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 2024 award (published in Volume 38):
Ian’s results (1) experimentally validate the use of morphological traits as proxies for movement ability in fragmented landscapes, (2) demonstrate that visual acuity functions as a novel dimension of dispersal limitation and (3) quantify how the spatial and temporal components of patch isolation produce a gradient in dispersal-mediated environmental filtering and extinction debt for communities inhabiting fragments.
Julien’s research shows that climate and tree species composition interact to control the ability of forests to resist and recover from a storm disturbance through both direct and indirect effects.
Stephanie’s study improves the mechanistic understanding of the climatic effects on trait composition in animal assemblages and provides essential information for biodiversity conservation under climate change.
Jihyun’s paper demonstrates that the effects of heatwaves on phytoplankton quality are clearly distinct from those caused by constant warming temperatures and that heatwave-mediated decreases in resource quality have immediate effects on consumer productivity.
Xiangyun’s study highlights that while the specific effects of changes in precipitation may vary depending on the context, the fundamental processes governing biomass stability are consistent. These findings elucidate the desert steppe ecosystems’ adaptive response to precipitation variations and emphasize their pivotal role in maintaining ecosystem functions under climatic perturbations.
Tomonari found that plant species showed two strategy spectra of leaf trait variation; one spectrum showing a trade-off between leaf traits that lead to either fast growth or high survival and another spectrum showing a trade-off between large leaves to capture more light vs small leaves to persist against heat and drought stress.
Pamela’s research showed that the geographic origin of the populations had a significant influence on morphological and chemical plant traits, suggesting that P. lanceolata populations are not only adapted to different environments in their native range, but also in their introduced range.
Joaquina’s results shed light on how the body size structure of tree and soil invertebrate communities spanning multiple trophic levels shift over successional time as the relative abundances of large versus small-bodied organisms increase. This study emphasises the fundamental influence of organismal traits and ecosystem succession on scaling relationships of organism body size and abundance.
Jahangir’s research extends the TTL model validation, demonstrates the resilience of subtidal Baltic Mytilus to future extreme heatwaves and offers an approach to predict heatwave-induced population mortalities, applicable to other species and sensitive systems.
Yuguo’s research showed that organ-level traits alone were insufficient to capture community-level trade-offs in rooting strategies across the edaphic gradient. Instead, trait variation encompassing organ, plant and symbiosis levels revealed that consideration of whole-plant phenotypic integration is essential to defining multidimensional trade-offs shaping the functional variation of root systems.
The winner will be selected in the coming weeks, so watch this space for future announcements!
