Impressive advances in our ability to forecast changes in the Earth’s climate have not translated to similarly robust capacity to anticipate responses of individual species and ecological communities.  Communities are assemblages of multiple species that interact directly or indirectly, and the response of one species to environmental change may depend upon responses of the other species with which it interacts.  For example, a flowering plant that is exclusively pollinated by one bee species will be unable to track changes in climate if its pollinator cannot.  In other cases, entire communities might collapse in the absence of certain species that are disproportionately important (e.g., keystone species).  Dr. Rodewald will discuss how predicting future communities remains a challenging and complex endeavor that demands a more thorough understanding of species interactions.

Seminar Series: Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge:

• Mondays, Spring Semester 2020, 2:55-4:10pm, 233 Plant Sciences
• Most sessions available as a Zoom Webinar
   

This university-wide seminar series provides important views on the critical issue of climate change, drawing from many perspectives and disciplines. Experts from both Cornell University and other universities will present an overview of the science of climate change and climate change models, the implications for agriculture, ecosystems, and food systems, and provide important economic, ethical, and policy insights on the issue. The seminar is being organized and sponsored by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.