The Kaspari Lab
Category: Latest Posts
New Paper: Predicting the number of non-native across North America’s insect communities
When walking through a patch of habitat a key question obsesses ecologists: “How many species are there?”. An ornithologist or mammalogist can usually get a number within a reasonable range, in part because those critters are well studied. What happens…
Read MorePotassium as a game-changer in prairie food webs
This study suggests why the K and Na in urine may reveal a plant’s hidden super-power in its battle against herbivores.
Read MoreAll that is green is not nutritious or, The importance of peeing earnestly
The quality of urine is not strain’d
It droppeth as the gentle rain from bison on the lawn beneath.
Bite by bite: why North American herbivores confront such a variable diet
As you travel across North America, grasslands are everywhere, from roadside strips to boundless open prairie. It is easy think of acres of grass and forbs (flowering herbs) as just mouthfuls of forage for local herbivores. Give me a moment…
Read MoreOn the challenge of interpreting Activity Density from NEON’s pitfall arrays
As fossils fuels burn—with all the attendant effects—we are becoming increasingly concerned with how Earth’s insects—the little things that run the world—may be declining. Follow along, and let met tell you about a wee complication toward understanding what’s happening. In…
Read MoreIntroducing “Ecology Stories”
Wisdom begins with the proper naming of things. In this episode of Ecology Stories—written as a resource for science classes—@damotmot and I present an illustrated intro to taxonomy.
Read MoreArts and Sciences
When students are asked to covey a principle of ecology in a work of art, remarkable things happen.
Read MoreToward a MacroEcology of Some of the Little Things that Run the World
Working to develop tech to ID and quantify inverts from NEON’s trap arrays
Read MoreThe Ten Principles of Ecology
I have been teaching a course called “Principles of Ecology” at OU since 1996. It was a traditional two one-hour lecture, one three-hour lab for most of those years. In 2013, I decided to flip the course, converting the lectures…
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