At the Ecology Across Borders meeting in the Belgian city of Ghent, organised late last year by the British Ecological Society (BES), NIOO-director Louise Vet spoke on the current state of ecology. Watch her lecture in full below.

What is the world's most spoken language? What is epigenetics? And what is happening to national parks in the United States? Those are just three of the many questions addressed in the talk.

Louise Vet was speaking as the recipient of the highest honour the BES gives. Threading together highlights from recent ecological research, she emphasised that ecology "should be the basis of our economy. Our economy has to fit in with the economy of the planet...otherwise we're not going to manage with ten billion people!"