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Geoffrey Trussell, Ph.D. - Global Resilience Institute. Boston, MA, UNITED STATES

Geoffrey Trussell, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences; Director, Marine Science Center, Northeastern | Faculty Affiliate, Global Resilience Institute

Boston, MA, UNITED STATES

Prof. Trussell’s research program currently focuses on a number of important issues in evolutionary, community and ecosystem ecology.

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Biography

Prof. Trussell’s research program currently focuses on a number of important issues in evolutionary, community and ecosystem ecology. These interests are being explored in a number of systems including rocky intertidal shores, old fields, and freshwater amphibian communities. In a nutshell, Prof. Trussell thinks interesting questions are far more important than interesting systems but, of course, if one can have both then things are that much better! Much of his current work emphasizes the evolutionary and ecological significance of predation risk, with an emphasis on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity and inducible defenses, the ecological significance of nonconsumptive predator effects, and the influence of trait-mediated indirect interactions on community dynamic and ecosystem function. However, he also spends a good amount of time on other topics including the factors influencing invasive and exotic plant diversity in terrestrial systems, the influence of species diversity on ecosystem function, and the impact of climate change on natural food webs.

Prof. Trussell’s research is highly collaborative and involves some outstanding colleagues including Oswald Schmitz (Yale University), Barney Luttbeg (Oklahoma State University), Matthew Bracken (Northeastern University), Steve Vollmer (Northeastern University), Lee Smee (Texas A&M), Jeremy Long (San Diego State University) and Osamu Kishida (Hokkaido University).

Areas of Expertise (3)

Evolutionary and Community Ecology of Natural Ecosystems

Impact of Climate Change on Natural Food Webs

Coastal Sustainability

Education (3)

The college of William and Mary: Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 1998

University of New Hampshire: M.Sc, Zoology/Animal Biology 1993

Bowdoin College: A.B., Environmental Studies 1990

Media Appearances (2)

Collaboration: 'Where the magic starts happening'

News @ Northeastern  

2017-04-04

On sustainability, professor Geoffrey Trussell, director of Northeastern’s Marine Science Center and chair of the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, addressed the “collision between humanity and the environment.” How, he asked, can we create cleaner, safer, smarter coastal communities?...

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Climate change and the ecology of fear

Science Daily  

2014-06-27

Fear isn't just a human emotion -- it's also a pow­erful eco­log­ical phe­nom­enon. Geoff Trussell, pro­fessor and director of Northeastern's Marine Sci­ence Center in Nahant, Mass­a­chu­setts, has been studying the ecology of fear since he first came to the uni­ver­sity back in 2002...

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Articles (3)

Parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk affect prey offspring behaviour and performance


Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Sarah C Donelan, Geoffrey C Trussell

2018 Because phenotypic plasticity can operate both within and between generations, phenotypic outcomes are often shaped by a complex history of environmental signals. For example, parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk can both independently and interactively influence prey offspring traits early in their life. Parental and embryonic risk experiences can also independently shape offspring phenotypes throughout an offspring9s ontogeny, but the persistence of their interactive effects throughout offspring ontogeny is unknown...

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Synergistic effects of parental and embryonic exposure to predation risk on prey offspring size at emergence


Ecology

Sarah C Donelan, Geoffrey C Trussell

2018 Cues signaling predation risk can strongly influence prey phenotypes both within and between generations. Parental and embryonic effects have been shown to operate independently in response to predation risk, but how they interact to shape offspring life history traits remains largely unknown. Here, we conducted experiments to examine the synergistic impacts of parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk on offspring size at emergence in the snail, Nucella lapillus, which is an ecologically important intermediate consumer on rocky intertidal shores...

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Spatial scale mediates the effects of biodiversity on marine primary producers


Ecology

Matthew ES Bracken, James G Douglass, Valerie Perini, Geoffrey C Trussell

2018 Most studies evaluating the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning are conducted at a single location, limiting our understanding of how diversity–function relationships may change when measured across different spatial scales. We conducted a species‐removal experiment at three sites nested in each of three regions along the rocky intertidal coastline of the Gulf of Maine, USA, to evaluate the potential for scale‐dependent effects of species loss on the biomass of intertidal seaweed assemblages. We randomly assigned 50 plots in the mid‐intertidal zone at each site to one of five treatments (n= 10 plots each): an unmanipulated control, a polyculture plot that contained our three target seaweed species, and three monoculture plots...

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