Category: Editorial

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Welcome to Eco Evo in 2018

Raven (Corvus corax) over Glendalough on the 3rd year Terrestrial Ecology field course.

Hello and welcome to the start of another academic year at Trinity College Dublin.

You’re on  EcoEvo@TCD, the blog of the TCD Zoology and Botany Departments. It was started in 2012 and houses writing from postgraduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff of the Departments. Follow this blog for updates on the research carried out here, musings on academia and the wider ecological and evolutionary worlds, and stories on all that’s weird and wonderful in zoology and botany.

My name is Fionn Ó Marcaigh and I’m this year’s Editor, taking the reins after a great year from Sam Ross. In the last year, the blog was made sleek and modern with an update to the latest version  of WordPress, and a theme based on Alain Finn’s photo of an Alpine Salamander. We’ll be holding the competition for a new theme photo in the coming weeks, so stay tuned if you want to make your photo the new face of EcoEvo@TCD! We had lots of participation, which we’re hoping to keep up for the next year.

Alain Finn’s competition-winning photo from last year. What will take its place this year?

I’ve studied here in Trinity for five years (so far!), graduating from Zoology in 2016 and starting a PhD in 2017. I’ve seen how many interesting stories there are to tell here, and I’m looking forward to helping to bring them to you through this blog. Everyone here is passionate about their science, and everyone has something to say about research, the natural world, or something related that interests them personally.

You can follow us here on WordPress or on the Eco Evo Twitter feed, so however you do it we hope you enjoy the blog in the coming year.

Yours,

Fionn

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About the Author 

Fionn Ó Marcaigh is a PhD student in Nicola Marples’s research group in the Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin. Supported by the Irish Research Council, he is using birds on Indonesian islands to study evolution, biogeography, and speciation. Find out more here:

Website | TCD Zoology Profile
Twitter | @Scaladoir
Research Gate | Profile
LinkedIn | Profile

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New Orleans, New Adventure

It’s a hot day in early August in New Orleans, Louisiana. The beads of sweat rolling from everyone’s foreheads are a permanent fixture in this humidity. A group of drummers are joined by some brass players and an impromptu jazz performance begins. This is my first time in the U.S.A. and I really don’t know how I feel; primarily because of the jetlag. I’ve flown to the other side of the world for the largest gathering of ecologists on earth. This is the Ecological Society of America’s 103rd annual meeting (ESA 2018), where researchers from all over the world gather to share their science. Thousands of people walked the halls of the convention centre and I wondered if I’d ever see anyone I knew.

I came to ESA 2018 with five goals:

  1. Share preliminary results of my research.
  2. Meet some potential collaborators.
  3. Soak up some awesome science.
  4. Practice talking to a ‘big name’.
  5. Have fun!

Here’s how it went down… Continue reading “New Orleans, New Adventure”

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Associate Editor Mentoring – 2019 applications now open

Annabel Smith writes on the Applied Ecologist’s blog about her experience as an associate editor and encourages other early-career scientists to apply. Read more in the blog snippet below or see the full post on the Applied Ecologist’s blog.

“We are now accepting applications for our Associate Editor Mentoring Opportunity, a chance for early career researchers to gain experience of working on a journal editorial board. Annabel Smith (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin) began her Mentoring Opportunity role in January 2018. Here she explains why she decided to apply and what she hopes to gain from the experience.

We’re often thrown in the deep end when it comes to learning new professional skills in a research career. Experience is a great teacher in the long term but it can take a lot of time to master new skills like reviewing papers and applying for grants. And the path can by windy, to put it lightly.

So I jumped at the chance to apply for the Associate Editor Mentoring Opportunity with Journal of Applied Ecology when I saw it advertised in 2017. I was drawn to the idea of working closely with a Senior Editor who would guide me on a hopefully less windy path than I’d experienced with learning other skills. I was delighted that my application was successful and I joined the Editorial Board in January 2018 for a two-year position…”

Read the full blog post on the Applied Ecologist’s blog.

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About the Author

Dr. Annabel Smith is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow in Yvonne Buckley’s research group in the Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin. Her current research focuses on the interaction between changing fire regimes and plant invasion. Find out more about her research here:

Website |  www.smithecology.org
Google Scholar |  Profile
ResearcherID |  Profile
ORCID | 0000-0002-1201-8713

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The 2017 EcoEvo hall of fame

As the year draws to a close, we thought we’d reflect on a some of our favourite scientific papers from 2017. There were only five entrants this year, but representing a broad range of work from across ecology and evolution, as chosen by PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the School of Natural Sciences. So, without further ado, here are the papers from 2017 being entered into the EcoEvo hall of fame:

Carlson CJ, Burgio KR, Dougherty ER, Phillips AJ, Bueno VM, Clements CF, Castaldo G, Dallas TA, et al. (2017). Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate. Science Advances 3, e1602422.

“This paper got a lot of press this year as it is essentially the poster paper for the parasite conservation movement. The authors suggest that within the next 100 years, 5% to 10% of parasitic species may go extinct based on habitat loss alone and up to 24% of species are predicted to go extinct based on co-extinction with hosts. Thankfully, Acanthocephala (my study organisms) are predicted to fare well enough in the next 100 years, but it was an eye-opening analysis that provides important information to the parasite conservation cause.” Maureen Williams. Continue reading “The 2017 EcoEvo hall of fame”