Clay Prater, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Elemental Biology, Limnology, Nutritional Physiology, Arctic Ecology, & Biogeochemistry
Ph.D., Environmental & Life Sciences, Trent University, 2016
Specific Interests
My research explores the reciprocal relationships between organisms and the environment by focusing on the fundamental currency that connects them — elements. By combining approaches from ecological stoichiometry and ionomics, I study how human mobilization of elements influences organismal ecology and evolution, and how these responses feed back to alter biogeochemical cycling. This cross-scale approach combines laboratory experiments examining how elemental imbalances alter organismal elemental phenotypes and life-history with geographical population and ecosystem-level studies, using mass balance principles to understand how these processes control the flows of elements through the environment.
Selected Publications
Jones, C.L.C., Shafer, A.B.A., Kim, W.D., Prater, C., Wagner, N.D., & P.C. Frost. 2020. The complexity of co-limitation — Nutrigenomics reveal non-additive interactions of calcium and phosphorus on gene expression of Daphnia pulex. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287:20202302. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2302
Prater, C., Bumpers, P.M., Demi, L.M., Rosemond, A.D., & Jeyasingh, P.D. 2020. Differential responses of macroinvertebrate ionomes across experimental N:P gradients in detritus-based headwater streams. Oecologia 193:981-993. doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04720-x
Prater, C., Scott, D., Lance, S.L., Nunziata, S.O., Sherman, R. Tomczyk, N., Capps, K.A., & Jeyasingh, P.D. 2018. Understanding variation in salamander ionomes: A nutrient balance approach. Freshwater Biology 64(2):294-305. doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13216
Prater, C., Frost, P.C., Howell, T.E., Watson, S.B., Zastepa, A., King, S.S.E., Vogt, R.J., & Xenopoulos, M.A. 2017. Variation in particulate C:N:P stoichiometry across the Lake Erie watershed from tributaries to its outflow. Limnology and Oceanography 62:S194-S206. doi.org/10.1002/lno.10628
Prater, C., Wagner, N.D., & Frost, P.C. 2017. Interactive effects of genotype and food quality on aquatic consumer stoichiometry and life-history. Ecology 98(5):1399-1408. doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1795