In 2001, John Terborgh, Lawrence Lopez, Percy Nuňez, Madhu Rao, Ghazala Shahabuddin, Gabriela Orihuela, Mailen Riveros, Rafael Ascanio, Greg Adler, Thomas Lambert and Luis Balbas published a paper in Science demonstrating a trophic cascade on predator-free islands, which were created as a result...
Ecology
Revisiting Hobson and Welch 1992
In 1992, Keith Hobson and Harold Welch published a paper in Marine Ecology Progress Series in which they use isotopic analysis to show that the food web in the Barrow Strait–Lancaster Sound area in the Arctic consists of five trophic levels. This was one of the early studies that used isotopes to...
Revisiting Kruess and Tscharntke 1994
In 1994, Andreas Kruess and Teja Tscharntke published a paper in Science reporting the results of their experiments looking at how habitat fragmentation affects diversity and natural pest control in agricultural fields. Twenty-two years later, I spoke to Teja Tscharntke about the making of this...
Revisiting Simberloff and Von Holle 1999
In 1999, Daniel Simberloff and Betsy Von Holle published a review paper in Biological Invasions documenting the prevalence of positive interactions among nonindigenous species, and discussing the importance of such interactions in facilitating invasion. Seventeen years after the paper was...
Revisiting Morin 1983
In 1983, Peter Morin published a paper in Ecological Monographs on the impact of salamander predation on larval anuran assemblages in experimental ponds. This paper formed one of the three chapters in Peter Morin's PhD dissertation. Thirty-three years after its publication, I spoke to Peter Morin...
Revisiting Novotny et al. 2002
In 2002, Vojtech Novotny, Yves Basset, Scott Miller, George Weiblen, Birgitta Bremer, Lukas Cizek and Pavel Drozd published a paper in Nature providing evidence for low host-specificity of tropical herbivorous arthropods. This finding was based on data from over 900 herbivores from 51 plant...
Revisiting Laurance et al. 1998
In 1998, William Laurance, Leandro Ferreira, Judy Rankin-De Marona and Susan Laurance published a paper in Ecology describing findings from an 18-year field experiment on habitat fragmentation effects on rainforest trees in Central Amazonia. This paper was “publication number 183” from, arguably,...
Revisiting Gotelli and Colwell 2001
In 2001, Nicholas Gotelli and Robert Colwell published a review paper in Ecology Letters that flagged common mistakes that ecologists were making in measuring and comparing species richness, and suggested ways to avoid such mistakes. Even today, 15 years after its publication, Gotelli and Colwell...
Revisiting Naeem et al. 1994
In 1994, Shahid Naeem, Lindsey Thompson, Sharon Lawler, John Lawton and Richard Woodfin published a paper in the journal Nature that inspired a large body of work on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning and went on to become a “citation classic”. I spoke to Shahid Naeem about this paper, 22 years...