Avian Conservation and Ecology (ACE-ÉCO) is an open-access, fully electronic scientific journal, sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. It publishes papers that are scientifically rigorous and relevant to the bird conservation community, to exacting editorial and production standards, in a cost-effective electronic approach that makes them widely available in real-time. Although ACE-ÉCO is intended in part to enhance the international profile of Canadian ornithology and applied avian science, contributions are welcomed from all over the world.
ACE-ÉCO publishes research that simultaneously addresses questions pertaining to conservation and ecology. In addition to describing research that is scientifically sound and rigorous, each manuscript submitted to ACE-ÉCO should strive to present ecological science relevant to conservation, or conservation research leading to advances in ecological science. The name of the journal - Conservation AND Ecology - defines its intended publication niche. Distinctions between research with origins in "pure" ecology or in "applied" conservation and management are blurring. There is a need for ecologists to address societal issues of practical concern, and for managers to access research to address ecological uncertainties underpinning conservation efforts. Accordingly, manuscripts will not require a special section for ‘management implications’, as these will be evident in the rationale for the research and the discussion of results. ACE-ÉCO is intended to complement other publications, such as traditional ornithological journals, conservation publications, general ecology journals and those focused on specific groups of birds.
Behavioural studies will be welcomed if they have a bearing on conservation issues (e.g., whether and how extinction risk covaries with mating systems and human activities, and why it might be expected to; or whether and how dispersal is affected by habitat alteration, and why it might be expected to). Similarly, impact studies will be welcomed if the consequences of documented effects are examined in a mechanistic ecological context (e.g., whether and how landscape-level habitat alteration by industrial forestry alters processes affecting community dynamics, and why it might be expected to). Studies conducted in areas essentially free of human influence are relevant if they represent controls against which impacted areas are compared in the same manuscript. They may also represent model systems of ecological phenomena with consequences for conservation, provided that the connection to conservation is explicitly stated in the rationale for the research. ACE-ÉCO does not consider manuscripts which simply document phenomena, such as counts or population trends or basic life histories of species.
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