Oecologia - Student Paper Award Winners
Award Winners 2022
The Hanski Prize is awarded to Rebecca A. McCabe from the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Quebec, Canada. Rebecca conducted this work while a student in Dr. Kyle H. Elliott’s laboratory. Her paper is entitled Density‑dependent winter survival of immatures in an irruptive raptor with pulsed breeding (this opens in a new tab) (Oecologia 198:295–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05057-9). This study combined 20 years of telemetry and necropsy data from snowy owls in North America to demonstrate that survival during irruption years is influenced by density-dependent factors resulting from the high abundance of first year owls on the wintering landscape. This research sheds light on our understanding of pulsed resources and cautions against overestimating the role of ‘boom’ years on long-term population growth for highly mobile, irruptive species.
This year, the recipient of the Ehleringer Prize is Peter Karssemeijer of Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Peter’s paper is co-authored with MSc student Laura Winzen and professors Joop J. A. van Loon and Marcel Dicke (thesis advisor). His paper is entitled Leaf‐chewing herbivores affect preference and performance of a specialist root herbivore (this opens in a new tab) (Oecologia 2022, 199:243–255). This paper shows that insect herbivores attacking the aerial parts of the plant can affect the expression of defense-related genes and, in turn, influence the oviposition choices and larval performance of root herbivores. These results demonstrate a novel link between above- and belowground insect herbivores, with potential implications for insect community dynamics under field conditions.
Award Winners 2021
This year, the recipient of the Ehleringer Prize is Eric Scott of Tufts University.
Eric’s paper is co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth Crone and is entitled “Using the right tool for the job: the difference between unsupervised and supervised analyses of multivariate ecological data” (Oecologia 2021, 196:13-25; DOI 10.1007/s00442-020-04848-w (this opens in a new tab)). This paper shows how choosing the category of multivariate analysis – supervised vs. unsupervised – can result in different interpretations of the same data. The authors make the case that unsupervised analyses, such as principal components analysis (PCA), are overused by ecologists when supervised analyses, such as partial least squares (PLS), are more appropriate for most questions requiring analysis of multivariate predictors.
The Hanski Prize is awarded to Matteo Rizzuto, from the Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada.
Matteo conducted this work while a student in Dr. Shawn J. Leroux’s laboratory. His paper is entitled, “Forage stoichiometry predicts the home range size of a small terrestrial herbivore” (Oecologia 197:327–338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04965-0 (this opens in a new tab)). This study used ecological stoichiometry and landscape ecology to demonstrate how food chemistry drives range size of snowshoe hares in boreal forests. The results support a wide use of ecological stoichiometry to reveal how animal space-use decisions are related to, and influence, the functioning and processes of an ecosystem.
Matteo is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Oswald J. Schmitz’s Lab at the Yale University School of the Environment.