functional-ecology - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: functional-ecology description: Use when targeting Functional Ecology (Funct Ecol) or deciding whether a mechanistic study linking organism function to ecology fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, framing, method-and-evidence bar, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.

Functional Ecology (functional-ecology)

Journal positioning

Functional Ecology is published by the British Ecological Society with Wiley and is the leading venue for mechanistic functional ecology — work that links the physiology, traits, life history, and performance of organisms to ecological and evolutionary processes. Its defining character is the functional mechanism: the journal asks how organisms work and how that function shapes their interactions, distributions, demography, and responses to the environment. It rewards ecophysiology, trait-based ecology, life-history and resource-allocation studies, behavioural and metabolic ecology, and physiological responses to global change — provided the work moves beyond description to explain function and connect it to ecology. It is not a venue for community-pattern or biogeographic studies lacking a functional mechanism, nor for physiology disconnected from ecological consequence. Readership spans physiological, trait-based, and evolutionary ecologists. This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current official guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the Functional Ecology BES/Wiley site.

When to trigger

The author names Functional Ecology as the target for a mechanistic study linking organism function — physiology, traits, life history — to ecological process.
A trait-based or ecophysiology study is choosing between Functional Ecology, Journal of Ecology, and Ecology Letters.
A study has strong physiological or trait data but the author needs to confirm the link to ecological consequence is explicit enough for this venue.
The author needs Functional Ecology's mechanistic framing, data-archiving conventions, and desk-reject criteria before submission.

Scope & topic fit

Ecophysiology: water relations, thermal physiology, gas exchange, metabolic rate, and stress responses connected to ecological performance and distribution.
Trait-based ecology: functional traits, trait trade-offs, the leaf/wood/root economics spectra, and trait-environment and trait-demography links.
Life-history and resource allocation: reproduction-survival trade-offs, senescence, growth strategies, and allocation theory tested with data.
Behavioural and metabolic ecology: energetics, foraging physiology, and the functional basis of behaviour where mechanism connects to ecological outcome.
Physiological and functional responses to global change: thermal tolerance, drought response, and plasticity that predict ecological consequences of warming or disturbance.
Plant-soil, plant-animal, and microbial functional interactions where organismal function mechanistically drives the interaction.

Method & evidence bar

The study must identify a functional mechanism and connect it to an ecological or evolutionary consequence; trait or physiology data alone, without that link, are insufficient.
Design and replication must support causal or mechanistic inference: manipulative experiments, controlled measurements, or well-structured comparative designs.
Trait and physiological measurements must follow accepted protocols and be reported with the methodological detail needed for comparison and reproducibility.
Analyses must be appropriate and current — mixed/hierarchical models, allometric or phylogenetically informed comparative methods where relevant, effect sizes with uncertainty.
Comparative and macro-trait analyses must control for phylogenetic non-independence and intraspecific variation where these affect inference.
Data and code must be archived in an approved public repository (Dryad/Zenodo or equivalent) and be reproducible per current BES policy.

Structure & house style

Functional Ecology publishes full-length research articles and selected shorter formats; re-check current article types, word limits, and figure allowances on the live site.
The Introduction must frame a functional/mechanistic question and hypotheses; Methods document measurement protocols and design in reproducible detail.
Results should connect functional measurements to ecological consequence; the Discussion must interpret mechanism, not only report trait values.
Figures should display functional relationships clearly — trait-performance curves, reaction norms, allometric scaling — each carrying a mechanistic inference.
Supporting Information carries protocol detail, additional analyses, and supplementary data; the main text develops the functional argument.
BES journals require a data-availability statement and increasingly a code/reproducibility statement; confirm current required elements.

Official-submission checklist

Before giving submission-ready advice, read ../../resources/source-basis.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked.
Search the live site for "Functional Ecology author guidelines" and follow the current BES/Wiley version.
Re-check current article types, word and figure limits, and any structured-abstract or summary requirements.
Re-check the data- and code-availability policy: approved repositories, archiving expectations, and statement format.
Re-check competing-interests, funding, animal-ethics/welfare and collection permits, and AI-use disclosure requirements; confirm preprint policy (bioRxiv/EcoEvoRxiv generally compatible).
If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

One sentence — the functional mechanism studied and the ecological consequence it explains.
The work links organism function to ecological process explicitly, not trait/physiology description in isolation.
Design and replication support mechanistic or causal inference.
Comparative analyses account for phylogeny and intraspecific variation where these matter.
Data and code are archived in an approved repository with accessions ready.
Required animal-welfare/ethics approvals and collection permits are documented.

Common desk-reject triggers

Trait or physiology measurements reported without a link to any ecological or evolutionary consequence.
A community-pattern, distribution, or biogeographic study lacking a functional mechanism.
A descriptive survey of trait values with no hypothesis, mechanism, or functional interpretation.
A comparative trait analysis that ignores phylogenetic non-independence where it would change the inference.
Physiology that is purely organismal/biomedical with no ecological relevance, or missing/inadequate data archiving.

Re-routing decision

A plant population, community, or ecosystem study where pattern and process — not organismal function — are central: Journal of Ecology (journal-of-ecology).
A concise, conceptually driven advance that fits a strict short format: Ecology Letters (ecology-letters).
A broad, high-profile eco-evolutionary advance: Nature Ecology & Evolution.
A trait-environment pattern at global/biogeographic scale: Global Ecology and Biogeography (global-ecology-and-biogeography).

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Functional Ecology
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics>
[Method/evidence] <does an identified functional mechanism connect organism physiology/traits/life-history to an ecological consequence with adequate design and analysis?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article types/limits / data-code availability repositories / animal-ethics-permits / disclosure / preprint policy>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>