2025 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2025 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early career research paper published in Journal of Ecology. Jing Xiao’s ‘The proportion of low abundance species is a key predictor of plant β-diversity across the latitudinal gradient‘ is one of…
2025 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2025 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early career research paper published in Journal of Ecology. Amanda Vieria da Silva’s ‘Ants on flowers: Protective ants impose a low but variable cost to pollination, moderated by location of extrafloral…
2025 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2025 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early career research paper published in Journal of Ecology. Emily Wedel’s ‘Divergent resource-use strategies of encroaching shrubs: Can traits predict encroachment success in tallgrass prairie?‘ is one of those shortlisted for the…
Jiaqi Chen and Wentao Luo, Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discuss their article: Dominant species determine drought effects on grassland multifunctionality The increasing frequency of extreme drought events poses a severe threat to grassland ecosystem multifunctionality—a metric aggregating multiple ecosystem functions. However, the ecological mechanisms driving these impacts remain contentious.…
2025 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: For the next two weeks, we are featuring the articles shortlisted for the 2025 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the best early career research paper published in Journal of Ecology. Qitong Wang’s ‘Rhizosphere as a hotspot for microbial necromass deposition into the soil carbon pool’ is one of those shortlisted for the…
The Harper Prize is awarded annually by the British Ecological Society for the best paper in Journal of Ecology by an early career author. We are pleased to present the shortlisted papers for the 2025 award, published in Volume 113: 🌿Qitong Wang: Rhizosphere as a hotspot for microbial necromass deposition into the soil carbon pool 🌿Jianguo Ma: Ammonium preference and microbial nitrification…
Suwan Ji and Guanghui Lv, Xinjiang University, discuss their article: Intraspecific competition drives orthogonal variation in root exudate metabolic and functional traits in seedlings of a dominant species In plant ecology, competition is a fundamental process regulating population dynamics. While plants appear stationary, they are actively engaging with their environment and neighbours in many ways,…
Yihong Zhu, University of California, Berkeley, discusses her article: Legacy effects under an emerging novel disturbance regime: A memory-based framework to quantify tree growth responses Emergent novel disturbance regime Moderate-severity disturbances, such as drought, pathogen irruptions, and prescribed fire, may not cause widespread tree mortality, but can leave lingering impacts on surviving trees. Such disturbances…
Beatriz Aguirre, Cornell University, discusses her article: Plant functional diversity does not dilute virus infection, but community virus prevalence positively correlates with net C3 grass production Greater plant diversity can protect plant communities from pathogens in wild and agricultural plant communities, and the effects of many aspects of diversity, such as genetic and species diversity,…
Xoaquín Moreira, Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC, Spain), discusses his article: Global insular leaf size shifts follow the island rule, independently of insect herbivory and macroclimate This work came out of a collaboration between 17 institutions across five continents, all brought together by a shared interest in island biogeography. By combining data, expertise, and fieldwork…
Nohemi Huanca-Nunez, Yale University, discusses her article: Integrated demographic strategies are more strongly associated with variation in conspecific density dependence than single traits in tropical tree seedlings, in both English and Spanish. A long-standing question in plant ecology is how so many tree species can coexist in tropical forests. A key part of the answer…
Johanne Gresse, University of Tübingen, discusses her article: Drought resistance drives population temporal stability of annuals in drylands Imagine a desert after rain. For a few brief weeks, the ground bursts into a colourful carpet of annual plants. At first glance, this display seems fleeting and fragile. But when observed over many years, a pattern…
Gang Yang and Zuzana Münzbergová, Charles University in Prague, discuss their article: Contrasting drought responses in two grassland plant-microbe systems under climate change Drought is becoming more frequent and intense under global change, but plant responses vary widely. Some species are adapted to tolerate stress, while others perform well only when resources are abundant. Because…
Donghao Wu, from the Zhejiang University in China, discusses their article: The intrinsic coordination of tree growth strategy and wood decomposability What happens after a tree dies? As plant ecologists, we often focus on how trees grow: how fast they capture carbon, how tall they become, and how long they live. But forests are not…
Rose Brinkoff and Olivia Vought, University of Michigan, discuss their article: The impact of warming on peak-season ecosystem carbon uptake is influenced by dominant species in warmer sites Ecosystems both absorb and release carbon. Carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere is taken up by plants through the process of photosynthesis and released by plants…
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