Editor’s Choice (111:10): What determines the severity of Ash Dieback Disease?

The editor’s choice for our October issue is ‘Neighbours matter and the weak succumb: Ash dieback infection is more severe in ash trees with fewer conspecific neighbours and lower prior growth rate’ by David Cracknell et al. Here, Associate Editor Anne Kempel discusses the importance of this research: For nearly three decades, European woodlands have grappled with […]

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Revised 2021 and 2022 auction calendars published

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) published today the revised 2021 and 2022 EU ETS auction calendars. The published calendars reflect the operation of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) until 31 August 2022. Following the publication by the Commission on 12 May 2021 of the total number of allowances in circulation in 2020, auction volumes from […]

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Commission announces planning of the next calls for proposals

Preparations for the next calls for proposals under the Innovation Fund are well underway. As announced at the Innovation Fund Expert Group meeting on 6 July, the Commission plans to launch the second call for large-scale projects on 26 October, while the second call for small-scale projects is expected to be launched in March 2022. […]

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Plant defences as functional traits: A comparison across savannahs differing in herbivore specialization

Grime reviews are a series of Reviews honouring eminent ecologist J. Philip Grime. In this blog post, Tara Massad discusses her recent review ‘Plant defences as functional traits: A comparison across savannas differing in herbivore specialization‘, and the influence that Grime’s approaches to ecology had on her work: J.P. Grime’s development of the field of […]

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72 applications for the Innovation Fund’s 3rd small-scale call

The third call for small-scale projects launched under the Innovation Fund and with a grant budget of €100 million closed on 19 September 2023. The call was open to projects working on industrial decarbonisation solutions in the 27 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway that will further boost the deployment of pioneering innovative low-carbon technologies. […]

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Working together to tackle Invasive Alien Species in Argentina – The Applied Ecologist

A version of this post is available in Spanish here. Author Priscila Ana Powell shares insights from analysing case studies that use co-management to manage woody invasive alien species in Argentina. “Improving the long-term management of woody invasive alien plants (IAS) in Argentina requires the promotion of shared spaces and communication channels for co-designing and co-implementing […]

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Why does disturbance commonly favor exotic plants over their native counterparts?

Dean Pearson discusses his recent article ‘Exotic success following disturbance explained by weak native resilience and ruderal exotic bias‘: Setting the scene It’s a common refrain across regions, ecosystems, and continents: disturbance is a major driver of exotic plant invasions. But why is this the case? Even after decades of research exploring this topic, the […]

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Phil Grime’s impact on the present & future of plant ecology

In this post Reviews Editor, Jason Fridley, highlights papers from the third Grime Reviews series that honors the intellectual contributions of ecologist J. Philip (Phil) Grime and how they continue to inform our understanding of ecosystems, from trait-based adaptive evolution to food web dynamics and beyond: In Differences in trait-environment relationships: implications for community weighted […]

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Fire suppression results in lower-than-expected soil carbon gains in savanna

In this blog post, Corli Coetsee discusses her team’s research ‘Soil organic carbon is buffered by grass inputs regardless of woody cover or fire frequency in an African savanna‘: We are consistently being bombarded with messages on social media that planting trees is good, good because it can help save the Earth from climate change […]

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