ESA Journals

From coastlines to mountain crests: Regional and continental variation in North American marten diet and foraging Dietary plasticity is an important trait in an increasingly dynamic world and can reveal how species respond to changes in resource availability, intra- or interspecific interactions, and landscape s....

And read Martin et al.'s marten study here: doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

Cover of the December 2025 issue of Ecosphere

Take a peek—the December cover of "Ecosphere" is here! With a curious marten photographed as part of a recent study that finds these small carnivores have remarkable foraging and diet flexibility across North American forests

Browse the issue: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21508925...

Thank you for this contribution to "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment"!✨

New microbial community ecology research, published #OpenAccess in our journal "Ecology"🦠👇

a microscopic photo of mycorrhizae

Discover the latest in ecological research with our new media tip sheet!📰

From urban pollinator pathways to sea urchin halos and migratory bird protections, explore 6 fascinating studies in our November roundup:
https://ow.ly/21cs50XBmi7

Conceptualizing and measuring ecological spillover effects from protected areas Protected areas influence their surroundings in a variety of ways. These “spillover effects” can change an area’s conservation value and affect its social license. Advanced statistical tools for quan...

And read @gscumming.bsky.social's study here: doi.org/10.1002/fee....

December 2025 cover of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

The December cover star of "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment"—a young vervet monkey photographed by Graeme Cumming—illustrates Cumming’s study on “spillover effects” when protected species roam beyond park boundaries, bringing benefits and costs

Browse the full issue: tinyurl.com/2stvspyp

Check out recent media coverage for this paper in the ESA research newsletter: esa.org/blog/2025/12...

New in Ecosphere's "Microbial Ecology" track!⬇️

The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint Click on the article title to read more.

Norman et al. The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #AI #ecology #CarbonFootprint

The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint Click on the article title to read more.

Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs?

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A case study illustrating how policymaking can intervene to alter the course of climate change.

A 🆕 Perspective in "Earth Stewardship": From the lab to legislature—scientists are uniquely positioned to turn evidence into policy for restoration, climate action, & more

📄Scientists as policymakers: Greenlighting restoration and climate action
doi.org/10.1002/eas2...

(A) Map of landcover in northeast Ohio according to Landfire National Vegetation Classification (NVC) subclass type with white points indicating camera-trap locations in the Cleveland Metroparks. (B) Enlargement of the area of the white square in (A), displaying a single camera trap location with the 500-m radius buffer that we used to estimate landcover and enhanced vegetation index surrounding each camera station.

🆕 in Ecosphere's #MacrosystemsEcology track: A Cleveland Metroparks study finds deer lean into suburbia for forage (& maybe safety from predators)

📄White-tailed deer preferentially use areas with greater anthropogenic development in a suburban metropark system
doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

Modeled larval dispersal networks. The results for depths of (a) 100 m, (b) 600 m, (c) 1000 m, and (d) 1500 m are shown. Yellow, thicker edges indicate higher dispersal probabilities. The edges with dispersal probabilities of <0.1% are shown in black. The edges are directional, curving counterclockwise from the beginning points to the end points. Red indicates seamounts with contract areas for cobalt-rich crust exploration as of July 2024; magenta indicates seamounts whose contract area was relinquished in July 2024; and blue indicates other seamounts. The bathymetric contours are drawn at intervals of 2000 m

🆕 & #OpenAccess in "Ecological Applications": Ocean models, particle tracking, and DNA data reveal marine larval routes linking deep-sea seamounts

📄Seamount larval dispersal networks: A potential strategy for conserving ecological connectivity from deep-sea mining
doi.org/10.1002/eap....

Multidimensional resource partitioning by large herbivores. Herbivores can reduce interspecific competition for food by selecting different sites (space), different plant taxa, and different plant organs. In this graphic, herbivores partition space, plant species, and organs in relation to three key trade-offs: Grazer-browser continuum, forage quality–quantity continuum, and water requirements continuum. Here, we use functional traits as proxies for the positioning of 15 large-herbivore species along these three axes to integrate multiple dimensions of food partitioning. We investigate their ability to explain partitioning of space and plant taxa (we did not consider partitioning of plant parts in this study). Underlined traits have been used as proxies for the three dimensions in this study

🆕 & #OpenAccess in "Ecological Monographs": Coexistence in the Serengeti isn’t simple: body size, dental traits, and water needs together shape how herbivores divide space and food

📄Multidimensional resource partitioning by Serengeti herbivores
doi.org/10.1002/ecm....

🆕 in our #OpenAccess journal "Earth Stewardship"👇

Thanks for this contribution to "Ecosphere"!👍

Thanks for this contribution to "Ecosphere"!🙌

#OpenAccess research on plankton biodiversity in our journal "Ecosphere"👇

Happy to finally share this important article on barriers in ecology led by @canobarbacil.bsky.social in the journal Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment. The idea for this paper originated at the nice #ANdiNA workshop in Spain a couple of years ago.

Floodplain inundation and lateral connectivity promote productivity in a managed river ecosystem River-floodplain ecosystems near urban centers are heavily engineered for flood protection and water delivery, which has led to a loss of lateral hydrologic connectivity between rivers and their floo...

Floodplain inundation and lateral connectivity promote productivity in a managed river ecosystem - Khanna - 2025 - Ecological Applications - Wiley Online Library esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Some possible forms of sex-specific plasticity in each infection component and how they may lead to non-intuitive predictions for sex-biases in pathogen transmission. Using a horizontally transmitted pathogen as an example, transmission capacity through each sex depends on the sex-specific differences in host susceptibility, pathogen loads, and death rates. Hypothetically, each component could have a unique form of sex-specific plasticity – susceptibility might be plastic only for males (i.e., sex-specific), equally plastic in both sexes in the same direction (i.e., equivalent), and equally plastic in both sexes but in opposing directions (i.e., divergent). Yet considering overall disease spread would suggest a strong male-bias in transmission in environment 1, but no bias at all in environment 2, and that this shift in the extent of the ‘sicker sex’ (in regard to the sex where pathogen transmission is highest) would be underpinned entirely by plasticity in male transmission only.

🆕 in "Ecology": Who spreads more disease - males or females? At least in water fleas, it depends on temperature

📄The sicker sex is plastic: Thermal plasticity determines sex biases in pathogen transmission
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Thanks for this contribution to "Ecology"!🌟

Check out the video below ⬇️ and then read the #OpenAccess study in our journal "Ecology"!
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Great share from @esajournals , managing forest nutrition may be the next frontier in conservation. Grateful for such timely, impactful ecology research! 🌿
#ForestEcology #WildlifeConservation #EcosystemScience #JFR #Forestryresearch 🍁🌺🌱

Thank you for this contribution to "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment"!🙌

Biological surveys reveal unexpectedly high faunal diversity at Nankai Trough methane seeps Cold seeps are chemosynthesis-based ecosystems powered by microbial primary production that support diverse and specialized faunal assemblages in the deep sea. Despite Nankai Trough in Japan being a ....

New paper!
Our study in Ecosphere, led by Chong Chen on our @oceancensus.bsky.social cruise, maps biodiversity in methane seeps. My role was minor, but everyone was a blast to work with. We have more exciting stuff from this cruise coming!
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🗣️We still need your voice!

ESA’s Task Force on Actionable Ecological Research is gathering input on priorities for solutions-focused science. Take just a few minutes to share your ideas:
🔗https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUttCw5mCGZvkfK-wjXIpD7XAj6w64TUJlwMqV9LCEn1U58A/viewform

(a) Example of long-term average, seasonal drought propagation for atmospheric demand (−PET), precipitation (Precip.), shallow soil moisture (SM), deep SM, and streamflow for a single high-elevation pixel in the Upper Donner und Blitzen watershed. (b) Example of moving window analysis to characterize the relationship between terrestrial and aquatic drought for a single high-elevation pixel in the Upper Donner und Blitzen watershed (as in panel a).

🆕 in Ecosphere's #MacrosystemsEcology track: How closely do soil moisture & streamflow sync up over time? A close look at seasonal dry-down

📄Aridity reduces lag times between aquatic and terrestrial dry-down among watersheds and across years in the northwest US
doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

A male moose (Alces alces) in a Swedish forest with abundant broadleaf browse (a), and a monoculture ofNorway spruce (Picea abies) (b)

🆕 in "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment": Forest recovery isn't just about tree cover—nutrition matters! How managing chemical landscapes could boost wildlife conservation

📄Managing nutritional landscapes as the next frontier in forest ecology and conservation
doi.org/10.1002/fee....