Yeah, it's starting to feel unsustainable. I can usually find reviewers but it takes a lot of work and I normally try to secure three reviewers just to ensure two actually submit... And our journal has a pretty massive number of AEs, I wonder how other journals are coping.
Coming from a journal editor: if you accept to review a manuscript, please don't then turn down the invite to review the resubmission. I'm genuinely amazed that people do this. It creates a massive headache for me and messes up the process for the authors.
Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.
Excited to share a new article from the lab & wonderful co-authors.
We argue that habitat fragmentation research needs to be recalibrated to focus on changes over time.
We hope that doing so will advance understanding, isolate attribution, and diminish heated debate.
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Just out: RSPB reflect on their experience of the science-practice interface. Key messages: (1) trust & partnership are key to facilitate conservation impact, (2) in some contexts experiments are not desirable, & (3) economic & social feasibility of management vital tinyurl.com/5n6cz2f5
Key lessons included: (1) The need for clear but nuanced messaging, (2) the up-front costs, and long-term pay-off, of assessing & compiling evidence, (3) deciding when there is enough evidence, (4) how to fill knowledge gaps, and (5) embedding of evidence into organisational processes.
Another contribution by a Conservation Evidence alumnus, Tom White, investigates how The Biodiversity Consultancy integrates evidence use in their organisation. Their approach identifies where evidence is needed, defines how to review evidence robustness, and documents this use. tinyurl.com/3zdurdab
To be fair I also had my @eco-aeet.bsky.social tote bag as well, so I was repping them at the same time. A great society that's slowly starting to feel like my home away from home.
Had a fun day receiving acknowledgement of my Ikerbaque fellowship and briefly meeting the Basque president today, along with a few of my BC3 colleagues, all while repping my favourite academic society @britishecologicalsociety.org
📖 Published!
Conservation evidence is biased but can support decision-making for prevalent and severe threats in tetrapods🦓
Despite taxonomic and spatial biases, conservation evidence is available to support decision-making by practitioners🌍
🔎 buff.ly/MRPd8yj
Next up @alecchristie.bsky.social et al investigated spread of evidence-based conservation using job adverts & sci literature, finding that mentions in job adverts are increasing more rapidly than in grey and scientific literature, but prevalence in job listing remains low tinyurl.com/mraxbp72
Watch this space...
Yes, absolutely. I'm hopeful that some work I'm planning will help to disentangle the roles of different aspects like forest cover and fragmentation in forest restoration, but it'll likely be a while before we have an answer. It'd be great to hear your thoughts on this work James.
Yeah, I think even after all this time our paper is still one of the better syntheses on the topic. As James said though, the multi-taxa aspect of the new paper is cool, there aren't many primary studies that cover so many groups. Recovery times are gonna be highly context specific though.
Great news - tropical forests are resilient!
Long-term research in Ecuador's Chocó rainforest shows that nature bounced back quickly after deforested land was abandoned
Diversity and abundance of species reached 90% of original levels within 30 years
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Nice surprise to see not one, but two relatively good reviews for manuscripts drop into my inbox when I was on the way home too. A pretty perfect work day all round - hopefully I'll be posting about the papers soonish, one of which should be the first output of my working group on forest restoration
I don't think it's what's happening here, the differences feel quite large over relatively small scales. I don't think it's a question we'll be able to answer soon, but it'd be great to have some unplanted controls to compare with to estimate the potential benefits of planting.
Great to be out in the field today surveying our chronosequence of forest restoration plots planted by Fundación Lurgaia and nearby mature(ish) forests. Spring is really springing and natural regeneration is rapid in some plots but not others. Would love to work out why!
Ecological Solutions and Evidence is accepting proposals for their latest Special Feature!
They invite scientists and practitioners to share experiences from management projects that didn't turn out as expected, but still provided important insights into how best to manage ecosystems and species 🌱
TEN post-doc openings at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity. Yes, you read that right. TEN.
They're Nature's Contributions to People these days James, don't let the IPBES lot hear you!
I'm on the lookout for primary studies that directly compare natural regeneration and planting as methods for restoring forests. Do you know of any? If you do, drop me a reply so I can add them to my list.
⭐Nominate remarkable ecologists for our annual BES prizes⭐
Our awards recognise key influencers in our community whose work has benefited society and significantly advanced our understanding of the natural world🌿
Deadline for nominations is 19 April 🧪
www.britishecologicalsociety.org/bes-prizes/
Next up, a synthesis of systematic reviews on the impacts of environmental education. Aspects that consistently contribute to better outcomes: diverse teaching approaches, participatory methods, local focus, connecting with personal relevance, & collaborating with stakeholders. tinyurl.com/53y5x88a
The first one is the cracking paper on the lack of empirical scientific literature to back up claims of effectiveness of the Miyawaki method for forest restoration, which found that only 41% of studies of the method were quantitative, 13% used controls, & 6% were replicated shorturl.at/VVZox
It's fantastic to see the first papers for our @britishecologicalsociety.org journals Special Feature on "Twenty Years of Evidence Based Conservation" being published, you'll be able to find them here as they come out. I'll keep this 🧵updated as new papers appear shorturl.at/pNFi4
I've finally got round to reading 'The book of why' by Judea Pearl after hearing about it in @juliajones.bsky.social's talk at BES 2024 and it's blowing my mind. Lots to think about and I'm only just over halfway through.
I meant to say, I'm really sorry to hear this Corey. I know you knew him pretty well - I remembered sitting in a bar somewhere in Montpellier chatting to you about something you were working on with him.
Little interview on @resprofnews.bsky.social about the project I'm leading on forest restoration (funded by a @britishecologicalsociety.org synthesis grant) and the process of applying for it and building a team www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-funding-i...
Overall, this points to the need for context-dependant forest management at multiple scales. Fire prone regions should promote the use of species mixtures and stand structures that are resistant to fires, while regions where windthrow and bark beetles are problematic, mixed species stands may help.