Teach It, Discuss It, Take It Outside

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

  

  In cities across North America, rates of unsheltered homelessness and population sizes of urban coyotes (Canis latrans) are both increasing. One apparent consequence of this association is human–wildlife conflict, which may facilitate competition for desirable sites, food conditioning in coyotes following access to human food in encampments, and human exposure to zoonotic diseases—as described by Raymond et al. in the November issue of Frontiers. Similar dynamics are likely ongoing wherever people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and urban wildlife share space, emphasizing the need to reduce homelessness and the factors that cause it.

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• Ecosphere

  

  Northwest Namibia is home to a guild of desert-adapted carnivores, including the iconic desert lions (Panthera leo). In this arid system, carnivores share landscape with prey species and livestock. Using motion-activated trail cameras, Heydinger et al.'s article in the October issue of Ecosphere shows that when space is constrained among lions, spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea), and black-backed jackal (Lupulella mesomelas) intraguild coexistence may be negotiated through temporal staggering shaped by dominance hierarchies within shared resource patches. This research, which took place entirely on mixed-use communal land, helps local communities and government secure resource patches and is contributing to advances in how conservationists, researchers, and managers understand ecological concepts including dominance hierarchies, landscapes of fear, and the ecology of resource pulses.

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• Ecology

  

  The cover of Ecology's November issue shows a male Japanese spear squid, Heterololigo bleekeri, swimming calmly in an experimental tank at the Hakodate Research Center for Fisheries and Oceans, Hokkaido, Japan. In their The Scientific Naturalist contribution in the October issue of Ecology, Hosono et al. report a novel use of ink by territorial males of this species. Territorial males released small amounts of highly diffusive ink toward both males and females in a consistent behavioral pattern. This ink may function as a chemical signal, providing an example of ink use beyond its conventional role in antipredator defense.

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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

  

  The October cover of Ecological Applications features a black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes, as it visits the flowers of prairie blazing star, Liatris pycnostachya, in year nine of a tallgrass prairie restoration experiment in northeastern Kansas, USA. In their article in the September issue of Ecological Applications, Cheeke et al. applied two restoration techniques to a post-agricultural field prior to seeding—solarization or mowing of the initial non-native vegetation, with or without inoculation with native soil microbes. Both solarization and inoculation improved the floristic quality of the plant community over several growing seasons, increasing the abundance of disturbance-sensitive species like prairie blazing star.

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• The Bulletin

  

  The October issue of the ESA Bulletin highlights ESA's Education Committee, which guides education initiatives within ESA, and provides an overview of their 100+ year history in the society. The issue also includes several commentaries that discuss challenges faced by ecologists and addresses the importance of communicating science with a call to publishers to consider authors' needs and their readers when designing templates. The issue also provides a record of recent society actions, including the Spring 2026 ESA Governing Board meeting minutes and the names of the candidates for the Fall 2026 ESA Election.

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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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