Emily Sessa, Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, University of Florida

Topic:  Fern tales at two scales: Using phylogenetics to study historical biogeography in Africa and community assembly in Florida

Abstract: 
Phylogenies are tools that can be used to investigate a diverse array of questions in evolutionary biology. In this talk, I will discuss several applications of phylogenies to understanding plant evolution, using ferns as the group of interest. I will describe efforts to understand...

Erin Tripp,  Assistant Professor
University of Colorado, Boulder

Title: Nearly 6,000 Species of North American Lichens: Distributions, Traits, Ecologies, and New Syndromes

Topic: TBD

Host Lab: Davis

Aaron Ellison, Senior Research Fellow in Ecology
Harvard Forest

Title: Things fall apart: land-use history, non-native insects, climatic change, and the decline of a forest foundation species

Host Lab: Davis

Topic: Foundation species create and define particular ecosystems; control in large measure the distribution and abundance of associated flora and fauna; and modulate core ecosystem processes. In forests, foundation species are large, long-lived, late-successional trees...

Arne Mooers, Professor of Biodiversity
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University

Topic: Hitting the conservation nail with our phylogenetics hammer

Host Lab: Wolkovich

Abstract:
Many evolutionary biologists embraced the idea that phylogenies offered a guide to prioritizing taxa and places for conservation; finally, our work could be put to good use. However, 25 years after Dan Faith formalized the idea (in a paper now cited >1400 times), we...