Nick Dusic 1978
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The BulletinYOUR MAGAZINE FROM THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY inFOCUS Photo: Frazer Bird The BES Roadies hit the Wychwood Festival n June. Will Gosling helps budding ecologists match the poo to the animal. Contents August 2013 OFFICERS AND COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 2012-3 REGULARS President: Georgina Mace Welcome / Alan Crowden 4 President Elect: Bill Sutherland Vice-Presidents: Richard Bardgett, President’s Piece / Georgina Mace 6 Mick Crawley Honorary Treasurer: Drew Purves Ecology Education and Careers / Karen Devine and Olivia Richardson 18 Council Secretary: Dave Hodgson Honorary Chairpersons: Science Policy 20 Andrew Beckerman (Meetings) Alan Gray (Publications) Special Interest Group News 23 Lesley Batty (Education, Training and Careers) The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management / Sally Hayns 44 Juliet Vickery (Public and Policy) Richard Bardgett (Grants) Rant and Reason / Markus Eichhorn 46 ORDINARY MEMBERS Publishing News 48 OF COUNCIL: Retiring David Coomes, Thomas Ezard, 2013 Book Reviews 52 Rosemary Hails Diary 60 Emma Goldberg, 2014 William Gosling, Ruth Mitchell Julia Blanchard, 2015 Greg Hurst, Paul Raven FEATURES Emma Sayer, Owen Lewis, 2016 Science Policy Special Event / Martin Smith 8 Matt O’Callaghan Bulletin Editor: Alan Crowden INTECOL 2013 15 48 Thornton Close, Girton, Cambridge CB3 0NG Sun, Fun and Ecology / The BES Roadies 12 Tel: 07801 068458 Email: Nick Dusic 1978-2013 22 [email protected] The Quiet Places / Rose Hanley-Nickolls 28 Associate Editor: Emma Sayer Department of Environment, Earth LWEC Climate Change Impacts Report Card on Terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecosystems, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA / Mike Morecroft 31 Email: [email protected] The Field Studies Council at 70 / Cathy Preston 34 Book Reviews Editor: Peter Thomas School of Life Sciences, Huxley ‘There is an App for that’: the next level of Ecological mobile technology Building, Keele University, Keele, / Yoseph Araya 36 Staffordshire ST5 5B Tel: 01782 733497 Email: [email protected] Patterns, Paradigms, and Preconceptions / John Wiens 39 PUBLISHING IN From our Southern Correspondent / Richard Hobbs 41 THE BES BULLETIN The Bulletin is published four times Minutes of the 32nd Annual General Meeting 61 a year in March, June, August and December. Contributions of all types Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2012 together with Council’s and auditor’s reports 62 are welcomed, but if you are planning to write we recommend you contact one of the editorial team in advance to discuss your plans (Bulletin@ BritishEcologicalSociety.org). Material should be sent to the editor by email or on a disk in Word or rtf format. Pictures should be sent as jpeg or TIFF (*tif) files suitable for printing at 300dpi. Books to be considered for review should be sent directly to the Book Reviews Editor Peter Thomas. Cover: Marabou storks (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) roosting in the Masai Mara, Kenya Photo: Alan Crowden Design: Neo (weareneo.com) Print Management: H2 Associates (Cambridge) Ltd. 3 BES BULLETIN VOL 44:3 / AUGUST 2013 WELCOME The British Ecological Society is the oldest ecological society Making in the world, having been established in 1913. Since 1980 it has been a Registered Charity Ecology Count limited by guarantee. Membership is open to all who are genuinely interested in ecology, whether in August in London, and another global event where the British Isles or abroad, and excellence, respect and friendship will be to the fore. membership currently stands at about 3700, about half of whom are based outside the UK. Rather against expectations, in August last year Is all this effort worth it? Well, when MPs The Society holds a variety of the great British public engaged enthusiastically and Peers take the trouble to come along meetings each year. The Annual with the 2012 Olympics. While the 11th to hear what ecologists have to say about Meeting attracts a wide range of papers, often by research International Congress of Ecology will generate extreme events, when families spend festival- students, and includes a series slightly less excitement among the populace going time in a tent watching a bumblebee of informal specialist group at large, for ecologists it will be every bit as colony, when schoolchildren draw pictures and discussions; whereas the Annual stimulating as the table tennis, fencing and compose odes to wildlife, the answer must be Symposium and many other weightlifting that were played out 12 months yes. Advancing Ecology is not just a matter smaller meetings are usually ago at the ExCeL centre, our conference of doing our research. It is convincing other more specialised and include venue. This year it will be ideas batted to and people that it counts. invited speakers from around the fro, the sparring will be verbal and hopefully world. the weights lifted will be ideas, collaborations Much of the rest of this issue reinforces the Proceedings of some of these and new initiatives. London will again host role that ecologists play in the wider world. meetings are published by the brightest and best from across the world; European fisheries policy has more to do with the Society in its Ecological established stars will have a chance to shine politics than commonsense, but the importance Reviews book series. The Society and new talent will suddenly blossom on the of science in providing a sound basis for the distributes free to all members, four times a year, the Bulletin big stage. political debate was never more obvious (p20). Rose Hanley-Nickolls gives us a delightful which contains news and views, meeting announcements, a You’ll have to forgive my hyperbole. The BES account of the efforts to restore to New Zealand comprehensive diary and many Centenary events are now in full swing and the “melodious wild musick” heard by Joseph other features. In addition the activities that have been in the planning for Banks in 1770 (p28). Mike Morecroft (p31) Society produces five scientific months or even years are coming to fruition. explains the process of producing a climate journals. The Journal of Ecology, We’ve tried to give you a taste of most of change impacts report card that will summarise Journal of Animal Ecology, them in this issue and the last, but with the the key science for non-specialists. The Field Journal of Applied Ecology and Festival of Ecology underway and the INTECOL Studies Council does an invaluable job linking Functional Ecology are sold at Congress imminent, life is so hectic that some ecology and natural history for both amateur a discounted rate to members. Methods in Ecology and Evolution of the reporting of events will have to wait for and professional biologists: the FSC is 70 is free to BES members. The the next issue. But for now we have coverage this year (p34). While old traditions are to Society also supports research of the launch of the Ecological Issues booklet be celebrated we must not lose sight of the and ecological education with at the Palace of Westminster (p8) and a report plethora of new equipment being added to the grant aid. Further details about from the Wychwood Festival, where a group ecologists’ toolbox, so Yoseph Araya brings us the Society and membership can of intrepid volunteers spent their weekend up to date on Apps for ecologists (though no be obtained from the Executive swabbing festival-goers, cajoling them to play doubt more have been added since he wrote Director (address inside back a poo game and providing assistance with his piece on p36). Our two regular essayists cover). identifying creepy-crawlies from around the both glance back to the past for messages The Bulletin circulates exclusively Festival site. Brilliant outreach work! Emma which will apply equally well in the future to members of the British Sayer says that BES stickers were applied to (John Wiens on p39, Richard Hobbs on p41). Ecological Society. It carries nearly 1000 visitors’ lapels, though it is not Markus Eichhorn has a rant about lack of clarity information on meetings and recorded whether this was part of a human in scientific papers (p46). The proximity of other activities, comment mark-recapture experiment (p12). Karen Markus’ rant and the reports on BES journals and other topical items. Devine reports on the Centenary Wallchart (p48) and our book reviews section (p52) is Unsigned commentaries are the responsibility of the Editor and competition that attracted over 300 entries purely coincidental. do not necessarily represent the (p18). As you will see on the back cover, views of the Society. the Chelsea Flower Show also celebrates a The annual report and accounts are presented centenary this year, and the shared anniversary from p62-80. I urge you to read the report, A Limited Company, registered was celebrated with a BES stand at the event. which details the achievements of the Society in England No. 1522897 and a Ken Thompson designed the stand with and the challenges that have to be addressed Reistered Charity No. 2812134. planting styles characteristic of 1913 and 2013, in maintaining the health and vitality of our Registered Office: Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger Street, London with an overarching theme alerting visitors to publications, meetings and other events. WC1N 2JU the threats posed by invasive species. Council and BES employees work hard on 4 britishecologicalsociety.org behalf of us all; if you want to make your own contribution, consider standing for Council. LETTER TO THE EDITOR And don’t wait until you are old and grey; we need elected representatives that reflect the FROM ALAN GRAY membership, and besides, I read somewhere On Desert Island Discs that being a postdoc was the most productive time of a research career (Bulletin 42:2 p37, to (Published in the Bulletin of June 2013) be exact) so how about donating some of your time and energy to making the BES a Society I thoroughly enjoyed R.