RESEARCH
We fuse metabolic, movement, and community ecology to address basic and applied questions in ecology. Rarely do our individual research project spans each of these fields, but we try to integrate them as much as possible. Some of our research themes re detailed below, and you can find more detail about this work in the resultant publications.
Ecological effects of temperature - Earth’s thermal landscape is rapidly changing, and there is much evidence that species are already changing their distribution and phenology. Beyond these effects, there is a growing recognition of thermal impacts on the movement and behavior of species, which can have profound effects on species interactions and ultimately on pattens of biodiversity across time and space. We address a variety of basic and applied questions in thermal biology, with the goal of making a more predictive science of global change ecology.
Allometry in ecology - Body size is a key trait of organisms, influencing a huge number of biological processes central to their ecology and evolution. Because size is so important to individuals, patterns in the body size of co-occurring individuals have important implications for higher levels of biological organization, such as populations and communities. Work in our lab has explored how the body size of predators and prey affect how they interact, size effects on trophic cascades, patterns of body size in co-occurring species, and even how the size of individuals impacts the properties of entire ecosystems. Understanding the biological mechanisms that determine patterns of body size across levels of ecological organization is especially critical for understanding and predicting effects of human activities that alter size distributions, such as hunting, fishing, and conversion of native plant communities for agriculture or urbanization.
Imaging and automated tracking - A growing component of our research uses automated image-based tracking (Dell et al. 2014) to study how animals move and behave, especially during species interactions. We do this both in the field and in th lab. More tracking videos from our lab can be seen on our YouTube channel.
The plastic cycle and its ecological effects - Plastics are everywhere, even the most remote parts of our planet. Little is known, however, about how it affects microbes, plants, animals and their ecological interactions with each other. Indeed, while the adverse effects of microplastics are often portrayed in powerful photographs of iconic animals, such as sea turtles or penguins, very little is known about whether plastics are having broad ecological impacts on population, and subsequent effects on the structure and function of ecosystems. Rivers and lakes are the arteries that collect, transport, and deliver plastics to oceans, so understanding them is key to identifying the problem, and to developing potential management strategies. Despite their importance to the global plastic cycle, very little is know about plastics in rivers and lakes. In light of this, we have teamed up with researchers from Saint Louis University and the University of Staffordshire to form an international partnership focused on tackling pressing questions about plastic pollution in rivers and lakes.
The biomechanics of movement, behavior, and species interactions - How animals move and behave determines the strength and outcome of species interactions, which determine the types of species that comprise communities and ecosystems. For example, the relative speed, strength, and agility of an interacting predator and prey will determine whether the predator eats or whether the prey escapes, and the outcome of this interaction determines how energy flows throughout ecosystems. We use several approaches to understand the mechanics of species interactions, including laboratory experiments using automated tracking (see above), meta-analysis of published literature, and mechanistic theory.
Schramski et al. 2015 (PNAS)
The physiological basis of ecology - A significant component of our research aims to uncover the ways in which the physiology of individuals, specifically metabolic rate, influences the structure and function of ecological systems. Focusing on how physiology constrains how organisms move and behave, together with constrains imposed by size and temperature (see above), should allow uncovering of the general mechanisms that structure ecological systems across levels of organization. This should lead to a more predictive science of community ecology, which is required for understanding ecosystem-level effects of global change.
Island biogeography and ecology- Island ecosystems are excellent models for studying ecology and evolution, and are widely recognized as ‘canaries in the mine’ for global change. Our lab is involved with several projects that use the unique biological and physical attributes of islands to address some basic and applied questions in ecology and evolution. For example, we are exploring the phylogenetic structure of bird communities across the Melanesian archipelago, food web assembly during ecosystem development, and patterns of animal movement and behavior from reef to mountaintop.
The role of light in structuring ecological systems - All biologists have a clear understanding the the structure and function of ecological communities varies over a 24 hr period, matching natural lights cycles that have been largely constant since life first developed. These community-wide effects result from impacts on individual organisms that comprise each community, but the ways in which different light regimes shape the ecology of individuals and their interactions is not well understood. We have a growing interest in understanding how light affects the physiology, behavior, movement and ecology of organisms, and its broader ecological effects.
Community ecology of collective behavior - Researchers and naturalists alike have long been fascinated by the coordinated movements of fish schools, bird flocks, insect swarms, ungulate herds and other animal groups that contain large numbers of individuals that move in a highly coordinated fashion. There is much current interest in collective behavior, but to date its broad ecological effects have received limited attention. We have several projects aimed at better integrating the fields of collective behavior and community ecology.
Traits database - Biotraits is an online resource we co-developed with Van Savage and Samraat Pawar for empirical data on how biological traits respond to environmental drivers (with a particular focus on temperature). This database is described and provided in Dell et al. 2013 and analyzed for the first time in Dell et al. 2011 (with associated commentary). Currently we are using the database to i) test and validate theory about the effect of temperature on predator-prey interactions, ii) explore effects of spatial dimensionality on biodiversity, ii) understand the thermal dependence of ecological performance, iv) determine what factors underly the ability of organisms to acclimate and the structure of their thermal windows.