This project was funded by a grant from the Ecology Society of America for their centennial conference in Batimore, MD. I was the director, concept artist, and lead animator for this project. I worked with a team of four artists and three scientists who contributed through clean up and coloring, backgrounds, writing, and sound.

 

Paper: Hairston NG, Smith FE, Slobodkin LB. 1960. Community structure, population control and competition. American Naturalist 94:421-425

 

This educational animation introduces one of the most famously inspiring and controversial ecology papers of the 20th century. The three authors published a brief thought experiment that sought to answer the question "why are terrestrial landscapes full of plants when there are plenty of herbivores around?" - or, as it has become known "why is the earth green?" 

They describe the logic that is the basis for modern food web ecology, that different trophic levels are regulated by different and predictable processes that can help explain why communities look the way they do.