Functional Ecology publishes high-impact papers that enable a mechanistic understanding of ecological pattern and process from the organismic to the ecosystem scale. Because of the multifaceted nature of this challenge, papers can be based on a wide range of approaches. Thus, manuscripts may vary from physiological, genetics, life-history, and behavioural perspectives for organismal studies to community and biogeochemical studies when the goal is to understand ecosystem and larger scale ecological phenomena. We believe that the diverse nature of our journal is a strength, not a weakness, and we are open-minded about the variety of data, research approaches and types of studies that we publish. Certain key areas will continue to be emphasized: studies that integrate genomics with ecology, studies that examine how key aspects of physiology (e.g., stress) impact the ecology of animals and plants, or vice versa, and how evolution shapes interactions among function and ecological traits. Ecology has increasingly moved towards the realization that organismal traits and activities are vital for understanding community dynamics and ecosystem processes, particularly in response to the rapid global changes occurring in earth’s environment, and Functional Ecology aims to publish such integrative papers.

功能生態(tài)學(xué)發(fā)表高影響力的論文，使從有機(jī)體到生態(tài)系統(tǒng)規(guī)模的生態(tài)模式和過程的機(jī)械理解成為可能。由于這一挑戰(zhàn)的多面性，論文可以基于廣泛的方法。因此，當(dāng)研究的目標(biāo)是了解生態(tài)系統(tǒng)和更大規(guī)模的生態(tài)現(xiàn)象時(shí)，手稿可能會(huì)從生理學(xué)、遺傳學(xué)、生活史和有機(jī)體研究的行為角度，到群落和生物地球化學(xué)研究的角度有所不同。我們相信我們期刊的多樣性是一種優(yōu)勢(shì)，而不是劣勢(shì)，我們對(duì)我們發(fā)表的各種數(shù)據(jù)、研究方法和研究類型持開放的態(tài)度。某些關(guān)鍵領(lǐng)域?qū)⒗^續(xù)得到強(qiáng)調(diào):將基因組學(xué)與生態(tài)學(xué)結(jié)合起來的研究，研究生理學(xué)的關(guān)鍵方面(例如，壓力)如何影響動(dòng)物和植物的生態(tài)，反之亦然，以及進(jìn)化如何形成功能和生態(tài)特性之間的相互作用。生態(tài)學(xué)越來越認(rèn)識(shí)到，生物體的特征和活動(dòng)對(duì)于理解群落動(dòng)態(tài)和生態(tài)系統(tǒng)過程至關(guān)重要，特別是在應(yīng)對(duì)地球環(huán)境發(fā)生的快速全球變化時(shí)，而功能生態(tài)學(xué)的目標(biāo)就是發(fā)表這樣的綜合性論文。