Foundational concept of ecology tested by experiment

How strong are the links in food webs? An experiment at Washington University in St. Louis demonstrates that they’re strong enough for a disturbance  to propagate across four trophic levels and two ecosystems. The experiment demonstrates that invasive species such as purple loosestrife could have broad effects on surrounding plant and animal communities, many of them cryptic.

Caves of St. Louis County: a tale of loss

Robert Osburn (yellow helmet, recording and sketching) and WUSTL graduate student Jenny Lippmann (measuring and doing compass readings) conducting the cave survey in a small passage of 23 degree cave in Crawford County, Missouri.The Caves of St. Louis County and the Bridges of Madison County share a common theme: loss. The former, a scholarly paper that appears as the sole entry of the current issue of Missouri Speleology, is a description of some of St. Louis County’s 127 known caves and a warning that development over the past two centuries has eliminated or destroyed many caves in a state that could quite rightly call itself the Cave State. The latter is a tear-jerking novel, made into a movie by Clint Eastwood about a doomed, unlikely love affair, a hallmark of the ’90s with all the permanence of the Backstreet Boys. Caves, though, are in trouble, in St. Louis County, Missouri, and elsewhere, says co-author Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mixing the ‘deck of genes’

Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey/SOFIAGenetic studies performed by Washington University biologists shows that the sunshine State is the exporter of brown lizards to other countries.A new study headed by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that Florida is an exporter of more than just fruit and star athletes. Studying genetic variation in the common brown lizard, Anolis sagrei, the researchers found that introduced populations of the lizard in five different countries can be traced back to the Sunshine State as their site of export.

Marine biologist Jane Lubchenco and atmospheric chemist Mario Molina to discuss science and the environment at Assembly Series

Marine biologist Jane Lubchenco and atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Mario Molina will deliver the second Sesquicentennial Environmental Initiative Lecture at 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9. The lecture, which focuses on science and the impact of human society on ecological systems, is free and open to the public and will be held in Graham Chapel, located just north of Mallinckrodt Center (6445 Forsyth Blvd.) on the Washington University campus. During its Sesquicentennial year, Washington University is launching an initiative to help better understand the role that research universities can play in addressing issues related to the environment.