Tangled Transects

Omnivores: members of the clean plate club

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:28:02 -0400

I’ve become interested in the relative impacts of carnivores and omnivores in structuring marine communities. In NC estuaries, omnivores may play a large role in structuring algal communities due to their larger body sizes compared to the relatively small herbivorous amphipods and isopods in this

Sea Lettuce, too tasty for its own good?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 17:14:57 -0400

Something is eating my ulva. I’m culturing the green algae, collected from seagrass beds near the lab, in 60L mesocosms provided with flow through sea water from dump buckets. To promote growth, I provided each mesocosm with Osmocote (slow release fertilizer). But, instead of improving the culture i

A Peek at Southern Fouling

Wed, 16 May 2007 17:54:20 -0400

Last weekend I poked around the Sutherland research docks at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort. I was surprised at how different the fouling community assemblage is here compared to back on the West Coast. The research dock boasted some botryllids, bugula, and a lot of filamentous algae. The water was

The Religion of Statistics

Wed, 7 Mar 2007 10:35:23 -0500

I’m not so sure how I feel about statisticians with a sense of humor... Midterm, Problem 4: In the religion of Statistics: 1. Who are the priests? 2. Who are the mendicant friars? 3. What vow do graduate students usually take in this religion? 4. Name an act that will invoke t

Just Science

Sun, 4 Feb 2007 13:04:00 -0500

This week is “Just Science Week,” where blogging scientists are encouraged to post every day about, well, just science (http://www.justscience.net/). I doubt I’ll be able to make daily posts, but check out http://www.justscience.net/?feed=rss2 for a feed of those actively participating in the event.

Happy Birthday Darwin

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 13:03:59 -0500

To celebrate Darwin Day, yesterday I went to the Flock of Dodos screening at the NC State Natural History Museum in Raleigh. I very much enjoyed the film, which did a fair job of addressing the intelligent design-evolution debate. As an evolutionary ecologist, I appreciated the care that the the dir