The Haldane Prize is awarded annually by the British Ecological Society for the best paper in Functional Ecology by an early career author. We are pleased to present the shortlisted papers for the 2025 award (published in Volume 39):
⭐️ Carolina Olguín-Jacobson: Recovery mode: Marine protected areas enhance climate resilience of invertebrate species to marine heatwaves
⭐️June Shrestha: Marine protection and environmental forcing influence fish-derived nutrient cycling in kelp forests
⭐️Jiawei Zhang: Spatial distribution and driving factors of microbial necromass carbon in coastal wetlands of China
⭐️Lifeng Wang: Soil fauna trophic multifunctionality mediates the release of elements from decomposing typhoon-generated leaf litter
⭐️Jiangnan Li: Linking rock outcrop size and distance to soil multifunctionality in mountain ecosystems
⭐️Marion Boisseaux: Shifting trait coordination along a soil-moisture-nutrient gradient in tropical forests
⭐️Kentaro Takagi: Realized flower constancy in bumble bees: Optimal foraging strategy balancing cognitive and travel costs and its possible consequences for floral diversity
⭐️João Vitor Messeder: Rethinking the role of colour in avian fruit choices and foraging mechanisms
⭐️Michael Stemkovski: Ecological acclimation: A framework to integrate fast and slow responses to climate change
⭐️Nicole Walasek: The evolution of sensitive periods beyond early ontogeny: Bridging theory and data
⭐️James Mouton: Behavioural co-option of plant secondary compounds by a cavity-nesting bird is an adaptation against competition and predation
⭐️Alon Rapaport: Rapid and chemically diverse C transfer from trees to mycorrhizal fruit bodies in the forest
⭐️Xiaojing Zhang: Mycelium biomass and community composition impact nutrient concentration in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at fine spatial scale
Congratulations to all our shortlisted researchers and all our early career authors. We’ll be selecting the overall winner soon, so watch this space for future announcements!🏆
