<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:large"><div id="m_8081657830022857483gmail-:dkd"><div id="m_8081657830022857483gmail-:dk9" aria-label="Message Body" role="textbox" aria-multiline="true" style="direction:ltr;min-height:297px" aria-controls=":dmw"><div class="gmail_default"><div id="m_8081657830022857483gmail-:d0n"><div id="m_8081657830022857483gmail-:d0j" aria-label="Message Body" role="textbox" aria-multiline="true" style="direction:ltr;min-height:297px" aria-controls=":d36"><div class="gmail_default"><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><div><div><div><font color="#274e13" face="times new roman, serif" size="4">The CEES Seminar Series presents:</font></div></div></div></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><font color="#0b5394"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:17.12px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dr. </span></b></font><font color="#0b5394" style="font-size:11pt"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:17.12px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Robert Bagchi, </span></b></font><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt">Associate Professor </span><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;color:black">Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><font color="#38761d" size="4">Can natural enemies explain variation in diversity among plant communities?</font></span></b><b style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt">Natural enemies like insects and fungal pathogens, are </span>thought<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt"> to play a role in promoting plant diversity by disproportionately attacking locally abundant plant species (density dependence). An intriguing extension to this idea is that variation in the intensity of plant-enemy interactions could contribute to corresponding variation in plant diversity, for example along climatic or anthropogenic gradients. I present evidence that insects and fungal pathogens do promote tree diversity in tropical forests. I will also present results on variation in plant-enemy interactions along a precipitation gradient in Panama and a fragment size gradient in India. The data suggest that natural enemy attack on certain species is altered by precipitation and environmental change. However, many of the effects are restricted to certain species or sites, making the overall implications hard to determine at present. Understanding how coexistence mechanisms vary among species and environmental conditions remains an unresolved challenge, but may be crucial for understanding the future of biodiversity under environmental change.</span></p></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><div><div><b>Friday Sept 29th </b><b>3:30pm. </b><br></div><div><div><b>Hudson 106</b></div></div><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0in;unicode-bidi:embed;word-break:normal"><br></p></div><div><div><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0in;unicode-bidi:embed;word-break:normal"><b>All seminars are free and open to the public. </b><br></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:17.12px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"></span></p><div>If you have any questions regarding the seminar please contact Dr. Mark Lesser (<a href="mailto:mless004@plattsburgh.edu" target="_blank">mless004@plattsburgh.edu</a>)</div></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><img src="cid:ii_lmqrcxpv1" alt="Slide2.JPG" width="498" height="374" style="outline:0px"></div></div></div></div></div></div>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