Aaron M. Ellison
- Current research topics:
- Food webs in dynamic habitats - The concept
of a food web is a major organizing principle for ecology. Standard theory considers
food webs to be predominantly equilibrial structures (with associated statistical
descriptors) in static (unchanging) habitats. Since 1996, I have been working
with Nick
Gotelli (University of Vermont)
on expanding the focus of food web theory to consider non-equilibrium food webs
in habitats that change on the same time scale during which food webs assemble.
For this work, I have used the the Sarracenia "microecosystem"
- the northern pitcher-plant Sarracenia purpurea and the unique food web
of bacteria, protozoa, rotifers, mites, and fly larvae that live within its rainwater-filled
leaves - as a model system (see reviews in Ellison
and Gotelli 2001, and Ellison
et al. 2003). This work has been supported by four grants from the U.S. National
Science Foundation:
- Inquiline communities in changeable
pitchers: do nutrients link community assembly to dynamic habitats? DEB 98-05722
(9/1/1998-2/28/2003)
[ Summary | Full proposal | Publications from this award | Available datasets ] - Biocomplexity
incubation activity: a synthetic approach to phytotelmata communities.
DEB 00-83167 (8/1/2000-7/31/2002)
- Effects
of nutrient stress on a co-evolved food web. DEB 02-35128 (4/1/2003 - 3/31/2007)
[ Summary | Full proposal | Publications from this award | Available datasets ] - Mechanisms of community re-assembly
after a catastrophic fire. DEB 03-01361 (12/1/2002-11/31/2004)
[ Summary | Full proposal | Publications from this award | Available datasets ]
Buckley, H. L., T. E. Miller, A. M. Ellison, and N. J. Gotelli. 2003. Reverse latitudinal trends in species richness of pitcher-plant food webs. Ecology Letters 6: 825-829.
DOI 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00504.x
[
Abstract
| Full
Text ] Ellison, A. M., H. L. Buckley, T. E. Miller, and N. J. Gotelli. 2004. Morphological variation in Sarracenia purpurea (Sarraceniaceae): geographic, environmental, and taxonomic correlates. American Journal of Botany 91: 1930-1935.
[ Abstract | Full Text ][ Summary | Full proposal | Publications from this award | Available datasets ]
- Inquiline communities in changeable
pitchers: do nutrients link community assembly to dynamic habitats? DEB 98-05722
(9/1/1998-2/28/2003)
- Spatial dimension of species interactions
- Foundation species in forests
- Arthropods of the Harvard Forest
- Statistics for ecologists
- Cyberinfrastructure tools for ecological synthesis
- Food webs in dynamic habitats - The concept
of a food web is a major organizing principle for ecology. Standard theory considers
food webs to be predominantly equilibrial structures (with associated statistical
descriptors) in static (unchanging) habitats. Since 1996, I have been working
with Nick
Gotelli (University of Vermont)
on expanding the focus of food web theory to consider non-equilibrium food webs
in habitats that change on the same time scale during which food webs assemble.
For this work, I have used the the Sarracenia "microecosystem"
- the northern pitcher-plant Sarracenia purpurea and the unique food web
of bacteria, protozoa, rotifers, mites, and fly larvae that live within its rainwater-filled
leaves - as a model system (see reviews in Ellison
and Gotelli 2001, and Ellison
et al. 2003). This work has been supported by four grants from the U.S. National
Science Foundation:
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