| Start Date: | 12/12/2013 | Start Time: | 12:30 PM |
| End Date: | 12/12/2013 | End Time: | 2:00 PM |
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Event Description
Title: Do Forests Draw Lines in the Sand? Effects of Landscape Boundaries on Ecological Communities and Soil
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Blackwood, Kent State University
Date: Dec. 12th, 12:30 PM
Location: ECE Conference Room 302, 3rd Floor
Bossone Research Enterprise Center Abstract: It is well known that biogeographic patterns depend on the spatial scales investigated, although the mechanism behind this pattern, and the implications for ecosystem functions, are not necessarily clear. We have found that the effect of spatial scale on biogeographic patterns in microbial communities may arise from the different ways in which habitat patches and edges are treated at different scales. For example, we found that soil microbial communities in a well-defined habitat, the rhizosphere of Lobelia siphilitica, were spatially autocorrelated but independent of soil conditions on a regional scale, a pattern consistent with dispersal limitation and neutral dynamics. In contrast, microbial communities at the same sites but associated with random plant species were correlated with soil properties but were not spatially autocorrelated, and were therefore consistent with species sorting according to their ecological niches. To understand mechanisms behind contrasting patterns such as this, we have begun investigating the biogeography of microorganisms in well-defined habitat patches. |
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Location:
ECE Conference Room 302, 3rd Floor
Bossone Research Enterprise Center |
Audience:
Current StudentsFacultyStaff |
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