capabilities greatly expand scientific possibilities. New observations from spacecraft in orbit allowed an estimation of gross carbon fluxes, photosynthesis, biomass burning, evapotranspiration and biomass, to create virtual eddy covariance sites in the sky. Planned missions will reveal the dimensions of the diversity of life itself. These observations will improve our understanding of the global productivity and carbon storage, land use, carbon cycle−climate feedback, diversity−productivity relationships and enable improved climate forecasts. Advances in remote sensing challenge ecologists to relate information organised by biome and species to new data arrayed by pixels and develop theory to address previously unobserved scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Although primarily valued for their suitability for oceanographic applications and soil moisture estimation, microwave remote sensing observations are also sensitive to plant water content (Mw). Since Mw depends on both plant water status and biomass, these observations have the potential to be useful for a range of plant drought response studies. In this paper, we introduce the principles behind microwave remote sensing observations to illustrate how they are sensitive to plant water content and discuss the relationship between landscape‐scale Mw and common stand‐scale metrics, including plant‐scale relative water content, live fuel moisture content and leaf water potential. Lastly, we discuss how various sensor types can be leveraged for specific applications depending on the spatio‐temporal resolution needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modeling of ecological data that include both abiotic and biotic factors is fundamental to our understanding of ecosystems. Repositories of biodiversity data, such as GBIF, iDigBio, Atlas of Living Australia, and SNIB (Mexico's National System of Biodiversity Information), contain a great deal of information that can lead to knowledge discovery about ecosystems. However, there is a lack of tools with which to efficiently extract such knowledge. In this paper, we present SPECIES, an open, web‐based platform designed to extract implicit information contained in large scale sets of ecological data. SPECIES is based on a tested methodology, wherein the correlations of variables of arbitrary type and spatial resolution, both biotic and abiotic, discrete and continuous, may be explored from both niche and network perspectives. In distinction to other modeling systems, SPECIES is a full stack exploratory tool that integrates the three basic components: data (which is incrementally growing), a statistical modeling and analysis engine, and an interactive visualization front end. Combined, these components provide a powerful tool that may guide ecologists toward new insights. SPECIES is optimized to support fast hypothesis prototyping and testing, analyzing thousands of biotic and abiotic variables, and presenting descriptive results to the user at different levels of detail. SPECIES is an open‐access platform available online (http://species.conabio.gob.mx), that is, powerful, flexible, and easy to use. It allows for the exploration and incorporation of ecological data and its subsequent integration into predictive models for both potential ecological niche and geographic distribution. It also provides an ecosystemic, network‐based analysis that may guide the researcher in identifying relations between different biota, such as the relation between disease vectors and potential disease hosts. SPECIES, an open web‐based platform designed for the exploratory analysis of large‐scale ecological datasets. SPECIES provides two perspectives: one based on ecological niche and geographic distribution modeling, and the other on ecological networks. SPECIES is optimized to support fast hypotheses prototyping and testing, analyzing thousands of biotic and abiotic variables and presenting descriptive results to the user at different levels of detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To estimate changes in home participation among critically ill children in the first 6 months after discharge from a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and to explore the effect of child, service, and environmental factors on change in home participation.Method: This was a prospective bi-center, longitudinal cohort study. Caregivers of 180 children, aged 1 to 17 years, who were admitted into the PICU for at least 48 hours were included. Patient-reported outcomes were used to capture caregivers' perspectives of their child's participation and environmental supports for participation in home activities. Data were collected at enrollment, and 3 and 6 months after discharge.Results: There were no significant changes in home participation frequency or involvement, but involvement rates across time were moderated by functional status. Age significantly predicted participation frequency. Pre-PICU functional status and capabilities were significant predictors of participation frequency and involvement, and home environmental support significantly predicted home involvement.Interpretation: Results suggest relatively stable participation trajectories in the 6 months after PICU admission. Children with abnormal baseline function experienced a greater increase in home involvement after PICU. Rehabilitation interventions targeting functional capabilities and home environment may be viable approaches during the early phase of recovery. Environmental interventions may be more time-efficient after PICU stay and merit further study.What This Paper Adds: Children's pre-pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) functional status and capabilities impact their participation after critical illness. Children's trajectories of home involvement may differ over time based on their pre-PICU functional status. Caregiver perceptions of environmental support impact a child's home involvement after discharge from a PICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: For decades, food web theory has proposed phenomenological models for the underlying structure of ecological networks. Generally, these models rely on latent niche variables that match the feeding behaviour of consumers with their resource traits. In this paper, we used a comprehensive database to evaluate different hypotheses on the best dependency structure of trait‐matching patterns between consumers and resource traits. We found that consumer feeding behaviours had complex interactions with resource traits; however, few dimensions (i.e. latent variables) could reproduce the trait‐matching patterns. We discuss our findings in the light of three food web models designed to reproduce the multidimensionality of food web data; additionally, we discuss how using species traits clarify food webs beyond species pairwise interactions and enable studies to infer ecological generality at larger scales, despite potential taxonomic differences, variations in ecological conditions and differences in species abundance between communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful movement of individuals is fundamental to life. Facilitating these movements by promoting ecological connectivity has become a central theme in ecology and conservation. Urban areas contain more than half of the world's human population, and their potential to support biodiversity and to connect their citizens to nature is increasingly recognized. Promoting ecological connectivity within these areas is essential to reaching this potential. However, our current understanding of ecological connectivity within urban areas appears limited., We reviewed the published scientific literature to assess the state-of-the-art of ecological connectivity research in urban areas, summarized trends in study attributes and highlighted knowledge gaps., We found 174 papers that investigated ecological connectivity within urban areas. These papers addressed either structural (48) or functional connectivity (111), and some addressed both (15), but contained substantial geographic and taxonomic biases. These papers rarely defined the aspect of connectivity they were investigating and objective descriptions of the local urban context were uncommon. Formulated hypotheses or a priori predictions were typically unstated and many papers used suboptimal study designs and methods., We suggest future studies explicitly consider and quantify the landscape within their analyses and make greater use of available and rapidly developing tools and methods for measuring functional connectivity (e.g. biotelemetry or landscape genetics). We also highlight the need for studies to clearly define how the terms ' urban' and ' connectivity' have been applied., Knowledge gaps in ecological connectivity in urban areas remain, partly because the field is still in its infancy and partly because we must better capitalize on the state-of-the-art technological and analytical techniques that are increasingly available. Well-designed studies that employed high-resolution data and powerful analytical techniques highlight our abilities to quantify ecological connectivity in urban areas. These studies are exemplary, setting the standards for future research to facilitate data-driven and evidence-based biodiversity-friendly infrastructure planning in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To compare three reaching movements made in two planes between a low-cost, game-based virtual reality and a matched physical environment in typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy (CP). To determine if differences in kinematics are related to sensory deficits.Method: An observational study in which 27 children (typically developing, n=17, mean age 13y, [SD] 2y 2mo, range 9y 3mo-17y 2mo; CP, n=10, mean age 13y 8mo, [SD] 1y 8mo, range 11y 1mo-17y 1mo, Manual Ability Classification System levels I-II) performed 15 trials of three gestures in each of a virtual reality and a matched physical environment. Upper-limb and trunk kinematics were recorded using an electromagnetic system (G4, Polhemus, six markers, 120Hz).Results: Compared to the physical environment, movements in virtual reality made by typically developing children were slower (p=0.002), and involved less trunk flexion (p=0.002) and rotation (p=0.026). Children with CP had more curved trajectories (p=0.005) and used less trunk flexion (p=0.003) and rotation (p=0.005). Elbow and shoulder kinematics differed from 2.8% to 155.4% between environments in both groups. Between groups, there were small, clinically insignificant differences with only the vertical gesture being longer in typically developing children. Children with CP who had greater tactile impairment used more trunk displacement.Interpretation: Clinicians and researchers need to be aware of differences in movement variables when setting goals or designing protocols for improving reaching in children with CP using low-cost, game-based virtual reality systems.What This Paper Adds: Upper-limb kinematics differed in each group when reaching in physical versus virtual environments. There were small differences in movements made by children with mild unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) compared to typically developing children. Differences in reaching kinematics should be considered when goal setting using virtual reality interventions for children with mild unilateral CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Plant stoichiometry, the relative concentration of elements, is a key regulator of ecosystem functioning and is also being altered by human activities. In this paper we sought to understand the global drivers of plant stoichiometry and compare the relative contribution of climatic vs. anthropogenic effects. We addressed this goal by measuring plant elemental (C, N, P and K) responses to eutrophication and vertebrate herbivore exclusion at eighteen sites on six continents. Across sites, climate and atmospheric N deposition emerged as strong predictors of plot‐level tissue nutrients, mediated by biomass and plant chemistry. Within sites, fertilization increased total plant nutrient pools, but results were contingent on soil fertility and the proportion of grass biomass relative to other functional types. Total plant nutrient pools diverged strongly in response to herbivore exclusion when fertilized; responses were largest in ungrazed plots at low rainfall, whereas herbivore grazing dampened the plant community nutrient responses to fertilization. Our study highlights (1) the importance of climate in determining plant nutrient concentrations mediated through effects on plant biomass, (2) that eutrophication affects grassland nutrient pools via both soil and atmospheric pathways and (3) that interactions among soils, herbivores and eutrophication drive plant nutrient responses at small scales, especially at water‐limited sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a renewable energy, biofuel has greatly attracted worldwide attention due to the growing demands for cleaner sources of energy as an intervention to mitigate the serious environmental problems associated with fossil fuel consumption. As an important non‐food biodiesel plant, Pistacia chinensis has a promising prospect for bioenergy development. Based on the principles of multifactor integrated assessment, this paper provides an operational method for comprehensively evaluating the marginal land resources suitable for developing the plantation of Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province, China. The results show that the areas of marginal land resources suitable and fairly suitable for growing Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province are 1.21 million hectares and 4.45 million hectares, respectively. The suitable land resources are mainly located in Hanzhong (0.44 million hectares), Ankang (0.30 million hectares), and Shangluo (0.31 million hectares), most of which are moderate dense grassland (accounting for 50.65%), dense grassland (accounting for 21.83%), shrub land (accounting for 8.62%), and sparse forest land (accounting for 15.32%). The comparison between the results and field work data suggests that the pixel size of spatial data and soil organic matter content have important impacts on the final results. The outcome of this research can be used to implement specific policies for developing Pistacia chinensis in China and other countries especially the countries along the Silk Road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, landscape ecological risk in Qinling Mountain was studied. Using the remote sensing images of Landsat TM and DEM data in 1984, 2000, 2005, and 2014, an ecological risk assessment model was constructed, and landscape ecological risk indexes were calculated for four time periods 1984, 2004, 2005 and 2014. The spatial distribution of ecological risk was obtained with ArcGIS and geostatistics, and changes in the landscape patterns and spatiotemporal characteristics of ecological risk were analysed. As shown in the results; (a) from 1984 to 2014, the landscape pattern index of Qinling forest area was relatively stable; fragmentation and segregation decreased, and dominance and area increased. The fragmentation and separation of cultivated land increased over time, and the geographical distribution of cultivated land diversified, while its dominance decreased. (b) The areas of extremely low and extremely high ecological risk level in the study area is gradually reduced. But the area of high ecological risk level increased obviously. The extremely high ecological risk area was mainly distributed in the middle and south‐eastern regions. The extremely low and low risk areas were mainly distributed in the low hilly areas of northern Qinling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“The Belt and Road” refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st‐Century Maritime Silk Road. In this paper, the Guanzhong–Tianshui region is selected as a case study, which is located at the starting point of the Silk Road Economic Belt. First, the spatial distribution maps of plant and soil types are obtained based on the TM remote sensing images and the soil texture data. The boundaries of the third‐level watershed are extracted based on the digital elevation model data. Then the corresponding mathematical models are used to evaluate the ecological water requirements of the plant–soil systems. Also, the spatial distribution characteristics are analysed at the landscape scale and the third‐level watershed scale. The results show that the spatial differences of ecological water requirement in the Guanzhong–Tianshui are obvious. At the plant–soil landscape scale, the ecological water requirement per unit area of the woodland‐clay loam is the highest, about 0.4777 m3/m2, while that of the grassland‐gravel loam is the lowest, about 0.2813 m3/m2. At the third‐level watershed scale, the ecological water requirement per unit area in the Weihe watershed (Jinghezhangjiashan above) is the highest, about 0.4123 m3/m2, while that in the Weihe watershed (Longmen to Sanmenxia) is the lowest, about 0.3002 m3/m2. The study offers scientific references for the regional ecological environment protection and ecosystem management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based treatment approaches for children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy are expanding and being modified to fit the constraints of families and the child receiving treatment. In this review, we first provide an overview of a theoretical framework that considers the intricate interactions between the individual child and the environment in which treatment is provided. Next, we describe intensive interventions that have strong support for their efficacy. We also highlight the heterogeneity with which children respond to these approaches. Individual characteristics that might affect responsiveness are summarized. We propose that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be as efficacious as approaches based on the specific brain damage and resulting development of the corticospinal tract. Finally, we review evidence suggesting that the environment can be structured to promote opportunities for intensive practice and self-generated movement-two important aspects of efficacious treatments. Emphasis is placed on intensive home programs delivered by caregivers.What This Paper Adds: Considerable variability exists in how children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy respond to intensive upper extremity therapies. Individual and environmental factors interact to shape responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

While an appreciation of plant-soil feedbacks ( PSF) continues to expand for community and ecosystem ecology, the eco-evolutionary mechanisms and consequences of such feedbacks remain largely unknown or untested., Determining the cause and effect of plant phenotypes is central for understanding these eco-evolutionary dynamics since phenotypes respond to soil selective gradients that are, in turn, modified by plant traits. Genetic variation in plant phenotypes can change soil processes and biotic communities; oppositely, soil gradients and microbial communities can influence the expression and evolution of plant phenotypes., Although these processes represent the two halves of genetic based PSF, research in these areas has developed independently from one another. Greater connectivity between research on ecosystem consequences of plant genetic variation and soil selective gradients that drive plant phenotypic evolution will create novel and important opportunities to link ecology and evolution in natural systems., Papers in this special feature build on the inherent ecological and evolutionary processes involved in PSF, outlining many ways to identify and test mechanisms that connect ecosystem ecology and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cover image: Photo of a Margarops fuscatus (photo credit: Tomás A. Carlo), from González‐Castro A, Yang S, Carlo TA. How does avian seed dispersal shape the structure of early successional tropical forests? Functional Ecology, 33, 229–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13250. For this paper, the authors performed a seed‐addition field experiment to investigate how frugivorous birds shape the composition and richness of forests during early stages of secondary succession in cleared areas in Puerto Rico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Menegotto and colleagues' (2019) commentary on our paper (Kinlock et al., 2018) does not negate our findings, but by recategorizing and reanalysing a portion of our data set, advances our knowledge of the latitudinal diversity gradients (LDGs) in marine ecosystems, particularly emphasizing different findings for benthic LDGs as a result of the recategorization of the data. Furthermore, we see the contribution by Menegotto et al. (2019) as highlighting the importance of scientific transparency; we believe that this insight into the nature of LDGs in marine systems would have been delayed, if not unobtainable, had we not provided fully transparent methods and complete data in our paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland agriculture is experiencing a number of threats including declining profitability and loss of area to other land uses including expansion of the built environment as well as from cropland and forestry. The use of grassland as a natural resource either in terms of existing vegetation and land cover or planting of new species for bioenergy and other nonfood applications presents an opportunity, and potential solution, to maintain the broader ecosystem services that perennial grasslands provide as well as to improve the options for grassland farmers and their communities. This paper brings together different grass or grassland-based studies and considers them as part of a continuum of strategies that, when also combined with improvements in grassland production systems, will improve the overall efficiency of grasslands as an important natural resource and enable a greater area to be managed, replanted or conserved. These diversification options relate to those most likely to be available to farmers and land owners in the marginally economic or uneconomic grasslands of middle to northern Europe and specifically in the UK. Grasslands represent the predominant global land use and so these strategies are likely to be relevant to other areas although the grass species used may vary. The options covered include the use of biomass derived from the management of grasses in the urban and semi urban environment, semi-natural grassland systems as part of ecosystem management, pasture in addition to livestock production, and the planting and cropping of dedicated energy grasses. The adoption of such approaches would not only increase income from economically marginal grasslands, but would also mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production and help fund conservation of these valuable grassland ecosystems and landscapes, which is increasingly becoming a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of theory within ecology has changed dramatically in recent decades. Once primarily a source of qualitative conceptual framing, ecological theories and models are now often used to develop quantitative explanations of empirical patterns and to project future dynamics of specific ecological systems. In this essay, I recount my own experience of this transformation, in which accelerating computing power and the widespread incorporation of stochastic processes into ecological theory combined to create some novel integration of mathematical and statistical models. This stronger integration drives theory towards incorporating more biological realism, and I explore ways in which we can grapple with that realism to generate new general theoretical insights. This enhanced realism, in turn, may lead to frameworks for projecting ecological responses to anthropogenic change, which is, arguably, the central challenge for 21st-century ecology. In an era of big data and synthesis, ecologists are increasingly seeking to infer causality from observational data; but conventional biometry provides few tools for this project. This is a realm where theorists can and should play an important role, and I close by pointing towards some analytical and philosophical approaches developed in our sister discipline of economics that address this very problem. While I make no grand prognostications about the likely discoveries of ecological theory over the coming century, you will find in this essay a scattering of more or less far-fetched ideas that I, at least, think are interesting and (possibly) fruitful directions for our field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of community composition shifts due to increased habitat modifications and deforestation is a primary issue in contemporary tropical community ecology theory. As the forest habitat conversion process has been very short in Africa relative to the evolutionary temporal scale, it is likely that animal communities are not at an equilibrium. The Upper Orashi Forest Reserve (Niger Delta region of Southern Nigeria) is a valuable case study as it is one of the few remnant deltaic swamp forest patches inside a highly developed and deforested region. In this paper, we investigated some aspects of the community ecology of reptiles of this forest area based on standardized field surveys across 2 6 study plots. Overall, we recorded 34 species, with the detected number of both species (34 versus 2 7) and individuals (562 versus 381) being higher during the wet season. Diversity/dominance diagrams showed similar trends in both seasons, but diversity measures showed that evenness was remarkably higher by wet season. Analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) confirmed that the species-richness estimate generated by Chao's index was significantly higher for the wet season. However, the profiles of the diversity curves were comparable in the two seasons. The proportion of forest-specialist species decreased compared to that observed at the same study area 15+ years ago, with a gradual process of biotic homogenization being apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2050, which aspects of ecosystem change will we regret not having measured? Long-term monitoring plays a crucial part in managing Australia's natural environment because time is a key factor underpinning changes in ecosystems. It is critical to start measuring key attributes of ecosystems - and the human and natural process affecting them - now, so that we can track the trajectory of change over time. This will facilitate informed choices about how to manage ecological changes (including interventions where they are required) and promote better understanding by 2050 of how particular ecosystems have been shaped over time. There will be considerable value in building on existing long-term monitoring programmes because this can add significantly to the temporal depth of information. The economic and social processes driving change in ecosystems are not identical in all ecosystems, so much of what is monitored (and the means by which it is monitored) will most likely target specific ecosystems or groups of ecosystems. To best understand the effects of ecosystem-specific threats and drivers, monitoring also will need to address the economic and social factors underpinning ecosystem-specific change. Therefore, robust assessments of the state of Australia's environment will be best achieved by reporting on the ecological performance of a representative sample of ecosystems over time. Political, policy and financial support to implement appropriate ecosystem-specific monitoring is a perennial problem. We suggest that the value of ecological monitoring will be demonstrable, when plot-based monitoring data make a unique and crucial contribution to Australia's ability to produce environmental accounts, environmental reports (e.g. the State of the Environment, State of the Forests) and to fulfilling reporting obligations under international agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. This paper suggests what must be done to meet Australia's ecological information needs by 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species distribution models ( SDMs) are used to inform a range of ecological, biogeographical and conservation applications. However, users often underestimate the strong links between data type, model output and suitability for end-use. We synthesize current knowledge and provide a simple framework that summarizes how interactions between data type and the sampling process (i.e. imperfect detection and sampling bias) determine the quantity that is estimated by a SDM. We then draw upon the published literature and simulations to illustrate and evaluate the information needs of the most common ecological, biogeographical and conservation applications of SDM outputs. We find that, while predictions of models fitted to the most commonly available observational data (presence records) suffice for some applications, others require estimates of occurrence probabilities, which are unattainable without reliable absence records. Our literature review and simulations reveal that, while converting continuous SDM outputs into categories of assumed presence or absence is common practice, it is seldom clearly justified by the application's objective and it usually degrades inference. Matching SDMs to the needs of particular applications is critical to avoid poor scientific inference and management outcomes. This paper aims to help modellers and users assess whether their intended SDM outputs are indeed fit for purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to the journal Ecology & Evolution. It is noted that the journal provides research in all areas of ecology, evolution and conservation science and considers papers reporting theoretical, experimental, applied and descriptive work in terrestrial and aquatic environments.

The Eastern Canada (ECA) Flocks data set consists of manually annotated images from the Common Eider (COEI, Somateria mollissima) Winter Survey and the Greater Snow Geese (GSGO, Anser caerulescens atlanticus) Spring Survey. The images were taken in eastern Canada using fixed‐wing aircraft and manually annotated with ImageJ's Cell counter plugins. We selected and annotated the ECA Flocks images in order to test the precision of the CountEm flock size estimation method. ECA Flocks includes 179 COEI and 99 GSGO single flock images. We cut each image manually to a rectangle that excluded large parts of the image with no birds. Both versions (original and cut) of each image are available in the data set. We manually annotated 637,555 (124,309 COEI and 514,235 GSGO) bird positions in the cut images from both surveys. Each bird has an associated "Type," which refers to species and/or sex. Sex identification was only possible for adult common eiders, because females and immature males are brown birds, whereas adult males have mainly white plumage. In the COEI images 64,484 males and 58,029 females, as well as 1,796 birds of other species, were identified. In the GSGO images 504,891 Snow Geese and 9,344 birds of other species were labeled. A.csv file including all annotated bird positions and types is available for each image. The COEI and GSGO photos of the ECA Flocks data set were taken in the years 2006 and 2018 and 2016–2018, respectively. We selected these photos in order to include images with different quality and resolution. COEI and GSGO flock sizes range from 6 to 4,154 and from 43 to 36,241 respectively. There is high variability in light conditions, backgrounds, and number and spatial arrangement of birds across the images. The data set is therefore potentially useful to test the precision of methods for analyzing imagery to estimate the abundance of animals by directly detecting, identifying, and counting individuals. We release these data into the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero license waiver. When you use the data in your publication, cite this data paper. Should ECA Flocks be a major part of the data analyzed in your study, you should consider inviting the ECA Flocks originators as collaborators. If you plan to use the ECA Flocks data set, we request that you contact the ECA Flocks core team to learn whether updates are available, and whether similar analyses are already ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camera trap surveys are useful to understand animal species population trends, distribution, habitat preference, behavior, community dynamics, periods of activity, and species associations with environmental conditions. This information is ecologically important, because many species play important roles in local ecosystems as predators, herbivores, seed dispersers, and disease vectors. Additionally, many of the larger wildlife species detected by camera traps are economically important through hunting, trapping, or ecotourism. Here we present a data set of camera‐trap surveys from 6,043 locations across all 100 counties of North Carolina, USA from 2009 to 2019. These data come from 26 survey initiatives and contain 215,108 records of 36 mammal species and three species of terrestrial birds. This large data set increases the geographical distribution data for these 39 mammal and bird species by >500% over what is available for North Carolina in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). These data can be used to conduct inquiries about species, populations, communities, or ecosystems, and to produce useful information on wildlife behavior, distribution, and interactions. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this paper when using the data for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the periodical including details on its scope, copyright and editors. Periodical presents the papers reporting theoretical, experimental, applied and descriptive work in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Copyright on any article of the periodical is retained by the authors. It's editor includes Colin Fontaine; Fox, Charles W. and Tom Price.

The International Biogeography Society's biennial conferences are renown for being highly interdisciplinary and inspiring meetings. Biogeography is by its nature a holistic and interdisciplinary field and the conferences bring together biologists from a broad range of fields, e.g. experimental ecologists, historical biogeographers, evolutionary biologists, ecological modelers, conservation biologists, and paleobiologists, and covering essentially all types of organisms and ecosystems. The different backgrounds and perspectives combined with shared interests in terms of the basic research questions offer fertile grounds for developing new ideas. This was also the case for the 6th International Conference of the International Biogeography Society took place in Miami, Florida in January 2013. Ecography provided economic support, acting as a sponsor. In addition, Ecography was the officially designated journal for publishing some of the many exciting talks and posters presented at the conference. All of the papers in this special issue of Ecography arose from the IBS conference and reflect its combined high diversity in backgrounds and perspectives and high congruence in research questions. The papers have all been subject to external peer review, subsequent revision, and final editorial decisions of acceptance or rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]