BES Macro 2026
A British Ecological Society special interest group conference for researchers in macroecology and/or macroevolution at any academic career
Key information & Deadlines
· Main conference dates: 15 July 2026 2 PM – 17 July 2026 5 PM.
Registration and coffee will begin around 1:30 PM.
· Pre-conference workshop: 15 July 2026, 10 AM – 1:30 PM.
Plan to arrive around 9:30 AM for registration and coffee.
· Location: Agriculture Building, University of Reading (Whiteknights Campus), Reading, UK
· Registration deadline for all presenters, including student plenary applications: Friday 17 April 2026, 17:00 BST.
We hope to notify the student plenary winner and confirm all other talks/posters around Friday, 1 May 2026.
If presentations are over-subscribed, we may allocate submissions by career stage (priority to ECRs). There is an option in the registration to indicate if you require a presentation as a condition of your funding.
· Final in-person registration deadline: Friday 15 May 2026, 17:00 BST.
· Online registration deadline: Friday 3 July 2026, 17:00 BST.
· Note that all timings associated with this meeting use British Summer Time, which is UTC + 1. · If you have any queries, please email macro@britishecologicalsociety.org.
What is the ‘BES Macro SIG’?
The British Ecological Society has special interest groups. The Macro group’s members are interested in the strengths and limitations of integrating concepts, questions, and data across taxonomic, spatial, and temporal scales, as well as the links among the disciplines of macroecology, macroevolution, palaeontology, conservation, and more. Further information can be found at https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/membership-community/special-interest-groups/macroecology/.
Who should attend?
We aim to be highly inclusive and welcoming (see BES webpage); anyone of any career stage who is interested in generalisable ecological and/or evolutionary patterns over broad spatial and/or temporal and/or taxonomic scales is welcome to attend!
Optional pre-conference workshop: Publishing, Reviewing, and Editing in Ecological Journals
We will be holding a half-day pre-conference workshop on the topic of publications. This workshop is primarily aimed at early-career researchers (i.e., students and postdocs), although anyone interested is welcome to attend. This workshop will be in-person only and will aim to facilitate networking opportunities among those newer to the BES Macro community. Further information will be available soon.
This workshop is sponsored by the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Main conference format
If you attended our York meeting in 2025, you can expect a similar format. We strongly encourage in-person attendance if possible, but to sustainably and accessibly broaden our reach across our entire membership, we will again offer online attendance this year, including a reduced fee for lower income countries. We plan to stream all talks and to make posters available electronically, though most of the other activities will be in-person only. There will be a Slack workspace to facilitate communication between in-person and remote attendees, including for speaker Q & As.
Our conference will include 2.5 days of workshops, short and long talks, plenaries, and a poster session at the end of Day 2. This is slightly longer than in previous years, to accommodate an increased number of talks in line with growing numbers of applications in recent years. We will organise informal evening socials, but to keep costs down, we are not holding a formal conference dinner.
Presenting a talk
During registration you can apply to give a lightning (5-minute) talk or a longer (10-minute) talk, both of which are followed by approximately two minutes for questions. All talks will be streamed for the benefit of online attendees. At registration, you do NOT need to submit an abstract, only a title. During registration, there is an option for you to tell us if you need a talk/poster to guarantee funding. We can generally accommodate all requests to present, but some requested talks may be offered a poster if we are oversubscribed, with talk priority given to early career researchers.
PhD students in their final year (or close to it), or those who graduated recently (since July 2025), should consider applying for our student plenary (see below).
Presenting a poster
We suggest printing your poster as A0, though A1 (or even pieced-together A3 sheets) is totally fine. We’re fairly easy-going with this: as long as it gets your message across, it’s the content and conversations that matter for BES Macro! PDF versions of posters need to be emailed conference organisers (macro@britishecologicalsociety.org) at least one week before the event, so they can all be made available to online attendees. At registration, you do NOT need to submit an abstract, only a title.
Photography competition
As a bit of fun, we want to see some wonderfully macro (in all senses of the word) photographs this year that can be available for all to view throughout the conference. If you want to get involved, please bring an A4 (or ideally, A3) print-out of your photograph.
Student plenary
The student plenary is a staple of BES Macro! If you are a PhD student in their final year (or close to it) or graduated recently (since July 2025) you should apply for this opportunity to share an extended version of your work with the BES Macro network. If you are unsure if you qualify, just send us an email at macro@britishecologicalsociety.org .
The student plenary will be 30 minutes long plus a 15-minute Q & A, and unlike for short and long talks, we require a title and abstract (max 250 words) from student plenary applicants. These will be reviewed anonymously by the organising committee to choose the winner.
We will be able to offer a full registration reimbursement to the student plenary speaker as well as up to £500 to cover travel costs. We encourage international students to apply, but note that we will not be able to assist with visa applications (beyond a letter of invitation). Note that the student plenary must be given in-person. For any unsuccessful student plenary applicants, we sincerely hope you will still be able to attend but will readily offer a refund if you cannot. Please email us directly, at macro@britishecologicalsociety.org, if you wish to apply for the student plenary but paying for conference registration upfront will be a problem for you.
Information for online attendees
Those attending online will be able to access the full range of talks via the stream and be able to engage with other participants via Slack.
Poster PDFs will be available to all attendees.
If you are attending online, you can apply for a poster or a short or long talk, which, if accepted, will be made available virtually. Our requirement is that the talk must be pre-recorded and provided to conference organisers at least one week before the event (email a link to the file using macro@britishecologicalsociety.org). The Q & A will take place via Slack.
Accessibility
We strive for our events to be as accessible as possible. The conference venue is fully wheelchair accessible, and there is space on the registration form to note other accessibility constraints (e.g., dietary requirements). If you require other information to ensure that this conference is accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us (macro@britishecologicalsociety.org).
Workshops (main conference)
In addition to the pre-conference workshop, there will be two workshops during the main conference, each lasting ~2 hours, on Days 2 and 3. Note that these workshops are in-person only and are included within the cost of in-person registration.
Workshop 1: Pitching to power: how to talk so that global policymakers actually listen
Leader: Helen Spence-Jones, University of Cambridge
Description: The process of translating ecological research into policy can be cryptic and difficult to navigate, particularly on a national and international scale. Using experience from the flagship UNEP GEO-7 report, this workshop will explore the tools and approaches that can be used to more effectively engage with policymakers, and improve links between research and policy in the face of global challenges.
Workshop 2: AI in the Biosciences: quantifying biological colour for macroecological analysis
Leaders: Sal Keith & Chaim Elchik, University of Lancaster
Plenary speakers
This year we are delighted to welcome three plenary speakers! Information on the student plenary will be shared in the run-up to the conference.
Dr Laura Antão, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Turku
Elucidating biodiversity change in the Anthropocene
Biodiversity change in the Anthropocene unfolds through complex, scale-dependent dynamics that are only detectable through long-term, comparative analyses across taxa and realms. Leveraging time-series databases, I examine how species and communities respond to large-scale environmental drivers, namely climate change from local to global scales. My research synthesises patterns of species richness, turnover, and abundance across spatial and temporal gradients, with a focus on cross-taxa and cross-realm comparisons. These efforts have revealed high variation in the direction and magnitude of change, as well as “mismatches” between biodiversity dimensions and e.g. between marine and terrestrial communities. By integrating macro-ecological synthesis with rigorous time-series analysis, this work highlights both generalities and divergences in biodiversity responses across ecosystems and underscores the value of cross-taxonomic, cross-realm perspectives for understanding ecological change in a warming world.
Prof. Deepa Senapathi, Professor of Applied Ecology and Head of Department of Sustainable Land Management, University of Reading
Prof. Chris Venditti, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Reading
Location & Travel
The conference will be in the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading (at the Agriculture building, 59 on this map https://static.reading.ac.uk/content/PDFs/files/Maps/Whiteknights-campus-map-and-keys.pdf).
To get to campus from Reading train station and the town centre, you can take buses 20 or 21 to the Shinfield road entrance (15 minute walk to the Agriculture building) or buses 17 or 19 to the Early Gate entrance (10 minute walk to Agriculture building) https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/.
Reading train station is a mainline train station with many connections (https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/). If you are travelling from or via London, the quickest route to take is from London Paddington station, with many frequent trains, but there are also trains from London Waterloo and you can stop at Earley train station.
Reading is well connected to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports which offer many direct international flights. If you arrive to Heathrow, you can take a direct bus with RailAir (https://www.railair.com/) to Reading train station (every 20-30 minutes). There is also a rail service (Elizabeth line) but it does require a transfer (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/elizabeth-line/).
If you arrive to Gatwick there is a direct train service to Reading https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/).
Accommodation
We have arranged on-campus accommodation at the University of Reading: please visit this website (https://registration.venuereading.com/Registration/Welcome.aspx?e=DA690571B11C8190531158F4580A097B) to view details and to book. The price is £76.50/night during the conference (15th and 16th ) and £91.80/night before or after the conference (14th and 17th) and includes an ensuite room and breakfast.
Otherwise, there are many hotel options in the town centre, from which you can walk or take a bus to campus (see above).
Ticket types and descriptions
Ticket costs vary depending on BES membership, career status, and attendance format; please read all options carefully.
All tickets include access to talks, posters, and an online discussion platform. Tickets for in-person attendance also include the main conference workshops and vegetarian/vegan lunches on Days 2 & 3, morning and afternoon coffee breaks, and a poster session on Day 2 with soft and alcoholic drinks. The pre-conference workshop is sold as a separate add-on and includes morning coffee and a vegetarian/vegan lunch.
If you are interested in becoming a BES member to purchase the BES member rate ticket, you can find out more information and join here. Membership starts from £15, or you can get 12-months free membership if you are an undergraduate, masters, or first-year PhD student. To view the British Ecological Society’s privacy policy please click here.
A British Ecological Society special interest group conference for researchers in macroecology and/or macroevolution at any academic career
Key information & Deadlines
· Main conference dates: 15 July 2026 2 PM – 17 July 2026 5 PM.
Registration and coffee will begin around 1:30 PM.
· Pre-conference workshop: 15 July 2026, 10 AM – 1:30 PM.
Plan to arrive around 9:30 AM for registration and coffee.
· Location: Agriculture Building, University of Reading (Whiteknights Campus), Reading, UK
· Registration deadline for all presenters, including student plenary applications: Friday 17 April 2026, 17:00 BST.
We hope to notify the student plenary winner and confirm all other talks/posters around Friday, 1 May 2026.
If presentations are over-subscribed, we may allocate submissions by career stage (priority to ECRs). There is an option in the registration to indicate if you require a presentation as a condition of your funding.
· Final in-person registration deadline: Friday 15 May 2026, 17:00 BST.
· Online registration deadline: Friday 3 July 2026, 17:00 BST.
· Note that all timings associated with this meeting use British Summer Time, which is UTC + 1. · If you have any queries, please email macro@britishecologicalsociety.org.
What is the ‘BES Macro SIG’?
The British Ecological Society has special interest groups. The Macro group’s members are interested in the strengths and limitations of integrating concepts, questions, and data across taxonomic, spatial, and temporal scales, as well as the links among the disciplines of macroecology, macroevolution, palaeontology, conservation, and more. Further information can be found at https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/membership-community/special-interest-groups/macroecology/.
Who should attend?
We aim to be highly inclusive and welcoming (see BES webpage); anyone of any career stage who is interested in generalisable ecological and/or evolutionary patterns over broad spatial and/or temporal and/or taxonomic scales is welcome to attend!
Optional pre-conference workshop: Publishing, Reviewing, and Editing in Ecological Journals
We will be holding a half-day pre-conference workshop on the topic of publications. This workshop is primarily aimed at early-career researchers (i.e., students and postdocs), although anyone interested is welcome to attend. This workshop will be in-person only and will aim to facilitate networking opportunities among those newer to the BES Macro community. Further information will be available soon.
This workshop is sponsored by the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Main conference format
If you attended our York meeting in 2025, you can expect a similar format. We strongly encourage in-person attendance if possible, but to sustainably and accessibly broaden our reach across our entire membership, we will again offer online attendance this year, including a reduced fee for lower income countries. We plan to stream all talks and to make posters available electronically, though most of the other activities will be in-person only. There will be a Slack workspace to facilitate communication between in-person and remote attendees, including for speaker Q & As.
Our conference will include 2.5 days of workshops, short and long talks, plenaries, and a poster session at the end of Day 2. This is slightly longer than in previous years, to accommodate an increased number of talks in line with growing numbers of applications in recent years. We will organise informal evening socials, but to keep costs down, we are not holding a formal conference dinner.
Presenting a talk
During registration you can apply to give a lightning (5-minute) talk or a longer (10-minute) talk, both of which are followed by approximately two minutes for questions. All talks will be streamed for the benefit of online attendees. At registration, you do NOT need to submit an abstract, only a title. During registration, there is an option for you to tell us if you need a talk/poster to guarantee funding. We can generally accommodate all requests to present, but some requested talks may be offered a poster if we are oversubscribed, with talk priority given to early career researchers.
PhD students in their final year (or close to it), or those who graduated recently (since July 2025), should consider applying for our student plenary (see below).
Presenting a poster
We suggest printing your poster as A0, though A1 (or even pieced-together A3 sheets) is totally fine. We’re fairly easy-going with this: as long as it gets your message across, it’s the content and conversations that matter for BES Macro! PDF versions of posters need to be emailed conference organisers (macro@britishecologicalsociety.org) at least one week before the event, so they can all be made available to online attendees. At registration, you do NOT need to submit an abstract, only a title.
Photography competition
As a bit of fun, we want to see some wonderfully macro (in all senses of the word) photographs this year that can be available for all to view throughout the conference. If you want to get involved, please bring an A4 (or ideally, A3) print-out of your photograph.
Student plenary
The student plenary is a staple of BES Macro! If you are a PhD student in their final year (or close to it) or graduated recently (since July 2025) you should apply for this opportunity to share an extended version of your work with the BES Macro network. If you are unsure if you qualify, just send us an email at macro@britishecologicalsociety.org .
The student plenary will be 30 minutes long plus a 15-minute Q & A, and unlike for short and long talks, we require a title and abstract (max 250 words) from student plenary applicants. These will be reviewed anonymously by the organising committee to choose the winner.
We will be able to offer a full registration reimbursement to the student plenary speaker as well as up to £500 to cover travel costs. We encourage international students to apply, but note that we will not be able to assist with visa applications (beyond a letter of invitation). Note that the student plenary must be given in-person. For any unsuccessful student plenary applicants, we sincerely hope you will still be able to attend but will readily offer a refund if you cannot. Please email us directly, at macro@britishecologicalsociety.org, if you wish to apply for the student plenary but paying for conference registration upfront will be a problem for you.
Information for online attendees
Those attending online will be able to access the full range of talks via the stream and be able to engage with other participants via Slack.
Poster PDFs will be available to all attendees.
If you are attending online, you can apply for a poster or a short or long talk, which, if accepted, will be made available virtually. Our requirement is that the talk must be pre-recorded and provided to conference organisers at least one week before the event (email a link to the file using macro@britishecologicalsociety.org). The Q & A will take place via Slack.
Accessibility
We strive for our events to be as accessible as possible. The conference venue is fully wheelchair accessible, and there is space on the registration form to note other accessibility constraints (e.g., dietary requirements). If you require other information to ensure that this conference is accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us (macro@britishecologicalsociety.org).
Workshops (main conference)
In addition to the pre-conference workshop, there will be two workshops during the main conference, each lasting ~2 hours, on Days 2 and 3. Note that these workshops are in-person only and are included within the cost of in-person registration.
Workshop 1: Pitching to power: how to talk so that global policymakers actually listen
Leader: Helen Spence-Jones, University of Cambridge
Description: The process of translating ecological research into policy can be cryptic and difficult to navigate, particularly on a national and international scale. Using experience from the flagship UNEP GEO-7 report, this workshop will explore the tools and approaches that can be used to more effectively engage with policymakers, and improve links between research and policy in the face of global challenges.
Workshop 2: AI in the Biosciences: quantifying biological colour for macroecological analysis
Leaders: Sal Keith & Chaim Elchik, University of Lancaster
Plenary speakers
This year we are delighted to welcome three plenary speakers! Information on the student plenary will be shared in the run-up to the conference.
Dr Laura Antão, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Turku
Elucidating biodiversity change in the Anthropocene
Biodiversity change in the Anthropocene unfolds through complex, scale-dependent dynamics that are only detectable through long-term, comparative analyses across taxa and realms. Leveraging time-series databases, I examine how species and communities respond to large-scale environmental drivers, namely climate change from local to global scales. My research synthesises patterns of species richness, turnover, and abundance across spatial and temporal gradients, with a focus on cross-taxa and cross-realm comparisons. These efforts have revealed high variation in the direction and magnitude of change, as well as “mismatches” between biodiversity dimensions and e.g. between marine and terrestrial communities. By integrating macro-ecological synthesis with rigorous time-series analysis, this work highlights both generalities and divergences in biodiversity responses across ecosystems and underscores the value of cross-taxonomic, cross-realm perspectives for understanding ecological change in a warming world.
Prof. Deepa Senapathi, Professor of Applied Ecology and Head of Department of Sustainable Land Management, University of Reading
Prof. Chris Venditti, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Reading
Location & Travel
The conference will be in the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading (at the Agriculture building, 59 on this map https://static.reading.ac.uk/content/PDFs/files/Maps/Whiteknights-campus-map-and-keys.pdf).
To get to campus from Reading train station and the town centre, you can take buses 20 or 21 to the Shinfield road entrance (15 minute walk to the Agriculture building) or buses 17 or 19 to the Early Gate entrance (10 minute walk to Agriculture building) https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/.
Reading train station is a mainline train station with many connections (https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/). If you are travelling from or via London, the quickest route to take is from London Paddington station, with many frequent trains, but there are also trains from London Waterloo and you can stop at Earley train station.
Reading is well connected to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports which offer many direct international flights. If you arrive to Heathrow, you can take a direct bus with RailAir (https://www.railair.com/) to Reading train station (every 20-30 minutes). There is also a rail service (Elizabeth line) but it does require a transfer (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/elizabeth-line/).
If you arrive to Gatwick there is a direct train service to Reading https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/).
Accommodation
We have arranged on-campus accommodation at the University of Reading: please visit this website (https://registration.venuereading.com/Registration/Welcome.aspx?e=DA690571B11C8190531158F4580A097B) to view details and to book. The price is £76.50/night during the conference (15th and 16th ) and £91.80/night before or after the conference (14th and 17th) and includes an ensuite room and breakfast.
Otherwise, there are many hotel options in the town centre, from which you can walk or take a bus to campus (see above).
Ticket types and descriptions
Ticket costs vary depending on BES membership, career status, and attendance format; please read all options carefully.
All tickets include access to talks, posters, and an online discussion platform. Tickets for in-person attendance also include the main conference workshops and vegetarian/vegan lunches on Days 2 & 3, morning and afternoon coffee breaks, and a poster session on Day 2 with soft and alcoholic drinks. The pre-conference workshop is sold as a separate add-on and includes morning coffee and a vegetarian/vegan lunch.
If you are interested in becoming a BES member to purchase the BES member rate ticket, you can find out more information and join here. Membership starts from £15, or you can get 12-months free membership if you are an undergraduate, masters, or first-year PhD student. To view the British Ecological Society’s privacy policy please click here.
Good to know
Highlights
- 2 days 3 hours
- In person
Refund Policy
Location
University of Reading
Agriculture Building
Whiteknights Campus Reading RG6 6UR
How do you want to get there?
