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Severe geographic bias in pollination studies

drupaladmin
4 April 2014
The majority of pollination studies are performed in five countries, non of which in Africa. How does this bias affect application of the research in various geographic regions? Find out in the Forum paper in the April Issue of Oikos " Economic and ecological...

Metapopulation modeling of endangered rabbits

editor
1 April 2014
Can hard-to-detect individuals of an endangered and declining population allow for testing of some of the major tenets of metapopulation theory while contributing to conservation efforts? A new multi-season occupancy model combined with observations on the Lower Keys...

Meta-community structure in rodent parasites

editor
28 March 2014
What are the roles of host phylogeny, transmission variables, and host traits in molding parasite metacommunity structure? Find out in the new Early View paper “Relative importance of host environment, transmission potential and host phylogeny to the structure of...

Effects of small mammal outbreaks in Serengeti

editor
25 March 2014
After more than 50 years of research into the ecology of large herbivores and predators in the greater Serengeti ecosystem, you might think that we know almost everything there is to know about this tropical savanna ecosystem. But in our article, “ Episodic outbreaks...

Life hots up for long-tailed tits

editor
25 March 2014
The winner of the Global warming is – The long-talked tit! Read more in the Early View paper “Climate change and annual survival in a temperate passerine: partitioning seasonal effects and predicting future patterns” by Philippa Gullet and colleagues. Below is the...

Effect of coffee farming on soil biota

editor
18 March 2014
What happens in the soil when forests are replaced by monocultures? Find out in the Early View paper “ Habitat-specific positive and negative effects of soil biota on seedling growth in a fragmented tropical montane landscape” by Camila Pizano and co-workers. Below is...

Bigger fishes are more predictable

editor
14 March 2014
How accurate are different forecast models for predicting population dynamics? That, and how predictable various animals actually are, was tested in the study "Complexity is costly: a meta-analysis of parametric and non-parametric methods for short-term population...

Top-preadtor effects on variable environments

editor
14 March 2014
Thanks to giant water bugs’ ferocious feeding habits and their extreme natural environment, authors Kate S. Boersma and colleagues, now have a greater understanding of how biological communities may respond to predator extinctions under increasing global environmental...

Which fruit should I eat?

editor
11 March 2014
Which fruit should I eat? - A decision both migratory and resident birds have to make over and over each autumn. This decision - and the consequences of it is studied in the Early View paper " Consistency and reciprocity of indirect interactions between tree species...

Ecosystem engineering in food-webs

editor
11 March 2014
Ecosystem engineering, the physical modification of the environment by organisms, may well be the most common kind of non-trophic interaction - nearly as ubiquitous as eating and being eaten, and often as influential. Because species are affected by the physical...

Modelling of human-driven changes in meta-communities

editor
7 March 2014
What will happen at the meta-community level with all exposure to human activities in various ecosystems? To answer this, Anne Teyssèdre and Alexandre Robert have simulated alternatives, presented in the Early View study " Contrasting effects of habitat reduction,...

Factors affecting carbon cycling in Sphagnum

editor
4 March 2014
Now on Early View: A study about functional traits in Sphagnum and how it affects carbon cycling. “Tradeoffs and scaling of functional traits in Sphagnum as drivers of carbon cycling in peatlands” by C.G. Laing and co-workers. Below is the author’s own summary of the...

Ecological networks and inference

editor
4 March 2014
If many mouths eat a lot of a not so preferable foot item - i.e. large numbers of city rats happen to live underground where they only have access to garbage-like food items - this does not tell us that another foot item not accessible to the crowd is genuinely much...

Welcome Martijn Bezemer, new SE

editor
28 February 2014
We're very happy to welcome Dr Martijn Bezemer, NIOO-KNAW, the Netherlands to our editorial board. Martijn, what's your main research focus at the moment? My main research focus is on aboveground-belowground interactions. I study how (i) soil biota (ii) manipulations...

Editor's Choice Feb-March 2014

editor
28 February 2014
For the February and March issue we have selected three articles as Editor’s choices that are currently open access. We selected papers that are at the heart of our publication mission, so papers that aim at providing synthesis in ecology. The work by Sergio Estay and...

Invasive flowers, pollinators and native flowers

editor
25 February 2014
How different kinds of ecological aspects affect the future of invasive plants is studied in the Early View paper: “Neighborhood-contingent indirect interactions between native and exotic plants: multiple shared pollinators mediate reproductive success during invasions...

Cows and rabbits change plant growth via the soil

editor
25 February 2014
How does grazing affect the soil? Find out in the Early View paper "Grazing-induced changes in plant–soil feedback alter plant biomass allocation" by Ciska van Veen and co-workers. Cows and rabbits, feed on plants. With that they change plant growth directly, for...

Top downloaded 2013 papers

editor
25 February 2014
Recently, Wiley released the list over most downloaded Oikos papers during 2013. Many of the papers are familiar titles, that were published a few years ago. However, two of the papers published during 2013 actually managed to climb the ladder and take place among the...

Bottom-up effects of hybridization

editor
21 February 2014
A hybridization event at the bottom of the food chain may affect organisms several steps up the chain. Read more in the early View paper: "Bottom–up regulates top–down: the effects of hybridization of grass endophytes on an aphid herbivore and its generalist predator"...

HoH HoH HoH: Santa Claus has brought a new tool for ecological synthesis

editor
18 February 2014
Ecological synthesis is tricky. One of its many challenges is that empirical data rarely paint a clear picture either supporting or refuting a given hypothesis. More typically, empirical studies have diverging results. But even for hypotheses where refuting evidence is...

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