Ecologies of a Changing Planet

Journals & Publications

• ESA's Journals and Publications

  

  The Ecological Society of America has over 100 years of journal publishing history and offers some of the most widely read and cited journals in the field of ecology. The seven journals in our portfolio encompass a wide range of paper types to include an array of aims and scope of study, making them an important and accessible outlet for scientists, researchers, practitioners, professionals, citizen scientists, and others seeking to publish their work. ESA staff provide editorial support with our publishing partner, John Wiley & Sons, and several discounts towards publication in ESA journals are available from our publisher and from ESA. Publishing in ESA journals contributes to ESA programs for students, early career researchers, and underrepresented groups, and we thank our editors, reviewers, authors, and readers for their support.

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• Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

  

  Pollinator gardening—the creation of gardens that provide habitat for pollinators—is rapidly growing in popularity, with strong potential benefits for both humans and declining insect populations. Participatory conservation movements necessarily encompass a range of practices, reflecting the diversity of participant understandings and aims. This can lead to challenges for both research and conservation impact. However, conceptual flexibility can provide underappreciated benefits for participatory conservation. Flexible conservation concepts can encourage participation, improve communication, accommodate new practices over time and space, and ultimately lead to better conservation outcomes overall. In the September issue of Frontiers, Murphy et al. discuss how socioecological research can maintain rigor by adopting precise operational definitions targeted at addressing particular questions, while continuing to recognize the diversity inherent to bottom-up, grassroots conservation movements

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• Ecosphere

  

  On the August issue of Ecosphere, a female ladybird spider (Eresus kollari) and her brood are revealed inside their nest burrow. For subsocial spiders that care for offspring within a nest, nest site selection and construction are critical life history events affecting the survival of both the female and her brood. Females build these subterranean nests in sun-exposed burial mounds covered with short grass, strongly preferring their dry surface soils for settlement. In their article in the July issue of Ecosphere, Choi et al. measured microclimate conditions across mounds within a cemetery habitat and, combined with laboratory choice experiments, found that E. kollari preferentially selects dry, sunlit mound surfaces over the moister soils surrounding them. Their findings highlight the conservation value of South Korea’s traditional cemetery landscapes as microhabitats for this species.

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• Ecology

  

  On the September cover of Ecology, a land hermit crab, Coenobita brevimanus, is shown feeding on the infructescence of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora fungosa on Ishigaki Island, Japan. Although hermit crabs are usually viewed as seed predators or opportunistic scavengers, they can also act as unexpected seed dispersers. While consuming the fleshy claviform bodies and tiny fruits of B. fungosa, crabs carry fruits externally on their chelae and pass some intact seeds through the gut. This interaction, described by Suetsugu in the August issue of Ecology in their contribution to The Scientific Naturalist section of the journal, reveals an overlooked dispersal route for dust-like seeds in shaded coastal forests.

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• Ecological Monographs

  

  Ground-dwelling mammals can influence belowground processes through multiple pathways, including the deposition of feces that provide resources for decomposers, as well as their foraging activities and physical disturbance of the forest floor. Using a 14-year mammal exclusion experiment in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, the article by Ribeiro et al., published in the May issue of Ecological Monographs, demonstrates that mammalian biomass alters litter quality and soil chemistry, suggesting that ground-dwelling mammals can accelerate nutrient cycling in tropical forests and that ongoing defaunation may have cascading consequences for ecosystem functioning. The August cover image shows a lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) dung latrine colonized by fungi in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

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• Ecological Applications

  

  A male mallee emu-wren, Stipiturus mallee, perched in a Triodia scariosa hummock amongst southern Australian Mallee shrubland is pictured on the September cover of Ecological Applications. Triodia scariosa is a foundation species in Mallee ecosystems, providing core habitat for the endangered mallee emu-wren and other species. In their article in the July issue of Ecological Applications, Mitchell et al. aligned historical mallee emu-wren records with contemporaneous rainfall and fire data to show that rainfall in the 12-months before or after fire is positively associated with long-term mallee emu-wren occurrence. They highlight that abiotic conditions preceding and following fire may have long-lasting consequences for biodiversity and require greater attention, particularly in ecosystems where fire is used to manipulate habitat for sensitive species.

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• The Bulletin

  

  The July issue of the ESA Bulletin covers recent society actions, includes articles that foster student success and provide resources for education, and focuses on communicating science with a review of a workshop from ESA's 2025 annual meeting where ESA Editors-in-Chief and editorial office staff conveyed tips to prepare articles for submission and publication. On the July cover, jellyfish float through a dense eelgrass bed in Tomales Bay, California, USA, where Murphy et al. (Ecology, Volume 107, Issue 5) explored differences in predation risk among seagrass epifauna species.

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• Earth Stewardship

  

  We are delighted to announce a call for submissions for Earth Stewardship. This exciting new Open Access journal, launched with our publishing partner, John Wiley & Sons, calls for a broad spectrum of scientifically and technologically innovative and groundbreaking contributions including cross-cultural perspectives from leading researchers, policymakers, traditional custodians of land and sea and indigenous communities. Earth Stewardship publishes applied and theoretical articles to promote a broad, intercultural, and participatory foundation for earth stewardship.

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