In our latest issue, Triedel & Willaims’ FE Spotlight: Costs of being hungry in a fast‐paced world, shows how Salin et al’s paper Decreased mitochondrial metabolic requirements in fasting animals carry an oxidative cost represents a major advancement in the field, as they apply a novel technique to quantify in vivo reactive oxygen species production and determined whether starvation‐induced changes in mitochondrial function come at the cost of oxidative stress.

Also in this issue, Brans and De Meester’s paper shows how urbanization induces an evolutionary shift towards a faster lifestyle in the water flea Daphnia, while in our latest Review paper, Klimešová et al explore belowground plant functional ecology for a new, integrative perspective (see also this Q&A with Jitka Klimešová.)

Our cover image, from Yang et al’s Maternal density stress and coccidian parasitism: Synergistic effects on overwinter survival in root voles, shows two root voles (Microtus oeconomus). In this field study, the authors systematically examined the synergistic effects of maternal stress and coccidian parasitic interaction on the physiological conditions and overwinter survival of offspring in the root vole via repeated live trapping and measurements of faecal corticosterone metabolite (FCM) levels and immunocompetence in captured animals (Photo credit: Jiang-Hui Bian.).

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