Uncovering the Blind Spots in Biodiversity Data The gaps in our understanding of biodiversity have long been recognized as a critical challenge. These knowledge shotfalls can distort our perception of biodiversity and bias fundamental estimates—from the total number of species to complex patterns of rarity and threats to biodiversity. On [...]
Addressing Wallacean shortfalls for understudied taxa with species distribution models There is now a wealth of open data on species distributions, but taxonomic biases in favor of charismatic species persist, leaving big gaps for distributional information in the tree of life. Known as Wallacean shortfalls, these gaps make it difficult [...]
Megafaunal diets reveal top-down mechanisms of ecological resilience on the Pleistocene mammoth steppe While there is a growing appreciation of the role that large herbivores play in structuring plant communities and confering ecological resilience at broad spatial scales, empirical tests of these ideas remain rare, especially in deep time. In this [...]
Anthropogenic disassembly of mammal communities past and present Understanding the relative importance of the processes driving the assembly and disassembly of ecological communities is important for basic and applied ecology. In this talk, I will focus on the role of humans in community disassembly. Specifically, I will address historical human impacts on mammal [...]
Functional Collapse: Reconstructing animal-vectored nutrient fluxes in paleoenvironments Centuries of human activity has led to declines in species’ ranges and abundances, but relatively little is know about the ecological functions of many species before human arrivals. One such function is animal-vectored nutrient fluxes – that is, the cross-ecosystem movement of [...]
Ecogeographical rules, such as Bergmann’s and Allen’s, are grounded in the physical principles of heat transfer. However, most studies have focused on their prevalence across species rather than their underlying mechanisms. A closer examination of the physics of heat and mass transfer in animals reveals new insights that enhance our mechanistic understanding of body [...]
Join us on Wednesday, January 29 at 10:00 pm UTC, for a talk by Dr. Jamie Wood. A core focus of biogeographical research is how climatic, geological and environmental factors influence the distribution of species on Earth. Yet interactions with other species, through processes such as competition, predation and parasitism, may also strongly influence [...]
Join us on Wednesday, November 20, at 4:00 pm UTC for the Funk Biogeography Seminar given by Dr. Robin Chazdon. Talk Title: "Leveraging Natural Regeneration of Tropical Forests to Achieve Large-scale Forest Restoration" Forest restoration is a global priority, but we lack a practical framework for matching restoration opportunities with the most appropriate [...]
Join us on Wednesday, October 30, at 4:00 pm UTC for the Funk Biogeography Seminar given by Dr. Amanda Bates. Talk Title: "Evidence for Direct Effects of Climate Change on Biodiversity in North America" Understanding the link between biodiversity and climate change is essential for developing effective, long-term climate solutions that promote healthy [...]
Join us on Wednesday, September 25, at 4 pm UTC for the Funk Biogeography Seminar given by Sally Keith. Talk Title: "Macrobehaviour: Behavioural Variation Across Space, Time and Taxa " Integrating behavioural ecology and macroecology can provide fundamental new insight into both fields, with particular relevance for understanding ecological responses to rapid environmental change. [...]
