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 93rd volume of the journal.

Matheus Baumgartner with “Taylor’s power law for freshwater fishes: Functional traits beyond statistical inevitability“

Leonna Szangolies with “Individual energetics scale up to community coexistence: Movement, metabolism and biodiversity dynamics in fragmented landscapes“

Chiara De Pasqual with “Morph-linked variation in female pheromone signalling and
male response in a polymorphic moth“

Garrett Hopper with “A test of the loose-equilibrium concept with long-lived organisms: evaluating temporal change in freshwater mussel communities“

Carlos Martínez-Núñez with “Land-use change in the past 40 years explains shifts in arthropod community traits“

Elise Sivault with “Insectivorous birds and bats outperform ants in the top-down regulation of arthropods across strata of a Japanese temperate forest“

Jordan Cuff with “Networking nutrients: How nutrition determines the structure of ecological networks“

Ying-Chi Chan with “Ontogeny of migration destination, route and timing in a partially migratory bird“

Matteo Beccardi with “Inbreeding accelerates reproductive senescence, but not survival senescence, in a precocial bird“

…we’ll be announcing the winner soon, so stay tuned for more!