Concepts
Here you can find introductions to many of the concepts I investigate in my research. The guides here are designed for those new to the field, perhaps graduate students and upper-division undergraduates. These are the kinds of descriptions you might not find in the primary literature. I hope that provide a more accessible introduction to concepts. If you find these helpful--or especially unhelpful(!)--please do let me know what works and what doesn't. I'd love to hear feedback about improving this page.
Nonlinear Averaging
Nonlinear averaging is a fundamental concept in ecology that results from variation and nonlinearity. Both are ubiquitous in ecology and evolutionary ecology. Variation is all around us, and most of the investigations of ecological and evolutionary processes reveals strong nonlinearities.
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The Storage Effect
The storage effect is a stable coexistence mechanism making formal the idea that different species may perform best in different environments.
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Variation
Variation lies at the heart of biology. It is what makes the world interesting. Variation simply means that, among a collection of items, the items differ from each other in some way. Click below to learn more about ways to quantify variation, at different scales.
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Environmental Variability
The conditions that any organism experiences varies substantially in both space and time. Measuring and modeling this variation is critical to identifying it in nature and understanding its consequences for ecology and evolutionary biology.
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Low Density Growth Rate
Many phenomena in population biology, community ecology, and evolutionary biology can be understood with low density growth rates. These describe the tendency for a population to grow when it becomes uncommon on the landscape.
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