CEES Seminar - Sept 29th, 3:30

[Natalie Campbell]

The CEES Seminar Series presents:

*Dr. **Robert Bagchi, *Associate Professor Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

*Can natural enemies explain variation in diversity among plant
communities?*

Natural enemies like insects and fungal pathogens, are thought 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.

*Friday Sept 29th **3:30pm. *
*Hudson 106*


*All seminars are free and open to the public. *

If you have any questions regarding the seminar please contact Dr. Mark
Lesser (mless004 at plattsburgh.edu)
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