Adventures in nutritional ecology

Adventures in nutritional ecology. June 2014 - "Nutritional ecology is so central to every aspect of life that it should be considered a foundational part of biology in the same way evolution is," says Professor Professor David Raubenheimer, the first chair appointed to the Charles Perkins Centre. On Friday 6 June Professor Raubenheimer will present the JD Stewart lecture and outline from his research and that of collaborators what nutritional ecologists are discovering as they investigate how nutrients influence the relationships between animals and their environment, from an ecological and evolutionary perspective. Professor Raubenheimer has conducted groundbreaking research around the globe studying animals from gorillas to pandas, from sea otters to great white sharks, snow leopards and elephants. His path was set when, as a master's student, he studied butterflies which exclusively fed on cyanide-producing plants. There was extensive literature written on plant toxicology but very little on the nutrients the plants provided to the animals feeding on them. The term nutritional ecology was coined in the 1980s when the importance of how animals access and use nutrients began to be understood.