Category: Methods papers

Evolution, Methods papers

Flawed Analysis Casts Doubt on Years of Evolution Research

Below is a press release about the Methods in Ecology and Evolution paper ‘‘Residual diversity estimates’ do not correct for sampling bias in palaeodiversity data‘ taken from the University of Bristol.

Years of research on the evolution of ancient life, including the dinosaurs, have been questioned after a fatal flaw in the way fossil data are analysed was exposed by scientists from the universities of Reading and Bristol.

Studies based on the apparently flawed method have suggested Earth’s biodiversity remained relatively stable – close to maximum carrying capacity – and hinted many signs of species becoming rapidly extinct are merely reflections on the poor quality of the fossil record at that time.

However, new research by scientists at the University of Reading suggests the history of the planet’s biodiversity may have been more dynamic than recently suggested, with bursts of new species appearing, along with crashes and more stable periods.

Continue reading “Flawed Analysis Casts Doubt on Years of Evolution Research”

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Methods papers

Jellyfish Help Scientists to Fight Food Fraud

Below is a press release about the Methods paper ‘Stable isotope-based location in a shelf sea setting: accuracy and precision are comparable to light-based location method‘ taken from the University of Southampton.

©Katie St John Glew
©Katie St John Glew

Animals feeding at sea inherit a chemical record reflecting the area where they fed, which can help track their movements, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Southampton.

Chemical testing of the source of marine food products could be a powerful tool to help to fight food fraud, maintain healthy sustainable fish stocks or marine protected areas, and ensure consumer confidence in marine eco-labelling. Continue reading “Jellyfish Help Scientists to Fight Food Fraud”

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Methods papers, Online extras

Automatic Camera Monitoring: A Window into the Daily Life of Pollinators

Post provided by Ronny Steen

Image from the Canon PowerShot camera with CHDK script ‘Motion Detect Plus’. The thistle flower being visited by ♀ honeybee Apis mellifera L.
Image from the Canon PowerShot camera with CHDK script ‘Motion Detect Plus’. The thistle flower being visited by ♀ honeybee Apis mellifera L.

Pollinators have fascinated ecologists for decades, and they have traditionally been monitored by on-site human observations. This can be a time-consuming enterprise and – more importantly – species identification and recordings of behaviour have to be registered at the time of observation. This has two complications:

  1. While writing notes, or recording them electronically, the observer cannot continue focusing on the animal or behaviour in question.
  2. Such data then have to be transcribed, with the risk of making transcription errors.

Bringing Monitoring into the 21st Century

Although on-site human observations have predominated, today’s widespread availability of digital monitoring equipment has enabled unique data on flower visitors to be collected. In my research, I have used a time-efficient automated procedure for monitoring flower-visiting animals – namely foraging bumblebees visiting focal white clovers and honeybees visiting thistles.

Continue reading “Automatic Camera Monitoring: A Window into the Daily Life of Pollinators”

Unknown's avatarHarriet Rhodes1 Comment
Methods papers, Online extras, Statistical methods

Animal Density and Acoustic Detection: An Interview with Ben Stevenson

David Warton (University of New South Wales) interviews  interviews  Ben Stevenson (University of St Andrews) about his 2015 Methods in Ecology and Evolution paper ‘A general framework for animal density estimation from acoustic detections across a fixed microphone array’. They also discuss what Ben is currently up to, including an interesting new method for dealing with uncertain identification in capture-recapture, published in Statistical Science as ‘Trace-Contrast Models for Capture–Recapture Without Capture Histories’.

Continue reading “Animal Density and Acoustic Detection: An Interview with Ben Stevenson”

Unknown's avatarHarriet RhodesLeave a comment
Methods papers, Online extras, Statistical methods

moveHMM: An Interview with Théo Michelot

David Warton (University of New South Wales) interviews Théo Michelot (University of Sheffield) about an article on his recent R package moveHMM in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. David and Théo also discuss the case study in the paper – on the understudied wild haggis – and what advances could be made to the package in future.

Continue reading “moveHMM: An Interview with Théo Michelot”

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Conservation and management, Methods papers

Exploring Microbial Diversity: From the Sequence to the Cell

Post provided by Ruben Props, Michelle Berry, Marian Schmidt, Frederiek-Maarten Kerckhof, Vincent Denef and Nico Boon

Searching Lake Michigan (USA) for uncharacterized microbial diversity. © Michelle Berry
Searching Lake Michigan (USA) for uncharacterized microbial diversity. © Michelle Berry

Exploring microbial diversity and relating it to ecosystem functions is one of the primary occupations of microbiologists and microbial ecologists worldwide. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the microbial census is far from complete and that it is heavily biased towards certain (host-associated) environments. With the Earth’s microbial diversity estimated at an impressive one trillion (1012) taxa, the search continues for new technologies and methodologies that may help us better describe, monitor and preserve the microbial diversity of our planet’s natural and engineered ecosystems.

Continue reading “Exploring Microbial Diversity: From the Sequence to the Cell”

Unknown's avatarHarriet Rhodes1 Comment
Conservation and management, Methods papers

Creating Bigger, Better and More Joined-up Habitat Networks

Below is a press release about the Methods paper ‘How to manipulate landscapes to improve the potential for range expansion‘ taken from the University of Liverpool.

©Bidgee
©Bidgee

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new ‘route planner’ tool that could help conservationists aid the movement of species as they adapt to a changing climate.

The environmental ranges of many animal and plant species are starting to alter with climate change, as temperatures change and force species to migrate to more suitable climes.

To be able to do this successfully, they will need sufficient habitat in their existing range, their future range, and any intermediate areas to enable populations to survive and thrive. Many conservation initiatives to restore habitats and increase connectivity are trying to address this issue. However, existing modelling tools mainly treat the landscape as static, and it is difficult to use these to plan restoration. Continue reading “Creating Bigger, Better and More Joined-up Habitat Networks”

Unknown's avatarHarriet RhodesLeave a comment
Methods papers, Statistical methods

Estimating Shifts in Species Distribution: An Interview with James Thorson

David Warton (University of New South Wales) interviews James Thorson (NOAA) about his paper Model-based inference for estimating shifts in species distribution, area occupied and centre of gravity. The article is included in the August 2016 issue of Methods in Ecology and Evolution.  They discuss how to estimate changes in distribution shifts accounting for changes in the spatial distribution of sampling intensity, James’ current workplace NOAA, his academic background and what trouble he is planning to get up to next.

Continue reading “Estimating Shifts in Species Distribution: An Interview with James Thorson”

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Methods papers, Virtual Issues

Biogeographic Regions: What Are They and What Can They Tell Us?

Post provided by Leonardo Dapporto, Gianni Ciolli, Roger L.H. Dennis, Richard Fox and Tim G. Shreeve

Every species in the world has a unique geographic distribution. But many species have similar ranges. There are many things that can cause two (or more) species to have similar ranges – for example shared evolutionary histories, physical obstacles (mountains, oceans etc.) or ecological barriers limiting their dispersal. As a consequence, different regions of the globe are inhabited by different sets of living organisms.

In the mid-19th century ecologists recognised that the earth could be divided into different biogeographic regions. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) played a key role in defining and recognising biogeographic regions. He improved the existing maps of  biogeographic regions and provided basic rules to identify them. His observation that some of these regions are home to similar species, despite being far away from each other and separated by significant barriers was the inspiration for Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift. In more recent years regionalisation has been used to understand the spatial drivers of biological evolution and to protect those regions characterised by particularly unique flora and fauna.

The biogeographic regions identified by Alfred Russel Wallace from The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876)
The biogeographic regions identified by Alfred Russel Wallace from The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876)

Despite the long history of biological regionalisation, the methods to identify biogeographic regions are still being improved. We are currently working in this exciting field of research and recently published ‘A new procedure for extrapolating turnover regionalization at mid-small spatial scales, tested on British butterflies’ in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Continue reading “Biogeographic Regions: What Are They and What Can They Tell Us?”

Unknown's avatarHarriet Rhodes1 Comment
Methods papers, Online extras, Statistical methods

Uncertainty in biological monitoring : An interview with Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez

David Warton (University of New South Wales) interviews Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez (Cornell University) about her recent paper Uncertainty in biological monitoring: a framework for data collection and analysis to account for multiple sources of sampling bias. They discuss the main contributions of the paper, the effect false positives can have on occupancy estimates (when not accounted for) and her current position at Cornell. They finish off (in Spanish!) discussing the next step in her research agenda.

Continue reading “Uncertainty in biological monitoring : An interview with Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez”

Unknown's avatarHarriet Rhodes1 Comment