Andrew is a population biologist in the School of Biological Sciences. A broad goal of his research is to understand the effect of environmental variability on the stability of ecological communities. At the same time, in order to deliver on this broader goal, he is working to scale up understanding from simple tractable systems to the more complex dynamics of real world-systems.
Before joining UQ, he was a Marie Curie fellow working with Jonathan Levine and Alex Hall at ETH Zurich (2018-2020), a postdoctoral fellow in Daniel Stouffer's lab at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2017-2018), and a CEHG (Centre for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics) postdoctoral fellow in Tad Fukami's lab at Stanford University, USA (2015-2017). He did his PhD (2011-2015) with David Keith in the Centre for Ecosystem Science at UNSW Australia.
Journal Article: Frequent, infinitesimal bottlenecks maximize the rate of microbial adaptation
Delaney, Oscar, Letten, Andrew D and Engelstadter, Jan (2023). Frequent, infinitesimal bottlenecks maximize the rate of microbial adaptation. Genetics, 225 (4) iyad185. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyad185
Journal Article: Eco‐evolutionary maintenance of diversity in fluctuating environments
Yamamichi, Masato, Letten, Andrew D. and Schreiber, Sebastian J. (2023). Eco‐evolutionary maintenance of diversity in fluctuating environments. Ecology Letters, 26 (S1), S152-S167. doi: 10.1111/ele.14286
Journal Article: The effect of non-linear competitive interactions on quantifying niche and fitness differences
Spaak, Jurg W., Millet, Remi, Ke, Po-Ju, Letten, Andrew D. and De Laender, Frederik (2023). The effect of non-linear competitive interactions on quantifying niche and fitness differences. Theoretical Ecology, 16 (2), 161-170. doi: 10.1007/s12080-023-00560-6
The role of resource fluctuations in structuring microbial communities
(2023–2026) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
The costs and consequences of resistance to stress in microbial systems
(2022–2025) ARC Discovery Projects
The role of resource fluctuations in structuring microbial communities
Doctor Philosophy
The evolution of antibiotic resistance through the lens of ecological competition theory
Doctor Philosophy
Costs of antibiotic resistance through the lens of resource-competition theory
Doctor Philosophy
Frequent, infinitesimal bottlenecks maximize the rate of microbial adaptation
Delaney, Oscar, Letten, Andrew D and Engelstadter, Jan (2023). Frequent, infinitesimal bottlenecks maximize the rate of microbial adaptation. Genetics, 225 (4) iyad185. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyad185
Eco‐evolutionary maintenance of diversity in fluctuating environments
Yamamichi, Masato, Letten, Andrew D. and Schreiber, Sebastian J. (2023). Eco‐evolutionary maintenance of diversity in fluctuating environments. Ecology Letters, 26 (S1), S152-S167. doi: 10.1111/ele.14286
The effect of non-linear competitive interactions on quantifying niche and fitness differences
Spaak, Jurg W., Millet, Remi, Ke, Po-Ju, Letten, Andrew D. and De Laender, Frederik (2023). The effect of non-linear competitive interactions on quantifying niche and fitness differences. Theoretical Ecology, 16 (2), 161-170. doi: 10.1007/s12080-023-00560-6
Different measures of niche and fitness differences tell different tales
Spaak, Jurg W., Ke, Po‐Ju, Letten, Andrew D. and De Laender, Frederik (2023). Different measures of niche and fitness differences tell different tales. Oikos, 2023 (4) e09573. doi: 10.1111/oik.09573
Letten, Andrew D. and Ludington, William B. (2023). Pulsed, continuous or somewhere in between? Resource dynamics matter in the optimisation of microbial communities. The ISME Journal, 17 (4), 641-644. doi: 10.1038/s41396-023-01369-1
Extending the gleaner‐opportunist trade‐off
Yamamichi, Masato and Letten, Andrew D. (2022). Extending the gleaner‐opportunist trade‐off. Journal of Animal Ecology, 91 (11), 2163-2170. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13813
Coexistence holes fill a gap in community assembly theory
Letten, Andrew D. (2021). Coexistence holes fill a gap in community assembly theory. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5 (8), 1062-1063. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01461-9
Rapid evolution promotes fluctuation‐dependent species coexistence
Yamamichi, Masato and Letten, Andrew D. (2021). Rapid evolution promotes fluctuation‐dependent species coexistence. Ecology Letters, 24 (4), 812-818. doi: 10.1111/ele.13707
Human-associated microbiota suppress invading bacteria even under disruption by antibiotics
Letten, Andrew D., Baumgartner, Michael, Pfrunder-Cardozo, Katia R., Levine, Jonathan M. and Hall, Alex R. (2021). Human-associated microbiota suppress invading bacteria even under disruption by antibiotics. The ISME Journal, 15 (9), 2809-2812. doi: 10.1038/s41396-021-00929-7
Using ecological coexistence theory to understand antibiotic resistance and microbial competition
Letten, Andrew D., Hall, Alex R. and Levine, Jonathan M. (2021). Using ecological coexistence theory to understand antibiotic resistance and microbial competition. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 5 (4), 431-441. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01385-w
Gleaning, fast and slow: In defense of a canonical ecological trade-off
Letten, Andrew D. and Yamamichi, Masato (2021). Gleaning, fast and slow: In defense of a canonical ecological trade-off. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (5) e2022754118, 1-2. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2022754118
Publisher Correction: Intensive farming drives long-term shifts in avian community composition
Hendershot, J. Nicholas, Smith, Jeffrey R., Anderson, Christopher B., Letten, Andrew D., Frishkoff, Luke O., Zook, Jim R., Fukami, Tadashi and Daily, Gretchen C. (2020). Publisher Correction: Intensive farming drives long-term shifts in avian community composition. Nature, 581 (7808), E6-E6. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2310-0
Intensive farming drives long-term shifts in avian community composition
Hendershot, J. Nicholas, Smith, Jeffrey R., Anderson, Christopher B., Letten, Andrew D., Frishkoff, Luke O., Zook, Jim R., Fukami, Tadashi and Daily, Gretchen C. (2020). Intensive farming drives long-term shifts in avian community composition. Nature, 579 (7799), 393-396. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2090-6
Author Correction: A global test of ecoregions
Smith, Jeffrey R., Letten, Andrew D., Ke, Po-Ju, Anderson, Christopher B., Hendershot, J. Nicholas, Dhami, Manpreet K., Dlott, Glade A., Grainger, Tess N., Howard, Meghan E., Morrison, Beth M. L., Routh, Devin, Juan, Priscilla A. San, Mooney, Harold A., Mordecai, Erin A., Crowther, Thomas W. and Daily, Gretchen C. (2019). Author Correction: A global test of ecoregions. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3 (4), 708-708. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0858-6
The mechanistic basis for higher-order interactions and non-additivity in competitive communities
Letten, Andrew D. and Stouffer, Daniel B. (2019). The mechanistic basis for higher-order interactions and non-additivity in competitive communities. Ecology Letters, 22 (3), 423-436. doi: 10.1111/ele.13211
Applying modern coexistence theory to priority effects
Grainger, Tess Nahanni, Letten, Andrew D., Gilbert, Benjamin and Fukami, Tadashi (2019). Applying modern coexistence theory to priority effects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (13), 6205-6210. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1803122116
Smith, Jeffrey R., Letten, Andrew D., Ke, Po-Ju, Anderson, Christopher B., Hendershot, J. Nicholas, Dhami, Manpreet K., Dlott, Glade A., Grainger, Tess N., Howard, Meghan E., Morrison, Beth M. L., Routh, Devin, San Juan, Priscilla A., Mooney, Harold A., Mordecai, Erin A., Crowther, Thomas W. and Daily, Gretchen C. (2018). A global test of ecoregions. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2 (12), 1889-1896. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0709-x
Coexistence theory and the frequency-dependence of priority effects
Ke, Po-Ju and Letten, Andrew D. (2018). Coexistence theory and the frequency-dependence of priority effects. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2 (11), 1691-1695. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0679-z
Species coexistence through simultaneous fluctuation-dependent mechanisms
Letten, Andrew D., Dhami, Manpreet K., Ke, Po-Ju and Fukami, Tadashi (2018). Species coexistence through simultaneous fluctuation-dependent mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (26), 6745-6750. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1801846115
Dhami, Manpreet K., Hartwig, Thomas, Letten, Andrew D., Banf, Michael and Fukami, Tadashi (2018). Genomic diversity of a nectar yeast clusters into metabolically, but not geographically, distinct lineages. Molecular Ecology, 27 (8), 2067-2076. doi: 10.1111/mec.14535
Thomson, Fiona J., Letten, Andrew D., Tamme, Riin, Edwards, Will and Moles, Angela T. (2018). Can dispersal investment explain why tall plant species achieve longer dispersal distances than short plant species?. New Phytologist, 217 (1), 407-415. doi: 10.1111/nph.14735
Linking modern coexistence theory and contemporary niche theory
Letten, Andrew D., Ke, Po-Ju and Fukami, Tadashi (2017). Linking modern coexistence theory and contemporary niche theory. Ecological Monographs, 87 (2), 161-177. doi: 10.1002/ecm.1242
Detecting state changes for ecosystem conservation with long-term monitoring of species composition
Mason, T. J., Keith, D. A. and Letten, A. D. (2017). Detecting state changes for ecosystem conservation with long-term monitoring of species composition. Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America, 27 (2), 458-468. doi: 10.1002/eap.1449
Venn, S. E., Pickering, C. M., Butler, S. A. and Letten, A. D. (2016). Using a model based fourth-corner analysis to explain vegetation change following an extraordinary fire disturbance. Oecologia, 182 (3), 855-863. doi: 10.1007/s00442-016-3700-8
Fine-scale hydrological niche differentiation through the lens of multi-species co-occurrence models
Letten, Andrew D., Keith, David A., Tozer, Mark G. and Hui, Francis K.C. (2015). Fine-scale hydrological niche differentiation through the lens of multi-species co-occurrence models. Journal of Ecology, 103 (5), 1264-1275. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12428
Flores-Moreno, Habacuc, García-Treviño, Edgar S., Letten, Andrew D. and Moles, Angela T. (2015). In the beginning: phenotypic change in three invasive species through their first two centuries since introduction. Biological Invasions, 17 (4), 1215-1225. doi: 10.1007/s10530-014-0789-8
Letten, Andrew D. and Cornwell, William K. (2015). Trees, branches and (square) roots: Why evolutionary relatedness is not linearly related to functional distance. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6 (4), 439-444. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12237
Clarke, Peter J., Keith, David A., Vincent, Ben E. and Letten, Andrew D. (2015). Post-grazing and post-fire vegetation dynamics: long-term changes in mountain bogs reveal community resilience. Journal of Vegetation Science, 26 (2), 278-290. doi: 10.1111/jvs.12239
Phylogenetic and functional dissimilarity does not increase during temporal heathland succession
Letten, Andrew D., Keith, David A. and Tozer, Mark G. (2014). Phylogenetic and functional dissimilarity does not increase during temporal heathland succession. Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, 281 (1797) 20142102, 20142102-10. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2102
The importance of temporal climate variability for spatial patterns in plant diversity
Letten, Andrew D., Ashcroft, Michael B., Keith, David A., Gollan, John R. and Ramp, Daniel (2013). The importance of temporal climate variability for spatial patterns in plant diversity. Ecography, 36 (12), 1341-1349. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00346.x
The mid-domain effect: it's not just about space
Letten, Andrew D., Kathleen Lyons, S. and Moles, Angela T. (2013). The mid-domain effect: it's not just about space. Journal of Biogeography, 40 (11), 2017-2019. doi: 10.1111/jbi.12196
Rodent pollination in the Cape legume Liparia parva
Letten, Andrew D. and Midgley, Jeremy J. (2009). Rodent pollination in the Cape legume Liparia parva. Austral Ecology, 34 (2), 233-236. doi: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2008.01925.x
The role of resource fluctuations in structuring microbial communities
(2023–2026) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
The costs and consequences of resistance to stress in microbial systems
(2022–2025) ARC Discovery Projects
The role of resource fluctuations in structuring microbial communities
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
The evolution of antibiotic resistance through the lens of ecological competition theory
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
Costs of antibiotic resistance through the lens of resource-competition theory
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
Microbial community dynamics in nonequilibrium systems
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
The costs and consequences of antibioitic resistance in fluctuating environments
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
Eco-evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities in the urinary tract
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Rapid evolution and the dynamics and stability of ecological communities.
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
The effects of rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity on ecological dynamics in fluctuating environments
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Australian Wet Tropics vertebrate responses to multiple threats
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
The polygenic basis of adaptation
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor