Ecology Letters

Papers
(The TQCC of Ecology Letters is 15. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-11-01 to 2025-11-01.)
ArticleCitations
805
212
202
Cover Image157
Issue Information125
107
Ecological lags govern the pace and outcome of plant community responses to 21st‐century climate change107
Comparative approaches in social network ecology101
Urbanization alters the spatiotemporal dynamics of plant–pollinator networks in a tropical megacity100
Behavioural differences underlie toxicity and predation variation in blooms of Prymnesium parvum99
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade96
Trade‐offs in non‐native plant herbivore defences enhance performance94
Phylogenetic congruence between Neotropical primates and plants is driven by frugivory92
Body Mass–Biomass Scaling Modulates Species Keystone‐Ness to Press Perturbations89
Emergence patterns of locally novel plant communities driven by past climate change and modern anthropogenic impacts86
Continent‐wide patterns of song variation predicted by classical rules of biogeography85
Inferring spatially varying animal movement characteristics using a hierarchical continuous‐time velocity model82
Experimental evidence of size‐selective harvest and environmental stochasticity effects on population demography, fluctuations and non‐linearity79
Contemporary tree growth shows altered climate memory72
Recent and Rapid Assembly of an Island Species–Area Relationship Threatened by Human Disturbance71
SEED: A framework for integrating ecological stoichiometry and eco‐evolutionary dynamics67
Non‐Native Species Abundance Decreases the Co‐Occurrence Between Native and Non‐Native Species Through Time at Any Phylogenetic Distance67
Climate change impacts plant carbon balance, increasing mean future carbon use efficiency but decreasing total forest extent at dry range edges67
Hotter is not (always) better: Embracing unimodal scaling of biological rates with temperature65
Natal legacies cause social and spatial marginalization during dispersal64
Trait‐dependent diversification in angiosperms: Patterns, models and data64
Microbial Life History Mediates the Drought‐Induced Decrease in Wood Decomposition in Subtropical Forests63
Cover Image: Volume 25 Number 5, May 202262
Transplant experiments demonstrate that larger brains are favoured in high‐competition environments in Trinidadian killifish61
When the going gets tough, the tough get going: Effect of extreme climate on an Antarctic seabird's life history59
Weaker Plant‐Frugivore Trait Matching Towards the Tropics and on Islands56
Reconstructing 120 years of climate change impacts on Joshua tree flowering56
Corrigendum55
Issue Information54
Globally, tree fecundity exceeds productivity gradients54
52
Learning takes time: Biotic resistance by native herbivores increases through the invasion process52
Voltinism Shifts in Response to Climate Warming Generally Benefit Populations of Multivoltine Butterflies52
The latitudinal gradient in rates of evolution for bird beaks, a species interaction trait51
The causes and ecological context of rapid morphological evolution in birds50
Unveiling Pervasive Soil Microbial P Limitation in Terrestrial Ecosystems Worldwide49
Evolutionary interactions between thermal ecology and sexual selection49
Convergence of carbon sink magnitude and water table depth in global wetlands49
PERFICT: A Re‐imagined foundation for predictive ecology47
Microbial redox cycling enhances ecosystem thermodynamic efficiency and productivity47
How an Insect Converts Time Into Space: Temporal Niches Aid Coexistence via Modifying the Amount of Habitat Available for Reproduction47
Thermal limits of survival and reproduction depend on stress duration: A case study of Drosophila suzukii46
Smaller adult fish size in warmer water is not explained by elevated metabolism46
Biodiversity modulates the cross‐community scaling relationship in changing environments46
Identifying the Knowledge and Capacity Gaps in Southeast Asian Insect Conservation45
Local Adaptation Is Highest in Populations With Stable Long‐Term Growth45
Broad‐scale seasonal climate tracking is a consequence, not a driver, of avian migratory connectivity45
Coevolution of species colonisation rates controls food‐chain length in spatially structured food webs44
Variation in Oceanographic Resistance of the World's Coastlines to Invasion by Species With Planktonic Dispersal44
Scaling of Extinction Time With Habitat Size in Experimental Populations43
Asymmetric relationships and their effects on coexistence43
Metabolic efficiency reshapes the seminal relationship between pathogen growth rate and virulence42
Multispecies Coexistence Emerges From Pairwise Exclusions in Communities With Competitive Hierarchy41
Microbial Evolution Drives Adaptation of Substrate Degradation on Decadal to Centennial Time Scales Relevant to Global Change41
Elevated CO2 and N Gradually Weaken the Influence of Diversity on Ecosystem Stability40
Eco‐evolutionary maintenance of diversity in fluctuating environments40
From Presence‐Only to Abundance Species Distribution Models Using Transfer Learning40
How to publish a ‘Method’ article in Ecology Letters40
Impacts of Changing Winters on Lake Ecosystems Will Increase With Latitude40
Feedback loops between 3D vegetation structure and ecological functions of animals40
Divergence Across Niche Dimensions Reveals Species' Ecological Roles40
39
Regional Processes Mediate Ecological Selection and the Distribution of Plant Diversity Across Scales39
Global Variation in Zooplankton Niche Divergence Across Ocean Basins39
Intercontinental analysis of temperate steppe stream food webs reveals consistent autochthonous support of fishes38
Colourful Urban Birds: Bird Species Successful in Urban Environments Have More Elaborate Colours and Less Brown38
Meta‐analysis of elevational changes in the intensity of trophic interactions: Similarities and dissimilarities with latitudinal patterns38
Soil Nitrogen Supply Exerts Largest Influence on Leaf Nitrogen in Environments with the Greatest Leaf Nitrogen Demand38
Evidence That Metapopulation Dynamics Maintain a Species' Range Limit38
Sapflow Database Reveals Density‐Dependent Competition Among Woody Plants at Global Scale38
Mycorrhizal Types Regulate Tree Spatial Associations in Temperate Forests: Ectomycorrhizal Trees Might Favour Species Coexistence38
Biodiversity Patterns Redefined in Environmental Space37
Beyond Habitat: Memory Versus Environment in Shaping Animal Space Use37
The functional form of specialised predation affects whether Janzen–Connell effects can prevent competitive exclusion37
Cover Image: Volume 25 Number 4, April 202236
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds36
36
Native Plant Diversity Generates Microbial Legacies That Either Promote or Suppress Non‐Natives, Depending on Drought History36
Issue Information36
Biodiversity mitigates trade‐offs among species functional traits underpinning multiple ecosystem services36
Mean species responses predict effects of environmental change on coexistence35
Testing the selective sequestration hypothesis: Monarch butterflies preferentially sequester plant defences that are less toxic to themselves while maintaining potency to others35
Noise pollution alters the diet composition of invertebrate consumers both in and beyond a noise‐exposed grassland ecosystem35
Issue Information34
The fitness value of ecological information in a variable world34
Living fast, dying young: Anthropogenic habitat modification influences the fitness and life history traits of a cooperative breeder33
Correction to ‘Life history mediates the trade‐offs among different components of demographic resilience’33
Rarity mediates species‐specific responses of tropical reef fishes to protection33
Contemporary changes in phenotypic variation, and the potential consequences for eco‐evolutionary dynamics33
‘Dust you shall eat’: The complex nutritional and functional considerations underlying a simple diet32
Geographic, Taxonomic and Metric Gaps in Biodiversity Research Limit Evidence‐Based Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes: An Umbrella Review32
A Busse Balloon in the Lagoon: Herbivore Behaviour Generates Spatial Patterns in Coral Reef Ecosystems32
Multiple ecosystem service synergies and landscape mediation of biodiversity within urban agroecosystems32
Memory drives the formation of animal home ranges: Evidence from a reintroduction31
Issue Information31
Plant Invasion Decreases the Likelihood of Community Persistence Through Asymmetric Competition31
Thermal adaptation of microbial respiration persists throughout long‐term soil carbon decomposition30
Bumble Bee Probability of Occurrence Responds to Interactions Between Local and Landscape Land Use, Climatic Niche Properties and Climate Change30
A Functional Basis for the Assembly of Australian Subtropical Rainforest Tree Communities30
Reconciling Pollen Limitation Theories: Insights From Temperate Oak Masting30
Chronic Heat Tolerance Reveals Overestimated Thermal Safety Margins and Increased Vulnerability in Marine Fish Populations28
Deadly Decomposers: Distinguishing Life History Strategies on the Parasitism‐Saprotrophy Spectrum28
Accounting for demographic uncertainty increases predictions for species coexistence: A case study with annual plants28
Functional traits explain waterbirds' host status, subtype richness, and community‐level infection risk for avian influenza28
Leaf Dry Matter Content Is Phylogenetically Conserved and Related to Environmental Conditions, Especially Wildfire Activity28
Does spatial variation in insect herbivory match variations in plant quality? A meta‐analysis28
Climate change increases carbon allocation to leaves in early leaf green‐up27
Behavioural plasticity compensates for adaptive loss of cricket song27
Systematic distributions of interaction strengths across tree interaction networks yield positive diversity–productivity relationships27
Ambient and substrate energy influence decomposer diversity differentially across trophic levels27
Roots selectively decompose litter to mine nitrogen and build new soil carbon27
Detecting and interpreting higher‐order interactions in ecological communities26
Positive interactions of native species melt invasional meltdown over long‐term plant succession26
Genetic Independence of Naturally Correlated Variation in Resistance to Endemic and Novel Pathogens26
Intransitivity in plant–soil feedbacks is rare but is associated with multispecies coexistence26
Seasonal shifts from plant diversity to consumer control of grassland productivity26
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Biota‐mediated carbon cycling—A synthesis of biotic‐interaction controls on blue carbon26
Plant Species Richness and the Root Economics Space Drive Soil Fungal Communities26
Beyond simple adaptation: Incorporating other evolutionary processes and concepts into eco‐evolutionary dynamics26
Plant Genome Size Mediates Species and Community Responses to Precipitation Change and Nitrogen Enrichment in Grasslands26
Continent‐Wide Drivers of Spatial Synchrony in Breeding Demographic Structure Across Wild Great Tit Populations26
Seasonality Structures Avian Functional Diversity and Niche Packing Across North America26
Ecological conditions predict the intensity of Hendra virus excretion over space and time from bat reservoir hosts26
Global patterns of allochthony in stream–riparian meta‐ecosystems25
Towards closer integration between ecology and evolution25
Idiosyncrasies Unveiled: Examining the Pace, Patterns and Predictors of Biotic Diversification in Peninsular India25
The EICA is dead? Long live the EICA!24
Climate disequilibrium dominates uncertainty in long‐term projections of primary productivity24
Climate dependence of the macrofaunal effect on litter decomposition—A global meta‐regression analysis24
Issue Information24
The dimensionality of infection networks among viruses infecting microbial eukaryotes and bacteria24
Comparing temporal dynamics of compositional reorganization in long‐term studies of birds and fish24
24
From pattern to process? Dual travelling waves, with contrasting propagation speeds, best describe a self‐organised spatio‐temporal pattern in population growth of a cyclic rodent24
modelRxiv: A Platform for the Dissemination and Interactive Display of Models23
Plant diversity decreases greenhouse gas emissions by increasing soil and plant carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems23
Abundance–diversity relationship as a unique signature of temporal scaling in the fossil record23
Four ways to define the growing season23
Trophic tug‐of‐war: Coexistence mechanisms within and across trophic levels22
Cover Image: Volume 26 Number 7, July 202322
Legacy of the Lost and Pressure of the Present: Malagasy Plant Seeds Retain Megafauna Dispersal Signatures but Downsize Under Human Pressure22
The Release of Non‐Native Gamebirds Is Associated With Amplified Zoonotic Disease Risk22
Climate warming interacts with other global change drivers to influence plant phenology: A meta‐analysis of experimental studies22
Non‐random sampling measures the occurrence but not the strength of a textbook trophic cascade22
Plant Silicon Defences Suppress Herbivore Performance, but Mode of Feeding Is Key22
A Continuum From Positive to Negative Interactions Drives Plant Species' Performance in a Diverse Community22
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Studying interactions among anthropogenic stressors in freshwater ecosystems: A systematic review of 2396 multiple‐stressor experiments22
Time is of the essence: A general framework for uncovering temporal structures of communities22
Responses of soil fauna communities to the individual and combined effects of multiple global change factors22
Issue Information21
Specific sequence of arrival promotes coexistence via spatial niche pre‐emption by the weak competitor21
A Probabilistic View of Forbidden Links: Their Prevalence and Their Consequences for the Robustness of Plant–Hummingbird Communities21
Directional turnover towards larger‐ranged plants over time and across habitats21
21
Borealisation of Plant Communities in the Arctic Is Driven by Boreal‐Tundra Species21
Global patterns of resilience decline in vertebrate populations21
Population demography maintains biogeographic boundaries21
Cover Image, Volume 27, Issue 121
Alternations in the foraging behaviour of a primary consumer drive patch transition dynamics in a temperate rocky reef ecosystem21
Defensive Symbiont Genotype Distributions Are Linked to Parasitoid Attack Networks21
Pathogen transport amplifies or dilutes disease transmission depending on the host dose‐response relationship21
Shorebirds Are Shrinking and Shape‐Shifting: Declining Body Size and Lengthening Bills in the Past Half‐Century20
Revisiting the growth rate hypothesis: Towards a holistic stoichiometric understanding of growth20
Behavioural Thermoregulation of Flowers via Petal Movement20
Long‐term studies should provide structure for inclusive education and professional development20
Quantitatively Testing Predictions From Mechanistic Models: A Case Study for Island Biodiversity20
Long‐Term Alpine Plant Responses to Global Change Drivers Depend on Functional Traits20
Issue Information20
A test of Darwin’s naturalization conundrum in birds reveals enhanced invasion success in the presence of close relatives20
Reproductive Interference Alters Species Coexistence in Nematodes due to Asymmetric Sperm‐Induced Harm20
Local adaptation to seasonal cues at the fronts of two parallel, climate‐induced butterfly range expansions20
Negative effects of urbanisation on diurnal and nocturnal pollen‐transport networks20
Environmental variables drive spatial patterns of trophic diversity in mammals20
A general framework to quantify and compare ecological impacts under temporal dynamics20
Biodiversity Consistently Promotes Ecosystem Multifunctionality Across Multiple Temporal Scales in an Aquatic Microbial Community20
Functional traits explain the consistent resistance of biodiversity to plant invasion under nitrogen enrichment20
The reproductive ecology drivers of egg attendance in amphibians19
A bird in the hand: Global‐scale morphological trait datasets open new frontiers of ecology, evolution and ecosystem science19
Community Synchrony in Seed Production is Associated With Trait Similarity and Climate Across North America19
Contrasting 50‐Year Trends of Moth Communities Depending on Elevation and Species Traits19
The importance of worldwide linguistic and cultural diversity for climate change resilience19
Resource selection by New York City deer reveals the effective interface between wildlife, zoonotic hazards and humans19
Intermittent instability is widespread in plankton communities19
Harvesting can stabilise population fluctuations and buffer the impacts of extreme climatic events19
Changes in vertical and horizontal diversities mediated by the size structure of introduced fish collectively shape food‐web stability19
Plasticity syndromes in wild vertebrates: Patterns and consequences of individual variation in plasticity across multiple behaviours19
Putative ‘Dispersal Adaptations’ Do Not Explain the Colonisation of a Volcanic Island by Vascular Plants, but Birds Can19
Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity18
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Reading tea leaves worldwide: Decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass‐loss rate and stabilization18
Ranking species based on sensitivity to perturbations under non‐equilibrium community dynamics18
No robust multispecies coexistence in a canonical model of plant–soil feedbacks18
Leaf angle as a leaf and canopy trait: Rejuvenating its role in ecology with new technology18
Investigating the eco‐evolutionary response of microbiomes to environmental change18
Niche types and community assembly18
Assessing the risk of human‐to‐wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health18
Causal Inference With Observational Data and Unobserved Confounding Variables18
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Sequential Thresholds Shape Drylands' Multitrophic Response to Aridification18
Decision‐making under uncertainty for species introductions into ecological networks18
Elevated Temperature Diminishes Reciprocal Selection in an Experimental Plant‐Pollinator‐Herbivore System17
Contemporary selection on MHC genes in a free‐living ruminant population17
Issue Information17
The ecological stage maintains preference differentiation and promotes speciation17
Dietary abundance distributions: Dominance and diversity in vertebrate diets17
The effects of urbanization on pollinators and pollination: A meta‐analysis17
Warming During Different Life Stages has Distinct Impacts on Host Resistance Ecology and Evolution17
Forest Age Rivals Climate to Explain Reproductive Allocation Patterns in Forest Ecosystems Globally17
Linking human impacts to community processes in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems17
Global contribution of invertebrates to forest litter decomposition17
A case for associational resistance: Apparent support for the stress gradient hypothesis varies with study system17
Environmental Gradients Linked to Human Impacts, Not Species Richness, Drive Regional Variation in Community Stability in Coral Reef Fishes16
Density Dependence Shapes Life‐History Trade‐Offs in a Food‐Limited Population16
Number of growth days and not length of the growth period determines radial stem growth of temperate trees16
Impact of climate warming on phenological asynchrony of plankton dynamics across Europe16
Environmental Conditions Modulate Warming Effects on Plant Litter Decomposition Globally16
Rainforest conversion to plantations fundamentally alters energy fluxes and functions in canopy arthropod food webs16
Temperature dependence of competitive ability is cold‐shifted compared to that of growth rate in marine phytoplankton16
Are novel or locally adapted pathogens more devastating and why? Resolving opposing hypotheses16
recolorize: An R package for flexible colour segmentation of biological images16
Hill–Chao numbers allow decomposing gamma multifunctionality into alpha and beta components16
Issue Information16
Issue Information16
Editorial: The Critical Role of Very Long‐Term Studies in Ecology and Evolution16
Competition for water and species coexistence in phenologically structured annual plant communities16
Optimal balancing of xylem efficiency and safety explains plant vulnerability to drought16
Trees First Inhibit Then Promote Litter Decomposition in the Subarctic16
Predator feeding rates may often be unsaturated under typical prey densities16
Cover Image16
Non‐Analog Behaviour of Eastern African Herbivore Communities During the Last Glacial Period16
Foundations and Future Directions for Causal Inference in Ecological Research16
The Increased Environmental Niche of Dual‐Mycorrhizal Woody Species16
The gut microbiome reflects ancestry despite dietary shifts across a hybrid zone15
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The second life of terrestrial and plastic carbon as nutritionally valuable food for aquatic consumers15
Correction to “Causal Effects Versus Causal Mechanisms: Two Traditions With Different Requirements and Contributions Towards Causal Understanding”15
Grazing herbivores reduce herbaceous biomass and fire activity across African savannas15
Strategy maps: Generalised giving‐up densities for optimal foraging15
Biodiversity promotes ecosystem functioning despite environmental change15
The Effect of Temperature Variability on Biological Responses of Ectothermic Animals—A Meta‐Analysis15
Synthesis of Nature's Extravaganza: An Augmented Meta‐Meta‐Analysis on (Putative) Sexual Signals15
Hydraulic variability of tropical forests is largely independent of water availability15
Eco‐evolution from deep time to contemporary dynamics: The role of timescales and rate modulators15
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