Ecology Letters

Papers
(The median citation count of Ecology Letters is 6. 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 2020-10-01 to 2024-10-01.)
ArticleCitations
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds415
Effect of allelopathy on plant performance: a meta‐analysis164
Biodiversity promotes ecosystem functioning despite environmental change125
Biotic interactions are more often important at species’ warm versus cool range edges123
Uncovering ecological state dynamics with hidden Markov models122
Soil carbon persistence governed by plant input and mineral protection at regional and global scales119
A global agenda for advancing freshwater biodiversity research111
Global trends in phenotypic plasticity of plants111
A group of ectomycorrhizal fungi restricts organic matter accumulation in boreal forest97
Towards the fully automated monitoring of ecological communities95
We should not necessarily expect positive relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in observational field data88
Root‐derived inputs are major contributors to soil carbon in temperate forests, but vary by mycorrhizal type83
A tipping point in carbon storage when forest expands into tundra is related to mycorrhizal recycling of nitrogen81
Long‐term change in the avifauna of undisturbed Amazonian rainforest: ground‐foraging birds disappear and the baseline shifts77
Consistently positive effect of species diversity on ecosystem, but not population, temporal stability75
Global functional and phylogenetic structure of avian assemblages across elevation and latitude75
Number of growth days and not length of the growth period determines radial stem growth of temperate trees74
Seeing through the static: the temporal dimension of plant–animal mutualistic interactions73
The dimensionality and structure of species trait spaces73
Quantifying 25 years of disease‐caused declines in Tasmanian devil populations: host density drives spatial pathogen spread72
Latitudinal patterns of terrestrial phosphorus limitation over the globe71
Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across US forests71
Dilution effects in disease ecology70
Montane species track rising temperatures better in the tropics than in the temperate zone68
A global analysis of song frequency in passerines provides no support for the acoustic adaptation hypothesis but suggests a role for sexual selection68
The evolutionary ecology of fatty‐acid variation: Implications for consumer adaptation and diversification68
Towards revealing the global diversity and community assembly of soil eukaryotes66
Floral resource diversification promotes solitary bee reproduction and may offset insecticide effects – evidence from a semi‐field experiment65
Smaller adult fish size in warmer water is not explained by elevated metabolism64
Grazing‐induced biodiversity loss impairs grassland ecosystem stability at multiple scales63
Landscape simplification increases vineyard pest outbreaks and insecticide use62
Latitudinal gradient in the intensity of biotic interactions in terrestrial ecosystems: Sources of variation and differences from the diversity gradient revealed by meta‐analysis59
Field‐realistic neonicotinoid exposure has sub‐lethal effects on non‐Apis bees: A meta‐analysis58
Developmental plasticity in thermal tolerance: Ontogenetic variation, persistence, and future directions58
Pesticides do not significantly reduce arthropod pest densities in the presence of natural enemies57
Temporal changes in spatial variation: partitioning the extinction and colonisation components of beta diversity56
When do Janzen–Connell effects matter? A phylogenetic meta‐analysis of conspecific negative distance and density dependence experiments56
Climate change transforms the functional identity of Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages55
Shape matters: the relationship between cell geometry and diversity in phytoplankton54
Habitat amount and distribution modify community dynamics under climate change54
Insect and plant invasions follow two waves of globalisation53
Landscape‐scale habitat fragmentation is positively related to biodiversity, despite patch‐scale ecosystem decay53
Interaction diversity explains the maintenance of phytochemical diversity53
Functional traits explain the consistent resistance of biodiversity to plant invasion under nitrogen enrichment52
Measuring habitat complexity and spatial heterogeneity in ecology51
Mechanisms underlying host persistence following amphibian disease emergence determine appropriate management strategies51
Plant and soil biodiversity have non‐substitutable stabilising effects on biomass production51
Historical decrease in agricultural landscape diversity is associated with shifts in bumble bee species occurrence50
Experimental nitrogen fertilisation globally accelerates, then slows decomposition of leaf litter50
Soil fungal mycelia have unexpectedly flexible stoichiometric C:N and C:P ratios50
The geography of metapopulation synchrony in dendritic river networks48
Microbe‐mediated adaptation in plants47
Directional turnover towards larger‐ranged plants over time and across habitats47
Fire frequency, state change and hysteresis in tallgrass prairie47
Thermal performance under constant temperatures can accurately predict insect development times across naturally variable microclimates46
Drivers of local extinction risk in alpine plants under warming climate46
Why disease ecology needs life‐history theory: a host perspective45
The allometry of plant height explains species loss under nitrogen addition44
Universal rules of life: metabolic rates, biological times and the equal fitness paradigm44
Diverging functional strategies but high sensitivity to an extreme drought in tropical dry forests44
Predictive models aren't for causal inference43
Terrestrial ecosystem restoration increases biodiversity and reduces its variability, but not to reference levels: A global meta‐analysis43
Leaf trait network architecture shifts with species‐richness and climate across forests at continental scale43
Combining range and phenology shifts offers a winning strategy for boreal Lepidoptera43
Assessing the risk of human‐to‐wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health42
How long do population level field experiments need to be? Utilising data from the 40‐year‐old LTER network42
A place to land: spatiotemporal drivers of stopover habitat use by migrating birds42
Pesticide resistance in arthropods: Ecology matters too41
Understanding the relationship between dispersal and range size41
Decay by ectomycorrhizal fungi couples soil organic matter to nitrogen availability41
Four ways to define the growing season40
Ecophylogenetics redux40
Tractable models of ecological assembly40
Multiple spatial behaviours govern social network positions in a wild ungulate40
General statistical scaling laws for stability in ecological systems39
Climate change impacts on seabirds and marine mammals: The importance of study duration, thermal tolerance and generation time38
Interactive effects of multiple stressors vary with consumer interactions, stressor dynamics and magnitude38
Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity38
Nonlinear responses of ecosystem carbon fluxes to nitrogen deposition in an old‐growth boreal forest37
Persistent soil seed banks promote naturalisation and invasiveness in flowering plants37
A shift from phenol to silica‐based leaf defences during long‐term soil and ecosystem development37
Hydraulic prediction of drought‐induced plant dieback and top‐kill depends on leaf habit and growth form37
Reconstructing large interaction networks from empirical time series data36
The deep sea is a hot spot of fish body shape evolution35
Making sense of virus size and the tradeoffs shaping viral fitness35
Determinants of community compositional change are equally affected by global change35
Biodiversity and yield trade‐offs for organic farming35
Detecting and interpreting higher‐order interactions in ecological communities35
Landscape modification and nutrient‐driven instability at a distance34
Plant community impact on productivity: Trait diversity or key(stone) species effects?34
Implications of scale dependence for cross‐study syntheses of biodiversity differences34
Systematic bias in studies of consumer functional responses34
Predicting how climate change threatens the prey base of Arctic marine predators34
On the sensitivity of food webs to multiple stressors33
Impacts of invasive plants on animal behaviour33
Local canopy disturbance as an explanation for long‐term increases in liana abundance32
Siderophores drive invasion dynamics in bacterial communities through their dual role as public good versus public bad32
Life history mediates the trade‐offs among different components of demographic resilience32
Process‐explicit models reveal pathway to extinction for woolly mammoth using pattern‐oriented validation32
Systematic variation in the temperature dependence of bacterial carbon use efficiency32
Revisiting the growth rate hypothesis: Towards a holistic stoichiometric understanding of growth31
Bryophyte C:N:P stoichiometry, biogeochemical niches and elementome plasticity driven by environment and coexistence31
Soil properties as key predictors of global grassland production: Have we overlooked micronutrients?31
Defining an epidemiological landscape that connects movement ecology to pathogen transmission and pace‐of‐life31
Enhanced light interception and light use efficiency explain overyielding in young tree communities30
Nitrogen enrichment alters multiple dimensions of grassland functional stability via changing compositional stability30
A plant–pollinator metanetwork along a habitat fragmentation gradient30
The origins of global biodiversity on land, sea and freshwater30
The influence of vector‐borne disease on human history: socio‐ecological mechanisms30
Direct and indirect disturbance impacts in forests29
The latitudinal gradient in plant community assembly processes: A meta‐analysis29
The ecological causes and consequences of hard and soft selection29
Local stressors mask the effects of warming in freshwater ecosystems29
Cooperative breeding and the emergence of multilevel societies in birds29
Efficient movement strategies mitigate the energetic cost of dispersal29
A case for associational resistance: Apparent support for the stress gradient hypothesis varies with study system29
Macrogenetic studies must not ignore limitations of genetic markers and scale28
Effects of multiple stressors on the dimensionality of ecological stability28
The effect of insect food availability on songbird reproductive success and chick body condition: Evidence from a systematic review and meta‐analysis28
Humidity – The overlooked variable in the thermal biology of mosquito‐borne disease28
Forest fire induces short‐term shifts in soil food webs with consequences for carbon cycling28
A broadscale analysis of host‐symbiont cophylogeny reveals the drivers of phylogenetic congruence28
Temporal turnover of the soil microbiome composition is guild‐specific27
Global distribution and evolutionary transitions of angiosperm sexual systems27
A global meta‐analysis reveals higher variation in breeding phenology in urban birds than in their non‐urban neighbours27
Sex roles in birds: Phylogenetic analyses of the influence of climate, life histories and social environment27
Microbiome influence on host community dynamics: Conceptual integration of microbiome feedback with classical host–microbe theory27
Specific sequence of arrival promotes coexistence via spatial niche pre‐emption by the weak competitor27
Untangling the complexity of priority effects in multispecies communities26
Can I afford to publish? A dilemma for African scholars26
Species interactions have predictable impacts on diversification26
Responses of soil fauna communities to the individual and combined effects of multiple global change factors26
Stress causes interspecific facilitation within a compost community26
Unveiling ecological assembly rules from commonalities in trait distributions26
Global plant‐frugivore trait matching is shaped by climate and biogeographic history26
Towards robust statistical inference for complex computer models26
Three questions about the eco‐physiology of overwintering underground26
Ecology and evolutionary biology must elevate BIPOC scholars26
The effects of urbanization on pollinators and pollination: A meta‐analysis26
Environmental and anthropogenic constraints on animal space use drive extinction risk worldwide26
Towards a more precise – and accurate – view of eco‐evolution26
Dispersers and environment drive global variation in fruit colour syndromes26
Artificial selection of stable rhizosphere microbiota leads to heritable plant phenotype changes25
Acoustic restoration: Using soundscapes to benchmark and fast‐track recovery of ecological communities25
Coexistence barriers confine the poleward range of a globally distributed plant25
Species–habitat networks elucidate landscape effects on habitat specialisation of natural enemies and pollinators25
No complementarity no gain—Net diversity effects on tree productivity occur once complementarity emerges during early stand development25
Cascading effects of a disease outbreak in a remote protected area25
Biota‐mediated carbon cycling—A synthesis of biotic‐interaction controls on blue carbon25
Behavioural heat‐stress compensation in a cold‐adapted ungulate: Forage‐mediated responses to warming Alpine summers25
Climate‐driven, but dynamic and complex? A reconciliation of competing hypotheses for species’ distributions25
Light availability and light demand of plants shape the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in their roots25
A robust and readily implementable method for the meta‐analysis of response ratios with and without missing standard deviations25
Net plant interactions are highly variable and weakly dependent on climate at the global scale25
Global biogeographic patterns of avian morphological diversity25
Body size and digestive system shape resource selection by ungulates: A cross‐taxa test of the forage maturation hypothesis25
A general theory of avian migratory connectivity24
Soils and topography control natural disturbance rates and thereby forest structure in a lowland tropical landscape24
Intensive human land uses negatively affect vertebrate functional diversity24
Trait dimensions in bacteria and archaea compared to vascular plants24
Climatic and evolutionary contexts are required to infer plant life history strategies from functional traits at a global scale24
Phenotypic plasticity masks range‐wide genetic differentiation for vegetative but not reproductive traits in a short‐lived plant24
Are networks of trophic interactions sufficient for understanding the dynamics of multi‐trophic communities? Analysis of a tri‐trophic insect food‐web time‐series24
Top predators as biodiversity indicators: A meta‐analysis24
Uncovering patterns of freshwater positive interactions using meta‐analysis: Identifying the roles of common participants, invasive species and environmental context23
Hidden layers of density dependence in consumer feeding rates23
Microbial respiratory thermal adaptation is regulated by r‐/K‐strategy dominance23
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade23
Species richness and food‐web structure jointly drive community biomass and its temporal stability in fish communities23
Integrating eco‐evolutionary dynamics and modern coexistence theory23
How disturbance history alters invasion success: biotic legacies and regime change22
Linking changes in species composition and biomass in a globally distributed grassland experiment22
Industrial rearing of edible insects could be a major source of new biological invasions22
Changes in flight period predict trends in abundance of Massachusetts butterflies22
Diversity and extinction risk are inversely related at a global scale22
Ecological conditions predict the intensity of Hendra virus excretion over space and time from bat reservoir hosts22
Sexual dimorphism in immune function and oxidative physiology across birds: The role of sexual selection22
Forecasting in the face of ecological complexity: Number and strength of species interactions determine forecast skill in ecological communities21
Multiple Mutualism Effects generate synergistic selection and strengthen fitness alignment in the interaction between legumes, rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi21
Leaf angle as a leaf and canopy trait: Rejuvenating its role in ecology with new technology21
Detecting patterns of vertebrate biodiversity across the multidimensional urban landscape21
Memory drives the formation of animal home ranges: Evidence from a reintroduction21
Residence time determines invasiveness and performance of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in North America21
Evolutionary interactions between thermal ecology and sexual selection21
Host traits and environment interact to determine persistence of bat populations impacted by white‐nose syndrome21
Multiple ecosystem service synergies and landscape mediation of biodiversity within urban agroecosystems21
Soil element coupling is driven by ecological context and atomic mass21
A model for leveraging animal movement to understand spatio‐temporal disease dynamics21
Intraspecific variation in species interactions promotes the feasibility of mutualistic assemblages20
Convergence of carbon sink magnitude and water table depth in global wetlands20
Globally consistent reef size spectra integrating fishes and invertebrates20
Phylogenetic and functional clustering illustrate the roles of adaptive radiation and dispersal filtering in jointly shaping late‐Quaternary mammal assemblages on oceanic islands20
Climate warming can reduce biocontrol efficacy and promote plant invasion due to both genetic and transient metabolomic changes20
Disentangling key species interactions in diverse and heterogeneous communities: A Bayesian sparse modelling approach20
High‐level nitrogen additions accelerate soil respiration reduction over time in a boreal forest20
Is habitat selection in the wild shaped by individual‐level cognitive biases in orientation strategy?20
Global patterns of resilience decline in vertebrate populations20
Elemental and biochemical nutrient limitation of zooplankton: A meta‐analysis19
Accounting for demographic uncertainty increases predictions for species coexistence: A case study with annual plants19
Lack of evidence for the match‐mismatch hypothesis across terrestrial trophic interactions19
Climate change impacts plant carbon balance, increasing mean future carbon use efficiency but decreasing total forest extent at dry range edges19
Demographic consequences of foraging ecology explain genetic diversification in Neotropical bird species19
Spatiotemporal variation in the role of floral traits in shaping tropical plant‐pollinator interactions19
Resetting our expectations for parasites and their effects on species interactions: a meta‐analysis19
Nutrient identity modifies the destabilising effects of eutrophication in grasslands19
The hidden role of multi‐trophic interactions in driving diversity–productivity relationships19
Rapid evolution promotes fluctuation‐dependent species coexistence19
Cooperation increases robustness to ecological disturbance in microbial cross‐feeding networks19
The better, the choosier: A meta‐analysis on interindividual variation of male mate choice19
Addressing the Eltonian shortfall with trait‐based interaction models19
Species richness increases fitness differences, but does not affect niche differences18
Meta‐analysis shows the evidence for context‐dependent mating behaviour is inconsistent or weak across animals18
Phylogenetic congruence between Neotropical primates and plants is driven by frugivory18
Nest architecture is linked with ecological success in songbirds18
Climate drivers of adult insect activity are conditioned by life history traits18
Species loss due to nutrient addition increases with spatial scale in global grasslands18
Phylogenetic reconstruction of ancestral ecological networks through time for pierid butterflies and their host plants18
Shrub expansion modulates belowground impacts of changing snow conditions in alpine grasslands18
Susceptible host availability modulates climate effects on dengue dynamics18
The mycorrhizal tragedy of the commons18
Phenology and flowering overlap drive specialisation in plant–pollinator networks18
Genetic variation reveals individual‐level climate tracking across the annual cycle of a migratory bird18
Demystifying individual heterogeneity17
The impact of rising temperatures on the prevalence of coral diseases and its predictability: A global meta‐analysis17
An evolutionary trade‐off between parasite virulence and dispersal at experimental invasion fronts17
Molecular 14C evidence for contrasting turnover and temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter components17
Resilience or Catastrophe? A possible state change for monarch butterflies in western North America17
Phenotypic plasticity as a cause and consequence of population dynamics17
Combining multiple tactics over time for cost‐effective eradication of invading insect populations17
Sex‐specific inbreeding depression: A meta‐analysis17
Global change re‐structures alpine plant communities through interacting abiotic and biotic effects17
The EICA is dead? Long live the EICA!17
Theory of temperature‐dependent consumer–resource interactions17
A general framework for species‐abundance distributions: Linking traits and dispersal to explain commonness and rarity17
The latitudinal gradient in rates of evolution for bird beaks, a species interaction trait17
Anthropogenic disturbance favours generalist over specialist parasites in bird communities: Implications for risk of disease emergence17
Microclimate reveals the true thermal niche of forest plant species17
Foliar fungi and plant diversity drive ecosystem carbon fluxes in experimental prairies17
Paternal age negatively affects sperm production of the progeny17
Climate change increases carbon allocation to leaves in early leaf green‐up17
Effects of maternal age and stress on offspring quality in a viviparous fly17
Variation in generation time reveals density regulation as an important driver of pace of life in a bird metapopulation17
Warming of experimental plant–pollinator communities advances phenologies, alters traits, reduces interactions and depresses reproduction17
Stabilising role of seed banks and the maintenance of bacterial diversity17
PERFICT: A Re‐imagined foundation for predictive ecology16
Trait‐dependent diversification in angiosperms: Patterns, models and data16
DynaMETE: a hybrid MaxEnt‐plus‐mechanism theory of dynamic macroecology16
Disturbance structures canopy and understory productivity along an environmental gradient16
The causes and ecological context of rapid morphological evolution in birds16
Soil biota diversity and plant diversity both contributed to ecosystem stability in grasslands16
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