News and Opinion - British Ecological Society

Adapting to climate change: how do we know if it’s working?

Our commitment to address inequalities

A statement from the Equality and Diversity Working Group of the British Ecological Society expressing support for the Black community.

Research shows recovering pine marten population benefits red squirrels, but the grey squirrel still poses a problem in urban areas

Research led by Queen’s University Belfast has found that whilst red squirrels are responding positively to the increased presence of the pine marten across Ireland and Britain, its ability to control the grey squirrel is limited by the lack of forest cover and the presence of urban refugia.

Joining the pandemic response

When coronavirus hit the UK, Arron Watson joined the incident response team at the Environment Agency.

Human presence weakens social relationships of giraffes

Living close to human settlements disturbs the social networks of giraffes. They have weaker bonds with other giraffes and fewer interactions with other members of the species, an international study led by the University of Zurich on the social structure of over 500 female giraffes in Tanzania has shown.

Join the BES journals as an Associate Editor

New evidence on bed bug burden in urban neighborhoods

Researchers at UMass Amherst find more risk of bed bugs in poorer, crowded urban areas.

Be kind to yourself in all the upheaval

PhD student Helen Whitehead has faced disruption to her studies, finances and wedding plans thanks to the coronavirus.

What I learnt from my BES POST Fellowship 2019

Education under COVID-19

Kate Howlett, PhD student from the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology, explores whether lockdown has provided an opportunity for increased outdoor learning

Birds, bees and butter – new study underlines importance of biodiversity for crop production and West African livelihoods

Shea trees are in important crop in Senegal and Uganda and they benefit from bees pollinating their flowers to produce fruit. New research finds that in sites with low tree and shrub diversity, fruit production is severely limited by a lack of pollination.

How lockdown is changing the ecology of our cities?

With much of the world still under lockdown and people unable to venture far, many of us have been paying more attention to the seemingly more abundant and diverse wildlife on our doorsteps. Rana El-Sabaawi, associate professor of biology at Canada’s University of Victoria considers how our absence is changing the ecology and biodiversity of our cities.

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

Indigenous voices reveal key strategies for navigating the challenging return of sea otters