Our last issue for 2011 is out. Issue 2.6 is packed with the latest methodological developments.

We have four new articles on monitoring: from positional accuracy in the field by Mike Dodd to distance sampling butterflies by Nick Isaac and colleagues, to how to account for non-independent detection of individuals by Julien Martin and collaborators and, finally, to a class of spatial capture-recapture models for ‘search-encounter’ data by Andrew Royle, Marc Kéry and Jérôme Guélat.

Two articles focus on modelling distributions. Darryl MacKenzie and colleagues present their work on modelling habitat and species distribution dynamics and Peter Wilson introduces an analytical framework applying a distance-based approach to the ordination and analysis of maps produced by species distribution modelling tools.

Kristen L. Granger and collaborators explain their extraction and assay methods on seed chemistry while Adam Davis et al look at seed predation rates.

Also, Joseph Chipperfield et al model dispersal kernels, Alexandre Bec and co-authors assess the reliability of fatty acid–specific stable isotope analysis for trophic studies. Jeroen Groot and Walter Rossing review recent developments in systems modelling which support learning by creating a salient diversity of management alternatives and by translating science-based results into stakeholder perspectives.

Nicholas J. Gotelli, Werner Ulrich and Fernando T. Maestre explore randomization tests for quantifying species importance to ecosystem function and their article takes the front cover.

Finally, the issue contains two free Application articles. In the first Conrad Stack, Luke Harmon and Brian O’Meara detail RBrownie, an R package for testing hypotheses about rates of evolutionary change. In the second, Stefan Prost and Christian Anderson present TempNet, a method to display statistical parsimony networks for heterochronous DNA sequence data.

Ask your librarian to get free access in perpetuity to the first two years of Methods in Ecology and Evolution by completing this request form or learn about how to access the journal in 2012.