What Do You Want Your Career to Be?

Journals & Publications

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  Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

  Some species possess traits that make them more likely to be detected, including large body size, extensive ranges, the ability to vocalize, and a tendency to congregate. Across taxa listed under the US Endangered Species Act, recent findings indicate that – in general – species with such traits were often designated for protection earlier than their smaller, more restricted, quieter, and more solitary counterparts. In the March issue of Frontiers, Lepczyk et al. explain how the ESA listing process could benefit by minimizing similar bias in the future.

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  Ecology

  A sunbathing yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventer) in the Colorado mountains (USA) in late spring. Marmots, meerkats (Suricata suricatta), and dewy pines (Drosophyllum lusitanicum) are among the many species that experience periodic environmental patterns such as seasonality and re-occurring fires. By projecting the population dynamics of these three species under different perturbations of periodicity, Conquet et al. show that disruption of periodicity can have strong effects on population dynamics not evident from classic stochastic perturbations, yet these effects are moderated by density feedbacks. Their results can be found in the March issue of Ecology.

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  Ecosphere

  Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) have life histories dependent on suitable sea ice, landscape, seascape, and preyscape conditions—making them a valuable indicator of climate change and variability. Long-term patterns in ecosystem phenology were investigated from the perspective of Adélie penguins using data from the Palmer Antarctica Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. In the February issue of Ecosphere, Cimino et al. show that sea ice retreat and increasing photoperiod in the spring trigger a sequence of events from late spring into summer, including Adélie penguin clutch initiation, snow melt, calm weather, phytoplankton blooms, particulate organic carbon flux, peak whale abundances, and bacterial accumulation. Later sea ice retreat generally resulted in events happening later and the ecosystem was more “predictable” than early retreat years. The timing of the Adélie penguins breeding cycle was relatively consistent compared to other events, making them susceptible to mismatches in optimal environmental windows or prey characteristics that could ultimately influence chick survival.

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  Ecological Applications

  A pair of Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra) at sunset in the Abrolhos Archipelago, northeast Brazil. In their study published in the March issue of Ecological Applications, Linhares and Bugoni highlight how seabirds transport marine-derived nutrients to colonies, which subsidize multiple organisms in the terrestrial food web and corals around some of the islands, despite the presence of invasive rats and their associated impacts.

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  Ecological Monographs

  Bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park. Daskin et al. tracked movement and foraging behaviors of three closely related but different-sized spiral-horned antelopes: bushbuck, nyala (T. angasii), and kudu (T. strepsiceros). In their study published in the February issue of Ecological Monographs, the authors found that behavioral metrics scaled allometrically with body mass, which in turn reduced spatial and dietary overlap among species. Allometric scaling of behavior may promote niche differentiation and species coexistence throughout the animal kingdom.

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  Bulletin

  In the January issue of the ESA Bulletin, Estien et al. provide an overview of graduate school, including the application process, how to prepare for it, and potential career paths to pursue following a Master's or Doctoral degree. Their work contributes to the larger literature that aims to increase the transparency of academia and create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive space.

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