John L Harper Award

The John L Harper award allows the BES to award an additional small research grant each year to research projects that are broadly consistent with the research themes advanced by the late John L. Harper, namely investigations that include detailed study of populations, and which follow the fate of plant populations for prolonged periods (e.g. generations, or over periods of years). Studies that include investigations of organisms that have ecologically important interactions with plant populations shall also be considered.

Gaurav Kandlikar (2022)

Project title: Interactions at the edge: how soil microbes shape plant coexistence in tropical forest fragments

The broad goal of this project is to understand the processes that regulate plant biodiversity dynamics in tropical forests, and to assess how global change alters these processes.

Dr Erola Fenollosa (2023)

Project title: Multispectral plant metabolome indexes to assess grassland responses to multiple disturbances

This project relies on a global network, DRAGNet, that examines the factors that modulate the resistance and recovery of plant communities to physical and chemical disturbances.

Ciro Cabal (2024)

Project title: The Tragedy of the Commons in Roots as an Agonistic Exploitative Dynamic in Plants (TRAgEDy)

This project aims to provide a fresh methodological tool to demonstrate that the Root Tragedy of the Commons (RToC) is a widespread phenomenon based on resource depletion by plant neighbours.