12 July 2019

Site specificity and attachment mode of Symcallio and Calliobothrium species (Cestoda: “Tetraphyllidea”) in smoothhound sharks of the genus Mustelus (Carcharhiniformes: Triakidae)

"Attachment to the host is a major problem faced by any parasite. This innovative paper provides new information about two cestodes of sharks with contrasting morphologies."

Jean-Lou Justine, Handling Editor

28 May 2019

Secondary Succession under invasive species (Pteridium aquilinum) conditions in a seasonal dry tropical forest in southeastern Mexico

"The issue of invasive species has global importance. Additionally, P. aquilinum has a wide distribution and can have detrimental effect on biodiversity, by hindering the establishment of native species."

Tatiana Tatarinova, Handling Editor

27 May 2019

Hierarchical generalized additive models in ecology: an introduction with mgcv

"A very useful article for researchers looking at using GAMs with clustered or longitudinal data, and one that, despite the title, will be valuable to those working both within and outside ecology."

Andrew Gray, Handling Editor

9 April 2019

From climate zone to microhabitat—environmental factors affecting the coastal distribution of tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) in the south-eastern European biodiversity hotspot

"Great analysis of an often-threatened group of insects. More of this type of work is needed across many taxa."

Dezene Huber, Section Editor

2 April 2019

Mahalanobis distances and ecological niche modelling: correcting a chi-squared probability error

"This paper identifies an important mistake in a known method and clarifies the literature."

Jason Blackburn, Handling Editor

7 March 2019

Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests

"This is a very well designed and communicated study looking at native and exotic urban tree species and the invertebrate communities they support with regards to their functional role in urban ecological processes"

Stephen Livesley, Handling Editor

5 March 2019

DNA metabarcoding allows non-invasive identification of arthropod prey provisioned to nestling Rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus)

"Really novel use of this emerging technology."

Dezene Huber, Section Editor

28 February 2019

A data science challenge for converting airborne remote sensing data into ecological information

"This paper describes a rigorous comparison of multiple remote-sensing methods that have the potential to advance the application of remote sensing data to ecology."

Alison Boyer, Handling Editor

28 February 2019

Remote sensing tree classification with a multilayer perceptron

"Species classification in remote-sensing is an open problem and this paper advances the field by demonstrating the effectiveness of the MLP method in this particular case study. I expect other papers will follow on to test it in other ecosystems."

Alison Boyer, Handling Editor

27 February 2019

The nectar report: quantitative review of nectar sugar concentrations offered by bee visited flowers in agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes

"Considering the concern (and often reality) of global pollinator declines, it is interesting that the quality of nectar offering by wild and cultivated plants across a geographical range has not been much considered. This paper, as the authors point out, is a good first step in this direction and may help to set the trajectory for further studies."

Dezene Huber, Section Editor