Grace, Jon, and Jeff tackle a recent paper in Ecology (Pillai & Gouhier, 2019) that claims that the "positive" effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning is vastly overstated. The gang talk about the background and context of the paper, including neutral theory, competitive exclusion, and complementarity, while also revisiting some classic ecology work from Tilman and Huston. Also, March Mammal Madness is coming soon!

Notes:
Pillai and Gouhier et al. 2019 in Ecology    (preprint on arxiv.org)
Altmetrics on the paper (See what others are saying!
March Mammal Madness 2019

Music:
Lemuria - Bluffing Statistics
​Tall Ships - Words Are Pegs Upon Which We Hang Ideas

Jeff sits down with Rob Nowicki, a postdoctoral researcher at the Mote Marine Lab, to talk about how the scope of ecological research has changed   over that past few decades, the differences between marine ecology and biology, living in the Florida Keys,  and what life is like in the field when your field is the deep blue sea.

Show Notes:
Mote Marine Lab
Context dependence, complexity, and prediction in ecology: Past trends and future directions
Music:
Ween - Ocean Man
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)