Karl J. Niklas

27.7k total citations · 3 hit papers
484 papers, 20.9k citations indexed

About

Karl J. Niklas is a scholar working on Plant Science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics and Nature and Landscape Conservation. According to data from OpenAlex, Karl J. Niklas has authored 484 papers receiving a total of 20.9k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 223 papers in Plant Science, 181 papers in Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics and 137 papers in Nature and Landscape Conservation. Recurrent topics in Karl J. Niklas's work include Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies (109 papers), Tree Root and Stability Studies (108 papers) and Plant and animal studies (88 papers). Karl J. Niklas is often cited by papers focused on Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies (109 papers), Tree Root and Stability Studies (108 papers) and Plant and animal studies (88 papers). Karl J. Niklas collaborates with scholars based in United States, China and Germany. Karl J. Niklas's co-authors include Brian J. Enquist, Peter B. Reich, Jacek Oleksyn, Hendrik Poorter, Pieter Poot, Liesje Mommer, U. Kutschera, Edward D. Cobb, Hanns‐Christof Spatz and Beryl B. Simpson and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

Karl J. Niklas

478 papers receiving 19.9k citations

Hit Papers

3 papers align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Biomass allocation to leaves, stems and roots: meta‐analyses of interspecific variation and environmental control

2011 2.3k citations Karl J. Niklas et al. New Phytologist profile →
Plant biomechanics: an engineering approach to plant form and function

1993 931 citations Karl J. Niklas profile →
Global Allocation Rules for Patterns of Biomass Partitioning in Seed Plants

2002 595 citations Karl J. Niklas et al. profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Karl J. Niklas United States	65	8.8k	7.2k	6.1k	5.0k	3.1k	484	20.9k
Ian J. Wright Australia	70	10.6k 1.2×	16.1k 2.2×	9.0k 1.5×	12.1k 2.4×	1.3k 0.4×	184	28.6k
Timothy J. Brodribb Australia	78	10.8k 1.2×	5.0k 0.7×	4.0k 0.6×	12.5k 2.5×	1.9k 0.6×	228	19.0k
Lawren Sack United States	75	8.8k 1.0×	6.6k 0.9×	4.0k 0.6×	11.0k 2.2×	1.2k 0.4×	195	17.5k
Todd E. Dawson United States	83	8.1k 0.9×	6.3k 0.9×	4.0k 0.7×	15.2k 3.0×	1.1k 0.4×	277	26.4k
Fernando Valladares Spain	75	10.5k 1.2×	14.9k 2.1×	8.5k 1.4×	10.5k 2.1×	1.5k 0.5×	317	26.8k
David D. Ackerly United States	74	7.8k 0.9×	19.5k 2.7×	14.5k 2.4×	8.4k 1.7×	3.0k 1.0×	175	34.0k
Mark Westoby Australia	98	14.7k 1.7×	26.7k 3.7×	17.1k 2.8×	12.6k 2.5×	2.2k 0.7×	282	43.3k
David J. Beerling United Kingdom	76	6.5k 0.7×	2.5k 0.4×	3.8k 0.6×	6.0k 1.2×	2.0k 0.6×	288	19.9k
F. I. Woodward United Kingdom	69	9.0k 1.0×	6.9k 1.0×	3.7k 0.6×	11.9k 2.4×	2.0k 0.7×	186	23.4k
Philip W. Rundel United States	58	5.9k 0.7×	5.7k 0.8×	4.2k 0.7×	6.1k 1.2×	723 0.2×	230	14.9k

Countries citing papers authored by Karl J. Niklas

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Karl J. Niklas's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Karl J. Niklas with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Karl J. Niklas more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Karl J. Niklas

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Karl J. Niklas. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Karl J. Niklas. The network helps show where Karl J. Niklas may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Karl J. Niklas

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Karl J. Niklas. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Karl J. Niklas based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Karl J. Niklas. Karl J. Niklas is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Niklas, Karl J., et al.. (2025). Scaling Relationships and Sexual Size Dimorphism Among the Body Parts of Holotrichia oblita (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Ecology and Evolution. 15(7). e71760–e71760.

Shi, Peijian, et al.. (2025). Geometric series exists in nature: Evidence from sorted area sequences of floral parts and leaves. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1543(1). 79–85.

Niinemets, Ülo, et al.. (2025). Low size inequality in stomatal area distributions detected for 12 tree and shrub Magnoliaceae species: evidence of hydraulic optimization. Botany Letters. 173(1). 72–84.

Chen, Renfei, Shubin Xie, Liang Zhang, et al.. (2024). Ontogenetic shifts in leaf biomass allocation in crop plants. National Science Review. 11(10). nwae349–nwae349. 2 indexed citations

Ouyang, Ming, Di Tian, Karl J. Niklas, et al.. (2023). The scaling of elemental stoichiometry and growth rate over the course of bamboo ontogeny. New Phytologist. 241(3). 1088–1099. 7 indexed citations

Shi, Peijian, et al.. (2023). A simple way to calculate the volume and surface area of avian eggs. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1524(1). 118–131. 15 indexed citations

Shi, Peijian, Johan Gielis, Brady K. Quinn, et al.. (2022). ‘biogeom’: An R package for simulating and fitting natural shapes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1516(1). 123–134. 47 indexed citations

Chen, Xiaoping, Karl J. Niklas, Zhaoying Wang, et al.. (2021). A whole‐plant economics spectrum including bark functional traits for 59 subtropical woody plant species. Journal of Ecology. 110(1). 248–261. 53 indexed citations

Wang, Zhiqiang, Mingcheng Wang, Kailiang Yu, et al.. (2021). Global synthesis for the scaling of soil microbial nitrogen to phosphorus in terrestrial ecosystems. Environmental Research Letters. 16(4). 44034–44034. 15 indexed citations

10.

Huang, Weiwei, et al.. (2019). The scaling relationships of leaf biomass vs. leaf surface area of 12 bamboo species. Global Ecology and Conservation. 20. e00793–e00793. 33 indexed citations

11.

Yruela, Inmaculada, Christopher J. Oldfield, Karl J. Niklas, & A. Keith Dunker. (2017). Evidence for a strong correlation between transcription factor protein disorder and organismic complexity. DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)). 42 indexed citations

12.

Niklas, Karl J. & Edward D. Cobb. (2017). Size-dependent variation in plant form. Current Biology. 27(17). R900–R905. 7 indexed citations

13.

Niklas, Karl J. & Stuart A. Newman. (2013). The origins of multicellular organisms. Evolution & Development. 15(1). 41–52. 119 indexed citations

14.

Price, Charles A., et al.. (2010). The metabolic theory of ecology: prospects and challenges for plant biology. New Phytologist. 188(3). 696–710. 86 indexed citations

15.

Niklas, Karl J. & U. Kutschera. (2009). The evolution of the land plant life cycle. New Phytologist. 185(1). 27–41. 136 indexed citations

16.

Niklas, Karl J.. (2007). PLANT BODY PLANS: UNITY OF TYPE OR CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE?. Gravitational and Space Research. 17(2). 1 indexed citations

17.

Niklas, Karl J., Jeremy J. Midgley, & Richard H. Rand. (2003). Tree size frequency distributions, plant density, age and community disturbance. Ecology Letters. 6(5). 405–411. 128 indexed citations

18.

Niklas, Karl J.. (1990). Turning over an old leaf. Nature. 344(6267). 587–588. 11 indexed citations

19.

Niklas, Karl J.. (1989). The Cellular Mechanics of Plants. 77(4). 344–349. 15 indexed citations

20.

Niklas, Karl J., Bruce H. Tiffney, & Andrew H. Knoll. (1980). Apparent changes in the diversity of fossil plants a preliminary assessment.. Evolutionary Biology. 34 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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