British Ecological Society

The British Ecological Society is a scholarly body founded in 1913 in London. It grew from the earlier British Vegetation Committee, itself created in 1904 to study plant cover across the British Isles. The Society’s first meeting took place at University College London with forty-seven founding members. Sir Arthur Tansley served as its first president and the first issue of the Journal of Ecology appeared for that occasion. Today the Society maintains its headquarters in the capital and belongs to the European Ecological Federation. The Society’s work centres on publishing leading journals that shape ecological research worldwide. Its titles include the Journal of Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology and Journal of Applied Ecology, alongside newer open-access journals such as People and Nature and Ecological Solutions and Evidence. It also issues the Ecological Reviews book series and practical Better Science Guides for researchers. Each year the Society runs Europe’s largest annual ecologists’ meeting, attended by twelve hundred delegates from many countries. Visitors to the Society’s London offices find a working centre for ecological debate rather than a public museum. The building houses editorial teams preparing journals and guides, and hosts specialist workshops and training sessions. Photographic competitions and symposia bring together researchers from around the world. Outside the windows lie the ordinary streets of Bloomsbury, a reminder that ecology is lived as well as studied within the city.