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Video and podcast archive

Browse Methods in Ecology and Evolution's older videos, podcasts and tutorials here. View by issue, view all content, or return to the current volumes.

Volume 2

Issue 3

Podcast with Jason Knouft

^{Uploaded 29th November 2010}

Jason Knouft, from Saint Louis University, Missouri, talks to Elizabeth Horne, MEE Journal Coordinator, about his recently published paper, "Using fine-scale GIS data to assess the relationship between intra-annual environmental niche variability and population density in a local stream fish assemblage".

Summary: Jason establishes the need for broad-scale geographic considerations of ecological issues, and explains how the application of these methods on a finer scale can yield new and valuable insights into the exploitation of ecological niches by local populations, and such populations’ likely reactions to new seasonal and environmental stresses.

Click on the play button to listen to this podcast, or listen to the podcast here. If you are experiencing any problem listening to the podcast, please download flash player. Image © 2010 Jason Knouft.

Issue 2

Video with Fraser Lewis

^{Uploaded 21st January 2011}

Fraser Lewis talks about testing new methods to compare non-nested statistical models using tick questing data from the Scottish Highlands.

Summary: Fraser demonstrates that the Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT) may be applied to non-nested models by comparison of competing models, through comparison of simulated data sets.

Video with Shane Geange

^{Uploaded 22nd December 2010}

Shane Geange talks about the development of new methods to combine data on ecological niche overlap, and demonstrates the R scripts and datasets distributed with this paper.

Summary: Shane explains the need for new indices to combine data from many different studies, allowing the creation of composite measures of mean niche overlap, which is of interest to population and community ecologists. Shane also demonstrates the R code developed to achieve this goal.

Tutorial by Francesco de Bello et al

^{Uploaded 3rd December 2010}

Francesco de Bello, Sandra Lavorel, Cécile H. Albert, Wilfried Thuiller, Karl Grigulis, Jir(i Dolezal, Šte(pán Janec(ek and Jan Lepš provide a step-by-step tutorial on the the methodology proposed in their recently published work, providing additional insights into the preparation of data, the application of the proposed R scripts, and the interpretation of results.

Video by Sara Kross and Ximena Nelson

^{Uploaded 2nd September 2010}

Sara Kross, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, shows her fieldsite in New Zealand and a new portable low-cost remote videography system for monitoring wildlife, developed with Ximena Nelson.

Summary: Sara and Ximena developed this method to study the nesting behaviour of the New Zealand falcon in the New Zealand High Country. Sara shows that the camera is relatively cheap and easy to transport in a backpack. The camera uses solar batteries and compressed videos so that it can be left in the field for up to 4 days at a time. The footage recovered has been used so far for research but also for conservation and education purposes.

Volume 2

Issue 1

Video by Martin Lukac, Alexandru Milcu and Dennis Wildman

^{Uploaded 19th November 2010}

Martin Lukac, Alexandru Milcu and Dennis Wildman talk about their recently published work on developing non-intrusive methods to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide in analogue models of the terrestrial carbon cycle.

Summary: Martin, Alexandru and Dennis discuss the need for a broad spectrum of approaches in understanding the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and demonstrate their innovative experimental equipment at the Imperial College Controlled Environment Facility, Silwood Park, UK.

Podcast with Freya Harrison

^{Uploaded 18th August 2010}

Freya Harrison, University of Oxford, UK talks with Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Co-ordinator, about her review on getting started with meta-analysis. This is a work likely to be of interest to a wide range of readers.

Image created by Freya Harrison, shows a plot of metadata

Summary: Freya explains that meta-analysis is a statistically robust way of putting together results from different studies that test the same hypothesis. She provides in this review a 'road map' to the topic so that beginners can get a head start on meta-analysis. Meta-analysis hopefully will be more used as a result in the fields of ecology and evolution.

Click on the play button to listen to this podcast, or listen to the podcast here. If you are experiencing any problem listening to the podcast, please download flash player. Figure © 2010 Freya Harrison.

Video by José J. Lahoz-Monfort

^{Uploaded 16th August 2010}

José J. Lahoz-Monfort, University of Kent, UK, shows his fieldsite on the Isle of May, Scotland, and explains the background to his research drawing on a long-term study on the seasbirds of the island. His work, with co-authors Byron J.T. Morgan, Mike P. Harris, Sarah Wanless and Stephen N. Freeman, is titled A capture-recapture model for exploring multi-species synchrony in survival.

Summary: José J. Lahoz-Monfort explains what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "A capture-recapture model for exploring multi-species synchrony in survival". Their work looks at survival rates of three seabird species: the common guillemot, the razorbill and the Atlantic puffin. These three species of auks have similar ecology and are subject to the same environmental stochasticity so it is reasonable to expect some synchrony in the fluctuations of their demographic parameters.

Meetings

Integrating ecology into macroevolutionary research

^{Uploaded 10th May 2011}

On the 9th of March, 2011, Methods in Ecology and Evolution sponsored "Integrating Ecology into Macroevolutionary Research", a symposium with over 200 delegates and 12 speakers, held at the Zoological Society of London meeting rooms.

View the full videos of these presentations
View the speaker abstracts
Read the full account of this meeting, published in Biology Letters

Volume 1

Issue 4

Podcast with Jane Elith, Michael Kearney and Steven Phillips

^{Uploaded 19th May 2010}

Jane Elith and Michael Kearney, University of Melbourne, Australia and Steven Phillips, AT&T, USA talk with Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Co-ordinator, about their work: 'The art of modelling range-shifting species'.

Image created by Jane Elith and colleagues, shows a map of Australia

Summary: Jane explains that this is a method to predict species distributions, whose range are shifting, like invasive species or species responding to climate change. Mike Kearney then specifies why they used cane toads as a case study for their work. By taking characteristics of the animal and putting this information together they could ask from a physiological point of view, where cane toads could not live. They also asked how to bring together this mechanistic approach with more traditional approaches. This work advances methodology by combining information from physiological models to data in the correlation-based ones; by looking at details of how you can do the modelling; and by looking at tools for understanding models and data, something that a lot of people will find interesting. Then Steven explains about MaxEnt, a programme that models species distributions based on a machine-learning approach, developed with other colleagues and freely available on the web. For example a common use of the programme is predicting how climate change will affect species distributions. Finally, Mike reports that this method should be useful to anybody trying to predict species with unequal distributions. Jane also precises that students, managers, researchers could be potentially interested, especially given that MaxEnt is freely available.

Click on the play button to listen to this podcast or listen to the podcast here. If you are experiencing any problem listening to the podcast, please download flash player.Figure © 2010 Jane Elith, Michael Kearney and Steven Phillips.

Issue 3

Podcast with Art Munson

^{Uploaded 5th May 2010}

Art Munson, Cornell University, USA, talks with Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Co-ordinator, about his work with colleagues in developing a method for measuring the relative information content of data from different monitoring protocols.

Image created by Art Munson and colleagues, shows a map of the USA and Ebird data

Summary: Art presents a method to compare the information from two data sources. As often in ecology data are difficult to compare because they have been collected at different points in space and time, Art and colleagues propose using a model that summarises each of these data sources and allowing a direct comparison of the data. Their work advances methodology in ecology and evolution in two ways. At first they were analysing a citizen science project, the eBird dataset, which collects bird observations throughout the western hemisphere and there was a question of how much the biological information was being collected by this citizen science project. One outcome of their work found that eBird is collecting a lot of useful information. More generally, this method can be applied to verify data sources for lots of different purposes.

PowerPoint Presentation with audio by David Watson

David Watson, Charles Sturt University, Australia, gives an overview of the research that forms the basis for his article and of the methods involved: Optimizing inventories of diverse sites—insights from Barro Colorado Island birds.

Summary: David talks of the challenges that researchers from ecologists to taxonomists face when sampling diverse sites for a whole range of species from plants to animals.

Interview with Arnaud Tarroux

^{Uploaded 17th May 2010}

Graziella Iossa interviews Arnaud Tarroux, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada, on his work with colleagues on the sensitivity of stable isotope mixing models to variation in isotopic ratios.

Summary: Arnaud Tarroux answers what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "Sensitivity of stable isotope mixing models to variation in isotopic ratios: evaluating consequences of lipid extraction". He states that in some systems it appears to be better to extract lipid before isotopic analysis and in other systems the contrary is true. Moreover, lipid extraction is costly, so their method is potentially really useful as a predictive tool in preliminary analyses. Their work is an important step in the issue of lipid extraction in stable isotope analysis and more generally, isotopic variation, which can be due to other factors. Arnaud then proceeds to show with a presentation his novel method and how the researchers using it can assess whether to extract lipids or not. Anyone working on stable isotope analysis with a goal to reconstructing diet could use their method.

Issue 2

Podcast with Karen Strier and Susan Alberts

^{Uploaded 7th April 2010}

Karen Strier, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and Susan Alberts, Duke University, USA and Institute of Primate Research, Kenya, talk with Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Co-ordinator, about their work with co-authors: The Primate Life History Database.

Image created by Karen Strier and colleagues, shows a collection of images of primates

Summary: This online database is based on long-term datasets that researchers at several institutions in North America have created to make data comparable across studies. It will aid future comparative analyses of primate data and the creation of easily archivable output. The most important features of this database, as Susan points out, are its structure and the use of a common vocabulary. Karen and Susan hope that it will be applicable to studies of most vertabrates and certainly of mammals.

Click on the play button to listen to this podcast or listen to the podcast here. If you are experiencing any problem listening to the podcast, please download flash player. Figure © 2010 D.K. Brockman, C.B. Possomai, F.A. Campos, S.C. Alberts, Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International, M. Cords & M. Wilson.

Podcast with Jean-Pierre Moussus

^{Uploaded 22nd March 2010}

Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Coordinator, interviews Jean-Pierre Moussus, MNHN - EGB about his work with co-authors Romain Julliard and Frederic Jiguet on phenological estimators using simulated data.

Figure created by Jean-Pierre Moussus and colleagues, shows a graph with two frequency distributions overlapping each other

Summary: Jean-Pierre explains about their article 'Featuring ten phenological estimators using simulated data' and how it will be able to inform anyone using phenological estimators.

Click on the play button to listen to this podcast or listen to the podcast here. If you are experiencing any problem listening to the podcast, please download flash player. Figure © 2010 Jean-Pierre Moussus, Romain Julliard and Frederic Jiguet.

Interview with Aaron Ellison

^{Uploaded 27th April 2010}

Graziella Iossa interviews Aaron Ellison, Harvard Forest, Harvard University, USA, on his work with colleagues on experimentally testing the role of forest foundation species.

Summary: Aaron Ellison answers what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "Experimentally testing the role of foundation species in forests: the Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment". He states that there are two key pieces to his work: foundation species are key species that really 'make' ecosystems, secondly, they are studying an an adelgid that is killing the hemlocks in North America. Further, he explains how their large-scale controlled experiments, which are very difficult to conduct in normal circumstances, advance methodology in ecology and evolution. He explains how the findings of their study could be applied by theoretical researchers and the management community. Finally he encourages other researchers to use their facilities at Harvard Forest.

Interview with Douglas Barron

^{Uploaded 24th March 2010}

Graziella Iossa interviews Doug Barron, University of Illinois, USA, on his work with colleagues on a meta-analysis on transmitter effects on bird ecology and behaviour.

Summary: Doug Barron answers what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "Meta-analysis of transmitter effects on avian behaviour and ecology". Further, he explains how their meta-analysis advances methodology in ecology and evolution and finally shows how the findings of their study could be applied by anyone using transmitters on birds.

Issue 1

Podcast with Matt Baker

^{Uploaded 25th February 2010}

Graziella Iossa, MEE Journal Coordinator, interviews Matt Baker, University of Maryland-Baltimore County about his research paper with co-author Ryan King, Baylor University.

Art cover created by Matt Baker, shows a graph on a background of pines overlooking a river

Summary: Matt explains about TITAN, their new method for measuring ecological community thresholds that should be able to inform about conservation of rare and threatened species.

Interview with Corey Bradshaw

^{Uploaded 9th February 2010}

Graziella Iossa interviews Corey Bradshaw, University of Adelaide, on his work with colleagues on reducing invasive animal density.

Summary: Corey Bradshaw answers what is the main idea behind his work with co-authors, "Spatially explicit spreadsheet modelling for optimising the efficiency of reducing invasive animal density". Further, he explains how their model advances methodology in ecology and evolution and finally shows how it could be applied by wildlife manager and practitioners with basic knowledge of computer models. Their Excel-spreadsheet 'Spatio-Temporal Animal Reduction' (S.T.A.R.) model is designed specifically to optimise the culling strategies for feral pigs, buffalo and horses in Kakadu National Park (northern Australia), but Corey explains how their aim was to make it easy enough for anyone to use and modify it so that it could be applied to any invasive species anywhere.