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I'm a chordata, urochordata!
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- December 2, 2011
- 02:46 PM
- 470 views
Dancing Yeti Crabs! Now with a Soundtrack!
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Several years ago, when the Yeti crab, Kiwa hirsute was first described, the world looked at a crustacean for the first time and went, “AWWWWW!!!” I mean, how could you know love crabs from the Kiwa genus? They have fuzzy arms! And are adorable! People immediately began paying tribute with plush toys of all manner [...]... Read more »
Thurber, A., Jones, W., & Schnabel, K. (2011) Dancing for Food in the Deep Sea: Bacterial Farming by a New Species of Yeti Crab. PLoS ONE, 6(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026243
- November 22, 2011
- 04:51 PM
- 415 views
Can We Reduce the Carbon Cost of Scientific Mega-Meetings?
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
I admit it. I love big scientific meetings. There’s something about the intense intellectual hubbub of thousands of my fields greatest minds gathered in one place for a few days of showing off the latest, greatest, flashiest work that just fills me with joy. Also a need to sleep for a week afterwards due to [...]... Read more »
Ponette-González, Alexandra G, & Jarrett E Byrnes. (2011) Sustainable Science? Reducing the Carbon Impact of Scientific Mega-Meetings. Ethnobiology Letters, 65-71. info:other/
- July 11, 2011
- 02:38 PM
- 839 views
The Story Behind the Paper: Climate Change and Kelp Forest Food Webs
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Yay! First paper of my postdoc is out in the August 2011 issue of Global Change Biology! Woohoo! So, what have I been doing for the past few years of my life? In brief summary: Kelp. Food webs. Climate change. A potent combination. In short, climate change may well simplify kelp forest food webs, with [...]... Read more »
BYRNES, J., REED, D., CARDINALE, B., CAVANAUGH, K., HOLBROOK, S., & SCHMITT, R. (2011) Climate-driven increases in storm frequency simplify kelp forest food webs. Global Change Biology, 17(8), 2513-2524. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02409.x
- November 23, 2010
- 09:51 AM
- 620 views
The Fingerprint of Fishing
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
How is fishing changing the ocean? This simple question has motivated a slew of fantastic research. One of the most pervasive ideas has been that of Fishing Down Marine Food Webs. Popularized by Daniel Pauly and colleagues in their 1998 paper, the idea simply states that when humans began fishing, we hit the top predators first. Gradually, as we depleted those stocks, human fishing moved down to the next trophic level. And the next. And the next.... Read more »
Branch, T., Watson, R., Fulton, E., Jennings, S., McGilliard, C., Pablico, G., Ricard, D., & Tracey, S. (2010) The trophic fingerprint of marine fisheries. Nature, 468(7322), 431-435. DOI: 10.1038/nature09528
Essington, T. (2006) Fishing through marine food webs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(9), 3171-3175. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0510964103
Pauly, D. (1998) Fishing Down Marine Food Webs. Science, 279(5352), 860-863. DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5352.860
- September 13, 2010
- 07:13 PM
- 835 views
Finding Truth in a Messy World
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
*-note, this was derived from a combination of emails between myself and my former phd advisor. See if you can pick out who is arguing what and where. It’s fun – well, for some of you, anyway. How do we know the world? This is a seemingly simple and vast question – one with no [...]... Read more »
Paine, R. (2010) Macroecology: Does It Ignore or Can It Encourage Further Ecological Syntheses Based on Spatially Local Experimental Manipulations?. The American Naturalist, 176(4), 385-393. DOI: 10.1086/656273
Ellison, A., & Dennis, B. (2010) Paths to statistical fluency for ecologists. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 8(7), 362-370. DOI: 10.1890/080209
- July 20, 2010
- 05:05 PM
- 700 views
“Privatizing” the Reviewer Commons?
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Let’s face it. The current journal system is slowly breaking down – in Ecology if not in other disciplines as well. The number of submissions is going up exponentially. At the same time, journals are finding it harder and harder to find reviewers. Statistics such as editors contacting 10 reviewers to [...]... Read more »
Fox, J., & Petchey, O. (2010) Pubcreds: Fixing the Peer Review Process by “Privatizing” the Reviewer Commons. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 91(3), 325-333. DOI: 10.1890/0012-9623-91.3.325
Stefano Allesina. (2009) Accelerating the pace of discovery by changing the peer review algorithm. arXiv.org. arXiv: 0911.0344v1
- June 17, 2010
- 07:28 PM
- 883 views
Do Not Log-Transform Count Data, Bitches!
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
OK, so, the title of this article is actually Do not log-transform count data, but, as @ascidacea mentioned, you just can’t resist adding the “bitches” to the end.
Onwards.
If you’re like me, when you learned experimental stats, you were taught to worship at the throne of the Normal Distribution. Always check your data and [...]... Read more »
O’Hara, R., & Kotze, D. (2010) Do not log-transform count data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 1(2), 118-122. DOI: 10.1111/j.2041-210X.2010.00021.x
- April 1, 2010
- 07:48 PM
- 584 views
My Dissertation in Under 7 Minutes
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
I recently attended the DISCCRS symposium for recent PhDs of a wide variety of disciplines whose work (past or present) deals with climate change. The week-long meeting was phenomenal, seeding me with thoughts, ideas, and basically making me feel quite good about the work I’m doing (if also very pessimistic about how society is [...]... Read more »
Byrnes, J., Reynolds, P., & Stachowicz, J. (2007) Invasions and Extinctions Reshape Coastal Marine Food Webs. PLoS ONE, 2(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000295
Byrnes, J., Stachowicz, J., Hultgren, K., Randall Hughes, A., Olyarnik, S., & Thornber, C. (2005) Predator diversity strengthens trophic cascades in kelp forests by modifying herbivore behaviour. Ecology Letters, 9(1), 61-71. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00842.x
Byrnes, J., & Stachowicz, J. (2009) The consequences of consumer diversity loss: different answers from different experimental designs. Ecology, 90(10), 2879-2888. DOI: 10.1890/08-1073.1
- March 31, 2010
- 10:55 AM
- 692 views
Our Future: Hot n’ Tasty?
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Climate change. It’s going to wreak no small amount of havoc on mother nature (and if you’re reading this but think all of this climate change stuff is poppycock, please visit Skeptical Science and then come back). How good of a guide is our intuition for what will happen?
This is a great question [...]... Read more »
O'Connor, M., Piehler, M., Leech, D., Anton, A., & Bruno, J. (2009) Warming and Resource Availability Shift Food Web Structure and Metabolism. PLoS Biology, 7(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000178
Beveridge, O., Humphries, S., & Petchey, O. (2010) The interacting effects of temperature and food chain length on trophic abundance and ecosystem function. Journal of Animal Ecology, 79(3), 693-700. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01662.x
- February 15, 2010
- 04:41 PM
- 864 views
Viva la Neo-Fisherian Liberation Front!
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
p≤0.05
Significant p-values. For so many scientists using statistics, this is your lord. Your master. Heck, it has its own facebook group filed under religious affiliations (ok, so, maybe I created that.) And it is a concept to whose slavish devotion we may have sacrificed a good bit of forward progress [...]... Read more »
Hurlbert, S. H., & Lombardi, C. M. (2009) Final collapse of the Neyman-Pearson decision theoretic framework and rise of the neoFisherian. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 311-349. info:/
- January 20, 2010
- 07:07 PM
- 620 views
The Conservation Horizon
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Every so often, a conservation problem rears its head that, upon reflection, we realize we had some inkling of even decades ago. Global warming, biofuels, overfishing, etc. The information was there, but scarce, buried in obscurity, or seemingly counterintuitive. Why not try and recognize the crucial questions early, before the lobster is [...]... Read more »
Sutherland, W., Clout, M., Côté, I., Daszak, P., Depledge, M., Fellman, L., Fleishman, E., Garthwaite, R., Gibbons, D., & De Lurio, J. (2010) A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2010. Trends in Ecology , 25(1), 1-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.10.003
- September 10, 2009
- 02:50 PM
- 972 views
Sea Stars on Acid
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
As an ecologist working in temperate climes, I’ve been following the ocean acidification field with some interest. It’s always been obvious to me how acidification has enormous ramifications for coral reefs and other tropical marine ecosystems. They exist in warm waters already, often close to their thermal maxima. Acidifying the water [...]... Read more »
Gooding, R., Harley, C., & Tang, E. (2009) Elevated water temperature and carbon dioxide concentration increase the growth of a keystone echinoderm. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(23), 9316-9321. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811143106
- July 11, 2009
- 09:59 PM
- 987 views
Lytechinus: Pack Wolf of the Sea
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
So, you know, I’m cruising along, trying to determine the diet of the white urchin, Lytechinus anamesus, from the literature. There’s your usual “It eats kelp” papers, a few red algae papers, and nothing else special and then - A PAPER ON LYTICHINUS EATING OTHER SPECIES OF URCHINS.
That’s right, baby, urchin on urchin predation. [...]... Read more »
COYER, J., ENGLE, J., AMBROSE, R., & NELSON, B. (1987) Utilization of purple and red sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus Stimpson and S. franciscanus Agassiz) as food by the white sea urchin (Lytechinus anamesus Clark) in the field and laboratory. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 105(1), 21-38. DOI: 10.1016/S0022-0981(87)80027-8
- July 1, 2009
- 07:45 PM
- 1,220 views
Mapping the Sasquatch
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
I love modeling! I love modeling! Modeling will solve everything!
Let’s model the spatial distribution of Bigfoot!
WAIT, WHAT?!
Figure 1 from the paper. Foots denote sighting of Sasquatch footprints. Circles for just visual/auditory sightings. I ask, how does one know what Bigfoot sounds like?
Yes, it sounds silly, but in the current issue [...]... Read more »
Lozier, J., Aniello, P., & Hickerson, M. (2009) Predicting the distribution of Sasquatch in western North America: anything goes with ecological niche modelling. Journal of Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x
- May 10, 2009
- 02:41 PM
- 992 views
New Ideas in Ecology and Reviewing
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Recently on ecolog-l, there has been a thread going around about journal publishing - open access v. pay-for access, impact factor, elitism, reviewing, etc. The central question seems to be, is the publication system somehow broken? Do we need to fix it? Is the model of journals such as PLoS Biology or [...]... Read more »
Aarssen, L. (2008) Ideas in Ecology and Evolution – A new open-access model dedicated to the rapid release of creativity in peer-review publication. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 1-9. DOI: 10.4033/iee.2008.1.1.e
- April 24, 2009
- 02:58 PM
- 1,307 views
snails going nom nom nom = productive diverse tidepools?
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
The “gold standard” experimental design for asking how do changes in biodiversity change ecosystem function has been to randomly assemble communities of varying species richness, but equal abundance, and examining differences in function from one level of richness to the next.
But let’s be honest. Changes in diversity due to impacts by man will not [...]... Read more »
Altieri, A., Trussell, G., Ewanchuk, P., Bernatchez, G., & Bracken, M. (2009) Consumers Control Diversity and Functioning of a Natural Marine Ecosystem. PLoS ONE, 4(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005291
- March 9, 2009
- 12:48 PM
- 1,383 views
when NOT to MANOVA
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
And now its time for a multivariate stats geek out.
The statistics that we use determine the inferences we draw from our data. The more statistical tools you learn to use, the more likely you are likely to slip on a loose bit of data, and stab yourself in the eyeball with your swiss-army-knife of [...]... Read more »
H. J. Keselman, C. J. Huberty, L. M. Lix, S. Olejnik, R. A. Cribbie, B. Donahue, R. K. Kowalchuk, L. L. Lowman, M. D. Petoskey, J. C. Keselman.... (1998) Statistical Practices of Educational Researchers: An Analysis of their ANOVA, MANOVA, and ANCOVA Analyses. Review of Educational Research, 68(3), 350-386. DOI: 10.3102/00346543068003350
- February 3, 2009
- 02:55 PM
- 1,258 views
Rum, Sea Squirts, and the Lash!
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
“But assuming that the would-be scientist managed to avoid, or survive, the potentially dire consequences of scurvy, dysentery and malaria, that his ship was not sunk in bad weather or driven onto an uncharted rock or reef, and that his journals and specimens were not destroyed by shipboard fungus, insects, rodents or cow or sheep [...]... Read more »
Anthony L. Rice. (2009) Marine science in the age of sail. Zoologica Scripta, 25-31. DOI: 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2007.00305.x
- January 27, 2009
- 07:00 PM
- 1,135 views
the light! the heat! the feedback!
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
Sometimes, the devil IS in the details. I’ve been thinking about feedbacks between community community structure and function lately, and run into a few curious roadblocks, as well as one very very interesting story.
First, the roadblocks. Just what do we mean by structure and function, particularly in reference to a [...]... Read more »
S. V. Ollinger, A. D. Richardson, M. E. Martin, D. Y. Hollinger, S. E. Frolking, P. B. Reich, L. C. Plourde, G. G. Katul, J. W. Munger, R. Oren.... (2008) Canopy nitrogen, carbon assimilation, and albedo in temperate and boreal forests: Functional relations and potential climate feedbacks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(49), 19336-19341. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0810021105
- July 21, 2008
- 02:48 PM
- 1,043 views
Algae fight on the side of light. Inverts, not so much...
by jebyrnes in I'm a chordata, urochordata!
So, given my recent transition, it gives me great pleasure to talk about a paper that kind of sums up both halves of my split personality these days. Inverts and algae - who will win! The recent Miller and Etter paper in Ecology I think is not only a great piece of experimental ecology - careful, painstaking, and thorough - but it's also just a nice piece of natural history looking at the New England subtidal.
Oh, and maybe I worked on this project as an undergrad tech, and, well, maybe ........ Read more »
Robert Miller, & Ron J Etter. (2008) SHADING FACILITATES SESSILE INVERTEBRATE DOMINANCE IN THE ROCKY SUBTIDAL GULF OF MAINE. Ecology, 89(2), 452. DOI: 10.1890/06-1099.1
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