Ecological Solutions and Evidence is thrilled to announce the winner of our annual Georgina Mace Prize! This award is given to an outstanding article published in the journal by an author at the start of their career. The winner was selected by our Senior Editors who had to choose from our list of highly impressive short-listed authors.
Winner: Kristy Ferraro
About the Research
Deer management is a commonly employed tool for restoring ecosystems in Scotland’s heavily managed landscapes. However, removing hundreds of thousands of deer carcasses also removes key elements from landscapes, like nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium, that would otherwise be recycled back into the soil. By measuring how much of these elements are lost when carcasses are removed from landscapes, Kristy and her team’s work shows how current culling practices could affect long-term soil health, plant life, and recovery efforts. They hope this work sparks discussion on how to manage deer in ways that support, rather than hinder, ecological restoration.
Editors’ Comments
People have removed many top predators from ecosystems, resulting in overabundant herbivores, which were once controlled by top predators. This has necessitated culling and/or hunting programs throughout much of the world, including in the United Kingdom. Hunters often remove carcasses to use for meat and other resources, and in doing so, they also remove rich sources of nutrients that would normally be recycled back into the ecosystem. Before this study by Ferraro and Hirt, we didn’t have any idea of the scale of nutrient removal. What is unique about this study is that the authors worked with non-profits and government agencies to obtain information about the number of deer carcasses removed from the Scottish landscape and applied ecosystem modelling to calculate nutrient losses at the country scale. The authors successfully argue that the nutrient losses could impede ecosystem recovery in these relatively nutrient-poor systems, and overall give food for thought on the unintended consequences of people taking over the top predator role in ecosystems. Aside from the science, the story behind the idea for the paper being conceived is captivating because it came about when two PhD students met each other at a BES Conference and hatched a plan to collaborate.
About the Winner
Dr. Kristy Ferraro is an ecosystem ecologist and conservation ethicist with interests in biogeochemistry, animal-ecosystem interactions, and the values that underpin conservation. She is currently a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Memorial University. She earned her Ph.D. at the Yale School of the Environment, her Master’s at Vanderbilt, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Berne. She is interested in all the way animals matter: from their role in ecosystem function to how we consider them in conservation. Her ecological explores how large mammals interact with carbon and nitrogen cycles while her conservation ethics work integrates philosophy into conservation.
Read the winning article ‘Missing carcasses, lost nutrients: Quantifying nutrient losses from deer culling practices in Scotland’ in Ecological Solutions and Evidence! You can also see our full list of shortlisted authors and their research in our virtual issue.
Kristy goes into more detail about her research and experience in ecology in her own blogpost which you can check out here!
