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UNC Ecology Seminar: John Sabo

Submitted by mlm6 on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 10:32
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Speaker: 
John Sabo, Arizona State University
Floods, droughts and the scaling of food chain length with drainage area in rivers

Floods, droughts and other extreme hydrologic events play key roles in coupling human and natural systems. Floods can cause tremendous damage and mortality and cripple local economies. By contrast, floods are critical to freshwater fisheries, some of which supply the majority of the protein to people in developing nations.

location: 
Wilson 128, UNC-Chapel Hill

UNC Ecology Seminar: Charles Nunn

Submitted by mlm6 on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 14:31
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Speaker: 
Charles Nunn, Harvard University
Parasites in Paradise: Why do Primates Have so Many Parasites, and What Factors Influence Parasite Success?

An incredible diversity of parasites and pathogens infect primates, including sexually transmitted viruses and bacteria, insect-borne protozoa that cause malaria, and helminths that infect the gastrointestinal tract. Some of these pathogens - such as those with sexual transmission - spread through contact networks. Sociality may influence the dynamics of other parasites.

location: 
Wilson 128, UNC-Chapel Hill

UNC Ecology Seminar: Nancy Collins Johnson

Submitted by mlm6 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 12:28
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Speaker: 
Nancy Collins Johnson, Northern Arizona University
The balance of trade in mycorrhizas: phosphorus, nitrogen, and light availability mediate mycorrhizal mutualism and parasitism

The Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology hosts the distinguished Jenner Lecture in Ecology this Thursday, February 10th at 4:00pm in Wilson 128. This semester's Jenner speaker is Nancy Collins Johnson, an associate professor at Northern Arizona University, and a pioneer in investigating the relationships between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

location: 
Wilson 128, UNC-Chapel Hill

UNC Ecology Seminar: Eric Palkovacs

Submitted by mlm6 on Mon, 01/31/2011 - 11:53
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Speaker: 
Eric Palkovacs, Duke University
Contemporary evolution as an agent of ecological change

Traits determine how species interact and, in turn, how communities and ecosystems function. Ecological theories typically assume that traits are static on so-called ecological time scales. However, recent evidence for contemporary evolution raises the question of whether rapid trait changes can impact ecological dynamics. I examined the effects of contemporary evolution in fishes on ecological processes in two aquatic ecosystems - New England lakes and Trinidadian streams.

location: 
Wilson 128, UNC-Chapel Hill

UNC Ecology Seminar: James Stegen

Submitted by mlm6 on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 11:02
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Speaker: 
James Stegen, UNC
Dispersal, Environmental Niches, and Oceanic-Scale Beta-Diversity in Deep-Sea Bivalves

Elucidating processes responsible for the structure of ecological communities is one of the longest standing questions in ecology. To gain insight, studies have related the degree of turnover between pairs of communities (beta-diversity) to the spatial and/or environmental distances between them. Strong relationships between beta-diversity and spatial or environmental distance suggest important roles of dispersal limitation or environmental filtering, respectively.

location: 
Wilson 128, UNC-Chapel Hill
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University Program in Ecology | Box 90329 | Duke University | Durham, NC 27708 | (919) 613-8002 | ecology@duke.edu