News and Opinion - British Ecological Society

Lack of insects in cities limits breeding success of urban birds

Urban insect populations would need to increase by a factor of at least 2.5 for urban great tits to have same breeding success as those living in forests.

How does an increase in nitrogen application affect grasslands?

Researchers at the University of Bern share the first results of the largest biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment in Switzerland

Poor Amazonians go hungry despite living in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth

Poorer rural Amazonians are going hungry despite living in one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.

Applied ecology in times of COVID-19

Martin Nuñez explores how applied ecology can help solve the problems exposed by the current pandemic.

More taxpayers’ money for the environment and public benefit

3,647 researchers call for Common Agricultural Policy reform with science to be taken into consideration.

Fishing for Mammals: How DNA from rivers could revolutionise mammal detection on land

Scientists from the University of Salford have identified that DNA collected from river water is a new and effective way of monitoring the entire community of mammals on the landscape.

Smaller fields and diversified crops can help spontaneous plants to make a comeback, even in the middle of fields

Scientists from INRAE and the CNRS, working with colleagues from Germany, Spain, the UK and Canada, find that increasing field border lengths could be a highly effective measure to complement agri-environmental schemes, maintaining and restoring plant diversity right to the centre of fields.

Dragonflies are efficient predators that consume hundreds of thousands of insects, locally

Researchers quantify the staggering number of insects dragonflies and damselflies can consume.

Conservation translocation: trade-offs for species survival and biodiversity

As efforts to help wildlife ramp up after the devastating bushfire season, University of Canberra researchers warn that removing species under pressure from immediate threat must be done in a measured, species-dependent way.

Lava flows tell 600-year story of biodiversity loss on tropical island

A natural experiment created by an active volcano gives new insight into the long-term negative impacts of human colonisation of tropical forest islands.

Amazon forest disturbance is changing how plants are dispersed

New research finds tropical forest disturbance goes beyond species loss and includes a shift towards smaller seeds and an increase in the proportion of trees dispersed by animals, impacting how the ecosystem functions.

Call for policy makers to protect pollinators

Pollinating insects could thrive if improvements are made to agri-environment schemes across Europe, new study led by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) finds.

Why the British Ecological Society President mows round the dandelions in her lawn

New BES President Jane Memmott talks about how ecology affects everyone’s lives and how all of us can make a difference.

Global study finds predators are most likely to be lost when habitats are converted for human use

A first of its kind, global study on the impacts of human land-use on different groups of animals has found that predators, especially small invertebrates like spiders and ladybirds, are the most likely to be lost when natural habitats are converted to agricultural land or towns and cities.

The temporal dimension of the ‘alien attack’ in plant-pollinator communities

A new study shows for the first time that both alien plants and alien pollinators influence the organisation of ecological networks over time; yet the causes and consequences for the local communities are widely dependent on the trophic level of the invasion.