Each year, as well as selecting an overall winner for the Harper Prize (see Martina’s interview), the editors of Journal of Ecology also select two highly commended papers.

This year we had two fantastic highly commended papers by Kris Kramer-Walter et al. titled ‘Root traits are multidimensional: specific root length is independent from root tissue density and the plant economic spectrum‘ and Joshua Daskin et al. titled ‘Ecological legacies of civil war: 35-year increase in savanna tree cover following wholesale large-mammal declines‘.

Joshua Daskin kindly agreed to present the findings of his highly commended paper in a video podcast. The video is available below and can also be found on the Journal of Ecology YouTube channel (english subtitles available).

Joshua Daskin is a PhD. candidate in Princeton University’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology. His dissertation research focused on the incidence and ecological aftermath of war-driven mammal declines in African ecosystems. Beginning in September 2017, he will be a Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale, where he will continue research on armed conflict and conservation, while beginning several projects on the ecology of seasonal flooding in tropical ecosystems.