The Daily Bulletin

Please join the Biology Department and the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “Functioning in a Stressed World: Understanding the Interaction between Anthropogenic Stressors and Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning,” presented by Marc Cadotte, professor and director of the Centre for Environmental Research in the Anthropocene at the University of Toronto Scarborough, today, March 4, at 3:00 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 151. Attendees are welcome to enjoy coffee and cookies during the seminar.

Abstract
Human-caused change is altering biodiversity and ecosystem processes across spatial scales. Biodiversity is the foundation for the functioning of healthy ecosystems and for providing economic and other benefits to human well-being. Twenty years of experiments confirm such biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) relationships, but putting this research into real-world environmental change and management scenarios has been surprisingly limited. Environmental change drivers (hereafter referred to as stressors) can affect species differently, with positive, neutral, and negative impacts on their fitness, carrying capacity, interactions, and access to resources; therefore, predicting the impacts of multiple stressors on changes to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be complex. In this talk, Dr. Cadotte examines how biodiversity influences ecosystem functioning and then focuses on how stressors alter species contributions to function and the nature of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. He uses theoretical models to examine how multiple stressors could influence BEF relationships and then tests this with experiments. He will then scale up these predictions to BEF patterns in different scenarios under anthropogenic stressors. He wraps up with how this research can provide insights and guidance to studying and managing biodiversity in cities.