Even 17.5× is inflated—it reflects average sapling density driven by a minority of plots. Most aspen plots (green = median) stayed flat—half had no saplings, and only a small fraction (purple, pink) increased.
doi.org/10.32942/X2W...

🧪About that “152×” Yellowstone aspen claim (see WaPo headline). In a new preprint we show it’s a math error that inflated the effect by 768%. Corrected: 17.5×. Preprint: doi.org/10.32942/X2W...

🧪You may have heard that large-carnivore recovery in Yellowstone National Park triggered one of the world’s strongest trophic cascades. Our new open-access article explains why that story doesn’t hold up: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New open access paper by John Benson & colleagues explores the drivers of group cohesion in social canids. Cohesion varies widely, shaped by life history, prey, group size, and humans. In wolves, it declines as pack size grows or human disturbance increases. 🧪 doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

One pack in our study grew to over 20 wolves, including 11 pups—an impressive size for such an extreme environment. In this photo, it numbered at least 27, underscoring the remarkable productivity of this polar desert ecosystem.