Spring 2021 Ecology Seminars
Kansas Biological Survey Ecology Seminars are held on Fridays at 12:15 p.m. and are open to the public. During the spring 2021 semester, seminars will be held via Zoom and will include one 50-minute talk or two 20-minute talks. Recordings of each talk will be posted on our YouTube channel during the following week.
Join the mailing list! For notifications and reminders of upcoming seminars, share your name and email address using our quick webform. Note: If you use Gmail and do not receive an email in the coming week, please check your Promotions tab and move any emails from us to your Primary tab.
If you have questions about the seminars, email Prof. Helen Alexander, halexander@ku.edu, or Prof. Ben Sikes, ben.sikes@ku.edu.
Our seminars cover a wide range of topics that broadly relate to ecology and/or conservation issues. Often presentations are given by KU faculty, staff or students, but we also have talks by people at nearby colleges/universities, visitors to campus, or people in the region. Most of our talks are research-oriented, but this seminar series also has been a good forum for sharing information about nonprofits or government agencies. We interpret “talks” broadly; some are polished presentations, while others are opportunities to discuss ideas or a tentative plan for a project.
Use the Zoom link and passcode below, each week, for all spring semester seminars. Please do NOT share this link and password on social media.
https://kansas.zoom.us/j/91879343614
Meeting ID: 918 7934 3614
Passcode: 2021
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) seminars are held on Tuesdays at 3:45 p.m. Seminar titles are available approximately one week prior to scheduled times on the department's online calendar.
Friday ecology seminars for the Spring 2021 semester
Wednesday, January 6—Laura Downey of the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education (KACEE), "Environmental and Outdoor Education in Kansas," and Rob Ramos, KU doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology, "Mycorrhizal community response to plant species and fertilizer and their feedbacks on growth." View presentation
Friday, February 12—Kansas streams research: Two KU student project presentations — Kaci Zarek, (KU Environmental Studies Program; KU Field Station Student Research Award recipient); and Kynser Wahwahsuck (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) View presentation
Friday, February 19—Student presentation: Soudeh Ghasemian (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), KU Field Station Student Reserach Award recipient — "Climate modifies the influence of fine-scale topography and landscape position on forest productivity." View presentation
Friday, February 26—No presentation scheduled.
Friday, March 5—No presentation scheduled.
Friday, March 12—Town Peterson (KU Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Biodiversity Institute) "Deeper-time views of landscape and vegetation as novel information for ecological studies." View presentation
Friday, March 19—Laura Podzikowski (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology): "Productivity benefits from diversity persist despite water limitation: Causes and implications." View presentation
Friday, March 26—Bob Hagen (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Environmental Studies Program) "What they do when we’re not looking: Results from wildlife camera traps at the field station (and elsewhere)." View presentation
Friday, April 2—Dan Reuman (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology): "A new mechanism for the old phenomenon of population cycles, and a demonstration using data on white-tailed deer and deer-vehicle collisions." View presentation
Friday, April 9—No presentation scheduled.
Friday, April 16—Zak Ratajczak, Kansas State University (Division of Biology): "Effects of bison on tallgrass prairie resilience to changing fire and climate." View presentation
Friday, April 23—Two talks: Katie Eckhoff (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology): "Persistent decadal differences in plant communities restored under contrasting climate conditions"; and Haiyang Chao (KU Dept. of Aerospace Engineering) and Sheena Parsons (Kansas Biological Survey and KU Field Station) on recent burn data at the KU Field Station: "Prescribed fire monitoring using KHawk Hexocopter UAS: Preliminary results for the spring 2021 KU Field Station burn." View presentation
Friday, April 30—Steve Gurysh (KU Dept. of Visual Art) will discuss the early stages of the development of an experimental film, Blue Sky Thunder Days, which explores the parallel and intertwining histories of the American Chestnut Blight and the introduction of the Emerald Ash Borer in North American forests.
