Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

What happens when a landscape ecologist takes on urban ecology

Posted 29 Jan 2014 / 0

What’s so cool about the work that Eric Sanderson is describing is that it really amounts to doing historical research using an ecological forensics approach. The idea of mapping out “probable areas” of different populations — including humans — using mapped data is pretty smart. It is amazing how humans have transformed Manhattan. Thanks to Read More

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Architecture, Community Ecology, Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Geography, Geology, Habitat Destruction, History, Hydrology, Ponds & Lakes, Rivers & Streams, Sustainable Urban Design, Talks & Seminars, Temperate Forest, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Urban Ecology

Understanding the cascading effect of carnivore loss… before we lose all the carnivores

Posted 25 Jan 2014 / 0

NPR Morning Edition “When Big Carnivores Go Down, Even Vegetarians Take The Hit” Science “Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores” Both of these articles are great for introducing the idea of trophic cascades as well as how trophic inefficiency implies that large predators require large ranges containing abundant prey.

A Minor Post, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Community Ecology, Conservation Biology, Data Limitation, Ecological Modeling, Keystone Species, Long Term Ecological Research, Predation, Radio & Podcasts

Once considered clear, the line between ecological and evolutionary time scales is becoming more blurry

Posted 25 Jan 2014 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “What Darwin Got Wrong” Great article on the importance of better understanding rapid and/or fluctuating evolution! The number of applications to applied human issues is fascinating.

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Climate Change, Coevolution, Community Ecology, Fluidity of Knowledge, Freshwater Ecosystems, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Interactions, Invasive Species, Natural Selection, Pollution, Population Genetics, Predation, Resistance Evolution in Parasites, Rivers & Streams

With all we know, we still know too little to reliably re-engineer ecosystems

Posted 06 Sep 2013 / 0

NPR Morning Edition “Saving One Species At The Expense Of Another” There are a number of really important points made by this nice short. The first is that scientists — even when acting carefully on the best available evidence and theory — can still fail to produce desired outcomes. The second is that modifying ecological communities Read More

A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Community Ecology, Conservation Biology, Habitat Destruction, Radio & Podcasts, Rivers & Streams

Megan Frederickson shares the wonder of ant cooperation with Toronto Library patrons

Posted 31 Oct 2012 / 0

Toronto Public Library/University of Toronto Exploring Evolution series “The Evolution of Cooperation: Ant-Plant Associations in Peru” We need more scientists out there explaining the wonders of evolutionary biology!

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Coevolution, Competition, Cooperation, Evolution, Interactions, Keystone Species, Mutualism, Parasitism, Predation, Public Outreach, Social Networks, Tropical Forest

Rogue iron fertilization? Things have gotten weird!

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

The New York Times “A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists“

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Ecology, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Food, Marine Ecosystems, Polar Marine, Public Policy, Sustainability

The humble Mistletoe turns out to be a probable keystone species

Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0

Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences “Mistletoe as a keystone resource: an experimental test“

A Minor Post, Articles, Community Ecology, Interactions, Keystone Species, Parasitism

Aquatic food chains have gotten longer and less diverse over evolutionary time

Posted 19 Jun 2012 / 0

PLos One “Shorter Food Chain Length in Ancient Lakes: Evidence from a Global Synthesis” What I wonder is: what is the mechanism by which these communities evolve away from their initial “short-and-wide” configuration?

A Minor Post, Articles, Community Ecology, Predation

Digital organisms yield new insights into the effects of extinction on long-term phylogenetic patterns of evolution

Posted 19 Jun 2012 / 0

PLoS One “A Comparison of the Effects of Random and Selective Mass Extinctions on Erosion of Evolutionary History in Communities of Digital Organisms“

A Minor Post, Community Ecology, Evolutionary Modeling, Extinction

Mesocosm experiment considers the effects of human modification of community structure

Posted 19 Jun 2012 / 0

PLoS One “Effects of Trophic Skewing of Species Richness on Ecosystem Functioning in a Diverse Marine Community“

A Minor Post, Articles, Community Ecology