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Your Magazine from the British Ecological Society The BulletinYOUR MAGAZINE FROM THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY BES BULLETIN VOLin 46:1FOCUS / MARCH 2015 Photo: Andrea Barden Andrea’s fabulous photograph of a Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) won her the student prize in the Whole Organisms and Populations category of the BES Photocompetition for 2014. More on the competition on pp18-21 Contents March 2015 OFFICERS AND COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 2014-15 REGULARS President: William Sutherland Welcome / Alan Crowden 4 President Elect: Sue Hartley Vice-President: Rosie Hails President’s Piece: A Magna Carta for Science? / W. J. Sutherland 5 Vice-President: Andrew Pullin Honorary Treasurer: Drew Purves Ecology Education and Careers: 22 Council Secretary: Dave Hodgson Honorary Chairpersons: Science Policy 24 Andrew Beckerman (Meetings) Alan Gray (Publications) A Calendar of Society Events in 2015 / Amelia Simpson 28 Will Gosling (Education, Training and Careers) Special Interest Group News 32 Juliet Vickery (Public and Policy) Conservation Ecology; Quantitative Ecology; Agricultural Ecology; Macroecology; Richard Bardgett (Grants) Plants, Soils, Ecosystems; Tropical Ecology; Citizen Science ORDINARY MEMBERS OF COUNCIL: Of Interest to Members 46 Retiring Julia Blanchard, 2015 The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management / Sally Hayns 62 Greg Hurst, Paul Raven Emma Sayer, Owen Lewis, 2016 Journals News 64 Matt O’Callaghan Book Reviews 68 Diana Gilbert, Jane Hill, 2017 Joanna Randall Diary 77 Zoe Davies, Markus Eichhorn, 2018 Lindsay Turnbull Bulletin Editor: Alan Crowden FEATURES 48 Thornton Close, Girton, Cambridge CB3 0NG A Lille bit of what you fancy... / Alan Crowden 6 Email: [email protected] Joint BES and SFE Annual Meeting Student Prize Winners 10 Associate Editor: Emma Sayer British Ecological Society Awards 2014 12 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ Young investigator prizes 2013 15 Email: [email protected] Minutes of the 34th Annual General Meeting of the British Ecological Society 16 Book Reviews Editor: Sarah Taylor School of Life Sciences, Huxley Building, Keele University, Keele, BES Photographic Competition 2014 18 Staffordshire ST5 5BG Tel: 01782 733497 Meeting Reports Email: [email protected] 30 years of Rainforest research in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo / Katie King and Glen Reynolds 42 PUBLISHING IN AES/BES Invertebrate Conservation Conference / John Millar 44 THE BES BULLETIN The Bulletin is published four times Letter to the Editor / Jeff Ollerton, response from Hazel Norman 47 a year in March, June, August and December. Contributions of all types What are the forthcoming legislative issues of interest to ecologists and are welcomed, but if you are planning conservationists in 2015? / W.J. Sutherland et al 48 to write we recommend you contact one of the editorial team in advance Dr Rosemary Lowe McConnell 1921-2014 / Mary J. Burgis 57 to discuss your plans (Bulletin@ BritishEcologicalSociety.org). Talking About Triage in Conservation / John Wiens 59 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 Sarah Taylor. Cover photo: Alejandro Ruete. Ale’s photo of a bee-like hoverfly was the winning image in the 2014 BES Photocompetition. More about Ale’s photographic efforts on p19 Design: Neo (weareneo.com) Print Management: H2 Associates (Cambridge) Ltd. 3 BES BULLETIN VOL 46:1 / MARCH 2015 WELCOME The British Ecological Society is the oldest ecological society Magna Carta, in the world, having been established in 1913. Since 1980 it has been a Registered Charity Meetings and MEE limited by guarantee. Membership is open to all who are genuinely interested in ecology, whether in the British Isles or abroad, and membership currently stands at about 5000, about half of whom Bill Sutherland draws on the 800th anniversary Sadly, two of our Honorary Members are based outside the UK. of Magna Carta as the starting point for his Dr Rosemary Lowe-McConnell and Oliver President’s Piece on page 5. This piece of local Rackham have died in recent weeks. Ro The Society holds a variety of history has resonated through the ages and McConnell’s life and career is charted by her meetings each year. The Annual carries significance across international borders. dear friend Mary Burgis on p57-8. Ro’s output Meeting attracts a wide range of papers, often by research Whether the BES Annual Meeting in Lille last and achievements in a long career should serve students, and includes a series December will stand the test of time in quite as an inspiration to all of us, but many will of informal specialist group the same way is doubtful, but it was certainly shake their heads at the revelation that she discussions; whereas the Annual enjoyed by the vast majority of those who had to resign from her job in 1953 because Symposium and many other attended (p6). We make no apology for the married women could not work for the smaller meetings are usually fact that the early pages of this issue hark back Colonial Service at that time. more specialised and include to the hugely successful annual meeting and invited speakers from around on topics such as student award winners (p10), The loss of Oliver Rackham will be keenly felt the world. BES Awards given at the meeting (p12), Young by an enormous circle of friends and admirers, Investigator Prizes (p15) the formal Minutes and we will have an obituary in the June issue. Proceedings of some of these of the Annual General Meeting (p16) and the meetings are published by There is the usual summary of the very the Society in its Ecological Photocompetition results announced at the Reviews book series. The Society meeting (p18). active work of the publications team but of particular note this time is the approaching 5th distributes free to all members, anniversary of Methods in Ecology and Evolution. four times a year, the Bulletin While revelling in the achievements of the past, which contains news and views, It doesn’t seem 5 minutes let alone 5 years it remains important to be forward-looking meeting announcements, a and the next generation hoves into view in since we pitched up at Charles Darwin House comprehensive diary and many the Ecology Education and Careers section for the launch event (which for many of us other features. In addition the with Samina Zaman reporting on a series was our first experience of the CDH meeting Society produces five scientific of Webinars intended to give PhD student room) and founding editor Rob Freckleton journals. The Journal of Ecology, the chance to gain expert advice on career summarises the first few years of the journal on Journal of Animal Ecology, development (p22) and there’s an update p64 onwards. The journal was Rob’s brainchild Journal of Applied Ecology and from the next generation ecologists in INNGE and his inspiration in developing the idea and Functional Ecology are sold at news (p23). perspiration in putting it into effect (supported a discounted rate to members. by the growing editorial team) has added Methods in Ecology and Evolution Meeting reports feature prominently in this another successful journal to the BES stable is free to BES members. The issue including an account of the Natural and given authors and readers an outstanding Society also supports research and ecological education with Capital Initiative summit (p24) as well as and much appreciated resource. grant aid. Further details about meetings on citizen science, rainforests, the Society and membership invertebrate conservation, and more (pp38-46). can be obtained from the Amelia Simpson’s summary Calendar of Society Executive Director (address inside Events in 2015 (p28) gives a taste of the range back cover). of events planned for this year. The Bulletin circulates exclusively A scan of forthcoming legislation has become to members of the British a major feature of the first Bulletin of the year Ecological Society. It carries (p48), and 2015 looks particularly striking with Alan Crowden / Editor information on meetings and other activities, comment a UK election bearing down on those of us [email protected] based locally, and there are some potentially and other topical items. threatening reviews of European wide legislation Unsigned commentaries are the responsibility of the Editor and where cutting red tape might result in cutting do not necessarily represent the nature’s throat (my words, not the measured views of the Society. language used by our legislative team). A limited company, registered in England No. 1522897 and a Registered Charity No. 2812134. Registered Office: Charles Darwin House,12 Roger Street, London WC1N 2JU 4 britishecologicalsociety.org PRESIDENT’S PIECE A Magna Carta for science? William J Sutherland / President of the British Ecological Society @Bill_Sutherland The Magna Carta (‘The Great Charter’) was signed 800 years this summer in the species-rich water meadows of Runneymede alongside the River Thames. It was a negotiated agreement between the much-despised King John and a group of disgruntled Barons, who perceived the King as acting in an arbitrary, unrestrained and unjust manner. The basic intention of the Magna Carta make the opportunity to comment far Providing open access to data, including was to constrain the power of the more democratic. While often portrayed satellite data, is also important. Many monarchy by providing a set of basic as being trivial or offensive, the reality long term datasets, paid for by the rights, for example to the churches, to is illustrated by the six thousand tweets taxpayer, have been lost. There are ensure rapid and just decision making by at the wonderfully enjoyable BES annual continued calls for the apparently courts and restrict the feudal payments meeting in Lille that routinely contained attractive answer of making all data that the king could charge.
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