The coastal heathlands of North-west Europe are valuable cultural landscapes, created and maintained over millennia by a land-use regime involving burning and grazing. These heathlands are now critically threatened throughout their range by land-use change and, increasingly, climatic changes. The climatic change impacts are complex, as the coastal heathland regions are experiencing increased temperature and precipitation, but also increased frequency and severity of extreme events, such as drought. Previous studies reveal that established heathland vegetation, including Calluna, are vulnerable to drought, but also that these vulnerabilities vary throughout the range, and with successional stage after fire. Recruitment from seed is an important regeneration strategy for Calluna heathland vegetation after burning, and our study is the first to assess how the seed germination and early seedling growth of Calluna respond to drought. We will do this in a lab germination experiment, where we will expose Calluna seeds to five different drought treatments, from -0.25 MPa to -1.7 MPa, and measure germination, and record germination percentage, germination rates, and seedling growth, below-ground allocation, and functional traits (Specific Leaf Area, Specific Root Length). To allow assessment of variation in drought responses due to geographic origin, successional stage, and the maternal plants’ drought exposure, we will conduct this experiment on seeds from 540 Calluna plants sampled from across three drought treatments (control, 50%, and 90% coverage), in three successional stages after fire (pioneer, building, mature), in two regions (60N, 65N), using a factorial design.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced researchers in Ecology to change the way we work almost overnight. Nonetheless, the pandemic has provided us with several novel components for a new way of conducting international Science. In this perspective piece, we summarize eight central insights that are helping us, as early career researchers, navigate the uncertainties, fears and challenges of advancing Science during the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight how innovative, collaborative and often Open Science-driven developments that have arisen from this crisis can form a blueprint for a community reinvention in academia. Our insights include personal approaches to managing our new reality, maintaining capacity to focus and resilience in our projects, and a variety of tools that facilitate remote collaboration. We also highlight how, at a community level, we can take advantage of online communication platforms for gaining accessibility to conferences and meetings, and for maintaining research networks and community engagement while promoting a more diverse and inclusive community. Overall, we are confident that these practices can support a more inclusive and kinder scientific culture for the longer term.