Journal updates

Double anonymous peer review frequently asked questions

Like many of the other British Ecological Society journals, MEE has recently transitioned to a double anonymous peer review model. This decision was made after the results of a recent study conducted from 2019-2022 on the Journal of Functional Ecology. Below are some frequently asked questions to help with the preparation of your submission to Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Can I publish a preprint … Continue reading Double anonymous peer review frequently asked questions

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Conferences and Meetings

Reflections from IBAC 2025: bioacoustics, community, and scientific insights

Post provided by Diandra Duengen What is IBAC? In 2025, the biennial meeting of the International Bioacoustics Society (IBAC) took place in Kerteminde, Denmark, the country in which the society was originally founded. IBAC’s aim is “[…] to promote international participation throughout the entire field of bioacoustical activity.” Since IBAC was founded in 1969, 27 bioacoustic symposia and congresses in 13 different countries have been … Continue reading Reflections from IBAC 2025: bioacoustics, community, and scientific insights

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Robert May Prize

2025 Robert May prize shortlist: Methods Ecology and Evolution’s award for early career researchers

The Robert May Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution written by an early career author. With entries spanning the 16th Volume of the journal, our Senior Editors carefully shortlisted the following 10 papers: Or Ben-Zvi: The Benthic Underwater Microscope imaging PAM (BUMP): A non-invasive tool for in situ assessment of microstructure and photosynthetic efficiency Pieter Sanczuk: … Continue reading 2025 Robert May prize shortlist: Methods Ecology and Evolution’s award for early career researchers

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Conservation and management, Ecology

As above, so below: a perspective into the application of land-forest monitoring methods for the assessment of marine animal forests

Post provided by Torcuato Pulido Mantas I am a postdoctoral researcher in Marine Biology and Ecology at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DiSVA), Polytechnic University of Marche, where I work in the Zoology Lab (link: https://www.instagram.com/zoomardisva/). We focus on understanding how climate change affects benthic marine organisms, developing new methods for marine environmental monitoring, and promoting effective conservation strategies for vulnerable habitats and … Continue reading As above, so below: a perspective into the application of land-forest monitoring methods for the assessment of marine animal forests

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Code and Applications

estar: An R package to measure ecological stability

Post provided by Ludmilla Figueiredo Nature is very dynamic: forests transform through the seasons and regrow after fire, insect plagues happen with little to no forewarning, and animals like the Fernandina giant tortoise and the leopard-spotted fish come back from the dead decades after apparent extinction. Some of these changes are part of the natural behaviour of these systems, but some are a response to … Continue reading estar: An R package to measure ecological stability

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Methods papers, Statistical methods

DImodelsMulti: Making Advanced DI Modelling Accessible.

Post provided by Laura Byrne. I am a researcher at University College Cork, Ireland, working with statistical models for use with biodiversity data. My research is driven by my interests in sustainability, the facilitation of natural ecosystems alongside necessary urbanisation, statistical modelling, and coding. You can find out more about our work on Diversity-Interactions models (including video introductions, maths and coding tutorials, and an archive … Continue reading DImodelsMulti: Making Advanced DI Modelling Accessible.

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Methods papers

Managing plant viral epidemics – linking insect transmission and epidemic risk

Post provided by Ruairí Donnelly, Israël Tankam, and Alison Scott-Brown Here in the Epidemiology and Modelling Group at the University of Cambridge, our work is driven by the need to secure food supplies for future generations, particularly for those living in areas of the world already under increasing pressure from climate change and extreme weather conditions, making it harder for small-holders to produce and trade … Continue reading Managing plant viral epidemics – linking insect transmission and epidemic risk

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Methods papers

Integrating multi-gene barcodes with deep learning to classify snails

Post provided by Bin Ye Gastropoda animals, such as land, freshwater, and sea snails, have diverse forms and unique life histories, making them an excellent window for exploring biodiversity. In the era of accelerated integration of artificial intelligence and ecology, we have developed the SnailBaLLsp intelligent classification model, aiming to use innovative algorithms to solve traditional classification problems and better serve species identification and evolutionary … Continue reading Integrating multi-gene barcodes with deep learning to classify snails

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Field Methods

A short guide for effective field data collection

Post provided by Faith Jones, Helen Spence-Jones, and Caroline Greiser Fieldwork is the foundation of ecological science. From observational and monitoring studies, to experiments done in complex real-world conditions, to ground-truthing models: we can’t hope to understand ecology if we don’t actually check what is happening in nature. The love of being outdoors has also attracted many of us to careers in ecology: fieldwork remains … Continue reading A short guide for effective field data collection

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Methods papers

Reading the patterns: vegetation patterns reveal the fragility of dryland sites

Post provided by Benoît Pichon When I first started working on dryland ecosystems in my PhD, I didn’t expect to spend quite so much time staring at black-and-white aerial photographs. Yet these simple images—pixels of vegetation scattered across a matrix of white bare soil pixels—hold fingerprints of the resilience of drylands. In this work, we developed an approach to learn about dryland resilience from vegetation … Continue reading Reading the patterns: vegetation patterns reveal the fragility of dryland sites

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Practical Tools

From First Clicks to Building Esperdyne: A Personal Journey into Bat Bioacoustics.

Post provided by Ravi Umadi. On a humid, warm evening—close to 40 °C—in Mohali, India, I stood outside holding a bat detector, listening for something I had never heard before. Although I had never previously heard bat echolocation calls, bats themselves were not unfamiliar to me. One of my earliest memories from primary school is of a dark corner of my village school that housed … Continue reading From First Clicks to Building Esperdyne: A Personal Journey into Bat Bioacoustics.

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