Geoffrey C. Trussell

About

Professor Geoffrey C. Trussell is the Doherty Professor and Chair at Northeastern University College of Engineering, where he also serves as the Director of the Coastal Sustainability Institute and Marine Science Center. His research program focuses on evolutionary, community, and ecosystem ecology, exploring important issues across systems such as rocky intertidal shores, old fields, and freshwater amphibian communities. His work emphasizes the ecological and evolutionary significance of predation risk, phenotypic plasticity, inducible defenses, and trait-mediated indirect interactions, examining their impacts on community dynamics and ecosystem function. Additionally, he investigates factors influencing invasive and exotic plant diversity, the role of species diversity in ecosystem health, and the effects of climate change on natural food webs. Professor Trussell's research is highly collaborative, involving colleagues from various institutions, and he has been recognized with honors including AAAS Fellowship, Ray Lankester Investigatorship, and the Sigma Delta Tau Outstanding Professor award.

Research topics

• Zoology
• Ecology
• Biology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk affect prey offspring behaviour and performance

  Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2018-03-14 · 43 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Because phenotypic plasticity can operate both within and between generations, phenotypic outcomes are often shaped by a complex history of environmental signals. For example, parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk can both independently and interactively influence prey offspring traits early in their life. Parental and embryonic risk experiences can also independently shape offspring phenotypes throughout an offspring's ontogeny, but the persistence of their interactive effects…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sex‐specific differences in the response of prey to predation risk

  Functional Ecology · 2020 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract The non‐consumptive effects of predation risk can strongly affect prey behaviour and fitness with emergent effects on community structure and ecosystem functioning. Prey may respond differently to predation risk based on key traits such as sex, but the influence of sex‐specific variation is typically explored in species with strong sexual dimorphism. However, sex‐specific responses to predation risk may arise even in prey species lacking sexual dimorphisms based on differences in the re…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Physiological and biochemical responses to acute environmental stress and predation risk in the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis

  Journal of Sea Research · 2020 · 20 citations

  PublisherDOI

• A novel analytical framework to quantify co‐gradient and countergradient variation

  Ecology Letters · 2022-05-11 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Spatial covariance between genotypic and environmental influences on phenotypes (Cov GE ) can result in the nonrandom distribution of genotypes across environmental gradients and is a potentially important factor driving local adaptation. However, a framework to quantify the magnitude and significance of Cov GE has been lacking. We develop a novel quantitative/analytical approach to estimate and test the significance of Cov GE from reciprocal transplant or common garden experiments, whi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cascading effects of a top predator on intraspecific competition at intermediate and basal trophic levels

  Functional Ecology · 2018-05-10 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Predators can impact competition among prey by altering prey density via consumption or by causing prey to modify their traits or foraging behavior. Yet, differences between these two mechanisms may lead to different cascading impacts on lower trophic levels. Using a crab‐snail‐barnacle rocky intertidal food chain, we tested the effects of predation risk from crabs (top predators) on intraspecific competition among snails (intermediate consumers) and emergent indirect effects on the den…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Modernization and Enhancement of the Seawater System and Research Infrastructure at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center

  NSF · $1.8M · 2010–2014

• Collaborative Research: Intertidal community assembly and dynamics: Integrating broad-scale regional variation in environmental forcing and benthic-pelagic coupling

  NSF · $730k · 2015–2020

• COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Factors Affecting the Nature and Strength of Indirect Effects: A Modeling and Empirical Approach

  NSF · $273k · 2007–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Patrick J. Ewanchuk

  Providence College

  58 shared

• Mark D. Bertness

  Brown University

  41 shared

• Brian R. Silliman

  Duke University

  30 shared

• Sarah C. Donelan

  Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

  16 shared

• Catherine M. Matassa

  University of Connecticut

  13 shared

• Osamu Kishida

  Hokkaido University of Science

  13 shared

• Kinya Nishimura

  Tokyo Metropolitan University

  10 shared

• Caitlin M. Crain

  Madison Group (United States)

  8 shared

Labs

• Geoffrey C. Trussell LabPI

Awards & honors

• AAAS Fellow
• Ray Lankester Investigatorship
• Sigma Delta Tau Outstanding Professor

Similar researchers at Northeastern University

• Shang Liuh-69
• Akram N. Alshawabkehh-56
• Ming L. Wangh-53