Things eat things.
My colleague, Dr. Matt Whiles and I recently wrote a text called Trophic Ecology, which is the starting point for this site.
What is Trophic Ecology?
Trophic Ecology is a branch of ecology that studies how energy is transferred among organisms within ecosystems. Sometimes things just ooze food, like plant sap being lapped up by hungry aphids. But often, the transfer of energy is in the form of predation, which is both exciting and frightening. Especially if you are the prey. Think of a pod of orcas hunting a seal on an ice flow in the Arctic.
This site is devoted to all things consumptive:
- What are the underlying ecological and evolutionary mechanisms leading to energy transfer in ecosystems?
- How do prey evolve defenses and how do predators find ways around them?
- When did predation start and is it always going to be a way of life for organisms?
I will highlight findings from the scientific literature as well as from my experiences and those of other ecologists .
Trophic Ecology 