Revisiting old papers in ecology and evolution through interviews with their authors
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, Hue and Bennett showed that coadaptation between thermal preference and thermal dependence of … Continue reading Revisiting Huey and Bennett 1987
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 quality hypothesis for extra-pair matings. Twenty-five years after the paper was … Continue reading Revisiting Kempenaers et al. 1992
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 ecosystems were thought to be primarily under the control of nutrients. Thirty years … Continue reading Revisiting Carpenter et al. 1987
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 relationship was positive and linear. Fifteen years after the paper was published, I asked Jonathan … Continue reading Revisiting Chase and Leibold 2002
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 secondary chemicals produced by plants, which till then were thought to … Continue reading Revisiting Ehrlich and Raven 1964
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 mast-fruiting tree. Twenty-three years after the paper was published, I asked Carlos Herrera about his … Continue reading Revisiting Herrera et al. 1994
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 about the origins of her interest … Continue reading Revisiting Bronstein 2001
