A recent publication

Coll, M., H.K. Lotze, and T.N. Romanuk. 2008.
Structural degradation in Mediterranean Sea food webs: testing ecological hypotheses using stochastic and mass-balance modelling.
Ecosystems

Recruiting NSERC USRA's for Summer 2009

I am currently looking for 1 or 2 NSERC USRA's to conduct research in my lab this summer on the community composition of rock pool meiofaunal communities from Nova Scotia, Churchill, and Bermuda. USRA's will learn techniques related to species identification of a wide variety of meiofaunal invertebrates, field techniques, and data-analysis. You will also get to be involved in a wide range of graduate student research projects looking at extinction dynamics, and the effects of climate change on food-web structure.

New Graduate Students!

Constance Tuck and Veronik Campbell are starting their masters programs with me at the foodweb lab this September. Constance (or Connie) was a 4th year honors student in my lab back in 2006/2007 and also did a special topics project with me in Fall 2007. Connie will be looking at how temperature variability affects food web structure and stability.



CAPTION: Tamara, Connie, Veronik, and April at Prospect Point, Nova Scotia



Veronik came to out to visit from McGill University this past Spring and decided to join the Foodweb lab. We think it was because of the amazing trip we took out to our rock pools at Prospect Point, about 40min from Halifax. Veronik will be looking at the consequences of species loss in food webs, specifically at whether it matters what trophic role a species plays in the food web in terms of how stable that community is over time.

Sneak Peek at the Bermuda Rock Pools

Just missing a Hurricane (well, we will find out in a day or two for sure) Matt, Kate, and Caitlin are intrepidity braving the wilds of Bermuda and BIOS to track down the elusive Bermudian rock pool. A few sneaks peek at the pools....




The lay of the land...


Matt diving into a rock pool (just kidding!)


A pool...

Con"grad"ulations to the special topics students of 2008!

This year has been a whirlwind of fabulous student projects. Thanks to all of you who participated in the lab and for the great work that came out of it!














Greg (aka Matt, the skipper) Lynch looked at seasonal variation in patterns of community composition of temperate rock pools...














Kate MacPhee tackled community abundance patterns in Arctic rock pools...














William (aka Mather) Carscallen got webby in the Arctic and Antarctic assembling marine coastal food-webs (the Antarctic ones have more species by the way...can anyone say fishing pressure?)













Alyssa Byers-Heinlein revealed the hierarchical nature of the human food web anticipating with considerable foresight a new study from SFI researcher Mark Newman and colleagues on the hierarchical nature of networks...














and Constance (Connie) Tuck tested her Mangrove food-webs against another labs food-web assembly using the same classic dataset...

Sharky research in the food-web lab

Christine Ward-Paige (PhD student) and I have been island hopping in Thailand after a very successful ADEX (Asian Dive Exhibition) meeting in Singapore -- searching for sharks and the divemasters that see them. Our research here, which is part of the Global Shark Assessment, has been to "ground-truth" Christine's Historical Sighting Survey. So far we had interviewed divemasters and instructors in Koh Lanta, Krabi, Koh Tao, Koh Pangang, and Koh Samui. It has been a great research trip. Here are some highlights:
*the mysteries of the sharks ID's at Chumpon Pinnacles (grey reef or bull sharks?)
*snorkeling with black tips on Koh Tao at the Black Tip Dive Resort"
*a manta ray sighting at Koh Phi Phi
*meeting the Misool Eco Resort Team in Raja Ampat (who are starting an amazing conservation center which they hope will host students and researchers. These very eco-forward thinking conservationists have worked with local people to protect 200km of reef in the region and have set up a Marine Protected Area).

Press!
*wildsingapore
*bymnews

Congradulations to the honors students of 2008!

Species invasions, trophic cascades, metabolic theory, and stability OH MY! great work everyone ! Its been a year of firsts....

Kevin (aka Tom) Hargadon, in his stellar thesis "Investigating the impact of top predator removal on lower trophic level abundance and ecosystem function in temperate and tropical aquatic microcosms" showed that removal of top predators results causes trophic cascades in rock pool food-webs...






Andrew McMillan, in his thesis "Trends in facilitation of successful invasion by previously established invaders" delved into world of species invasions and showed that direct positive interactions are more likley in terrestrial systems while indirect positive interactions are more likley in aquatic systems....










Angela Young, in her thesis "The Effects of Environmental Stress on the Relationship between Diversity and Stability in Temperate Rock Pools" showed that when more functional groups are present populations are more stable...






Matthew Beck, in his thesis "The effects of temperature and nutrient availability on the respiration rate of invertebrate rock pool ecosystems" showed that cold adapted species respond more strongly to change in environmental temperature than tropical species...