Yunxian Xu: Mycorrhizal fungi alter root exudation to cultivate a beneficial microbiome for plant growth

In this blog post, Yunxian Xu discusses his study “Mycorrhizal fungi alter root exudation to cultivate a beneficial microbiome for plant growth“, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the paper: Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a class of soil microorganisms that are widespread in terrestrial ecosystems and can form a reciprocal symbiotic relationship with most terrestrial … Continue reading Yunxian Xu: Mycorrhizal fungi alter root exudation to cultivate a beneficial microbiome for plant growth

Spencer Virgin: Hot limpets go south: Fine-scale thermal heterogeneity drives summertime limpet distributions

In this blog post, Spencer Virgin, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, discusses his study “Behavioural thermoregulation and food availability drive fine-scale seasonal habitat partitioning in limpets”, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers About the Research Most research on the effect of climate change and extreme heat on organism distributions focuses only on … Continue reading Spencer Virgin: Hot limpets go south: Fine-scale thermal heterogeneity drives summertime limpet distributions

Ryan Stephens: Importance of tissue, trophic level, and diet source in shaping variation in isotopic trophic discrimination factors

In this post, Ryan Stephens, an ecologist at East Tennessee State University, discusses his review paper “Meta-analysis and critical review of trophic discrimination factors (Δ13C and Δ15N): Importance of tissue, trophic level and diet source“. This paper has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the Paper Naturally occurring stable isotopes, especially carbon (13C/12C, expressed as δ13C) and nitrogen … Continue reading Ryan Stephens: Importance of tissue, trophic level, and diet source in shaping variation in isotopic trophic discrimination factors

Leo Ohyama: Navigating the ecological traits of insect societies

In this blog post, Leo Ohyama, a PhD candidate, discusses his study “Ecological traits of social insects: Colony, queen and worker size relationships reveal a nexus trait with broad ecological relevance“, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the Paper Trait-based approaches in ecology allow researchers to associate ecological characteristics spanning phenology, morphology, and physiology to species … Continue reading Leo Ohyama: Navigating the ecological traits of insect societies

Félix P. Leiva: Cell Size is More Important in Conditions of Low Oxygen

In this post, Félix P. Leiva, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany, discusses his article “The role of cell size in shaping responses to oxygen and temperature in fruit flies“, which has been shortlisted for the Haldane Prize, Functional Ecology´s prize for Early Career Researchers. About the paper Our paper makes a significant contribution by unveiling that temperature and oxygen can explain responses … Continue reading Félix P. Leiva: Cell Size is More Important in Conditions of Low Oxygen

Daniel G. Dick: Exploring the relationship between different measures of functional redundancy

In this blog post, Daniel G. Dick, a public education and geoscience communication postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University, Canada, discusses his study “Measuring functional redundancy using generalized Hill numbers”, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the Paper Whether an ecological community can withstand an external perturbation (such as rapid global warming) is thought to be largely … Continue reading Daniel G. Dick: Exploring the relationship between different measures of functional redundancy

Indra Boving: Plants and flammability—Deep inside the mechanisms of wild fires

In this revisited blog post, Indra Boving, a PhD candidate at University of California-Santa Barbara, USA, shares her work ‘Live fuel moisture and water potential exhibit differing relationships with leaf-level flammability thresholds’, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for early career researchers. About the paper Our paper was inspired by patterns observed across the landscape in Southern California chapparal: wildfires typically … Continue reading Indra Boving: Plants and flammability—Deep inside the mechanisms of wild fires

Samantha Bock: A long-standing evolutionary mystery: Why does temperature determine sex in long-lived reptiles?

In this blog post, Samantha Bock, a post-doctoral researcher, discusses her study “Differential early-life survival underlies the adaptive significance of temperature-dependent sex determination in a long-lived reptile“, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the paper: The temperature an animal experiences during development can determine whether it becomes female or male in many reptiles and some fishes. … Continue reading Samantha Bock: A long-standing evolutionary mystery: Why does temperature determine sex in long-lived reptiles?

Lina Aoyama: Root diversity in grasslands buffers biomass production under drought

In this post, Lina Aoyama, a PhD student at the University of Oregon, discusses their research “Functional diversity buffers biomass production across variable rainfall conditions through different processes above- versus below-ground“, which has been shortlisted for Functional Ecology’s 2023 Haldane Prize for Early Career Researchers. About the paper Water is a strong driver of plant productivity, and which plant species are there and how many … Continue reading Lina Aoyama: Root diversity in grasslands buffers biomass production under drought

2023 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers

The Haldane Prize is awarded by the British Ecological Society each year for the best paper in Functional Ecology written by an early career author. With entries spanning the 37th volume of the journal, our Senior Editors carefully shortlisted the following 12 papers: Lina Aoyama Functional diversity buffers biomass production across variable rainfall conditions through different processes above- versus below-ground Lina found that although biomass was largely … Continue reading 2023 Haldane Prize Shortlist: Functional Ecology’s Award for Early Career Researchers