In a paper published in PNAS in 2003, Jordi Bascompte, Pedro Jordano, Carlos Melián and Jens Olesen investigated the structural organisation of 52 mutualistic networks and found them to be highly nested, resulting in communities centred around a smaller core of interactions. Bascompte and...
Ecology
Revisiting Shine 1980
In a paper published in Oecologia in 1980, Richard Shine presented the results of his field and laboratory studies on the "costs" of reproduction in six montane Australian lizards. While there had been many theoretical models of trade-offs between current and future reproduction, Shine's study was...
Revisiting Colwell and Lees 2000
In a paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution in 2000, Robert Colwell and David Lees reviewed the conceptual and empirical literature on the influence of the "mid-domain effect" - geometric constraints in geographic patterns of species richness caused by physiological and...
Revisiting Huey and Bennett 1987
In a paper published in Evolution in 1987, Raymond Huey and Albert Bennett presented the results of their comparative analysis of temperature preferences and temperature dependence of running speeds in Australian lygosomid skinks. By chasing lizards down racing tracks at different temperatures,...
Revisiting Kempenaers et al. 1992
In a study published in Nature in 1992, Bart Kempenaers, Geert R. Verheyen, Marleen Van den Broeck, Terry Burke, Christine Van Broeckhoven and André Dhondt showed that female blue tits choose higher-quality males for extra-pair copulations (EPC), providing evidence in support of the genetic...
Revisiting Carpenter et al. 1987
In a study published in Ecology in 1987, Stephen Carpenter and colleagues carried out whole-lake manipulations to show that primary productivity in lakes is regulated both by trophic interactions and abiotic factors. Their findings were considered "revolutionary" because, at the time, lake...
Revisiting Chase and Leibold 2002
In a study published in Nature in 2002, Jonathan Chase and Mathew Leibold showed, through experiments in ponds in different watersheds, that the productivity-diversity relationship was scale-dependent. Among ponds within a watershed, the relationship was hump-shaped while across watersheds the...
Revisiting Ehrlich and Raven 1964
In 1964, Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven published a paper in Evolution that reported the findings of their literature survey of larval food plants of butterflies. Based on the patterns they found, they hypothesized that caterpillar-host plant relationships result from "coevolution", and that the...
Revisiting Herrera et al. 1994
In a paper published in Ecological Monographs in 1994, Carlos Herrera, Pedro Jordano, Luis Lopez-Soria and Juan Amat used a combination of observational and experimental approaches to describe the seed dispersal cycle (frugivory to recruitment) of Phillyrea latifolia, a bird-dispersed...
Revisiting Bronstein 2001
In a conceptual paper in the American Zoologist in 2001, Judith Bronstein highlighted the need to understand the costs of mutualisms along with its benefits, and laid out a research agenda for future empirical work in this area. Sixteen years after the paper was published I asked Judith Bronstein...