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On carnivorous plants, seed banks, and uncertainty

editor
3 February 2017
Plant demographers have it easy, as the saying goes. Plants don't move and their fates may be followed through time in permanent plots - as the photo of M. Paniw, taking measurements of Drosophyllum lusitanicum in a heathland patch, shows. What happens, though, to...

Editor's Choice January

editor
3 February 2017
2017, a new year of Oikos to kick-off with two selected contributions as editor’s choices for the January issue. The first EC is the forum by Houlahan and colleagues on the priority of prediction in ecological understanding . The authors provide series of argument to...

Cover February

editor
2 February 2017
The February cover shows a bull moose on Isle Roylae foraging on deciduous forage in early spring. Parikh et al. show that increasingly diverse diet is associated with better nutritional status in "The influence of plant defensive chemicals, diet composition, and...

Welcome German Orizaola as new SE

editor
30 January 2017
We have the great pleasure to welcome Dr German Orizaola, Uppsala Univeristy to our Editorial Board. You can read more about German on his website www.gorizaola.wordpress.com and of course in myinterview with him below. What's you main research focus at the moment? My...

Plant Diversity and Decomposition

editor
24 January 2017
CO2 becomes plant biomass through photosynthesis and then returns to the atmosphere through respiration, including the decomposition of this biomass, forming the basis of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Research has shown that higher biodiversity of plants can increase...

Meta-analyses on sub-lethal effects of hypoxia

editor
13 January 2017
Findings from this meta-analysis, led by graduate students Allison Hrycik (@ahrycik) and Zoe Almeida (@almeida_zoe), suggest that the biologically relevant threshold of hypoxia for fish is 4.5 mg/l of dissolved oxygen. This is higher than the ‘typical’ definition of...

December Cover

editor
20 December 2016
The photo on the December cover relates to the study "Immune gene variability influences roe deer natal dispersal" by Cecile Vapné and co-workers. "The photo is taken by Olivier Villa. It shows a roe buck in a meadow. This roe buck seems particurlary healthy and in...

Editor's Choice December

editor
6 December 2016
We chose the forum paper of Siteur and colleagues as our first EC for the December issue. The forum focusses on how relevant deviations from steady-state may change predictions of critical transitions and resilience in current ecosystem models. Such a perspective is...

Editor's Choice November

editor
29 November 2016
Dear Oikos-followers. It has been a long time since we updated you on the papers that were selected as editor’s choice. In November, editor’s choices were two research papers. Jakub Szymkowiak tested the intriguing hypothesis that birds may use specific social...

Where do arctic foxes go in winter?

editor
25 November 2016
Tracking wild carnivores is never easy. They are fast, elusive, often nocturnal, and rarely abundant. This task can be even more daunting when a species is too small to wear a tracking device that is remotely heavy or if individuals have the ability to travel very long...

Can single species responses predict community change under global warming?

editor
25 November 2016
In previous experiments we grew grassland mesocosms in sunlit controlled growth chambers under different climate conditions. We investigated whether grassland species would maintain their current level of stress resistance when the global climate continues to change...

Life balance - to eat or be eaten?

editor
24 November 2016
Food availability and predation risk can have drastic impacts on animal behaviour and populations. The trade-off between foraging and predator avoidance is fundamental for survival of animals and will strongly modify individual body mass, since large fat reserves are...

November cover

editor
18 November 2016
The photo on the November cover shows "a masked flowerpiercer (Diglossa cyanea) robbing the flowers of Oreocallis grandiflora (Proteaceae) in Manu National Park, Peru. Avian nectar robbing has the potential to elicit trait-mediated indirect effects on plants by...

On Mixotrophy

editor
28 October 2016
Bacteria appear not to be aware of the paradigm shift in the 'microbial loop'. There is a new player in the game, he is pigmented, he is efficient, he is flexible - 'The Mixotroph'." Read more about the success of mixotrophs, here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...

What happens when the neighbour is eaten?

editor
21 October 2016
An important current focus in ecology is to better understand how species interactions can change in response to biotic and abiotic contexts. Herbaceous plants in many forests of the world face increased impacts from growing ungulate herbivore populations. However not...

Field work at home - in the tropics

editor
18 October 2016
Most biologists in temperate countries wonder how it is to study ecological systems in megadiverse tropical countries. Yes, it is thrilling, a true privilege. By walking in pristine tropical forests, savannas, and grasslands sometimes you have a sensation similar to a...

Field work at home - in the tropics

editor
18 October 2016
Most biologists in temperate countries wonder how it is to study ecological systems in megadiverse tropical countries. Yes, it is thrilling, a true privilege. By walking in pristine tropical forests, savannas, and grasslands sometimes you have a sensation similar to a...

Species richness and biomass-how are they related?

editor
13 September 2016
Figure 1: More diverse assemblages of herbivores, like these algal grazers living on seagrass, produce more grazer biomass. Hundreds of experiments have shown that changes in species richness affect the biomass of a species assemblage. Have they converged on a single...

Welcome EriK T Aschehoug - new SE

editor
9 September 2016
We are very happy to welcome Erik T Aschehoug from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Get to know him on his website: http://aschehouglab.com/about.html and in my interview with him: What's your main research focus at the moment? Most of my work is focused on...

INTEGRATING TOOLS OF ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY AND NUTRITIONAL GEOMETRY

editor
6 September 2016
Background: ES/NG working group at Woodstoich III Upon meeting at the Woodstoich III workshop in Sydney, Australia in the summer of 2014, we and four other working groups sought to explore connections between ecological stoichiometry (ES), nutritional geometry (NG),...

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