Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America最新文献

These photographs illustrate the article “18-year plant reproductive phenology dataset from Lambir, Borneo, including four large general flowering events” by Shoko Sakai, Teruyoshi Nagamitsu, Rhett D. Harrison, Tomoaki Ichie, Masahiro Nomura, Takakazu Yumoto, Hidetoshi Nagamasu, Pungga, Runi anak Sylvester, Takao Itioka, Tohru Nakashizuka. published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70053.

Rarely does the book have a title that not only tells you the subject but also invites you to discover its contents. The book is “Good Nature: why seeing, smelling, hearing and touching plants is good for your health” by Pegasus Books New York. The author is not just another nature enthusiast who believes that plants are important to our well-being. Kathy Willis CBE is a paleoecologist Professor of Biodiversity in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford. She was for 5 years the Director of Science at the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, United Kingdom. Her goal in Good Nature is to bring together the scientific literature that has an empirical basis for plants affecting our health. Of course, all of us know that eating plants, that is, vegetables, is important to our well-being.

Good Nature assembles the empirical and medical basis for some of the effects on our almost metaphysical senses, like seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling. This is not an approach like taking an herbal pill or hanging some crystal around your neck. It is about finding whether there is consistent empirical evidence of the natural environment affecting our well-being and then what exactly the interaction is between us and the environment. The goal is to find the physical basis of our reactions, for example, brain activity, blood pressure, fMRI, heart rate, level of stress hormones, lymphocyte levels, microbiota. Good Nature says we need to take seriously these effects of nature on our well-being and then encourage research so we can understand exactly how nature affects our health. If we can have a firm understanding of this connection, there are many medical activities we might do besides just walking in the woods or fields and that we can create a better natural environment. This is a book that is not simply about ecosystem services but how our environment reaches into us for health and wellness.

These photographs illustrate the article “Caatinga diaspores: a descriptive overview of dispersal units of seasonally dry tropical forests and woodlands” by Fabricio Francisco Santos da Silva, Edjane Silva Damasceno, Ramon Athayde de Souza Cavalcante, Francinete Alves do Nascimento, Mateus Brandão Prates, Luís Francisco Mello Coelho, Daniel Salgado Pifano and Renato Garcia Rodrigues. published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70024

This photograph illustrates the article “Habitat structure and an introduced predator limit the abundance of an endangered ground-nesting bird” by Parker, D.G., Cameron, M., Gordon, C.E., & Letnic, M. published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.3046

These photographs illustrate the article “Plant growth strategies and microbial contributions to ecosystem nitrogen retention along a soil acidification gradient” by Ying Zhang, Ruzhen Wang, Baitao Gu, Heyong Liu, Feike A. Dijkstra, Xingguo Han, Yong Jiang. published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4515

These photographs illustrate the article “Resting in Plain Sight: Dormancy Ecology of the Intermediate Snail Host of Schistosoma haematobium” by Naima C. Starkloff, Moses P. Mahalila, Safari Kinung'hi, and David J. Civitello published in Ecological Monographs. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4472

These photographs illustrate the article “Sparse subalpine forest recovery pathways, plant communities, and carbon stocks 34 years after stand-replacing fire” by Kiel, N. G., E. F. Mavencamp, and M. G. Turner published in Ecological Monographs. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1644.

Educating more students about ecology and its beneficial applications to societal issues is urgent yet challenging. To address this challenge, diversifying ecology education is a key way to make ecology more inclusive, accessible, and interdisciplinary for more people than ever. Advancing this goal requires ecology educators to develop a more expansive view of (1) how to engage more diverse undergraduate students in ecology courses, especially those from historically underrepresented groups and non-majors, (2) the interdisciplinarity of content in those courses, and (3) the learner-centered pedagogies used to engage students. We suggest ways that ecologists can advance “ecology education for everyone” including focusing on connecting ecology to students' everyday lives and local (urbanized) places; applying ecology to solving problems in social–ecological systems; introducing students to the diversity of worldviews about science and nature; and adopting authentic teaching practices such as course-based undergraduate research, service learning, and reflective practices. Through such efforts, ecology education can become more positivistic and pluralistic and help students better appreciate the value of ecology for society and use their ecological literacy to engage in improving local communities and ecosystems. Successful diversification of ecology education should also benefit the discipline of ecology as more diverse students decide to take more ecology courses, potentially pursue ecology-related careers, and support ecologically based decision-making for a more sustainable and environmentally just future for all people.

These photographs illustrate the article “Human presence alters the landscape of fear for a free-living mammal” by Chelsea A. Ortiz-Jimenez, Sophie Z. Conroy, Erin Person, Jasper DeCuir, Gabriella E C Gall, Andy Sih, and Jennifer E. Smith published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ECY.4499