Events for May 24, 2019 - December 6, 2019

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:  Maria Tysiachniouk, Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Durham University; the Centre for Independent Social Research, Russia There is little doubt the benefit sharing policy for Arctic regions is essential, as it impacts the livelihoods of thousands of Arctic residents who depend on land, sea, and access to natural resources. It is important that the energy sector shares a portion derived from the resource extraction with the local inhabitants in an equitable, transparent,…

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:  Olivier Hardy, PhD, Universite Libre de Bruxelles The phylogeographic structure refers to the way phylogenetically related species or populations are distributed across spatio-environmental gradients. These patterns are studied in the frameworks of community ecology (inter-specific level) and population genetics (intra-specific level) but usually using different data analysis tools. However, it is possible to use a common descriptive framework at the two levels and attempt a comparison. Here, Olivier will use examples…

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:  Luis Cayuela Delgdo, Associate Professor, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Andean tropical montane forests (TMFs) are one of the world's most threatened terrestrial ecosystems. Despite representing a small fraction of the world’s tropical forests, they hold high levels of species richness and endemism, and are therefore critical for the conservation of global biodiversity. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the mechanisms shaping species composition, diversity and turnover in TMFs, as well as key…

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:   Dr Sophie Fauset, Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of Plymouth In this talk, Sophie will give an introduction to the biophysics of leaf temperatures, explaining why they are different from air temperatures, and what relevance this has for leaf functioning. She will present research performed in Brazil on current patterns of leaf temperatures measured in the field, and how they respond to warming and elevated CO2 concentration from a greenhouse study.…

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:  Prof James Dalling, Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Over the last decade attention has been refocused on the role of soil nutrients, particularly soil phosphorus availability, in structuring the local and landscape composition of tropical forests, and potentially in constraining primary productivity. Jim will review the evidence from global ForestGeo plots and landscape studies in Panama that soil nutrients influence species distributions, compositional and functional beta diversity,…

Listen to podcast   Speaker:  Dr Scott Saleska, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona Scaling from individuals or species to ecosystems is a fundamental challenge of modern ecology and understanding tropical forest response to drought is a key challenge of predicting responses to global climate change. Scott will synthesize his developing understanding of these twin challenges by examining individual and ecosystem responses to the 2015 El Nino drought at two sites in the central Amazon of Brazil, near Manaus…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TlRT1VK0-tY Speaker:  E.J. Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford In 2020, governments will hopefully agree upon a new vision for nature and people that tackles the linked sustainability challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and human development in an integrated way. But how can high-level aspirations be translated into real, and timely, change on the ground, where complex ecological and social processes intertwine to constrain and derail the change needed for sustainability? Using examples from her work…

Listen to podcast | View slides here   Speaker:   Dr Alexandra Morel, Post-doctoral Researcher, Zoological Society of London/Honorary Research Associate, University of Oxford Even under current climate conditions, it is difficult to predict how a complex system such as a forest ecosystem or agriculturally dependent community will respond to a climate shock. Unfortunately, at the same time our knowledge of these systems is dramatically improving, our accelerating carbon emissions are rapidly changing the conditions under which these systems have evolved.…