The DeLong Lab - Crashing theory into data since 2012.
and
Putting the fun back in functional response.
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Putting the fun back in functional response.
In the DeLong lab, we study eco-evolutionary interactions involving body size, temperature, trait variation, and energetics. We are taxonomically broad and work on viruses, bacteria, algae, protozoans, crustaceans, hydra, arachnids, herps, mammals, birds, and the global human population. We like theory. We do experiments. But most of all, we like theory-data reckoning.
We are currently looking for amazing new graduate students. Is that you?
We are currently looking for amazing new graduate students. Is that you?
Lab News
May 2019 - The first ever Grad student writing retreat at Cedar Point Biological Station was a big hit, despite the bad weather! We are officially making this an annual event.
April 2019 - Miranda's first paper is accepted at Evolutionary Ecology Research. Check back later for more.
April 2019 - Stella's paper showing that recent foraging history affects resting metabolic rate, explaining some variation around metabolic rate scaling relationships, is online at Ecological Entomology here.
March 2019 - Stella's paper showing that thigmotaxis - the tendency to locate near borders - explains how arena size is massively altering our estimates of functional responses. See it in Behavioral Ecology here.
March 2019 - A very unusual discovery: chloroviruses can signal to their host's host. Imagine seeking out a virus that attacks your endosymbiont. We don't know why, but Paramecium bursaria do this. See it in the Journal of Virology here.
December 2018 - Thanks to massive effort by the team, our years-in-the-making global all-predators functional response database is now online! It is called the FoRAGE (Functionial responses from around the globe in all ecosystems) database. Read the data paper here and find the data set here.
December 2018 - Yoni Belmaker and my paper using GEMs to evaluate evolutionary rescue is now online at Evolutionary Applications here.
November 2018 - Welcome to Kyle Coblentz, new post-doc in the lab. He comes to us from Mark Novak's lab at Oregon State University.
August 2018 - Tom's paper on the temperature dependence of how predator's alter Daphnia life histories is online at Ecology and Evolution here.
August 2018 - Our TPC group's analysis on variation in metabolic rate TPCs is now online Biology Letters here. Be sure to notice that we found evidence for both 'hotter is better' and 'colder is better'.
July 2018 - Teresa's paper showing that declining American Kestrels across North America are also getting smaller. Find it here.
April 2018 - Stella's paper investigating variation in ladybug functional responses is online early at Journal of Applied Ecology here. Definitely look at the arena size result in this paper!
December 2017 - Shelby's paper on condition-dependent foraging in wolf spiders is online at Food Webs. See it here.
November 2017 - At long last, our paper on the multifaceted nature of community stability is online at Ecology here.
November 2017 - Our paper on the effect of messy-feeding protists on virus population growth is online early at MIcrobial Ecology here.
October 2017 - Jean-Phi's amazing 'side-project' on a general prediction about food-web structure generated from patterns of individual variation is published in PNAS! Check it out here.
September 2017 - Stella's first paper - and the first student paper from Predator Ecology - was published online here. Congrats Stella!
August 2017 - Welcome to new graduate students Miranda Salsbery and Anisha Pokharel!
June 2017 - Tom's paper on thermal acclimation in Paramecium is online here.
February 2017 - New paper on ecological pleiotropy in eco-evo interactions is online here!
December 2016 - Listen to the fantastic TWiV blog on our predators and chlorovirus paper here! The part about our work starts around 39-40 minutes.
December 2-16 - Our new paper on the temperature-size rule in Tetrahymena is online at Evolutionary Ecology Research. See it here.
November 2016 - Predators and viruses! Our new paper on copepods catalyzing chlorovirus reproduction is published online at PNAS. See it here.
August 2016 - Jean-Phi has now begun a McDonnell Foundation supported post-doc at the University of California - Merced, in the lab of Justin Yeakel.
July 2016 - JPD receives James S. McDonnell Foundation complex scholar award!
June 2016 - Jean-Phi Gibert has now defended his dissertation! Congratulations JP!
May 2016 - Teresa Ely has now defended her thesis and graduated! Congratulations Teresa!
April 2016 - Tom and John's paper on how predation alters thermal performance curves of prey is online at Current Zoology. See it here.
April 2016 - Congratulations to Jean-Phi for winning the School of Biological Science's Manter Award for outstanding graduate research in zoology!
March 2016 - Oskar Burger and my new paper on fertility reversals in humans is out in Philosophical Transactions. See it here.
February 2016 - Jean-Phi's new paper that scales the effects of temperature from metabolic rate through mechanical movements to predator-prey interactions is on line early at Global Change Biology. See it here and read about it more here.
January 2016 -- GEMs have arrived. The introduction to our new approach for modeling eco-evolutionary dynamics is now published! Read about GEMs in Ecology and Evolution. Then, build your own GEM model. It's fun! See it here. And check out our on-line poster here.
January 2016 -- New paper on the link between rates of change in ecology and evolution is published in ... Ecology and Evolution. See it here. See also our write up for UNL Today here.
November 2015 -- New paper by former undergrad Ryan Kalinoski and John showing the role of prey type in determining functional responses of cyclops is online at Oecologia. See it here.
August 2015 -- New paper showing how the supply-demand model can predict idiosyncratic responses of fish body size to predation risk is published in CJFAS. See it here.
June 2015 -- John and Oskar's new paper on historical links between population size and energy use and how socio-economic instability maps onto energy use was published in PLoS One. See it here. Also read about it on UNL Today.
June 2015 -- John's first big grant is funded with co-PI Jonathan Belmaker from Tel Aviv University, on how body size evolution in response to warming will influence marine size spectra.
April 2015 -- Jean-Philippe's TWO papers in the latest Advances in Ecological Research are published, focusing on trait variation (what else?). See them here and here.
April 2015 -- Jean-Philippe's DDIG proposal on the interaction of individual variation and temperature-adaptation was funded by the NSF! Congrats JP!
January 2015 -- NCEAS and CIEE working group paper on body size and trophic cascades is now published in AM NAT. See it here. Also read about it on UNL Today.
December 2014 -- The first DeLong lab undergrad-led paper came out in Ecosphere, on the temperature-INDEPENDENCE of interaction strength in cyclops. See it here.
January 2014 -- David Vasseur's paper on climate variation and species persistence is online at Proceedings of the Royal Society. See it here.
January 2014 -- Jean-Philippe's paper on spatial structure and coevolution is published in American Naturalist. "The Spatial Structure of Antagonistic Species Affects Coevolution in Predictable Ways" See it here! Go JPG!
September 2013 -- Jean-Philippe's paper on spatial structure and coevolution is published in American Naturalist. "The Spatial Structure of Antagonistic Species Affects Coevolution in Predictable Ways" See it here! Go JPG!
December 2013 -- Torrie Hanley and my paper explaining the variation in body size and life history traits in Daphnia ambigua is out in PLoS One. See DeLong, J.P. and T.H. Hanley. 2013. The rate-size trade-off structures intraspecific variation in Daphnia ambigua life history parameters. PLoS One 8:e81024.
August 2013 -- Frank La Sorte's paper on the body size dependence of migration speeds using the awesome eBird database is out! See La Sorte, F., D. Fink, W.M. Hochachka, J.P. DeLong, and S. Kelling. 2013. Population- level scaling of avian migration speed with body size and migration distance for powered fliers. Ecology. 94:1839-1847. Also read about it on UNL Today and at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
July 2013 -- Our paper experimentally showing that the magnitude of exploitation competition is linked to the magnitude of interference competition in the predatory protist Didinium is out! See DeLong, J.P. and D.A. Vasseur. 2013. Linked exploitation and interference competition drives the variable behavior of a classic predator-prey system. Oikos 122:1393-1400. Also read about it on the Oikos blog.
May 2019 - The first ever Grad student writing retreat at Cedar Point Biological Station was a big hit, despite the bad weather! We are officially making this an annual event.
April 2019 - Miranda's first paper is accepted at Evolutionary Ecology Research. Check back later for more.
April 2019 - Stella's paper showing that recent foraging history affects resting metabolic rate, explaining some variation around metabolic rate scaling relationships, is online at Ecological Entomology here.
March 2019 - Stella's paper showing that thigmotaxis - the tendency to locate near borders - explains how arena size is massively altering our estimates of functional responses. See it in Behavioral Ecology here.
March 2019 - A very unusual discovery: chloroviruses can signal to their host's host. Imagine seeking out a virus that attacks your endosymbiont. We don't know why, but Paramecium bursaria do this. See it in the Journal of Virology here.
December 2018 - Thanks to massive effort by the team, our years-in-the-making global all-predators functional response database is now online! It is called the FoRAGE (Functionial responses from around the globe in all ecosystems) database. Read the data paper here and find the data set here.
December 2018 - Yoni Belmaker and my paper using GEMs to evaluate evolutionary rescue is now online at Evolutionary Applications here.
November 2018 - Welcome to Kyle Coblentz, new post-doc in the lab. He comes to us from Mark Novak's lab at Oregon State University.
August 2018 - Tom's paper on the temperature dependence of how predator's alter Daphnia life histories is online at Ecology and Evolution here.
August 2018 - Our TPC group's analysis on variation in metabolic rate TPCs is now online Biology Letters here. Be sure to notice that we found evidence for both 'hotter is better' and 'colder is better'.
July 2018 - Teresa's paper showing that declining American Kestrels across North America are also getting smaller. Find it here.
April 2018 - Stella's paper investigating variation in ladybug functional responses is online early at Journal of Applied Ecology here. Definitely look at the arena size result in this paper!
December 2017 - Shelby's paper on condition-dependent foraging in wolf spiders is online at Food Webs. See it here.
November 2017 - At long last, our paper on the multifaceted nature of community stability is online at Ecology here.
November 2017 - Our paper on the effect of messy-feeding protists on virus population growth is online early at MIcrobial Ecology here.
October 2017 - Jean-Phi's amazing 'side-project' on a general prediction about food-web structure generated from patterns of individual variation is published in PNAS! Check it out here.
September 2017 - Stella's first paper - and the first student paper from Predator Ecology - was published online here. Congrats Stella!
August 2017 - Welcome to new graduate students Miranda Salsbery and Anisha Pokharel!
June 2017 - Tom's paper on thermal acclimation in Paramecium is online here.
February 2017 - New paper on ecological pleiotropy in eco-evo interactions is online here!
December 2016 - Listen to the fantastic TWiV blog on our predators and chlorovirus paper here! The part about our work starts around 39-40 minutes.
December 2-16 - Our new paper on the temperature-size rule in Tetrahymena is online at Evolutionary Ecology Research. See it here.
November 2016 - Predators and viruses! Our new paper on copepods catalyzing chlorovirus reproduction is published online at PNAS. See it here.
August 2016 - Jean-Phi has now begun a McDonnell Foundation supported post-doc at the University of California - Merced, in the lab of Justin Yeakel.
July 2016 - JPD receives James S. McDonnell Foundation complex scholar award!
June 2016 - Jean-Phi Gibert has now defended his dissertation! Congratulations JP!
May 2016 - Teresa Ely has now defended her thesis and graduated! Congratulations Teresa!
April 2016 - Tom and John's paper on how predation alters thermal performance curves of prey is online at Current Zoology. See it here.
April 2016 - Congratulations to Jean-Phi for winning the School of Biological Science's Manter Award for outstanding graduate research in zoology!
March 2016 - Oskar Burger and my new paper on fertility reversals in humans is out in Philosophical Transactions. See it here.
February 2016 - Jean-Phi's new paper that scales the effects of temperature from metabolic rate through mechanical movements to predator-prey interactions is on line early at Global Change Biology. See it here and read about it more here.
January 2016 -- GEMs have arrived. The introduction to our new approach for modeling eco-evolutionary dynamics is now published! Read about GEMs in Ecology and Evolution. Then, build your own GEM model. It's fun! See it here. And check out our on-line poster here.
January 2016 -- New paper on the link between rates of change in ecology and evolution is published in ... Ecology and Evolution. See it here. See also our write up for UNL Today here.
November 2015 -- New paper by former undergrad Ryan Kalinoski and John showing the role of prey type in determining functional responses of cyclops is online at Oecologia. See it here.
August 2015 -- New paper showing how the supply-demand model can predict idiosyncratic responses of fish body size to predation risk is published in CJFAS. See it here.
June 2015 -- John and Oskar's new paper on historical links between population size and energy use and how socio-economic instability maps onto energy use was published in PLoS One. See it here. Also read about it on UNL Today.
June 2015 -- John's first big grant is funded with co-PI Jonathan Belmaker from Tel Aviv University, on how body size evolution in response to warming will influence marine size spectra.
April 2015 -- Jean-Philippe's TWO papers in the latest Advances in Ecological Research are published, focusing on trait variation (what else?). See them here and here.
April 2015 -- Jean-Philippe's DDIG proposal on the interaction of individual variation and temperature-adaptation was funded by the NSF! Congrats JP!
January 2015 -- NCEAS and CIEE working group paper on body size and trophic cascades is now published in AM NAT. See it here. Also read about it on UNL Today.
December 2014 -- The first DeLong lab undergrad-led paper came out in Ecosphere, on the temperature-INDEPENDENCE of interaction strength in cyclops. See it here.
January 2014 -- David Vasseur's paper on climate variation and species persistence is online at Proceedings of the Royal Society. See it here.
January 2014 -- Jean-Philippe's paper on spatial structure and coevolution is published in American Naturalist. "The Spatial Structure of Antagonistic Species Affects Coevolution in Predictable Ways" See it here! Go JPG!
September 2013 -- Jean-Philippe's paper on spatial structure and coevolution is published in American Naturalist. "The Spatial Structure of Antagonistic Species Affects Coevolution in Predictable Ways" See it here! Go JPG!
December 2013 -- Torrie Hanley and my paper explaining the variation in body size and life history traits in Daphnia ambigua is out in PLoS One. See DeLong, J.P. and T.H. Hanley. 2013. The rate-size trade-off structures intraspecific variation in Daphnia ambigua life history parameters. PLoS One 8:e81024.
August 2013 -- Frank La Sorte's paper on the body size dependence of migration speeds using the awesome eBird database is out! See La Sorte, F., D. Fink, W.M. Hochachka, J.P. DeLong, and S. Kelling. 2013. Population- level scaling of avian migration speed with body size and migration distance for powered fliers. Ecology. 94:1839-1847. Also read about it on UNL Today and at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
July 2013 -- Our paper experimentally showing that the magnitude of exploitation competition is linked to the magnitude of interference competition in the predatory protist Didinium is out! See DeLong, J.P. and D.A. Vasseur. 2013. Linked exploitation and interference competition drives the variable behavior of a classic predator-prey system. Oikos 122:1393-1400. Also read about it on the Oikos blog.
