Key Concepts in Ecology: Adaptations to variable environments

This blog post on ‘Adaptations to variable environments’ is part of the BES ‘Key Concepts in Ecology’ series, designed to help ecologists in learning the key topics in ecology! Take a look at the full series for a list of key topics you might typically find in an ecology textbook, each providing a quick introduction to the topic, and a list of suggested papers for … Continue reading Key Concepts in Ecology: Adaptations to variable environments

besmeeJanuary 17, 2024January 31, 2024Leave a comment

Cover Image Stories, Ecology, Practical Tools

The buzzOmeter: Recording buzzing insects in motion

Post provided by Marta Skowron Volponi Has the buzzing sound of a wasp flying past your ear ever made you recoil in fear of being stung? What if these buzzes are a warning display aimed at potential predators, just like the bees’ and wasps’ bright colouration that sends a message: “don’t touch me, I’m dangerous”? Or perhaps they are audio messages meant for other wasps? … Continue reading The buzzOmeter: Recording buzzing insects in motion

besmeeDecember 7, 2023December 8, 2023Leave a comment

Statistical methods

Random errors are neither: interpretation of correlated data

Post provided by Anthony Ives

It was a true privilege to be asked to write the inaugural E. C. Pielou Review for Methods in Ecology and Evolution. The first ecology book I bought as an undergraduate was her Ecological Diversity (1975) which still sits on my bookshelf full of marginalia. Both ecology and evolution have long and rich histories of theoretical and empirical work, yet sometimes theory and observation have been only loosely connected. Pielou’s work made it possible to link theory and observation more tightly by providing quantitative, statistical metrics to describe patterns in the world that can be related back to theory.

Ben WhittakerJanuary 18, 2023January 17, 20231 Comment

Conservation and management, Field Methods

Understanding climate change through animal song

Post provided by Diego Llusia (he/him), Camille Desjonquères (she/her) and Sara Víllen-Peréz (she/her)

Many species produce sound as a means of communication, emitting calls or songs to broadcast information to others in the surrounding area. In this blog post, Diego Llusia, Camille Desjonquères, and Sara Víllen-Peréz discuss their research on recording animal calls and how these soundtracks can be used to help monitor the impacts of climate change.

Ben WhittakerOctober 10, 20221 Comment

Code and Applications

How to write clean code

Alessandro Filazzola & Christopher Lortie tell us about their new article ‘A call for clean code to effectively communicate science‘, which provides a series of recommendations and a suite of tools that can be used to help support scientists to produce cleaner code. Can you clearly understand the code that you have written? What about if you gave it to a colleague? Or a reviewer? … Continue reading How to write clean code

India StephensonSeptember 12, 2022September 12, 20221 Comment

Journal Issues

September 2022 Issue Out Now!

Our September issue is now online! This issue contains 22 articles about the latest methods in ecology and evolution, including methods for using the US National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), measuring understory vegetation structure, inducing cancer in invertebrates and much more! Read on to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our magical marine cover. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) In this … Continue reading September 2022 Issue Out Now!

India StephensonSeptember 5, 2022Leave a comment

Journal Issues

July 2022 Issue Out Now!

Our July Issue is now online! This issue contains 20 articles about the latest methods in ecology and evolution, including methods for characterising soil bacterial biodiversity, identifying fish species in fish markets using eDNA, standarising and cleaning biodiversity data and much more! Plus, read the editorial about our switch to a gold open access model this month. Read on to find out about this month’s featured articles … Continue reading July 2022 Issue Out Now!

India StephensonJuly 4, 2022July 4, 2022Leave a comment

LGBTQ+

Another year ALDER, another year wiser.

Pride Month is almost over, and to round off this year’s wonderful Rainbow Research blog series we are pleased to host this post from Lewis Bartlett announcing the launch of the ALDER Network: the British Ecological Society’s relaunched LGBTQIA+ Network. Hello readers! Welcome to my second year in a row getting to write a Rainbow Research blog post for the BES, and this Pride month … Continue reading Another year ALDER, another year wiser.

India StephensonJune 30, 2022August 9, 2022Leave a comment

Theoretical methods

Hidden Markov models have pitfalls…

…but also opportunities! Hidden Markov models (HMMs) and their extensions are attractive methods for analysing ecological data. In recent years, a variety of extensions of the basic model have been proposed, yielding great opportunities for ecological inference. Yet, as these models become more complex and challenging to understand, it is important to consider what pitfalls these methods have and what opportunities there are for future … Continue reading Hidden Markov models have pitfalls…

India StephensonMay 19, 2022Leave a comment

Robert May Prize

Spatial thinning and class balancing: Key choices lead to variation in the performance of species distribution models with citizen science data

Post provided by Valerie Steen

Each year Methods in Ecology and Evolution awards the Robert May Prize to the best paper published in the journal by an author at the start of their career. Ten Early Career Researchers made the shortlist for this year’s prize, including Valerie Steen who is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Oregon State University in the USA. In this interview, Valerie shares insights on her paper ‘Spatial thinning and class balancing: Key choices lead to variation in the performance of species distribution models with citizen science data’.

Ben WhittakerApril 14, 2022Leave a comment

Methods Blog

Tag: Ecology