Silicon and endophyte defences in tall fescue reduce feeding and weaken immunity of an insect herbivore. – Functional Ecologists

Ximena Cibils-Stewart completed her doctoral dissertation at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, and works as an adjunct scientist at the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria in…

The warming arctic, herbivore outbreaks and the importance of long-term field studies – Functional Ecologists

In our latest post, Myrsky Eero, a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, presents his work ‘Higher vascular plant abundance associated with decreased ecosystem respiration after 20 years of…

Leveraging collaboration, transparency, and inclusion to advance macrosystems biology” – Functional Ecologists

Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution and People and Nature are seeking proposals for a cross-journal Special Feature on “Large Scale, Open…

Clara Castellano—Understanding the Impact of Rural Abandonment on Ecological Processes in Mediterranean Ecosystems – Functional Ecologists

In this blog post, Clara Castellano—from the Department of Agrarian and Environmental Science at the University of Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain—discusses working on the ARBIO Project in the Middle Ebro River…

How an invasive ant changed a lion’s dinner menu

How did the ant steal the lion’s dinner? This isn’t the beginning of one of Aesop’s Fables. It’s the finding of a new study showing how the disruption of one…

Explore the root advantages of invasive plants under nutrient enrichment – Functional Ecologists

In this new post, Hao Liu—a postdoc from Fudan University, China—presents his work ‘Root plasticity benefits a global invasive species in eutrophic coastal wetlands’. Here he discusses the importance in…

Matching plants and pollinators in Czech grasslands – Functional Ecologists

In this post, Zdeněk Janovský and Jakub “Kuba” Štenc —from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic—share their work ‘Pollinator community and generalisation of pollinator spectra changes with plant niche width and…

What are the relationships between water and silicon uptake in plants, and what factors change cause shifts in these? – Functional Ecologists

In this new post, Julia Cooke and Joanna Carey—ecologists and friends from the UK and USA—present their work ‘Stress alters the role of silicon in controlling plant water movement’. They…

Physiological ecology  – Functional Ecologists

This blog post on ‘Physiological ecology’ is part of the BES ‘Key Concepts in Ecology’ series, designed to help ecologists in learning the key topics in ecology! Take a look…

TreeDì—Understanding tree diversity effects on Chinese subtropical forests – Functional Ecologists

In this new post, the group – PhD students at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany – discuss their experiences working on the BEF-China experiment, the…