Associate Professor of Biology Lars Schmitz has co-authored a paper, published in Cell, on the role of ecomechanical models and functional traits in understanding phenotypic diversity. Ecomechanics—how organisms develop within the environment’s physical constraints on survival and reproduction—is central to understanding ecology and evolution, the paper says, especially when considering organisms’ response to human-mediated climate change: “Ecomechanical models that incorporate functional traits and environmental variables are key to deciphering the rules of life.”