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Posts

May 07, 2013

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12:43 PM | How much space do faculty at teaching campuses take up in journals?
What’s the relative influence of teaching faculty on their fields as a whole? That’s hard to measure. Here’s an easier, related, question to ask: What fraction of papers coming out have teaching faculty as authors? A couple months ago, I perused the tables of contents of a variety of journals. Here’s what I found: Ecology: [...]
Small Pond Science
Academic Life | Ecology
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12:25 PM | A Preprint Experiment: Four Pillars and a Foundation for the Future of Scholarly Publishing
x-post from the OpenPub Project blog So, we got together, had two working group meetings to discuss the future of scholarly publishing in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and the Earth and Ocean Sciences. What were were thinking that entire time? We’ve … Continue reading →
I’m a Chordata! Urochordata!
Ecology | Marine Biology
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8:44 AM | Black Rot Disease Hits Uganda
Vegetable farmers in the Kayunga and Mukono districts of Uganda are reporting crop losses due to black rot disease. One farmer, Twaha Kahooza of Kyampisi village, Kayunga Sub-county, says he had planted four acres of cabbages and was expecting about Shs18m (about £4,500 or US$7,000) from the harvest, however he only managed to get Shs5m [...]
The Plantwise Blog
Biology | Ecology

May 06, 2013

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10:13 PM | Zeal to ensure clean leafy greens takes bite out of riverside habitat in California
Perceived food safety risk from wildlife drives expensive and unnecessary habitat destruction around farm fields By Liza Lester, ESA communications officer   Meticulous attention to food safety is a good thing. As consumers, we like to hear that produce growers and distributers go above and beyond food safety mandates to ensure that healthy fresh fruits [...]

Sasha Gennet, Jeanette Howard, Jeff Langholz, Kathryn Andrews, Mark D Reynolds & Scott A Morrison (2013). Farm practices for food safety: an emerging threat to floodplain and riparian ecosystems, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, e-View ahead of print (May 6th) Other: 10.1890/1202443

EcoTone
Ecology | General Science
Citation
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9:49 PM | Thanking public servants for work that’s often unnoticed
It's Public Service Recognition Week -- time to think about how government employees are helping us all live healthier lives.
The Pump Handle
Ecology | Public Health
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7:40 PM | Fern poetry
Just played again with a random poetry generator. Made it for ferns. Made my moment. First try is not bad: Sporophytic Food Horticulture bugs with actual fossile record. Shall not a taxonomist radiate with Carboniferous phenotypes? Direct sunlight is used as the ferns of plenty of families, But the study of ferns ponders many taxa. [...]
Seeds Aside
Evolution | Ecology
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7:13 PM | Readers Write In: A Snake in my Garage I Cannot Identify
"Sir, I happened upon a snake in my garage that I cannot identify… it was a large snake in the 10’ to 12’ range, gold and brown on the back with a diamond pattern and it had a black head that looked like a king snake or rat snake?  I live just north of Montgomery Alabama and I cannot find it anywhere online. (Tommy attached several photographs he found online but I am not posting them
Living Alongside Wildlife
Conservation | Ecology
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5:16 PM | Life Cycle of a Frog
Have you ever wondered how a tadpole turns into frog? It's called metamorphosis! We've broken it up so you can see how this amazing process works.
Wild Wire
Ecology | Environment
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4:47 PM | The Aspens that were left behind
When climates change, species move. It’s a fact of life on Earth and probably has been for the past 542 million years, even when species don’t have legs or wings or fins to get them from place to place. Quaking aspen is one example of a seemingly stationary species that has managed in just the past 20,000 years to expand into the largest range of any native North American tree.

Callahan, C., Rowe, C., Ryel, R., Shaw, J., Madritch, M. & Mock, K. (2013). Continental-scale assessment of genetic diversity and population structure in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) , Journal of Biogeography, DOI:

Biogeography Bits
Biology | Ecology
Citation
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3:36 PM | How teaching high school prepared me for NYC
In a former life I was a math teacher at a public high school in rural Mississippi. One day I put up a math problem about how to calculate the probability that you’d have to wait for a certain amount of time at a crosswalk. Now, there was always push-back on any new concept I introduced (math classes aren’t exactly winning the popular vote for “favorite class” in high school), but this particular problem had an interesting response: “Ma’am,” the student said as he raised his hand, […]
Your Wild Life
Ecology | Microbiology
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2:22 PM | Hunger in Egypt
In 2008, before the revolution, the Egyptian Government set a portion of its Army to baking bread for hungry citizens, precisely to forestall revolution.  Now, after revolution, it isn’t clear who will provide the bread for its hungry and angry populace: Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, with another 20 percent…
Casaubon's Book
Ecology
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2:12 PM | Even in France…
Fast food sales now outnumber sit-down restaurant food sales in the home of gastronomy: More than half of all French restaurant sales now take place, sacrilegiously, at fast food chains, according to a new survey by food consultancy firm Gira Conseil. This is the first time fast food sales have surpassed sit-down restaurant sales in…
Casaubon's Book
Ecology
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2:00 PM | White House Joins the Rest of Us in Worrying About Climate Change Tipping Points
From the Guardian: New research suggests that the Arctic summer sea ice loss is linked to extreme weather. Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francispoints to the phenomenon of “Arctic amplification”, where: “The loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the rapid warming of the Far North are altering the jet stream over North America, Europe, and…
Casaubon's Book
Ecology
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1:54 PM | Is biodiversity important? What theory tells us (Part 2)
[Continued from Part 1] On Wednesday, I reviewed some of the synthetic work by Brad Cardinale and others showing the . . .
BioDiverse Perspectives
Biology | Ecology
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1:44 PM | The young and the restless
It struck me recently that one of the key differences between economists and neuroscientists studying decision-making is their interest in dynamics.  Economists seem more interested in explaining how behavior operates (or should operate) on average whereas neuroscientists would like to explain trial-to-trial variability.  Decisions are rarely made just once in a lifetime, but are instead made repeatedly. [...]

Hampton, A., Bossaerts, P. & O'Doherty, J. (2008). Neural correlates of mentalizing-related computations during strategic interactions in humans, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (18) 6741-6746. DOI:

Zhu, L., Walsh, D. & Hsu, M. (2012). Neuroeconomic Measures of Social Decision-Making Across the Lifespan, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 6 DOI:

neuroecology
Ecology | Neuroscience
Citation
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12:43 PM | Expiscor (6 May 2013)
Welcome to May! Expiscor is still going strong, and thanks to everyone for the continued support and interest. I’m certainly thrilled about this, and will continue to post weekly links about entomology, arachnology, natural history, biology and a dash of the curious and odd. Please don’t be afraid of spider bites.  Despite the sad news about [...]
Arthropod Ecology
Academic Life | Ecology
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12:11 PM | Getting and running a big site grant in a small institution: how collaborations fail
Here’s the message of the post in a single sentence: You need open communication and collaboration to land and run a successful site grant, and petty concerns about sharing resources could mean that nobody gets anything. Now here’s the rationale: “Site grants” power research centers and student training programs. Research institutions are expected to have [...]
Small Pond Science
Academic Life | Ecology
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8:48 AM | Is regional species diversity bounded or unbounded?
Howard V. Cornell, 2013. Biological Reviews 88(1): 140-165. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2012.00245.x. Is regional species diversity bounded or unbounded? This post is PEGE’s contribution to the first PEGE/EvoBio journal clubs crossover. Add your comments to the bottom of this post and then come and join us with the guys over at EB-JC (evobiojournalclub.wordpress.com) next Monday (May 13th, 4:30p ET) [...]
PEGE Journal Club
Evolution | Ecology
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8:34 AM | Malaria in the UK and climate change
A couple of days ago I saw this tweet: Pests? maybe; #malaria? don’t think so! #Climatechange could bring malaria to the UK bit.ly/16GO3UO #fearmongering — Tim France (@francetim) 5. mai 2013 I agree with Tim France, but with the short tweet he also assumes UK will be a rich country with a good health system [...]
Open Malaria Warning
Ecology | Climate Science

May 05, 2013

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4:23 PM | Economics of Social Status
In economic terms, for a good to function as money it must serve three related purposes: A medium of exchange, A store of value, and A unit of account. We’ve already discussed how status functions as a medium of exchange. Because it’s so fluid, it can be used to price favors and other goods at relatively [...]
neuroecology
Ecology | Neuroscience

May 04, 2013

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7:19 PM | Fern lapse for rainy saturday
Timelapse of fern sprouting. Saturday like.
Seeds Aside
Evolution | Ecology
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2:54 PM | Readers Write In: Did I Find An Alligator Snapping Turtle In a Cenote?
Hello: I am an avid diver and lay scientist.  I took the attached photo at Rock Lake, NM which I hypothesize is the world's highest cenote at 4,600 ft. above sea level...I would prefer to know a bit about the subject of my photo, so I may give it due credit and hopefully bring positive attention to them. In this quest I came upon your name and therefore duly appreciate the offer given in your
Living Alongside Wildlife
Conservation | Ecology

May 03, 2013

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9:23 PM | Newborn screening: One of public health’s greatest achievements celebrates 50 years and thousands of lives saved
On Feb. 13, 2012, Honey Stecken gave birth to her daughter Maren. Everything appeared perfectly fine — she ate and slept and did all the things a baby does. Even after a couple weeks at home in South Fork. Colo., with her newborn little girl, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
The Pump Handle
Ecology | Public Health
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8:49 PM | ESA Policy News: May 3
Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.  Read the full Policy News here. NSF: SCIENCE COMMITTEE LEADERS WEIGH IN ON BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH INVESTMENT A letter to National Science Foundation (NSF) Acting-Director Cora Marrett from House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) received a sharp [...]
EcoTone
Ecology | General Science
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8:46 PM | Friday Roundup: This Week's Wildlife Links (May 3rd, 2013)
One of the world's largest freshwater fish may actually be two (or more) species. Seen any huge lizards from Argentina running around? Florida officials want to hear from you. What are the chances? Photographer captures Orcas attacking a group of Sperm Whales. A startling reminder that the animals you buy at the supermarket don't come from there. Fish for dinner found with tongue-eating louse.
Living Alongside Wildlife
Conservation | Ecology
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7:28 PM | Freeday picks
Staple Fruits of the World Does Your Genealogy Reveal Amazing Anthropological Stories?. The illustrative graph is by far the most interesting things I’ve met over the latest weeks. I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet Carnival of Evolution #59: A letter from the Doctor Academia: What is academic success? A legitimate answer. False [...]
Seeds Aside
Evolution | Ecology
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3:56 PM | Global warming since 1999
Climate change deniers like to claim there has been “no warming since 1998″ which was an especially warm year due to an intense El Nino.  Well that ain’t true.  Global warming has indeed continued, especially in the deep sea due to the prevalence of several La Nina events recently. Here is how much the land [...]
SeaMonster
Ecology | Marine Biology
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1:30 PM | What’s the Difference Between Frogs and Toads?
Can you tell the difference between a frog and a toad? We've collected some hints to help you tell them apart.
Wild Wire
Ecology | Environment
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1:28 PM | Galapagos field site
How about a Galapagos picture break. This is Lindsey Carr’s field site on Fernandina.  In this bay a crazy diversity of critters coexist, including hermatypic corals and penguins, orcas and white tip sharks, sea lions, marine iguanas and many-a-sea cucumber.  This is one of the few places I’ve been in the Galapagos that is truly [...]
SeaMonster
Ecology | Marine Biology
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1:00 PM | What we’re reading: GWA with low coverage and rare variants, cardenolide resistance, and felony experimentation
As we head into the weekend, here’s a few things we’ve noticed that are worth your screen-time. In the journals Navon, O., Sul, J.H., Han, B., Conde, L., Bracci, P., Riby, J., et al. 2013. Rare variant association testing under … Continue reading →
The Molecular Ecologist
Ecology | Evolution
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