News and Opinion - British Ecological Society

Ants adapt tool use to avoid drowning

Researchers have observed black imported fire ants using sand to draw liquid food out of containers, when faced with the risk of drowning. This is the first time this sophisticated tool use has been reported in animals.

Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself

Monitoring schemes to count bees and other pollinating insects provide excellent value for money, and could help save species and protect UK food security, researchers have found.

Caught on tape: UF wildlife researchers repurpose listening device to track poaching

Acoustic monitoring technologies can detect far more hunting in protected forests than cameras are able to, according to research by the University of Florida.

Black History Month

A new blog series from our journals celebrating Black ecologists

Oil palm replanting may decrease arthropod biodiversity

New study finds that oil palm replanting may decrease the biodiversity of arthropods, such as insects and spiders.

Provide shady spots to protect butterflies from climate change, say scientists

Butterfly species that mostly rely on finding shade to keep cool are at a greater risk of population decline due to climate change and habitat loss.

Logging tropical forests jeopardizes fisheries important for food and livelihood

Logging activity in Solomon Islands is associated with lower coral cover and structural complexity on adjacent reefs, new research has found.

Ecologists confirm Alan Turing’s theory for Australian fairy circles

International research team led by Göttingen University shows patterned vegetation regenerates by “ecosystem engineering” of the grasses.

BES deeply saddened by death of Georgina Mace

From sewage to water consumption: aquatic ecology during coronavirus

Aquatic ecologists were among those who rapidly responded to the coronavirus epidemic, with many examples given at the BES Special Interest Group conference.

Managing energy balance through lactation

Recently published research in Journal of Animal Ecology explores how grey seal mothers maximize their chances of successfully rearing pups during an ‘energetic fast’.

Development of a diagnostic tool for water bodies

If a river or stream is not doing well, there are many possible causes, but they are sometimes difficult to detect. Scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have now developed a method that evaluates biological symptoms of rivers and calculates probable causes.

BES response to the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report

Using Nature to Find Solutions to Human Problems

The BES Policy Team is working with members to produce a report assessing the evidence for NBS delivery potential across the UK.

To mate or be eaten: tree cricket behaviour in the presence of a predator

In the presence of predators, male tree crickets but not females, change their mate-finding behaviour, according to a new study in Functional Ecology from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).