Mixing theory and observation to envision a warmer world RSocPublishing
Michigan State University biologists have studied damselflies—which resemble dragonflies and are abundant as both predator and prey in wetlands—to understand what happens throughout their lifecycle from nymph to winged insect, along with what they eat when summers grow warmer and longer.has a twist—combining seasons of observational andin the field and lab with input from a theoretical ecologist, a mathematician by training with supersized modeling creds.
The work in"Life-history responses to temperature and seasonality mediate ectotherm consumer–resource dynamics under" finds that inserting the right level of data gleaned from field experiences, specifically the effects of seasonal changes in temperature on consumer lifecycles, creates a more robust predator-prey simulation model.
Twardochleb, now with the California State Water Resources Control Board, was part of MSU's Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Program and as a part of that took a class by Chris Klausmeier, MSU Foundation Professor of Plant Biology and Integrative Biology. Meanwhile, Klausmeier, a theoretical ecologist, was recognizing the special sauce an experimentalist brings when creating mathematical models that take assumptions about how organisms behave, grow, birth, die.
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