No training necessary: Shark tracking simplified

Post provide Chinmay Keshava Lalgudi. Drone imagery offers an efficient way to gather data on mobile animals. Drones are used for population surveys, creating 3D models of habitat, and even studying how animals move and behave in their environment. While collecting this data is relatively easy, manually annotating it is painstaking and slow. Analysing drone imagery can often mean spending hours in front of a … Continue reading No training necessary: Shark tracking simplified

Our August issue is out now!

This issue contains the latest methods in ecology and evolution. Read to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our cover! Featured Empirical ecology to support mechanistic modelling: Different objectives, better approaches and unique benefits Making mechanistic models credible requires empirical studies, but traditional study topics and designs often do not support them well. The models we use for modern problems need … Continue reading Our August issue is out now!

Our July Issue is out now!

This issue contains the latest methods in ecology and evolution. Read to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our cover! Featured MicroEcoTools: An R package for comprehensive theoretical microbial ecology analysis Authors introduce MicroEcoTools, an R package designed to test ecological framework predictions using microbial community data. It assesses microbial diversity and evaluates the relative impacts of stochastic and deterministic … Continue reading Our July Issue is out now!

False Causes, Meet Attractor Dimension

Post provided by Yair Daon Who am I? I’m Yair Daon, a mathematician-turned-epidemiologist at Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Medicine. Most days I stare at time-series curves that claim one thing “drives” another. When those claims are wrong, public-health decisions can drift off course. Our new Methods in Ecology & Evolution paper introduces a fast way to shout “no!” before that happens. A two-minute primer for … Continue reading False Causes, Meet Attractor Dimension

Our June Issue is out now!

This issue contains the latest methods in ecology and evolution, including papers from the special feature Innovation in Practice. Read to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our cover! Featured ECKOchain: A FAIR blockchain‐based database for long‐term ecological data Open data practices in ecology are increasingly accepted, yet primary long-term ecological data remain hard to find. To incentivise open primary ecological … Continue reading Our June Issue is out now!

Capturing diversity below the species level using HyRAD : a nuclear-DNA enrichment-based capture method (HyRAD) applied to environmental DNA.

Post provided by Stéphanie Manel. Why use HyRAD for eDNA capture? Traditional population genetics approaches require sampling tissue from individuals, which is problematic in aquatic environments where specimen collection is often challenging. Filtering water allows researchers to collect environmental DNA (eDNA), genetic material shed by organisms into their surroundings. Unlike approaches targeting a single DNA barcode, HyRAD allows for the capture of multiple nuclear DNA … Continue reading Capturing diversity below the species level using HyRAD : a nuclear-DNA enrichment-based capture method (HyRAD) applied to environmental DNA.

Our May Issue is out now!

This issue contains the latest methods in ecology and evolution. Read to find out about this month’s featured articles and the article behind our cover! Featured Impact of acoustic index parameters on soundscape comparisons Ecoacoustic indices are often used to characterise specific aspects of the acoustic environment. For several commonly used indices, the impacts of the parameter settings and sampling regimes on output values have … Continue reading Our May Issue is out now!

The best of both worlds: a predictive home range model for colonial animals combining biological realism with minimal data requirements.

Post provided by Holly Niven. I’m Holly, an ecology PhD student at the University of Glasgow, with a background in mathematics and physics. My research is in quantitative ecology, with a current focus on investigating the exposure of animals to disturbances in their environment and understanding the drivers of their population dynamics.  What are home ranges and why are they useful? Home ranges (HRs) describe … Continue reading The best of both worlds: a predictive home range model for colonial animals combining biological realism with minimal data requirements.

Expanding Our View: The Benthic Observation Survey System (BOSS).

Post provided by Brooke Gibbons. Marine scientists often rely on underwater cameras to survey seabed habitats, but traditional methods come with limitations—small fields of view, restricted coverage, and logistical constraints. Enter the Benthic Observation Survey System (BOSS): a new wide-field, self-righting drop-camera system that significantly expands our ability to survey and map the seafloor. The Need for Better Benthic Surveys Most existing platforms use downward … Continue reading Expanding Our View: The Benthic Observation Survey System (BOSS).

From Personal Reflections to Emerging Ecological Methods: My BES2024 Experience

Post provided by Sthandiwe Nomthandazo Kanyile The British Ecological Society (BES) held its Annual Meeting in Liverpool in December last year, attracting over 1,600 delegates from around the world! As the oldest ecological society in the world, the BES has a rich history of promoting ecological research, serving as a vital hub for scientists, practitioners, and conservationists across the globe. So, when plans were set … Continue reading From Personal Reflections to Emerging Ecological Methods: My BES2024 Experience