Functional Ecology

An Official Journal of the British Ecological Society

Edited by:
Charles Fox, Ken Thompson, James Cresswell and Frank Messina with Liz Baker

ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2007: 23/116 (Ecology)
Impact Factor: 3.157

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Functional Ecology publishes quality research papers in organismal ecology, including physiological, behavioural and evolutionary ecology, and the implications of organismal ecology for community and ecosystem-level patterns and processes. Papers may describe experimental, comparative or theoretical studies on any types of organism. Work that is purely descriptive, or which focuses on population dynamics (without investigation of the underlying factors influencing population dynamics) will not be accepted unless it sheds light on those specific areas mentioned above.

TopNews and Announcements

Special Feature: Towards a Predictive Understanding of Belowground Process Responses to Climate Change
The latest issue of Functional Ecology includes a guest editorial and seven papers on belowground responses to climate change. Read these special feature articles free online until the end of January 2009:

• Towards a predictive understanding of belowground process responses to climate change: have we moved any closer?
  Pendall et al.
• Below-ground carbon flux and partitioning: global patterns and response to temperature
  C. M. Litton and C. P. Giardina
• Decomposers in disguise: mycorrhizal fungi as regulators of soil C dynamics in ecosystems under global change
  Talbot et al.
• Soil carbon stocks in experimental mesocosms are dependent on the rate of labile carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to soils
  Bradford et al.
• Long-term enhancement of N availability and plant growth under elevated CO₂ in a semi-arid grassland
  Dijkstra et al.
• Live reports from the soil grain - the promise and challenge of microbiosensors
  Gage et al.
• New approach for capturing soluble root exudates in forest soils
  Phillips et al.
• A conceptual and practical approach to data quality and analysis procedures for high-frequency soil respiration measurements
  Savage et al.

Fiddler crabs reveal honesty is not always the best policy
Dishonesty may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought. A team of Australian ecologists has discovered that some male fiddler crabs "lie" about their fighting ability by growing claws that look strong and powerful but are in fact weak and puny. Published on Early View the study is the first direct evidence that crabs "bluff" about their fighting ability. Read the press release here. This press release resulted in coverage in The Telegraph (UK) and Metro (UK). Read the research paper below:
Dishonest signalling of fighting ability and multiple performance traits in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi
Simon P. Lailvaux, Leeann T. Reaney, Patricia R. Y. Backwell

Hot paper
This just-published research shows an evolutionary trade-off in the jaw system of Darwin's finches, where greater gape distance and faster contraction are associated with greater song complexity (a mating advantage) but also reduced bite performance (an ecological disadvantage).
Force-velocity trade-off in Darwin's finch jaw function: a biomechanical basis for ecological speciation?
Anthony Herrel et al.

New members for editorial board announced
During 2008 the editors of Functional Ecology were pleased to welcome the following new members to the journal's editorial board:

• Jennifer Baltzer, Mount Allison University, Canada
• John Klironomos, University of Guelph, Canada
• Marek Konarzewski, University of Bialystok, Poland
• Sara Lewis, Tufts University, USA
• Peter Wainwright, University of California at Davis, USA

Vol 22 Issue 1 2008
Read the 2008 editorial from the Editors of Functional Ecology providing further details on the scope of the journal and the type of papers we are looking to receive.

Functional Ecology articles free after two years
The British Ecological Society is committed to making ecological research as accessible as possible. Papers published in Functional Ecology will therefore be made freely available online two years after issue publication, back to 1997, here.

Online submission
Submit your manuscript online via Manuscript Central.

Online Open
Authors of articles in this journal can now choose to make their articles open access and available free for all readers through the payment of an author fee. Read more.

Articles published online ahead of print - Early View
Articles which have been fully copy-edited and peer-reviewed are published online before the print edition of this journal is published in Early View.

Free online access in the developing world
Access to this journal is available free online within institutions in the developing world through the AGORA Initiative with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the OARE Initiative (Online Access to Research in the Environment) with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Blackwell goes CarbonNeutral®
Blackwell Publishing is the first publisher to become CarbonNeutral®. Read more about the initiatives we have signed up to with The CarbonNeutral Company here.

TopHighlights

Special Feature: The Evolutionary Ecology of Senescence
The June issue of Functional Ecology included seven hot review articles on the evolutionary ecology of senescence. Read these special feature articles free online until the end of 2008.

• The evolutionary ecology of senescence
  Monaghan et al.
• The evolution of senescence from a comparative perspective
  R Ricklefs
• Measuring senescence in wild animal populations: towards a longitudinal approach
  Nussey et al.
• Ageing in a eusocial insect: molecular and physiological characteristics of life span plasticity in the honey bee
  Münch et al.
• Environmental damage and senescence: modelling the life history consequences of variable stress and caloric intake
  M Mangel
• Evolutionary genetics of ageing in the wild: empirical patterns and future perspectives
  Wilson et al.
• Sexual selection, sexual conflict and the evolution of ageing and lifespan
  Bonduriansky et al.

Editors' Highlights from 2008
Elsewhere in Volume 22 the Editors particularly enjoyed reading the following papers:

• Birds use fruit colour as honest signal of dietary antioxidant rewards
  H. M. Schaefer et al.
• Experimental design of multifactor climate change experiments with elevated CO2, warming and drought: the CLIMAITE project
  T. N. Mikkelsen et al.
• Silencing 7 herbivory-regulated proteins in Nicotiana attenuata to understand their function in plant-herbivore interactions
  S. Mitra et al.
• Costs of plasticity: responses to desiccation decrease post-metamorphic immune function in a pond-breeding amphibian
  Stephanie S. Gervasi and Johannes Foufopoulos

Links to Related Sites
Journal of Animal Ecology
Journal of Applied Ecology
Journal of Ecology
British Ecological Society Home Page
Ecological Society of Australia
Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Italian Society of Ecology
Nordic Society Oikos
South African Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Scientists
Evolutionary Ecology Research
Blackwell Ecology
Blackwell Plant Science