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 2023 award (published in Volume 111):

⭐️ Chenhui Chang: Reciprocal bark exchange helps to disentangle tree species-dependent bark and wood trait effects on invertebrate diversity
⭐️ Yikang Cheng: Divergent trait responses to nitrogen addition in tall and short species
⭐️ Tyler Coverdale: Unravelling the relationship between plant diversity and vegetation structural complexity: A review and theoretical framework
⭐️ Marina Fagundes: The role of plant diversity and facilitation during tropical dry forest restoration
⭐️ Maria-Theresa Jessen: Litter accumulation, not light limitation, drives early plant recruitment
⭐️ Tara Miller: Warmer temperatures are linked to widespread phenological mismatch among native and non-native forest plants
⭐️ Juliana Monteiro: Bryophyte assembly rules across scales
⭐️ Jan Perret: Plants stand still but hide: Imperfect and heterogeneous detection is the rule when counting plants
⭐️ Anja Schmutz: Crops grown in mixtures show niche partitioning in spatial water uptake
⭐️ Wang Siyuan: Lianas have a faster resource acquisition strategy than trees: Below-ground evidence from root traits, phylogeny and the root economics space
⭐️ Liam Trethowan: Plant species biogeographic origin shapes their current and future distribution on the world’s highest island mountain
⭐️ Xian Yang: Different assembly mechanisms of leaf epiphytic and endophytic bacterial communities underlie their higher diversity in more diverse forests

The winner will be selected in the coming weeks, so watch this space for future announcements!🏆