THE BULLETIN SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS CONTENTS OCTOBER 2016 OUR FRIENDLY, VOLUNTEER GROUPS PROVIDE FOCUSED ACTIVITY IN SPECIFIC AREAS OF ECOLOGY AND HOLD EVENTS TO NETWORK, RAISE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 2015-16 REGULARS AWARENESS AND OFFER CAREER SUPPORT. GET INVOLVED! President: Sue Hartley Welcome | Alan Crowden ................................................................................................................................ 4 Past President: William Sutherland Vice-President: Rosie Hails President’s Piece | Sue Hartley .................................................................................................................... 5 Vice-President: Andrew Pullin People, Politics and the Planet: Any Questions? Honorary Treasurer: Drew Purves Council Secretary: Adam Vanbergen Ed Maltby, Ben Connor and Chris Mahon ................................................................................................ 7 Honorary Chairpersons: Equality and Diversity in the British Ecological Society Zoe Davies (Meetings) Alan Gray (Publications) Hazel Norman and Sue Hartley ...................................................................................................................... 9 Will Gosling (Education, Training and Careers) What changes are taking place in Higher Education policy? Juliet Vickery (Public and Policy) Camilla Morrison-Bell ........................................................................................................................................12 Barbara Smith Nessa O’Connor and Lee Brown Helen Roy and Michael Pocock Rosie Hails (Grants) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ORDINARY MEMBERS @BES_aeg @BES_aquaeco OF COUNCIL Retiring Emma Sayer, Owen Lewis, 2016 Matt O’Callaghan Diana Gilbert, Jane Hill, 2017 The RHS Chelsea Flower Show | Jessica Bays .................................................................................14 Iain Stott .............................................................................. Dawn Scott, Markus Eichhorn, 2018 The Ecological Continuity Trust | Jessica Bays 16 Lindsay Turnbull Public Engagement Training and Wychwood! Peter Brotherton, 2019 Yvonne Buckley, Claudia Harflett and Rebecca Senior .........................................................................................................18 Nina Hautekeete Mike Morecroft Nathalie Pettorelli Paul Ashton Special Interest Group News .......................................................................................................................22 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Bulletin Editor: Alan Crowden Ecology in Ireland and the Irish Ecological Association Initiative @BESClimate @BESConservation @BES_EGG 48 Thornton Close, Girton, Cambridge CB3 0NG Ian Montgomery ...................................................................................................................................................28 Email: [email protected] Of Interest to Members: A new UK Charter for Trees, Woods and People Valentine Seymour ..............................................................................................................................................32 Associate Editor: Lauren Ratcliffe Email: The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management [email protected] Sally Hayns ..............................................................................................................................................................40 Book Reviews Editor: Sarah Taylor School of Life Sciences, Huxley Journals News ......................................................................................................................................................47 Building, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG Book Reviews ........................................................................................................................................................54 Alan Jones Rich Grenyer Rachael Antwis and Xavier Harrison Sarah is currently on leave of absence. All enquiries relating to book reviews Diary ...........................................................................................................................................................................60 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] to the Bulletin Editor. @BES_Forests @BESMacroEcol @BES_Microbial Annual Report and Accounts ......................................................................................................................61 PUBLISHING IN THE BES BULLETIN The Bulletin is published four times a year in March, June, August and December. Contributions of all types 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). FEATURES Jo Lello Ian Rotherham Matt Davey and Colin Osborne Material should be sent to the editor Obituary: Brian Moss | Rob Marrs ...........................................................................................................34 by email or on a disk in Word or rtf [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] format. Pictures should be sent as jpeg Unlocking Africa’s potential for Citizen Science | Rosie Trevelyan, @BES_Peat @BESPlantSoilEco or TIFF (*tif) files suitable for printing Anthony Kuria, Paul Mugo, Tom August, Michael Pocock and Helen Roy ...........................36 at 300dpi. Books to be considered for review From Our Southern Correspondent | Richard Hobbs ....................................................................41 should be sent directly to the Bulletin Editor. Ecology and the Two Cultures | John Wiens ....................................................................................44 Cover photo: The cover photograph of a beetle in UV powder was taken by Lara Bates-Prior and was the winning entry in the Student category of the 2015 BES photocompetition Ellen Fry Nick Golding Lindsay Banin Design: madenoise.com Print Management: [email protected] quantitative@britishecologicalsociety [email protected] H2 Associates (Cambridge) Ltd. @BES_QE_SIG @BES_Tropical BES Bulletin british ecologicalsociety.org VOL 47:3 | October 2016 The British Ecological Society is the oldest ecological society WELCOME in the world, having been PRESIDENT’S PIECE established in 1913. Since 1980 it has been a Registered Charity limited by guarantee. Membership is open to all who are genuinely interested CHANGING TIMES in ecology, whether in the IN PRAISE OF British Isles or abroad, and membership currently stands at about 5000, about half of whom are based outside INTERDISCIPLINARITY the UK. The Society holds a variety of meetings each year. The Annual Meeting attracts a wide range of papers, often by research students, and includes a series of informal Alan Crowden | Editor | [email protected] specialist group discussions; Sue Hartley | [email protected] whereas the Annual Symposium and many other smaller meetings are usually It’s been an eventful few months hasn’t it? the latest development under the SIG more specialised and include Whatever the outcome of future negotiations banner, supporting the creation of a new invited speakers from around I think it’s fAIR TO SAY THAT A LOT HAS CHANGED to disengage some or all of the UK from the Irish Ecological Association. Ian provides a the world. European Union, the message for ecologists fascinating insight into the different ways SINCE I WROTE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL is that we need to continue to work across in which ecological ideas have developed in Proceedings of some of these meetings are published by all sorts of borders, whether between Ireland (p28). Another exciting example of the Society in its Ecological COLLABORATION IN My last President’s PieCE! nations, or disciplines, or any other barriers the potential outreach of the SIGs is reported Reviews book series. The to the free exchange of people and ideas. by Rosie Trevelyan and colleagues; the Society distributes free to Tropical Biology Association and the BES co- all members, four times a Sue Hartley sets the tone with her opening year, the Bulletin which sponsored a symposium in Nairobi on citizen The landscape looks rather different database of experts (yes we DO still tolerant millet instead. Consternation piece on interdisciplinarity (p5); we need contains news and views, science in Africa which generated great meeting announcements, now Britain has voted to leave the need experts despite some politician’s amongst the farmers greeted that to cooperate across traditional disciplinary excitement and interest (p36). a comprehensive diary and EU and we wait to see what changes opinions during the referendum suggestion! “But”, they exclaimed ‘borders’ if we are to make any progress in many other features. In “Brexit” will bring. But some things campaign!) and get involved. There’s in horror, “Dr Sue, we can’t, we are fostering good environmental management Richard Hobbs, newly installed as an addition the Society produces won’t change - the BES remains never been a better time for ecologists married to maize”! Hopelessly naïve, I and inspiring, informing and influencing Honorary Member of the Ecological Society five scientific journals. The