SPEAKER: Berry Brosi Assistant Professor Department of Environmental Sciences Emory University DATE: Monday, February 8th 2016 TIME: 4:00 – 5:30pm LOCATION: 202 Barrows Hall TITLE: Biological Diversity, Interaction Networks, and Ecological Functioning ABSTRACT: Biological diversity plays a key role in the functioning of ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being. Most work on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has assumed that species contribute to function via fixed or static traits. Little is known, however, about how dynamic organismal responses to community context, including behavior, impact ecological functioning. In this presentation, I will discuss work focused on systematically understanding how both species richness and the structure of species interaction networks can impact ecological functioning via plastic behavioral changes. To address these topics, my group applies manipulative field experiments, mathematical modeling, and controlled behavioral laboratory experiments using primarily plant-pollinator systems. BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Berry Brosi is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at Emory University. He is a community ecologist whose work focuses on how anthropogenic environmental changes impact biological communities, and how such changes in biological diversity and interaction network structure affect ecological functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. His work spans a wide range of scientific approaches, including manipulative and comparative field studies, genetics and genomics, laboratory behavioral studies, and mathematical modeling. This work primarily uses bee communities and plant-pollinator interactions as a model system. He also has an active research interest in the science-policy-management interface, particularly in applying data and statistical approaches to the administration of biodiversity laws. Dr. Brosi is a Lead Author on the first assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, for the global Thematic Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. Hailing from a small town in Kentucky, Dr. Brosi studied at Wesleyan University (BA), Yale University (MSc), and Stanford University (PhD).