ALYSSA R. CIRTWILL

alyssa.cirtwill@gmail.com

Spatial Foodweb Ecology Group
University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland

Publications

Cirtwill, A.R., Åkesson, A., Wootton, K.L., & Eklöf, A. (2024) Species motif participation provides unique information about species risk of extinction. Journal of Animal Ecology : Accepted.

Kortsch, S., Timberlake, T.P., Cirtwill, A.R., Sapotka, S., Rokaya, M., Devkota, K., Roslin, T., Memmott, J., & Saville, N.M. (2024) Decline of honeybees and its consequences for beekeepers and crop pollination in western Nepal. Insects : Under review.

Editor's Choice
Cirtwill, A.R., Wirta, H., Kaartinen, R., Ballantyne, G., Stone, G., Cunnold, H., Tiusanen, M., & Roslin, T. (2024) Flower-visitor and pollen-load data provide complementary insight into species and individual network roles. Oikos : Online early view. doi: 10.1111/oik.10301.

Schmidt, N.M., Kankaanpää, T., Tiusanen, M., Reneerkens, J., Versluijs, T.S.L, Hansen, L.H., Hansen, J., Gerlich, H.S., Høye, T.T., Cirtwill, A.R., Zhemchuzhnikov, M.K., Peña-Aguilera, P. & Roslin, R. (2023) Little directional change in the timing of Arctic spring phenology over the past twenty-five years. Current Biology : 33 (15), 3244-3249. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.038.

Villa Galaviz*, E., Cirtwill*, A.R., Gibson, R., Timberlake, T., Roslin, T., & Memmott, J. (2023) What makes a good pollinator? Abundant and specialised insects with long flight periods transport the most strawberry pollen. Ecological Solutions and Evidence: 4 (3), e12253. doi: 10.1002/2688-8319.12253. * Joint first authors.

Kortsch, S., Saravia, L., Cirtwill, A.R., Timberlake, T., Memmott, J., Kendall, L., Roslin, T., & Strona, G. (2023) Landscape composition and pollinator traits interact to influence pollination success in an individual-based model Functional Ecology : 37 (7), 2056-2071. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.14353

Hambäck, P., Cirtwill, A.R., Grudzinska-Sterno M., Hoffmann, A., Langbak, M. & Åhlén, D. (2022) Species composition of shoreline wolf spider communities vary with salinity, but their diets vary with wrack inflow. Ecology and Evolution: 12, e9701. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9701

Cirtwill, A.R. & Wootton, K.L. (2022) Stable motifs delay species loss in simulated food webs. Oikos: 11, e09436. doi: 10.1101/2021.04.06.438635

Cirtwill, A.R., Kaartinen, K., Rasmussen, C., Redr, D., Wirta, H., Olesen, J.M., Tiusanen, M., Ballantyne, G., Cunnold, H., Stone, G.M., Schmidt, N.M., & Roslin, T. (2022) Stable pollination service in a generalist High Arctic community despite the warming climate. Ecological Monographs: 93, e1551. doi: 10.1002/ecm.1551

Liénart, C., Cirtwill, A.R., Hedgespeth, M., & Bradshaw, C. (2022) A sprinkling of gold dust: Pine pollen as a carbon source in Baltic Sea coastal food webs. Limnology and Oceanography: 67, 53-65. doi: 10.1002/lno.11974

Timberlake, T.P., Cirtwill, A.R., Baral, S.C., Bhusal, Daya R., Devkota, K., Harris-Fry, H.A., Kortsch, S., Myers, S.S., Roslin, T., Saville, N.M., Smith, M.R., Strona, G., & Memmott, J. (2022) A network approach for managing ecosystem services and improving food and nutrition security on smallholder farms People and Nature: 4, 563-575. doi: 10.1002/pan3.10295. Open access.

Leroux, S.J., McLeod, A., Gravel, D., Chu, C., Cirtwill, A.R., Fortin, M.J., Galiana, N., Poisot, T., & Wood, S. (2021) Sampling and asymptotic network properties of spatial multi-trophic networks. Oikos: 130, 2250-2259. doi: 10.1111/oik.08650

Hambäck, P., Cirtwill, A.R., Garcia, D., Grudzinska-Sterno M., Miñarro, M., Yang, X., & Samnegård, U. (2021) More intraguild prey than pest species in arachnid diets may compromise biological control in apple orchards. Basic and Applied Ecology: 57, 1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.baae.2021.09.006

Cirtwill, A.R. & Hambäck, P. (2021) Building food networks from molecular data: Bayesian or fixed-number thresholds for including links. Basic and Applied Ecology: 50, 67-76. doi: 10.1016/j.baae.2020.11.007

Cirtwill, A.R. (2020) Climate change ecology: Some food webs like it hotter. Nature Climate Change: 10, 186-187. doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-0706-3

Cirtwill, A.R., Dalla Riva, G.V., Baker, N.J., Ohlsson, M., Norström, I., Wohlfarth, I.M., Thia, J.A. & Stouffer, D.B. (2020). Related plants tend to share pollinators and herbivores, but strength of phylogenetic signal varies among plant families. New Phytologist: 226, 909-920. doi: 10.1111/nph.16420

Albouy, C., Archambault, P., Appeltans, W., Araújo, M.B., Beauchesne, D., Cazelles, K., Cirtwill, A.R., Fortin, M.J., Galiana, N., Leroux, S., Pellissier, L., Poisot, T., Stouffer, D.B., Wood, S.A., & Gravel, D. (2019) The marine fish food web is globally connected. Nature Ecology and Evolution: 3, 1153-1161. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0950-y

Cirtwill, A.R., Eklöf, A., Roslin, T., Wootton, K., & Gravel, D. (2019) A quantitative framework for investigating the reliability of empirical network construction. Methods in Ecology and Evolution: 10, 902-911. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.13180 Shortlistted for the 2019 Robert May prize for early-career ecologists.

Baiser, B., Gravel, D., Cirtwill, A.R., Dunne, J.A., Fahimipour, A.K., Gilarranz, L.J., Grochow, J.A., Li, D., Martinez, N.D., McGrew, A., Poisot, T., Romnuk, T.N., Stouffer, D.B., Trotta, L.B., Valdovinos, F.S., Williams, R.J., Wood, S.A., & Yeakel, J.D. (2019) Ecogeographical rules and the macroecology of food webs. Global Ecology and Biogeography: 28, 1204-1218. doi: 10.1111/geb.12925

Simmons, B.I., Cirtwill, A.R., Baker, N.J., Wauchope, H.S., Dicks, L.V., Stouffer, D.J., & Sutherland, W.J. (2019) Motifs in bipartite ecological networks: uncovering indirect interactions. Oikos: 128, 154-170. doi: 10.1111/oik.05670

Cirtwill, A.R., Dalla Riva, G.V., Gaiarsa, M.P., Bimler, M.D., Cagua E.F., Coux, C., & Dehling, D.M. (2018) A review of species role concepts in food webs. Food Webs: 16, e00093. doi: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00093

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2018) Feeding environment and other traits shape species' roles in marine food webs. Ecology Letters: 21(6), 875-884. doi: 10.1111/ele.12955

Cirtwill, A.R., Roslin, T., Rasmussen, C., Olesen, J.M., & Stouffer, D.B. (2018) Between-year changes in community composition shape species' roles in an Arctic plant-pollinator network. Oikos: 127(8), 1163-1176. doi: 10.1111/oik.05074

Cirtwill, A.R., Poulin, R., Lagrue, C., & Stouffer, D.B. (2017) Host taxonomy constrains the properties of trophic transmission routes for parasites in lake food webs. Ecology: 98(9), 2401–2412. doi: 10.1002/ecy.1927

Cirtwill, A.R., Stouffer, D.B., Poulin, R., & Lagrue, C. (2016) Are parasite diversity and abundance linked to individual diet range and feeding preferences in fish hosts? Parasitology: 143(1), 75-86. doi: 10.1017/S003118201500150X

Poisot, T., Cirtwill, A.R., Gravel, D., Fortin, M.-J., & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) The structure of probabilistic networks. Methods in Ecology and Evolution: 7(3), 303-312. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12468

Poisot, T., Gravel, D., Leroux, S., Wood, S.A., Fortin, M.-J., Baiser, B., Cirtwill, A.R., Araujo, M.B., & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) Synthetic datasets and community tools for the rapid testing of ecological hypotheses. Ecography: 39(4), 402-408. doi: 10.1111/ecog.01941

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) Knowledge of predator-prey interactions improves predictions of immigration and extinction in island biogeography. Global Ecology and Biogeography: 25(7), 900-911. doi: 10.1111/geb.12332

Cirtwill, A. 2016. Species roles and link roles: a richer perspective on network ecology. University of Canterbury [PhD Thesis].

Cirtwill, A.R., Stouffer, D.B., & Romanuk, T.N. (2015) Latitudinal gradients in biotic niche breadth vary across ecosystem types. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: 282(1819), 20151589. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1589

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2015) Concomitant predation interactions are highly variable but constrain the role space of parasites in food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology: 84(3), 734-744. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12323

Stouffer, D.B., Cirtwill, A.R., & Bascompte, J. (2014) How exotic plants integrate into pollination networks. Journal of Ecology: 102(6), 1442-1450. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12310

Cirtwill, A. 2012. Latitude, temperature, and productivity affect ecological network structure. Dalhousie University [Honours Thesis].

Conference talks

Cirtwill, A.R. & Wootton, K.W. (2019) Do motif roles predict species responses to perturbations? network2019: 4th Symposium on Ecological Networks, Paris, France.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2019) Niche partitioning resolves an apparent paradox in predator-prey body-mass ratios. Swedish Society Oikos, Uppsala, Sweden.

Cirtwill, A.R. (2018) Structural variation in Baltic Sea food webs. British Ecological Society Quantitative Ecology Group, St. Andrews, Scotland.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2018) Which traits of marine species explain the most variation in their food-web roles? Nordic Society Oikos, Trondheim, Norway.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2017) Which traits of marine species explain the most variation in their food-web roles? 3rd Symposium on Ecological Networks and Molecular Analysis of Trophic Interactions, Uppsala, Sweden.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2017) Which traits of marine species explain the most variation in their food-web roles? Ecological Society of America, Portland, U.S.A.

Cirtwill, A.R., Roslin, T., Rasmussen, C., Olesen, J.M., & Stouffer, D.B. (2017) Between-year changes in community composition shape species' roles in an Arctic plant-pollinator network. Swedish Society Oikos, Lund, Sweden.

Cirtwill, A.R., Baker, N.J., Dalla Riva, G.V., & Stouffer, D.B. (2015) Sibling rivalry: Related plants in particular clades are much less likely to share similar pollinators or herbivores than predicted by their phylogeny. Ecological Society of America, Baltimore, U.S.A.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2015) Including species' interactions improves the predictions of the theory of island biogeography. Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, Saskatoon, Canada. Invited talk.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2014) Concomitant predation links have unique structural roles within food webs. Ecological Society of America, Sacramento, U.S.A.

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2013) Food-web structure affects colonization and extinction rates during community assembly. INTECOL/British Ecological Society joint meeting, London, U.K.

Complex Systems Summer School (2013; attended). Santa Fe Institute, Zapallar, Chile.

Employment

Postdoctoral fellow
2020-2023                                                 University of Helsinki, Finland

Postdoctoral fellow
2019-2020                                                 Stockholm University, Sweden

Postdoctoral fellow
2016-2018                                                 Linköping University, Sweden

Teaching

2021                                                          Ecology Field Course (Digital), 15hr
2020                                                          Ecological networks, 15hr
2019                                                          Species interactions, 3hr
2017, 2018                                                Community ecology (food webs), 11hr
2017, 2018                                                Ecological modelling, 4hr
2015                                                          Introductory statistics (non-parametric statistics), 11hr

Mentoring

Isabelle Norström
2017-2018                                                 MSc, Linköping University

Education

PhD Thesis: Species roles and link roles: a richer perspective on network ecology

2012-2016                                                University of Canterbury, New Zealand
PhD – ecology                                          Supervisor: Daniel B. Stouffer

Honours Thesis: Effects of latitude on food web structure

2007-2012                                                Dalhousie University, Canada
BSc (hons) – biology and statistics          Supervisor: Tamara N. Romanuk

Awards

2020               Finnish Academy Postdoctoral researcher grant
                       Awarded to support full-time postdoctoral research. Held at University of Helsinki.
                       Value: 288 514 euros

2019               Bolin Centre for Climate Research "seed money" grant
                       Awarded to fund field work in the area of biodiversity and climate

2016               University of Canterbury ABC Best Overall Year Award
                       Awarded to the biology grad student with the best
                       publication record in the preceeding year

2013-2016      NSERC Postgraduate Student Research Award - PhD
                       Research grant to fund full-time graduate study
                       Supervisor: Daniel B. Stouffer, University of Canterbury

2013               BES student travel grant (INTECOL/BES joint meeting)
                       Travel grant to attend the BES/INTECOL joint conference

2012-2013      NSERC Postgraduate Student Research Award - Masters
                       Research grant to fund full-time graduate study
                       Supervisor: Daniel B. Stouffer, University of Canterbury

2012-2015      University of Canterbury Graduate Scholarship
                       Research grant to fund full-time graduate study
                       Supervisor: Daniel B. Stouffer, University of Canterbury

2011-2012      Hugh P. Bell Scholarship (Dalhousie University)
                       Award to the biology honours student with the highest GPA

2008-2010      NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award
                       Research grants to fund summer studentship (three awards)
2010               Supervisor: Tamara Romanuk, Dalhousie University
2009               Supervisor: Tamara Romanuk, Dalhousie University
2008               Supervisor: Mark Johnston, Dalhousie University

2007-2012      Dean’s List (Dalhousie University)
                       Awarded to full-time students with a minimum GPA of 3.70

2007-2011      Frederick A. MacMillen Scholarship (Dalhousie University)
                       Award to entering undergraduate students based on GPA

2007-2011      Millennium Foundation National Award (Dalhousie University)
                       Award to entering undergraduate students based on GPA
                       and community service

2007               Governor General’s Academic Medal (Barrie North Collegiate)
                       Award to the secondary school graduate with the highest GPA

References

Anna Eklöf
               Assisstant Professor, Linköping University
               anna.eklof(at)liu.se

Daniel Stouffer
               Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury
               daniel.stouffer(at)canterbury.ac.nz

Tomas Roslin
               Professor, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
               Senior Lecturer, University of Helsinki
               tomas.roslin(at)slu.se

Tamara Romanuk
               Associate Professor, Dalhousie University
               romanuk(at)Dal.Ca

Jason Tylianakis
               Professor, University of Canterbury
               jason.tylianakis(at)canterbury.ac.nz