News

Niches, Dispersal, and Digital Environmentalism

I’ve been busy late 2011 and early 2012. McClain, C.R., J.C. Stegen, and A.H. Hurlbert (2012) Dispersal, Niche Dynamics, and Oceanic Patterns in Beta-Diversity in Deep-Sea Bivalves. Proceeding of the Royal Society, B, online early McClain, C.R., P. Unmack, J. Jackson-Ricketts, and T. Gullet (2012). Increased Energy Promotes Size-Based Niche Availability in Marine Mollusks. Evolution, online early Thaler, A.D., K.A. Zelnio, A. Freitag, R. MacPherson, D. Shiffman, H. Bik, M.C. Goldstein, C. McClain (2012). Digital Environmentalism: Tools and strategies for the evolving online ecosystem. Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago

Let It Snow!

My new paper is out! Craig R. McClain, James C. Stegen, and Allen H. Hurlbert Dispersal, environmental niches and oceanic-scale turnover in deep-sea bivalves Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences published online before print December 21, 2011, doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2166 I discuss it over at my other website, Deep-Sea News. In the food poor, homogenous mud flats of the deep sea, how can so many species coexist? The answer is snow…The deep-sea floor is essentially a patchwork quilt Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago

A Busy Month In Which I Help Name A New Geologic Age

Man has this month been busy!  As reward a paper I coauthored sees the light of day. The elevator pitch of the story? A key event in the Earth’s history, the first appearance of life, is not recognized as a major time boundary. This has lead to numerous scientific inaccuracies and inefficiencies.  In the paper we propose that in recognition of the importance of life in the Earth’s history and the efficiency to divide the geological time scale into two informal Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago

Escargot Through Time

My new article is out at Paleobiology!  What caused the Mesozoic Marine Revolution? More food! Seth Finnegan, Craig M McClain, Matthew A Kosnik and Jonathan L Payne (2011) Escargots through time: an energetic comparison of marine gastropod assemblages before and after the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Paleobiology: Spring 2011, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 252-269. Abstract The modern structure of marine benthic ecosystems was largely established during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous (200-100 Ma), a transition that Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago

Species–energy relationships in deep-sea molluscs

My new paper is now online early at the Biology Letters. Abstract: Consensus is growing among ecologists that energy and the factors influencing its utilization can play overarching roles in regulating large-scale patterns of biodiversity. The deep sea—the world’s largest ecosystem—has simplified energetic inputs and thus provides an excellent opportunity to study how these processes structure spatial diversity patterns. Two factors influencing energy availability and use are chemical (productive) and thermal energy, here represented as Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago

Social media: Self-reflection, online

Virginia Gewin writes about scientists fostering online personas for Nature. The article is well researched and discusses a variety of scenarios from a variety of online personalities. Online media offer researchers unique ways to express their interests and goals, foster collaborations and garner invitations and opportunities. But even scientists who don’t blog or tweet have an online presence that evolves apace — with or without their intervention. Auto-generated profiles from citation databases, Wikipedia entries, even Read more…

By Craig McClain, ago