Follow our new series on research happening in the Department of Biology. Each story will broadly highlight a current study or papers that faculty members and graduate students have published as a result of their research findings. For deeper content, we’ll link to the journal or publication in which the research is featured.

Dr. Jeffrey Morris

"Black Queen markets: commensalism, dependency, and the evolution of cooperative specialization in human society"

JJ Morris, E Schniter, Journal of Bioeconomics (November 2017)

Many biological functions “leak” their products into the environment where they encourage the evolution of networks of interdependency between organisms. In this paper we consider what this means for human marketplaces, which often involve “positive externalities” that resemble leaky biological processes.

“The impact of elevated CO 2 on Prochlorococcus and microbial interactions with ‘helper’ bacterium Alteromonas”

Gwenn MM Hennon, J. Jeffrey Morris, Sheean T. Haley, Erik R. Zinser, Alexander R. Durrant, Elizabeth Entwistle, Terje Dokland, Sonya T. Dyhrman, The ISME Journal (October 2017)

We examine how future CO2 conditions will influence gene expression in the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, which is single-handedly responsible for more than 1/8 of the photosynthesis on Earth. We show that in the future ocean, important interactions occurring between Prochlorococcus and other marine bacteria may be disrupted, with potential impacts on climate and the marine food web.

Learn More

Learn more about Dr. Jeffrey Morris, our graduate students, and our research on the Department of Biology website.