August 2021: Our paper on the ability of a landscape to support higher trophic level species is out:
Wang S, Brose U, van Nouhuys S, Holt R, Loreau M. 2021. Metapopulation capacity determines food chain length in fragmented landscapes. PNAS. This paper presents a model and an empirical test expanding the concept of metapopulation capacity to higher trophic levels.
July 2021: Our paper Long-term spatio-temporal genetic structure of an
accidental parasitoid introduction, and local changes in prevalence of its associated Wolbachia symbiont is in press in Molecular Ecology. This is a project that Anne Duplouy, Abhilash Nair and I have been working on a long time. It is about what happens if 30 years ago some researchers introduced a butterfly, and accidentally also introduced the parasitoid of the butterfly, and the Wolbachia in the parasitoid.
Press release with photos in English here, på svenska här
An article about this paper in The Guardian here, och på svenska här.
April 2021: The website of the The research group Mathematical modelling of biological control interaction to support agriculture and conservation, supported by The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) has launched.
Sept. 2020: Our paper using long term data to assessing potential landscape-level effects of plant-pathogen herbivore-parasitoid interactions is out:
Opedal, Øystein H., Ovaskainen, Otso, Saastamoinen, Marjo, Laine, Anna-Liisa, van Nouhuys, Saskya 2020 Host plant availability drives the spatio-temporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape. Ecology in press https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3186
July 2019: Saskya has the pleasure of visiting the Indian Institute of Science, Centre for Ecological Research (http://ces.iisc.ac.in/new/). In addition to presenting a research seminar:(http://ces.iisc.ac.in/new/?q=node/761 ) I got to see fig wasps in action on a clump of figs on one of the 49 fig trees on the campus.
May 2019: After an exceptionally bad year for the host butterfly, Melitaea cinxia, in Åland, Finland, we were afraid that the parasitoid Cotesia melitaearum might not show up in the spring survey this year, but it came through!
Four Cotesia melitaearum parasitoid cocoons from a single overwintering Melitaea cinxia caterpillar.
August 2018: Our paper on the decline of a hyperparasioid due to increased host butterfly population fluctuation is out:
Nair, A., Nonaka , E., van Nouhuys, S. 2018
Increased fluctuation in a butterfly metapopulation leads to diploid males and decline of a hyperparasitoid
Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Download here
April 2018: Kahilainen, A., van Nouhuys, S., Schulz, T. & Saastamoinen, M. 2018
Metapopulation dynamics in a changing climate: Increasing spatial synchrony in weather conditions drives metapopulation synchrony of a butterfly inhabiting a fragmented landscape.
Global Change Biology. Download here
March 2018: Reudler J. H., van Nouhuys, S. 2018 The roles of foraging environment, host species and host diet for a generalist pupal parasitoid. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 10.1111/eea.12657. Download here