Blog

Temperature and the scaling of biotic interaction rates

editor
2 June 2014
The ants underfoot forage faster as the ground warms each day. Likewise, the fish in nearby streams and the worms and other organisms that parasitize these fish speed their activities as the water warms. Above the stream, dragonflies engage in more aerial battles each...

What do functional traits tell about interspecific interactions?

editor
23 May 2014
Vernal pool ecosystems emerge from winter and spring rains that fill shallow depressions in the earth, resulting in small patches of wetlands spread throughout the Central Valley of California, USA. These pools act as a crucial habitat for a diverse community of annual...

Winter is coming! How do plants react?

editor
23 May 2014
How do plants react to seasonal extremes? Find out more in the new Early View paper " Leaf and stem physiological responses to summer and winter extremes of woody species across temperate ecosystems " by Elena Granda and co-workers. Read Elena's summary of the study...

How common is bird-pollination in Europe?

editor
20 May 2014
Bird pollination in Europe? Really? Well, find out in the Early View paper " Flower visitation by birds in Europe" by Luis P da Silva and co-workers. Below is Luis summary of the paper: Birds are among the most studied animal groups and are most likely the one that...

Who eats the sea-urchin?

editor
9 May 2014
Different factors that effect predation in marine habitats are explored in the Early View paper "Differences in predator composition alter the direction of structure-mediated predation risk in macrophyte communities" by Simone Farina and co-worker's. Below is Simone's...

How does the habitat effect body size?

editor
9 May 2014
By comparing fish communities with bird communities Kirsten Nash an co-workers assess the appropriateness of different size distribution indices used in a variety of studies. The analyses resulted in the Oikos Early View paper “ Habitat structure and body size...

Mixture models instead of bimodality?

editor
7 May 2014
Bimodality – the characteristic of a continuous variable having two distinct modes – is of widespread interest in data analysis. This is because, in some cases, we can use the presence or absence of bimodality to infer something about the underlying processes...

Linking theory with empirical studies of competition

editor
6 May 2014
"Nature is much more complicated" than predicted in theoretical models. In the Early View Paper "Matrix models for quantifying competitive intransitivity from species abundance data" , Werner Ulrich and colleagues try to fill a gap between models and mother nature when...

Fever, starvation or being eaten?

editor
29 April 2014
Talk about choosing between pest and cholera! A bird on migration, has a tough job, and with a virus infection in the body, the job is even worse! In the early View paper “A tradeoff between perceived predation risk and energy conservation revealed by an immune...

Dispersal and endoparasites in roe deer

editor
29 April 2014
Natal dispersal is a complex process but what could be the role of endo-intestinal parasites in dispersal propensity, distance and date of departure? In our article “Parasite abundance contributes to condition-dependent dispersal in a wild population of large herbivore...

Geographic variation in bird survival

editor
22 April 2014
How life-history traits vary across longitude is studied in birds in the Amazonas in the Early View article “Variation in tropical bird survival across longitudes and guilds: a case study of the Amazone” by Jared D Wolfe and co-workers. Below is Jared’s summary of the...

Herbivory, competition and global warming

editor
22 April 2014
How altered temperature might affect competition and herbivory in plant communities is studied in the early View paper " Concurrent biotic interactions influence plant performance at their altitudinal distribution margins " by Elina Kaarlejärvi and Johan Olsson. below...

Climate effects on plant chemistry

editor
15 April 2014
Lots of traits are climate dependent! In the Early View paper in Oikos "Genetically based latitudinal variation in Artemisia californica secondary chemistry" by Jessica Pratt and co-workers, terpenes are studied under different climatic situations. Below is a summary...

Apex predators on coral reefs

editor
8 April 2014
Apex predators are large carnivores that occupy the top trophic level of food webs. Globally, apex predators are assailed by disturbances such as persecution by humans. This is worrisome because changes in the density and distribution of apex predators can exert strong...

Severe geographic bias in pollination studies

drupaladmin
4 April 2014
The majority of pollination studies are performed in five countries, non of which in Africa. How does this bias affect application of the research in various geographic regions? Find out in the Forum paper in the April Issue of Oikos " Economic and ecological...

Metapopulation modeling of endangered rabbits

editor
1 April 2014
Can hard-to-detect individuals of an endangered and declining population allow for testing of some of the major tenets of metapopulation theory while contributing to conservation efforts? A new multi-season occupancy model combined with observations on the Lower Keys...

Meta-community structure in rodent parasites

editor
28 March 2014
What are the roles of host phylogeny, transmission variables, and host traits in molding parasite metacommunity structure? Find out in the new Early View paper “Relative importance of host environment, transmission potential and host phylogeny to the structure of...

Effects of small mammal outbreaks in Serengeti

editor
25 March 2014
After more than 50 years of research into the ecology of large herbivores and predators in the greater Serengeti ecosystem, you might think that we know almost everything there is to know about this tropical savanna ecosystem. But in our article, “ Episodic outbreaks...

Life hots up for long-tailed tits

editor
25 March 2014
The winner of the Global warming is – The long-talked tit! Read more in the Early View paper “Climate change and annual survival in a temperate passerine: partitioning seasonal effects and predicting future patterns” by Philippa Gullet and colleagues. Below is the...

Effect of coffee farming on soil biota

editor
18 March 2014
What happens in the soil when forests are replaced by monocultures? Find out in the Early View paper “ Habitat-specific positive and negative effects of soil biota on seedling growth in a fragmented tropical montane landscape” by Camila Pizano and co-workers. Below is...

Pages

Subscribe to Blog

Recent Comments & Hot Topics