Scales, Slime and Dragon(fly) Wings? Investigating the Surfaces of Organisms

Post provided by Dylan Wainwright Our recent Methods in Ecology and Evolution paper – ‘Imaging biological surface topography in situ and in vivo‘ – shows how to use gel-based profilometry to image various biological surfaces. To start you need to press a gel into a surface of interest. The bottom surface of the gel is coated in a paint to create an impression of the surface that has standard optical … Continue reading Scales, Slime and Dragon(fly) Wings? Investigating the Surfaces of Organisms

Building Universal PCR Primers for Aquatic Ecosystem Assessments

Post provided by Vasco Elbrecht Many things can negatively affect stream ecosystems – water abstraction, eutrophication and fine sediment influx are just a few. However, only intact freshwater ecosystems can sustainably deliver the ecosystem services – such as particle filtration, food biomass production and the supply of drinking water – that we rely on. Because of this, stream management and restoration has often been in the … Continue reading Building Universal PCR Primers for Aquatic Ecosystem Assessments

Progressive Change BACIPS: Estimating the Effects of Environmental Impacts over Time

Post provided by Lauric Thiault BACIPS (Before-After Control-Impact Paired Series) is probably the best-known and most powerful approach to detect and quantify human interventions on ecosystems. In BACIPS designs, Impact and Control sites are sampled simultaneously (or nearly so) multiple times Before and After an intervention. For each sampling survey conducted Before or After, the difference in the sampled response variable (e.g. density) is calculated. … Continue reading Progressive Change BACIPS: Estimating the Effects of Environmental Impacts over Time

Soaring with Eagles, Swimming with Sharks: Measuring Animal Behaviour with Hidden Markov Models

Post provided by THEONI PHOTOPOULOU, MEGAN MURGATROYD, VIANEY LEOS-BARAJAS Around the world there are concerns over the impacts of land use change and the developments (such as wind farms). These concerns have led to the implementation of tracking studies to better understand movement patterns of animals. Such studies have provided a wealth of high-resolution data and opportunities to explore sophisticated statistical methods for analysis of animal behaviour. We use … Continue reading Soaring with Eagles, Swimming with Sharks: Measuring Animal Behaviour with Hidden Markov Models