Category: Pespectives

community ecology, Mycorrhizal Networks, Pespectives, Special Features

Bringing clarity of the concept of common mycorrhizal networks

Matthias C. Rillig, Anika Lehmann, Luisa Lanfranco, Tancredi Caruso, David Johnson This is a Plain Language Summary of a Functional Ecology perspective which can be found here. Mycorrhizae are symbioses between plant roots and fungi that have fascinated researchers and also captivated the imagination of the public. Especially the fact that there are belowground linkages between plants formed by the fungi in the symbiosis has … Continue reading Bringing clarity of the concept of common mycorrhizal networks

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ecosystems ecology, Pespectives

Finding Nature’s Backup Plans

Daniel Dick This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective article which can be found here.             Are all species created equal? When it comes to ensuring a community continues to behave normally when the surrounding environment changes, many ecologists think not. The presence of far more species than there are unique ways of “making a living” in an ecosystem has led … Continue reading Finding Nature’s Backup Plans

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animal physiological ecology, Pespectives

Rhythmic bacteria: How measuring daily oscillations of the gut microbiome can help us understand its function

Alice Risely, Dominik Schmid, Pablo Capilla-Lasheras, Davide Dominoni, Nadine Müller-Klein, Simone Sommer This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective which can be found here. Seasonal rhythms in animal physiology and ecology are well understood (e.g., bird migration or seasonal reproduction). In contrast, daily (circadian) rhythms in animal physiology, behaviour and species interactions are often subtler and require advanced methods such as … Continue reading Rhythmic bacteria: How measuring daily oscillations of the gut microbiome can help us understand its function

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Infection-Induced Phenotypes, Pespectives

Linking infection, feeding behavior, and pathogen transmission

Jim Adelman and Francis Tillman This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective article which can be found here. When animals get sick, their behavior often changes. While such changes can include gross alterations to activity levels and food consumption, subtler effects on the ability to find food or food preference may also arise. Each of these behavioral changes has important implications … Continue reading Linking infection, feeding behavior, and pathogen transmission

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Infection-Induced Phenotypes, Pespectives

Can parasites manipulate the capacity of hosts to change?

Chris Paveya, Ajai Vyas This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective article which can be found here. Individual plants and animals, starting from the same set of genes, develop a range of different tissues. A seed becomes stalk, flowers, and leaves. A fetus slowly grows to make limbs and lungs. Similarly, animals change their behavior within their lifetime according to the … Continue reading Can parasites manipulate the capacity of hosts to change?

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Infection-Induced Phenotypes, Pespectives

Can your body prepare to get sick?

Patricia C Lopes This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective article that can be found here. Imagine the following scenario: you are at work, and the two people working on either side of your desk keep sneezing and blowing their noses. You have the strong feeling that you will be next in line to be sick, but you can’t ask for … Continue reading Can your body prepare to get sick?

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Animal Functional Traits, Pespectives, Uncategorized

Do ants and plants see the world the same way?

Heloise Gibb, Tom R. Bishop, Lily Leahy, Catherine L. Parr, Jean-Philippe Lessard, Nathan J. Sanders, Jonathan Z. Shik, Javier Ibarra-Isassi, Ajay Narendra, Robert R. Dunn, Ian J. Wright This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology perspective article that can be found here. An ecological strategy describes the way a species interacts with other species and its environment and determines its evolutionary fitness. … Continue reading Do ants and plants see the world the same way?

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Animal Functional Traits, community ecology, Pespectives

Towards an animal economics spectrum for ecosystem research

Robert R. Junker, Jörg Albrecht, Marcel Becker, Raya Keuth, Nina Farwig, Matthias Schleuning This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which is published here. Animals strongly vary in size, appearance, and metabolism, which limits the comparability of ecological strategies across the animal kingdom. However, functional assessments of whole ecosystems and their response to global change may benefit from a set … Continue reading Towards an animal economics spectrum for ecosystem research

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community ecology, Pespectives

Demographic correction – a tool for inference from individuals to populations

Adam Klimeš, Jitka Klimešová, Zdeněk Janovský, Tomáš Herben This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which is published here. A large part of ecological research consists of comparisons of sets of species across environmental conditions. Such comparisons help us understand how characteristics of these species influence their well-being. For example, we compare alien invaders with natives, or herbs with trees, … Continue reading Demographic correction – a tool for inference from individuals to populations

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The eight steps that occur in a trophic interaction. The bird first searches for and detects the fish (pink box), then decides to attack (green box), then pursues the fish and subdues it (purple box), and finally ingests and digests it, and allocates the nutrients to growth (orange box). With each step, the probability that the interaction successfully occurs decreases (shown by the decreasing width of the circular arrow).
Pespectives

Break it down then build it up: a modular approach to understanding and modelling feeding interactions

Kate. L. Wootton, Alva Curtsdotter, Tomas Roslin, Riccardo Bommarco, and Tomas Jonsson Read the full article here When a predator eats a prey, a series of steps occur. First, the predator searches for the prey. Then, the predator has to detect the prey and decide to eat it. The predator then needs to pursue the prey and subdue it. The predator then ingests the prey, … Continue reading Break it down then build it up: a modular approach to understanding and modelling feeding interactions

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