Greeting us all the way from Costa Rica, this magnificent hummingbird, adorned with its vibrant colors, graces the cover of April's issue! This beauty is one of the study species featured in "A phylogenetic perspective on ecological specialisation reveals hummingbird and insect pollinators have generalist diets", a study by Maglianesi et al. (2024). The paper investigates ecological specialisation in plant-pollinator networks through a phylogenetic lens, focusing on hummingbirds and insects as day-active pollinators in the Costa Rican highlands. While previous studies have extensively explored ..read more

Please join us in welcoming Elly Morriën to our editorial board! Take a look at her interview and get to know our newest soil ecologist better! Keywords: soil ecology, soil food webs, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, carbon sequestration, plant-microbe interactions, stable isotope tracing Personal website: https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/m/o/w.e.morrien/w.e.morrien.html Twitter: @MorrienElly   INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: 1. What's your main research focus at the moment? The role of soil microbes and the wider soil community in sequestering carbon to mineral soil particles 2. Can you describe yo ..read more

February's cover brings us a field of white clovers aka a bit of hope for the spring to come for us in the Northern Hemisphere! From the study "Urban spatial heterogeneity shapes the evolution of an antiherbivore defense trait and its genes in white clove" by Ishiguro et al. (2023).   Abstract Urbanization is a global threat to biodiversity due to its large impact on environmental changes. Recently, urban environmental change has been shown to impact the evolution of many species. However, much remains unknown about how urban environments influence evolutionary processes and outcomes due ..read more

JANUARY'S cover portrays a tiny chipmunk! The study species for Allain et al. (2023) - "Age at first reproduction and senescence in a short-lived wild mammal". ABSTRACT Senescence is the degradation of biological functions with increasing age. Its existence and relationship with life-history strategies remains poorly studied in short-lived wild vertebrate species. We investigated the relationships between age at first reproduction (AFR), reproductive senescence and longevity in an eastern chipmunk Tamias striatus population, where the first opportunity to breed is conditioned by pulses of seed ..read more

Nordic Society Oikos invites applications for Senior Editors for the journal Oikos. We will start reviewing applications on 17 January 2024 The Nordic Society Oikos is seeking two new Senior Editors to join the Editor-in-Chief team for Oikos. About OIKOS – ADVANCING ECOLOGY Founded in 1949, Oikos has long been a vital platform for research and perspectives that have the potential to significantly advance or reshape our understanding of ecological mechanisms, processes, or patterns in nature. A society-based journal, Oikos is committed to publishing fundamental ecological research, embracing an ..read more

Nordic Society Oikos invites applications for Senior Editors for the journal Oikos. We will start reviewing applications on 17 January 2024 The Nordic Society Oikos is seeking two new Senior Editors to join the Editor-in-Chief team for Oikos. About OIKOS – ADVANCING ECOLOGY Founded in 1949, Oikos has long been a vital platform for research and perspectives that have the potential to significantly advance or reshape our understanding of ecological mechanisms, processes, or patterns in nature. A society-based journal, Oikos is committed to publishing fundamental ecological research, embracing an ..read more

November's cover shows one of the tundra landscapes where litter decomposition was studied in different microclimates in the study "Summer litter decomposition is moderated by scale-dependent microenvironmental variation in tundra ecosystems" by Gallois et al. (2023).   Abstract Tundra soils are one of the world's largest organic carbon stores, yet this carbon is vulnerable to accelerated decomposition as climate warming progresses. The landscape-scale controls of litter decomposition are poorly understood in tundra ecosystems, which hinders our understanding of the global carbon cycle. W ..read more

We want to share this beautiful illustration demonstrating the field sampling protocol of how they excavated a snow pit parallel to the animal's direction of travel and conducted observations! This is from the study "Defining the danger zone: critical snow properties for predator–prey interactions" (Sullender et al. 2023).   *Illustration by Sarah K. Glaser Illustration*   ABSTRACT Snowpack dynamics have a major influence on wildlife movement ecology and predator–prey interactions. Specific snow properties such as density, hardness, and depth determine how much an animal sinks into t ..read more

Spatio-temporal variation in plant-pollinator interactions: a multilayer network approach   LAY SUMMARY No single organism exists without interacting with other coexisting species, and to ensure the maintenance of such interactions, species may change their partners in space and time. To predict patterns of biodiversity distribution and conservation and their variation in an ever-changing world, we need to make progress in understanding species interactions across landscapes and through time. However, most research has typically treated interaction networks as static entities, and few hav ..read more

September's cover depicts a group of ungulates visiting an anthropogenic mineral block on a game reserve in South Africa from the study "Allometry of sodium requirements and mineral lick use among herbivorous mammals" by Duvall et al. (2023).   Abstract Sodium (Na) plays a critical role in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. In Na-poor regions, plant consumers may experience Na deficiency and adapt by seeking supplementary Na resources. This can markedly impact animal behavior, space-use, and co-existence, with concomitant impacts on ecosystems. Many studies have noted that Na-seek ..read more