Dr. Blake Matthews Aquatic Ecology Eawag Ueberlandstrasse 133 P. O. Box 611 8600 Duebendorf Switzerland

Phone +41 44 823 5171 Fax +41 44 823 5028 Office BU-G16 blake.matthews@eawag.ch Private Homepage

Blake Matthews 

Research

The functioning of an ecosystem depends intimately on the structure of its food web. While food webs exhibit remarkable structural diversity, little is known about how the emergent properties of food web structure, such as food chain length, population dynamics, species diversity and species composition, influence the functioning of ecosystems, in terms of their production, allocation and recycling of biomass. In the face of rapid environmental change, we require a better understanding of food web structure, the processes underlying that structure and, most importantly, the relationship between the structure and the functioning of ecosystems.

My research falls into the following two main themes:

I.    What processes, be they ecological (e.g. population dynamics, predator-prey interactions), evolutionary (e.g. speciation, adaptation), or anthropogenic (e.g. environmental change), govern the structure of aquatic food webs?

II.    How does the structural variation of food webs affect the physical properties and biogeochemical cycling of aquatic ecosystems (i.e. ecosystem functioning)?

Publications

1. Harmon*, L.J., B. Matthews*, S. DesRoches, J. Chase, J.B. Shurin, D. Schluter. 2009. Evolutionary diversification in stickleback affects ecosystem function. (In Press: Nature) *Both authors contributed equally
   
   
2. Shurin, J.B., R.W. Markel, B. Matthews. 2009. Comparing trophic cascades across ecosystems. (In press: Trophic Cascades eds: J. Terborgh, and J. Estes)
   
   
3. Das, B., A. Narwani, B. Matthews, R. Nordin, and A. Mazumder. 2009. Anthropogenic disturbance history influences the temporal coherence of paleoproductivity in two lakes (In press: Journal of Paleolimnology)
   
   
4. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2008. Detecting trophic level variation in consumer assemblages. Freshwater Biology 53: 1942-1953.
   
   
5. Bolnick, D., Caldera, E. and, Matthews, B. 2008. Evidence for asymmetric migration load in a pair of ecologically divergent stickleback populations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 94: 273-287.
   
   
6. Ingram, T., B. Matthews, C. Harrod, T. Stephens, J. Grey, R. Markell, A. Mazumder. 2007. Lipid extraction has little effect on the δ15N of aquatic consumers. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 5: 338-343.
   
   
7. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2007. Distinguishing trophic from seasonal and size-based isotopic (δ15N) variation of zooplankton. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 64: 74-83.
   
   
8. Perga, M., M. Kainz, B. Matthews, and A. Mazumder. 2006. Carbon pathways to zooplankton: insights from paired use of stable isotope analysis and fatty acid biomarkers. Freshwater Biology 51: 2041-2051.
   
   
9. Matthews, B, and A. Mazumder. 2006. Habitat specialization and the exploitation of allochthonous carbon by zooplankton. Ecology 87: 2800-2812.
   
   
10. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2005. Consequences of large temporal variability of zooplankton δ15N for estimates of fish trophic variation. Limnology and Oceanography 50: 1404-1414.
    
    
11. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2005. Temporal variation in body composition (C:N) helps explain seasonal patterns of zooplankton δ13C. Freshwater Biology 50: 502-515.
    
    
12. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2004. A critical examination of intrapopulation variation of δ13C and isotopic evidence of individual specialization. Oecologia 140: 361-371.
    
    
13. Matthews, B., and A. Mazumder. 2003. Compositional and inter-lake variability of zooplankton affect baseline stable isotope signatures. Limnology and Oceanography 48: 1977-1987.