The Elton Prize, awarded by Journal of Animal Ecology, is an annual award given to the best paper by an author at the start of their research career. The following 9 papers were shortlisted by our Senior Editors and span the 94th volume of the journal.

Marco Fioratti Junod with “Herbivory mediates the response of below-ground food-webs to invasive grasses“

Angus Mitchell with “Tropical fishes can benefit more from novel than familiar species interactions at their cold-range edges“

Maria del Labrador Mar with “Host space, not energy or symbiont size, constrains feather mite abundance across passerine bird species“

Elizabeth Postema with “Eyespot peek-a-boo: Leaf rolls enhance the antipredator effect of insect eyespots“

Jeremy Van Driessche with “Water economics of African savanna herbivores: how much does plant moisture matter?“

Martin Arostegui with “Cranial endothermy in mobulid rays: evolutionary and ecological implications of a thermogenic brain“

Lucas Invernizzi with “The expensive son hypothesis“

Alex Maisey with “Foraging activity by an ecosystem engineer, the superb lyrebird, ‘farms’ its invertebrate prey“

Ameli Kirse with “The clockwork of insect activity: advancing ecological understanding through automation“

…congratulations to all our shortlisted researchers. We’ll be announcing the overall winner soon, so stay tuned for more!