Revisiting Vermeij 1977

In a paper published in Paleobiology in 1977, Geerat Vermeij examined the Mesozoic reorganisation of shallow water marine communities using gastropod skeletal geometry and other kinds of data. Based on the evidence, Vermeij argued that predation and grazing had grown stronger and become more damaging to skeletons, driving gastropod shell evolution. Forty years after the …

Revisiting Pauly et al. 1998

In a paper published in Science in 1998, Daniel Pauly, Villy Christensen, Johanne Dalsgaard, Rainer Froese and Francisco Torres Jr., using the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO's) global fisheries catch data, showed that the mean trophic level had declined over the period of 1950 to 1994. In other words, fisheries, over this period, was moving …

Revisiting Rainey & Travisano 1998

In a paper published in Nature in 1998, Paul Rainey and Michael Travisano showed that identical populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluroescens diversify morphologically when provided with ecological opportunity, but show no divergence when opportunity is restricted. Further, the morphs follow a predictable sequence of evolution maintained by competition. These results provided support for the …

Revisiting Şekercioğlu et al. 2002

In a paper published in PNAS in 2002, Çağan Şekercioğlu, Paul Ehrlich, Gretchen Daily, Deniz Aygen, David Goehring and Randi Sandi showed. using data from forest fragments in Costa Rica, that the ability to move through the deforested matrix was the best predictor of persistence of understory insectivorous birds in small forest fragments. Bird diets, …

Revisiting Srivastava & Lawton 1998

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 1998, Diane Srivastava and John Lawton, using experiments on tree hole insect communities, tested the "more individuals hypothesis", the idea that more productive support higher species richness because they have a greater number of individuals. Srivastava and Lawton found that more productive tree holes had higher …

Revisiting Ritchie et al. 1998

In a paper published in Ecology in 1998, Mark Ritchie, David Tilman and Johannes Knops reported the results of their 7-year long field experiment to examine the effects of herbivores on nitrogen cycling in a nitrogen-limited oak savanna. The results of their study suggested that herbivores, by reducing the abundance of plants with ntirogen-rich tissues, …

Revisiting Silvertown et al. 1993

In a paper published in the Journal of Ecology in 1993, Jonathan Silvertown, Miguel Franco, Irene Pisanty, and Ana Mendoza analysed elasticities of matrix projection models to quantify the contribution of different life cycle components to population increase rates of 45 herbs and 21 woody species. They found that herbs differed significantly from woody plants …

Revisiting Likens et al. 1970

In a study published in Ecological Monographs in 1970, Gene Likens, F. Herbert Bormann, Noye Johnson, Don Fisher and Robert Pierce compared nutrient budgets between a control forested catchment and a catchment that was deforested and regrowth prevented for two years through the application of herbicide. Likens and colleagues demonstrated that this manipulation caused changes …

Revisiting Ostrom & Nagendra 2006

In a paper published in PNAS in 2006, Elinor Ostrom and Harini Nagendra synthesized the findings of a long-term research program aimed at understanding how institutional factors affect forests managed under different kinds of tenure. Bringing together satellite images, socio-ecological studies in the field, and laboratory experiments of human behaviour, Ostrom and Nagendra showed that …

Revisiting Kessler & Baldwin 2001

In a study published in Science in 2001, Andre Kessler and Ian Baldwin quantified and characterised the volatiles emitted by Nicotiana attenuata when attacked by herbivores and mimicked their release to see if they reduced herbivory by attracting egg predators inhibiting herbivore oviposition. Their results suggested that release of volatiles could reduce presence of herbivores …