We study the dynamics of food webs and ecosystems.

Through analysis of predator-prey or plant-herbivore interactions, we resolve the functional role of species within communities and how those roles determine attendant ecosystem functioning. We combine empirical research with mathematical modeling and deal with a variety of ecosystems and study species on 4 continents, ranging from livestock and tigers in Indian jungles to monkeys in Panamanian tropical forests to insects and their spider predators in Connecticut grasslands.

Lab News

• Karin's got a cool new paper out. Check it out here!
• More of the Schmitz lab in the news, now over at Scientific American!
• Congratulations to Colin who was just awarded funding from National Geographic's Waitt Grant!
• Check out the Climate Solutions blog post on frightened grasshoppers and carbon storage.
• Lose the predators and emissions go up: read the hype from Dror, Aspen and Os' carbon experiments at Mongabay.com and E&ENews
• Congrats to Kevin and KT, who were awarded the prestigious NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program!

Recent Publications

Ko, C-Y., O.J. Schmitz, M. Barbett-Massin and W. Jetz. 2013. Dietary guild composition and disaggregation of avian assemblages under climate change. Global Change Biology. In press.

Miller, J.R.B., J.M. Ament, and O.J. Schmitz. 2013.  Fear on the move: predator hunting mode predicts variation in prey mortality and plasticity in prey spatial response. Journal of Animal Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12111. In press.

Schmitz, O.J. 2013. Global climate change and the evolutionary ecology of ecosystem functioning. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1297:61-72.

Schmitz, O.J., M. A. Bradford, M.S. Strickland and D. Hawlena. 2013.  Linking predation risk, herbivore physiological stress and microbial decomposition of plant litter. Journal of Visualized Experiments 73: e50061. doi:10.3791/50061.

Strickland, M.S., D. Hawlena, A. Reese, M.A. Bradford and O.J. Schmitz. 2013. Trophic cascade alters ecosystem carbon exchange. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 110:11035-11038. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1305191110.

See all publications.

Contact Us

Schmitz Lab
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
370 Prospect Street
Greeley Laboratory, Room 112
New Haven, CT 06511 USA
Phone: (203) 432-5110
Fax: (203) 432-3929
oswald.schmitz [at] yale.edu