Widespread tree mortality following disturbances such as droughts, fire, and pest and pathogen outbreaks has emerged as an environmentally and economically devastating ‘ecological surprise’. Increases in disturbance-driven tree mortality with further climate change has the potential to massively disrupt terrestrial ecosystem productivity and biodiversity, causing Earth’s forests to release carbon into the atmosphere.

Individuality is a fundamental feature of animal behavior and represents a potent substrate that evolutionary pressures can act upon. Such idiosyncrasy in behavior exists across scales: within a single animal from moment-to-moment, across animals responding to an identical stimulus, or in response to complex and changing environments. Individuality within insect behavior is also important to understand within the context of global health.

Animals are constantly faced with decisions about what to eat, where to live, and whom to mate with. While most models of decision making assume that individuals assign absolute values to options encountered, animals often assess value relative to other options available or to options recently encountered. Such decisions can be complex, often requiring individuals to compare multiple features associated with each option and their reward payoffs. Such decisions can also produce different outcomes depending on the context of the choice.

Leigh West | Abrahms Lab
"Climate impacts on large carnivore spatial ecology and community interactions"

Andy Hempton | Imaizumi Lab
"Exploring the Role of FLP1 as a Far-Red Light Induced Systemic Developmental Signal in Arabidopsis"
Natalia Guayazan Palacios | Steinbrenner Lab
"Plant immune receptors for healthier crops: Restoring caterpillar sensing in legumes"

Jack Litle | Carrington Lab
"Using Embryonic Thermotolerance to Assess 'Tuning' of Reproductive Timing"

Join us for our Winter 2023 Bio Grad Seminar Series! This February, Hannah McConnell (Di Stilio Lab), Benjamin Downing (Nemhauser Lab), and Sophia Jannetty (Bagheri Lab) will be presenting their research reports. Hosted by Fiona Boardman.

Join us for our Winter 2023 Bio Grad Seminar Series! This January, Alex Neitz (de la Iglesia Lab), Zoe Kulik (Sidor Lab), and Sujay Balebail (Sisneros Lab) will be presenting their research reports.