Searching for my (paleo)buddies

Post provided by Bruno do Rosario Petrucci Inferring rates of diversification from phylogenies and fossils has been a focus of evolutionary biology for generations, since a quantitative understanding of the dynamics of speciation and extinction is necessary for a complete picture of the history of life. Computational and statistical methods with that goal have recently seen an explosion in complexity and power. While exciting, this … Continue reading Searching for my (paleo)buddies

besmeeApril 19, 2023April 19, 2023Leave a comment

Robert May Prize

Increasing the accessibility of genetic sequencing with ISSRseq

Post provided by Sandra J. Simon Working with a Genetic Model During my PhD at West Virginia University (WVU), I worked with the genetic models in the family Salicaceae, such as Populus trichocarpa,to understand the relationship between plant genetics and biotic interactions. Let’s take a moment to focus on what makes P. trichocarpa a good species to use as a genetic model by comparing it … Continue reading Increasing the accessibility of genetic sequencing with ISSRseq

besmeeApril 17, 2023April 17, 2023Leave a comment

Journal Issues

Our April issue is out now!

Our April issue is now online now! This issue contains 11 articles about the latest methods in ecology and evolution including machine learning, mitochondrial gene extraction, robot birds and much more! Featured Articles The popularity of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) has risen sharply in recent years. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the field of ML and DL, summarizing … Continue reading Our April issue is out now!

besmeeApril 12, 2023Leave a comment

Statistical methods

ENphylo: A new method to model the distribution of extremely rare species

Post provided by Pasquale Raia (he/him), Alessandro Mondanaro (he/him), Mirko Di Febbraro (he/him), Marina Melchionna (she/her) and Silvia Castiglione (she/her) Back in 2001 Sally Duncan, a quite prolific science writer, published on Science Findings, one of the Oregon-based Pacific Northwest Research Station’s public resources, an exquisitely assembled report focusing on a fundamental issue in ecology, the definition, perception and meaning of ecological rarity. To ecologists … Continue reading ENphylo: A new method to model the distribution of extremely rare species

besmeeApril 5, 2023April 5, 2023Leave a comment

Statistical methods

FOSSILS: free, fast, and open-source biomechanical modelling

Post provided by Narimane Chatar (She/Her) Romain Boman (He/Him), Valentin Fallon Gaudichon (He/Him), Jamie A. MacLaren (He/Him), Valentin Fischer (He/Him).

Understanding the way that bones and other biological materials deal with the stresses and strains of everyday life is fundamental for interpreting the behaviour of modern and extinct organisms. Researchers frequently do this by using a digital simulation which can predict the behaviour of materials by breaking complex objects down into much smaller elements – this is known as finite element modelling. In this blog post, Narimane Chatar and her co-authors discuss their new protocol for performing finite element modelling aimed at life-sciences and biomechanics which is fast, open-source, and free for all to use.

Ben WhittakerMarch 28, 2023March 28, 2023Leave a comment

Robert May Prize

Robert May Early Career Researcher Shortlist Announced

The Robert May Prize is awarded to the best paper written by in the journal by an author at the start of their research career. With entries spanning out 13th volume our senior editors have selected the following 8 papers. Tanya Strydom with Food web reconstruction through phylogenetic transfer of low-rank network representation Sandra Simon with ISSRseq: An extensible method for reduced representation sequencing Carrie … Continue reading Robert May Early Career Researcher Shortlist Announced

besmeeMarch 21, 2023April 5, 2023Leave a comment

Journal Issues

Our March issue is out now!

Our March issue is now online now! This issue contains 23 articles about the latest methods in ecology and evolution, including a special feature on Methods in Ecological forecasting, fossils citizen science and much more! Read to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our cover. Ecological niche modelling (ENM), species distribution modelling and related spatial analytical methods were first developed in … Continue reading Our March issue is out now!

besmeeMarch 13, 2023April 5, 20231 Comment

Statistical methods

voluModel: a new R package to model species distributions in 3 dimensions

Post provided by Hannah Owens (she/her)

One of the base units of analysis for biogeography and conservation science is the species range map. Once we know where a species is, we can ask questions like “Why is it there?”, “How did it get there?”, or “What can we do to make this place better for it?” Especially these days, I am very interested in mapping marine fish distributions, which, it turns out, is not as simple as mapping terrestrial species.

Ben WhittakerMarch 1, 2023February 21, 20231 Comment

Field Methods

Reconsidering how we measure forests with LiDAR

Post provided by Jeff W. Atkins (he/him)

Ecological researchers have adopted light detection and ranging (LiDAR) as a means of quantifying ecosystem structure over the past 25+ years. This is especially true in forest-related research, as LiDAR provides the ability to estimate ecosystem structure with incredibly fine detail, over broad areas. LiDAR can work at the scale of individual trees—for example crown delineation algorithms that identify singular tree canopies—or the stand-level with aggregate structural metrics. In this blog post, Jeff shares insight from he and his co-author’s recent publication “Scale dependency of LiDA R -derived forest structural diversity,” which proposes that using LiDAR requires statistical reassessment to ensure we are measuring what we think we are.

Ben WhittakerFebruary 16, 2023February 14, 20231 Comment