Our September issue contains a new Special Feature: Reconciling resilience across ecological systems, species and subdisciplines. This cross-journal special feature presents 30 fascinating articles published in Journal of Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology and Functional Ecology, including the accompanying Editorial article. This Special Feature was overseen by Editors Pol Capdevila, Iain Stott and Rob Salguero-Gómez.
We are hosting a webinar on Ecological Resilience to accompany this Special Feature on 29 September. You can find out more and register for the event here. Tickets are FREE for British Ecological Society members.
This issue also includes research considering the role of plant–pollinator interactions in structuring nectar microbial communities and a paper reporting that rainfall event size and timing uniquely alter ecosystem dynamics .
The Editor’s Choice article for this issue is “Contribution of microbial photosynthesis to peatland carbon uptake along a latitudinal gradient” by Hamard, Céréghino, Barret, Sytiuk, Lara, Dorrepaal, Kardol, Küttim, Lamentowicz, Leflaive, Le Roux, Tuittila, & Jassey.
This research found that phototrophic microbes are extremely diverse and abundant in peatlands. While species turnover with environmental conditions, microbial photosynthesis similarly contributed to peatland carbon uptake at all latitudes. The authors estimated that phototrophic microbes take up around 75 MT CO2 per year in northern peatlands. This amount roughly equals the magnitude of projected peatland C loss due to climate warming and highlights the importance of phototrophic microbes for the peatland C cycle.
You can find out more about this research in our Editor’s Choice blog by Johannes M H Knops (to be published shortly).
The cover image relates to the Special Feature research article “Drought resistance and resilience: The role of soil moisture–plant interactions and legacies in a dryland ecosystem” by Hoover, Pfennigwerth, & Duniway.
The cover photograph, taken by David Hoover, shows experimental drought shelters located in a mixed grass-shrubland on the Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah, USA. The shelters intercept 66% of ambient rainfall to create a seasonal drought in either the warm-season (May to October) or cool-season (November to April).
You can find out more about this image in our new Cover Stories blog.
Here you can view a gallery of photographs related to Journal of Ecology and Journal of Animal Ecology articles featured in our Special Feature on Ecological Resilience!