In this talk, biologists Robert Pringle and Corina Tarnita discuss how certain connections in ecosystems can be measured experimentally and investigated using mathematical models.

Each species in an ecosystem can affect the other species through both direct and indirect connections. To study these connections, Pringle and his team set up experimental plots of land in the African savanna. They excluded different herbivores from the plots based on body size, then measured changes in the plots’ plants and animals over time. Using the resulting data, Tarnita developed mathematical models to determine the net effects of the herbivores on the ecosystem.

This talk is from a 2015 Holiday Lecture Series, Patterns and Processes in Ecology.