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Ecology of Rural Roads
Our newest Issues in Ecology, The Ecology of Rural Roads: Effects, Management and Research is now available for download!
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Happy Birthday, SEEDS!
Our flagship undergraduate diversity program turns 25 this year, and we're looking ahead for much more great work to come. Can you donate $25 to support SEEDS today?
Read moreJournals & Publications
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Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Predators like the gray wolf (Canis lupus) provide humans with ecosystem services and disservices. These can be both direct, such as wolf-related tourism and livestock losses, as well as indirect, including the regulation of elk (Cervus canadensis) populations and reduced opportunities for elk hunting. In the June issue of Frontiers, Gilbert et al. discuss how conservation outcomes can be improved when resource managers and other decision makers account for such indirect “predation” services in models that aim to assign economic value to carnivores.
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Ecology
The kererū (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) is the only pigeon endemic to New Zealand and is one of New Zealand's most important seed dispersers. It consumes a broader diversity of native fruits than any other bird in New Zealand and is a key species contributing to higher seed dispersal in fenced ecosanctuaries, as recently found by Bombaci et al. in their study published in the June issue of Ecology.
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Ecosphere
In an effort to identify the climate warming effects on ecosystem processes carried out by fungi, such as the Laetiporus sulphureus (chicken of the woods or sulphur shelf), Pec et al. assessed fungal diversity, community composition, soil C concentrations, and chemistry in two soil warming experiments performed at the Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts, USA. The authors found that changes in the relative abundance of fungal functional groups and dominant taxa due to soil warming are associated with losses in total soil carbon. Their findings are published in the May issue of Ecosphere.
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Ecological Applications
Gregarious nymphs of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) diurnally march on the hot ground of extreme thermal environments. In the June issue of Ecological Applications, Maeno et al. show that locusts could successfully maintain high but tolerable temperatures for efficient digestion through behavioral thermoregulation. A general biophysical model of thermoregulatory behavior allows forecasting activities of this most destructive locust species. The cover image shows stilting locusts which remain on the ground and lift their bodies to be distant from the hot ground surface of the Sahara Desert as a cool-down behavior.
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Ecological Monographs
With ongoing global change, landscape structure changes are expected to be a driver of extinction rates of temperate zone ectotherms. In a study by Rozen-Rechels et al. in the May issue of Ecological Monographs, the authors conclude that changes in water availability, coupled with rising temperatures, might have a drastic impact on the population dynamics of some ectotherm species.
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Bulletin
Not all field stations are remote! Temple University's new Ambler Field Station supports ongoing studies of forest recovery, stormwater management, and invasive species control, as well as hosting educational and citizen science programming, all less than an hour from Philadelphia. Read more in the April issue of the Bulletin.