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Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
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Recent news
Herbarium Spotlight: Exploring the World of Plant “Feathers”
EEB Ph.D. student Rosemary Glos studies the tiny hairs on leaves, called trichomes, which play an outsized role in plant survival. Thanks to the U-M Herbarium, and its extensive collections, she can examine dozens of species from around the world.
Meet the Researchers Driving Discovery Through the Biodiversity Exploration Fund
The Biodiversity Exploration Fund fuels groundbreaking research by supporting scientists and collection managers at U-M’s Herbarium and Museum of Zoology. Here’s a glimpse of a few recent recipients and the exciting work they’re leading.
RESEARCH FEATURE
EEB Postdoctoral Fellow Thiago Gonçalves-Souza and department Chair Professor Nate Sanders just published an article in Nature titled "Species turnover does not rescue biodiversity in fragmented landscapes."
Abstract: Habitat fragmentation generally reduces biodiversity at the patch scale (α diversity)1. However, there is ongoing debate about whether such negative effects can be alleviated at the landscape scale (γ diversity) if among-patch diversity (β diversity) increases as a result of fragmentation2,3,4,5,6. This controversial view has not been rigorously tested. Here we use a dataset of 4,006 taxa across 37 studies from 6 continents to test the effects of fragmentation on biodiversity across scales by explicitly comparing continuous and fragmented landscapes. We find that fragmented landscapes consistently have both lower α diversity and lower γ diversity. Although fragmented landscapes did tend to have higher β diversity, this did not translate into higher γ diversity. Our findings refute claims that habitat fragmentation can increase biodiversity at landscape scales, and emphasize the need to restore habitat and increase connectivity to minimize biodiversity loss at ever-increasing scales.
Michigan News did an excellent write -up of the article: find it here.
Events
Sep
18
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - How does density dependence affect evolutionary rescue, and how does an evolutionary ecologist shift university culture and climate? A tale of two roles
Ruth Hufbauer, Colorado State University
4:00 PM
1060
Biological Sciences Building
Sep
23
EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - Dr. Yang Li and Jiachen Li
Zhang Lab
12:00 PM
Biological Sciences Building
Oct
05
ID Day
11:00 AM
Museum of Natural History
