Developing methods to assess and predict the population level effects of environmental contaminants.

The field of ecological toxicity seems largely to have drifted away from what its title implies--assessing and predicting the ecological consequences of environmental contaminants--moving instead toward an emphasis on individual effects and physiologic case studies. This paper elucidates how a relatively new ecological methodology, interaction assessment (INTASS), could be useful in addressing the field's initial goals. Specifically, INTASS is a model platform and methodology, applicable across a broad array of taxa and habitat types, that can be used to construct population dynamics models from field data.

Habitat disturbance and the diversity and abundance of ants (Formicidae) in the Southeastern Fall-Line Sandhills.

We examined habitat disturbance, species richness, equitability, and abundance of ants in the Fall-Line Sandhills, at Fort Benning, Georgia. We collected ants with pitfall traps, sweep nets, and by searching tree trunks. Disturbed areas were used for military training; tracked and wheeled vehicles damaged vegetation and soils.

Contaminants as viral cofactors: assessing indirect population effects.

Current toxicological methods often miss contaminant effects, particularly when immune suppression is involved. The failure to recognize and evaluate indirect and sublethal effects severely limits the applicability of those methods at the population level. In this study, the Vitality model is used to evaluate the population level effects of a contaminant exerting only indirect, sublethal effects at the individual level.

How organisms do the right thing: The attractor hypothesis.

Neo-Darwinian theory is highly successful at explaining the emergence of adaptive traits over successive generations. However, there are reasons to doubt its efficacy in explaining the observed, impressively detailed adaptive responses of organisms to day-to-day changes in their surroundings. Also, the theory lacks a clear mechanism to account for both plasticity and canalization.

Seasonal variation of microhabitat distribution of the polymorphic land snail Cepaea nemoralis.

We studied the seasonal variation of microhabitat distribution of the land snail Cepaea nemoralis over a 3-year period in a population at Dansville, New York. Stratified random quadrat sampling was used to determine snail densities and environmental variables in each month. The plant cover of each quadrat was estimated by a modified Daubenmire measure.