New paper out in PLoS Computational Biology! Sydne and co-authors Marco Visser (Radboud University, Smithsonian), Sean McMahon (Smithsonian), Cory Merow (USGS), Phillip Dixon (University of Iowa), and Eelke Jongejans (Radboud University) share tips for computational efficiency applied to ecological and evolutionary examples. Check out the buzz about our paper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.plos.org%2Fploscompbiol%2Farticle%3Fid%3D10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1004140&src=typd).

Ann Tran recently joined the lab to help out with the digitization of mistletoe data from Silwood Park. Welcome, Ann!

Over winter break, Sydne headed across the pond to continue her mistletoe study at Imperial College London’s Silwood Park campus. It was chilly, but the weather stayed nice and dry for the most part allowing for ample data collection. Highlights included using a gigantic sling shot to launch the climbing ropes into the tree canopies, discovering new individual mistletoes to include in our samples, and a delicious homemade tortilla espanola dinner with collaborators Owen Jones and Rob Salguero-Gomez, el rey de la cocina. We now have lots of data to digitize and analyze in the coming year for this project!

Tess is analyzing ant data from experimental plots at the Harvard Forest, and Sofia is laying the groundwork for a new mistletoe study in the greater Philly area.

Please, make an appointment with Sydne to discuss research opportunities.