March 7, 2017

Thought-Provoking Am Nat at 150 (part 1)

On January 6, 2017, future Editor-in-Chief @DanielBolnick was inspired by a tweet by Erik Svensson to ask, Dear evolution-ecology twitterverse: what is the most influential American Naturalist paper, for your own career?

There were a lot of responses! So, bit by bit, I'll post them on the blog.

Erik Svensson
Kirkpatrick and Barton 1997 Evolution of a Species' Range
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/286054

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra (after pointing out that his own Am Nat paper obviously had the biggest impact on his own career!)
Multiple Paternity within the Fruits of the Wild Radish, Raphanus sativus
Norman C. Ellstrand
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/284241

Daniel Promislow – Felsenstein 1985 “hands down” [by the way, at #evol2017 there is going to be a “joefest” and in the June Am Nat a Countdown by Matt Pennell in appreciation of Felsenstein]
Phylogenies and the Comparative Method
Joseph Felsenstein
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/284325

Raul Costa Pereira "tricky question!"
Evolution of Niche Width
Jonathan Roughgarden
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/282807
AND
The Ecology of Individuals: Incidence and Implications of Individual Specialization.
Daniel I. Bolnick, Richard Svanbäck, James A. Fordyce, Louie H. Yang, Jeremy M. Davis, C. Darrin Hulsey, Matthew L. Forister
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/343878

Emilio Bruna "Janzen as in Janzen-Connell, hands down"
Which led me to go for the article that hyphenated:
Clark, D. A., and D. B. Clark. 1984. Spacing dynamics of a tropical rain forest tree: evaluation of the Janzen-Connell model.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/284316
Here's a commentary
The Janzen-Connell Model for Tropical Tree Diversity: Population Implications and the Importance of Spatial Scale
Eugene W. Schupp
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/285426
And here's Janzen himself
Herbivores and the Number of Tree Species in Tropical Forests
Daniel H. Janzen
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/282687

Chris Muir
Acquisition and Allocation of Resources: Their Influence on Variation in Life History Tactics
J. van Noordwijk, G. de Jong
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/284547
And a Countdown to 150 
Invisible Trade-offs: Van Noordwijk and de Jong and Life-History Evolution
C. Jessica E. Metcalf
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/685487

Britt Koskella "one of my all-time faves"
Migration, Virulence, and the Geographic Mosaic of Adaptation by Parasites.
C. M. Lively
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/303210

Eric Watson 
The Red Queen and Fluctuating Epistasis: A Population Genetic Analysis of Antagonistic Coevolution.
A. D. Peters, C. M. Lively
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/303247
AND
The Optimal Balance between Size and Number of Offspring
Christopher C. Smith, and Stephen D. Fretwell
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/282929

Andrew Suarez
Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity
Robert T. Paine
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/282400

Two votes from Andrew Suarez and Terry McGlynn for
The Role of Neighborhood Competition in the Spacing and Diversity of Ant Communities
Randall T. Ryti, and Ted J. Case
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/285331

Yaniv Brandvain
The Evolution of Altruistic Behavior
W. D. Hamilton
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/497114
I’ll add in there’s a Countdown to 150 about it
Hamilton’s Rule
Andy Gardner
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/682082