22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, Seminar Room 125
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...
22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, Seminar Room 125
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...
22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, Seminar Room 125
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...
22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, Seminar Room 125
Emily Meineke, Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard University
Topic: Herbivory through the ages: Revealing effects of climate on insect herbivory with herbarium specimens
Host Lab: Davis
Abstract: Herbivory by phytophagous insects is ubiquitous and has effects that cascade from damage to individual plants to altered nutrient cycling through ecosystems. Yet, how herbivory has responded to anthropogenic environmental change remains unclear, because historical monitoring of insect herbivores...
