Experimental ecology

In a really nice ecological experiment, Gotelli and Ellison manipulated the ecosystem of invertebrates that live in small volumes of water that collect in the leaves of the pitcher plant. They changed the volume of the habitat (simulation of habitat loss) and the number of top predators (since often the first things to go when habitat is lost are the top predators). In this case, the top predators are dipteran (fly) larvae. The authors compare their results with various ecological models, but I haven't read that part in detail yet.

This article was also picked up by Science (short blurb) and Nature (longer review).