KEVIN J GASTON

Gaston, K.J. (2019) Nighttime ecology: the “nocturnal problem” revisited. American Naturalist 193, 481-502.

The existence of a synthetic program of research on what was then termed the “nocturnal problem” and that we might now call “nighttime ecology” was declared more than 70 years ago. In reality, this failed to materialize, arguably as a consequence of practical challenges in studying organisms at night and instead concentrating on the existence of circadian rhythms, the mechanisms that give rise to them, and their consequences. This legacy is evident to this day, with consideration of the ecology of the nighttime markedly underrepresented in ecological research and literature. However, several factors suggest that it would be timely to revive the vision of a comprehensive research program in nighttime ecology. These include (i) that the study of the ecology of the night is being revolutionized by new and improved technologies; (ii) suggestions that, far from being a minor component of biodiversity, a high proportion of animal species are active at night; (iii) that fundamental questions about differences and connections between the ecology of the daytime and the nighttime remain largely unanswered; and (iv) that the nighttime environment is coming under severe anthropogenic pressure. In this article, I seek to reestablish nighttime ecology as a synthetic program of research, highlighting key focal topics and questions and providing an overview of the current state of understanding and developments.

Cox, D.T.C., Bennie, J., Casalegno, S., Hudson, H.L., Anderson, K. & Gaston, K.J. 2019 Skewed contributions of individual trees to indirect nature experiences. Landscape and Urban Planning 185, 28-34.

Exposure to nature is associated with a broad range of benefits to human health. Whilst there has been exploration of how these experiences vary amongst people, the converse – how different individual organisms contribute to human nature experiences – has largely been overlooked. The most common way that people experience nature occurs indirectly, when they are in a room with a natural view. Here, we estimate variation in how individual trees provide indirect nature experiences in an urban human population. As a proxy for its contribution towards indirect nature experiences, within an extended urban area in southern England, UK (n=612,920) we calculated the number of buildings with line of sight to each tree. We then modelled each tree’s contribution towards these experiences against potential predictors, namely tree height, land ownership, social deprivation, while controlling for human population density. We demonstrate that a small number of trees contribute disproportionately towards indirect nature experiences, with individual trees in socio-economically deprived high density housing falling within the viewscape of significantly more buildings. Further, trees in private gardens were generally more important for providing indirect nature experiences than those in public green spaces. This novel study demonstrates the skewed contribution of different organisms to human population indirect nature experiences. This approach can be applied more broadly to understand how individual organisms provide indirect, incidental and intentional nature experiences. Understanding the ecology behind human nature experiences is an important step towards linking urban design and policy for maximising the health benefits from nature.

Gaston, K.J., Aimé, E., Chan, K.M.A., Fish, R., Hails, R.S. & Maller, C. 2018. People and Nature– A journal of relational thinking. People and Nature, online early. 

Sutherland, W.J., Broad, S., Butchart, S.H.M., Clarke, S.J., Collins, A.M., Dicks, L.V., Doran, H., Esmail, N., Fleishman, E., Frost, N., Gaston, K.J., Gibbons, D.W., Hughes, A.C., Jiang, Z., Kelman, R., LeAnstey, B., le Roux, X., Lickorish, F.A., Monk, K.A., Mortimer, D., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Peck, L.S., Pettorelli, N., Pretty, J., Seymour, C.L., Spalding, M.D., Wentworth, J., & Ockendon, N. 2019. A horizon scan of emerging issues for global conservation in 2019. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, in press. 

We present the results of our tenth annual horizon scan. We identified 15 emerging priority topics that may have major positive or negative effects on the future conservation of global biodiversity, but currently have low awareness within the conservation community. We hope to increase research and policy attention on these areas, improving the capacity of the community to mitigate impacts of potentially negative issues, and maximise the benefits of issues that provide opportunities. Topics include advances in crop breeding, which may affect insects and land use; manipulations of natural water flows and weather systems on the Tibetan Plateau; release of carbon and mercury from melting polar ice and thawing permafrost; new funding schemes and regulations; and land-use changes across Indo-Malaysia.