Oecologia publishes innovative ecological research of international interest. We seek reviews, advances in methodology, and original contributions, emphasizing the following areas: Population ecology Plant-microbe-animal interactions Ecosystem ecology Community ecology Global change ecology Conservation ecology Behavioral ecology Physiological Ecology In general, studies that are purely descriptive, mathematical, documentary, and/or natural history will not be considered. In the Concepts, Reviews and Syntheses section, we seek papers on emerging issues in ecology, especially those that cross multiple boundaries in ecology, provide synthesis of important bodies of work or delve into new combinations of theory and observations with the potential to create new paradigms or challenge existing paradigms. These papers are usually invited, but we welcome unsolicited contributions. In the Views and Comments section, we seek short papers with the intent to provide contrary and/or broader perspectives on papers recently published in Oecologia. Alternatively, pairs of short papers which present opposing views on a topic of high interest in the ecological research community will be published in this section, with the intent to stimulate open debate. In both cases, the papers must be relatively short (up to 3 printed pages in the case of comments on previously-published work or up to 5 printed pages in the case of opposing view pairs of papers), and to contain not only an opinion or criticism on methods or statistics, but also relevant conceptual arguments and/or new data analyses that support the opposing view or comment. Manuscripts or letters intended for the Views and Comments section will be reviewed by one of the Editors-in-Chief and a Handling Editor in the field appropriate to the submission. Special Features are collections of integrated papers on a critical topics of broad interest. Proposals for Special Features should be submitted to Nicolas Lecomte at nicolas.lecomte@umoncton.ca . Methods are papers that outline new approaches that address standing questions in the discipline. Original Research provide the core of our journal and represent original investigations that offer new insights into ecological systems. The editors endorse the "Guiding principles in the care and use of animals" (approved by the Council of the American Physiological Society). All animal experiments reported in this journal must have been conducted in conformity with these principles. Editors are instructed to refuse papers in which evidence of the adherence of these principles is not apparent. Differences of opinion will be adjudicated by the Editorial Board. The acceptance of a paper implies that it has been scrutinized and recommended by at least two reviewers. Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted. Please include at the end of the acknowledgements a declaration that the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed. The Editors in Chief reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfil the above-mentioned requirements.