Shakespeare taught us that love and enmity are intricately entwined. M.Sc. student Ken Thompson (Johnson Lab) is the latest recipient of the First Paper Award, and his research exemplifies this Shakespearean lesson. Ken just published “Antiherbivore defenses alter natural selection on plant reproductive traits” in Evolution, which is the first lead authored paper from his thesis. His paper provides the first evidence that investment in plant defenses alters natural selection on plant reproductive traits.  Ken’s research uses white clovers as a model for plant defense as they exhibit a Mendelian polymorphism for the production of the poisonous chemical hydrogen cyanide.

Would it surprise you to know that there is a rigorous theory underlying the observation that in nature big organisms are much rarer than small ones? In a new paper, PhD student Lauren Barth and her advisor Prof. Gary Sprules review much of the research on the Biomass Size Spectrum, a theory of ecosystem structure and function based solely on the body size of organisms that has been a focus of investigation in the Sprules’ lab. Their paper “Surfing the biomass size spectrum: some remarks on history, theory, and application” was recently published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatics Sciences.