The Kaspari Lab
Category: Latest Posts
10 Foundational Papers in Community Ecology
I suggest to students in Advanced EEB, our course for first semester Ph. D. students, that creativity is about fostering your ability to generate associations/ideas, and your judgement as to which ideas are worth pursuing. Toward that end, I also…
Read MoreThe tropics is just a big plate of scrambled eggs
Debby Kaspari is a featured artist at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson’s annual “Birds in Art” competition. Here is a brief video that captures the glories of painting birds in tropical forests.
Read MoreSuccumbing to the lure of the model organism: studying the imported red fire ant
Guest Post by Karl Roeder Ants. The adorable arthropods that have captured my imagination for years have finally become the focus of my Ph.D. research. They are abundant, diverse, and ecologically important with a variety of castes that contain a…
Read MoreExploring the role antibiotic compounds play in shaping tropical leaf litter invertebrate & microbial communities
Post by Jane Lucas This summer (2015) I am working on furthering my exploration of the role antibiotic chemicals play in the structuring of leaf litter invertebrate and microbial communities. This work was inspired by a classic Janzen paper entitled…
Read MoreCanopy and understory microclimates – how are the ants handling them?
The author, Jelena Bujan, in the canopy of Pseudobombax septenatum, a deciduous tree with smooth green bark. Jelena is completing her third field season on Barro Colorado Island, in Panama. In tropical forests, is frequently assumed that canopies are “deserts”…
Read MoreA little known gem from the tropical ant/soil literature
A few days ago, a good friend wrote to ask what was known about the response of tropical soil invertebrates to drought. My first response was “precious little”, and then I remembered a cool article by Diana Wheeler and Sally Levings….
Read MoreBrian McGill visits the Kaspari Lab
MacroEcologist extraordinaire Brian McGill visited the lab last week, visited with grad students, and gave two first rate seminars. The first laid out trends for the next 25 years of ecology. The second laid out a compelling framework for a…
Read MoreCongrats to Professor Natalie Clay
Kaspari Lab alum Natalie Clay will be joining the Biology faculty of Louisiana Tech University this September. Good going Natalie, and Go Bulldogs!
Read MoreSpring in Oklahoma–Hiking along the South Canadian River
Debby and I had a lovely hike along the South Canadian River with pals Susan Dragoo (Debby’s writing partner on the Oklahoma Today piece on Nuttall) and Tim Ryan. These scenes are about 10 minutes from Campus.
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