The BulletinYOUR MAGAZINE FROM THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY BES BULLETIN VOLin 46:2FOCUS / JUNE 2015 Photo: Krisztina Fekete Rachel Bicker leads a small volunteer team clearing Himalayan balsam and trapping non- native American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). The photo captures Rachel with her crayfish trap in her hand while on the opposite bank one of the volunteers approaches with a huge bunch of Impatiens glandulifera. Contents July 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: Making a difference / W. J. Sutherland 5 Vice-President: Andrew Pullin Honorary Treasurer: Drew Purves Young Investigator Prizes 2014 6 Council Secretary: Dave Hodgson Honorary Chairpersons: Public Engagement / Jessica Bays 8 Andrew Beckerman (Meetings) Alan Gray (Publications) Ecology Education and Careers: 10 Will Gosling (Education, Training Undergraduate Careers Conference Report / Jennah Green and Careers) Four views on the Fellowship scheme / Laura Deacon, Luke Nelson, Juliet Vickery (Public and Policy) Richard Bardgett (Grants) Rebecca Hollely and Ruth Shepherd ORDINARY MEMBERS Science Policy: 12 OF COUNCIL: People, Politics and the Planet: Where next for UK environment policy? / Retiring Ben Connor and Rebecca Shellock Julia Blanchard, 2015 Greg Hurst, Paul Raven A Calendar of Society Events in 2015 / Amelia Simpson 18 Emma Sayer, Owen Lewis, 2016 Matt O’Callaghan Special Interest Group News 19 Diana Gilbert, Jane Hill, 2017 Climate Change Ecology; Peatlands; Conservation Ecology; Quantitative Ecology; Joanna Randall Ecological Genetics; Macroecology; Plants, Soils, Ecosystems; Parasite and Zoe Davies, Markus Eichhorn, 2018 Lindsay Turnbull Pathogen Ecology and Evolution; Tropical Ecology Bulletin Editor: Alan Crowden Of interest to members 30 48 Thornton Close, Girton, Cambridge CB3 0NG The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management / Sally Hayns 50 Email: [email protected] Publishing News 52 Associate Editor: Emma Sayer New titles in the Ecological Reviews book series Lancaster Environment Centre, Journals News Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ Email: [email protected] Book Reviews 56 Book Reviews Editor: Sarah Taylor Diary 65 School of Life Sciences, Huxley Building, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG Tel: 01782 733497 FEATURES Email: [email protected] Speed Interviews: Why get involved in BES Council? / Emma Sayer 15 PUBLISHING IN THE BES BULLETIN Meeting Reports: 25 The Bulletin is published four times Demography Beyond the Population / Alden Griffith and Roberto Salguero- Gómez a year in March, June, August and Methods in Ecology and Evolution: 5th Anniversary Symposium / Rob Freckleton December. Contributions of all types are welcomed, but if you are planning Happy Birthday to MEE / Rob Freckleton 28 to write we recommend you contact one of the editorial team in advance to discuss your plans (Bulletin@ Professor John Packham 1930 – 2015 31 BritishEcologicalSociety.org). Oliver Rackham 1939 – 2015 / Peter Grubb 32 Material should be sent to the editor by email or on a disk in Word or rtf format. Oliver Rackham and ‘the genius of place’ / Keith Kirby 34 Pictures should be sent as jpeg or TIFF (*tif) files suitable for printing at 300dpi. Brief Notices: Tibor Jermy 1917 – 2014 and John Lund 1912 – 2015 36 Books to be considered for review should be sent directly to the Book Reviews Taking Account of the Shared Values of Ecosystem Services / Jasper Kenter and Mark Reed 37 Editor Sarah Taylor. Passionate About Science? Hell Yes! / Emma Sayer 40 Cover photo: Leejiah Dorward An adult gannet leads immature (fourth or fifth year) birds back to The ‘Peaks and City Takeover’: one-hit wonder or the start of something special? 42 the huge gannet colony at Hermaness Watch this space... / Cat Stokowska in Shetland. A Metaphor meets an Abstraction: Healthy Ecosystems / John Wiens 44 Design: Neo (weareneo.com) Print Management: From our Southern Correspondent / Richard Hobbs 46 H2 Associates (Cambridge) Ltd. Rant and Reason: No Shortage of Ideas / Markus Eichhorn 49 3 BES BULLETIN VOL 46:2 / JUNE 2015 WELCOME The British Ecological Society is the oldest ecological society A Society of in the world, having been established in 1913. Since 1980 it has been a Registered Charity All the Talents 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 One of the challenges in putting together a undergraduate fellowship scheme (p10); are based outside the UK. Bulletin that will appeal to the broad spectrum this year the format changes to a residential of BES members is that we come to the Society summer school, more on which in due course. The Society holds a variety of from a very wide range of backgrounds, Of course young ecologists have ideas and meetings each year. The Annual disciplines, interests and ages. We have devout enthusiasm in abundance as demonstrated by Meeting attracts a wide range of papers, often by research theoreticians and utterly pragmatic practitioners Cat Stowkowska’s account of a conservation students, and includes a series in our ranks. Some are employed to work in event that piqued the interest of students in of informal specialist group metaphorical ivory towers, others think any Sheffield and beyond (p42). This ‘Peaks and discussions; whereas the Annual time not spent out in the field finding solutions City Takeover’ took care to include tasks in the Symposium and many other to practical problems is time wasted. I’ve city as well as in the surrounding moors, and smaller meetings are usually never tried to tempt our Membership Officer taking science to city streets is a prime aim of more specialised and include to flout data protection laws by asking him to Soapbox Science, which as Emma Sayer reports invited speakers from around identify the youngest and oldest members of (p40) takes women scientists out into public the world. the Society, but I do know the membership spaces of London, Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow includes teenagers and at least one centenarian. and more to explain their work. Emma’s Proceedings of some of these meetings are published by In some walks of life finding material to cross interviews show such events simultaneously the Society in its Ecological age and interest boundaries so widely drawn boosts the self confidence of the scientists Reviews book series. The Society would be impossible, but not in ecology. involved, challenges the perception of science distributes free to all members, While I don’t kid myself that every recipient as a subject pursued by men in white coats four times a year, the Bulletin of this issue is going to be reading every word and engages the public with a bunch of really which contains news and views, from cover to cover in a state of rapture, you knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocates. meeting announcements, a can dip into this issue just about anywhere More power to their collective elbow. comprehensive diary and many and find enthusiasm, engagement and a thirst other features. In addition the for knowledge. It feels slightly wrong to say so, A second group fell victim to the Sayer Society produces five scientific but this is especially evident in the obituaries, interview blitz; Council members (p15). journals. The Journal of Ecology, which are sadly rather numerous. We mourn Those currently involved in running the Journal of Animal Ecology, the loss of Tibor Jermy, John Lund, John Society worry that some members assume Journal of Applied Ecology and Packham and Oliver Rackham in this issue, we are a closed shop and that there is some Functional Ecology are sold at a discounted rate to members. but all four enjoyed long and successful careers mysterious ‘club’ that one has to belong to in order to take a role in running the BES. Methods in Ecology and Evolution and left the world a better place for their is free to BES members. The passing through (See pp31-36). Nothing could be further from the truth; Society also supports research Council and BES committees constantly need and ecological education with Bill Sutherland uses the career of Oliver refreshing with new members, but we have yet grant aid. Further details about Rackham to illustrate ways in which ecologists to be overwhelmed by volunteers. There are the Society and membership can exert influence on policy and practice (p5). three Council vacancies every year, and some can be obtained from the That future generations of ecologists are going committees are currently in need of additional Executive Director (address inside to take up the challenge is amply demonstrated members. Contact Hazel Norman at Charles back cover). by the excellence of the papers that won Young Darwin House to discuss. Investigator Prizes for their principal authors The Bulletin circulates exclusively (p6). These range from a contribution to the to members of the British Ecological Society. It carries discussion of rival theories of metabolic scaling, information on meetings and an examination of the creation of grazing lawns other activities, comment in African savanna, through to a global meta- and other topical items. analysis of land-use effects. To encourage the Unsigned commentaries are the flow of new recruits to our field the Education responsibility of the Editor and team lead