Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. EEB student evaluation seminar: Uncovering the drivers of tree diversification in lowland and montane Neotropical forests (April 3, 2023 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/104301 104301-21808805@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 3, 2023 2:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Diana presents their preliminary seminar.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:02:35 -0400 2023-04-03T14:00:00-04:00 2023-04-03T15:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar field photo
EEB Thesis Defense - Zulay Caridad Rodriguez, Frontiers Master's Student (April 10, 2023 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/103860 103860-21808009@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 10, 2023 2:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Thesis Defense - Zulay Caridad Rodriguez
"A Multitude of Mimics: An Evolutionary Paradox in Coral Snake Mimicry"

Zulay defends their thesis.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:35:26 -0400 2023-04-10T14:00:00-04:00 2023-04-10T15:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Lecture / Discussion event poster
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kirby Mills, EEB Ph.D Student (April 13, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/106234 106234-21813955@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, April 13, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kirby Mills, EEB Student
"Apex predators in the Anthropocene: African large carnivore ecology at the human-wildlife interface"

Kirby presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:40:20 -0400 2023-04-13T10:00:00-04:00 2023-04-13T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event poster
Thesis Defense - Sorrel Hartford (April 14, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/103859 103859-21808007@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 14, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Thesis Defense - Sorrel Hartford
"Seeing beneath the trees: how understory diversity shapes forest resilience"

Sorrel defends their thesis.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:27:59 -0400 2023-04-14T12:00:00-04:00 2023-04-14T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Lecture / Discussion event poster
Thesis Defense: Long-Distance Migration as a Driver of Sensory Plasticity and Evolution in Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) (April 17, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/104968 104968-21810515@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 17, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Thesis Defense - Darene Assadia, EEB master's student

Darene Assadia defends their thesis.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 10 Apr 2023 13:49:37 -0400 2023-04-17T13:00:00-04:00 2023-04-17T14:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event poster
EEB student evaluation seminar: Diana Carolina Vergara-Florez, EEB Ph.D. Student (April 19, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/104966 104966-21810513@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB student evaluation seminar: Diana Carolina Vergara-Florez, EEB Ph.D. Student
Microbes in the Shells: Unraveling eco-evolutionary processes between venomous molluscs and their microbiome

Diana presents their preliminary seminar.

Check your email or contact eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for the passcode at least two hours before the seminar.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:59:52 -0400 2023-04-19T13:00:00-04:00 2023-04-19T14:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Emily Laub, U-M EEB Graduate Student (April 20, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/105940 105940-21813301@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, April 20, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Emily Laub, U-M EEB Graduate Student
"Social group formation and cooperation in Paper wasps"

Emily Laub presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:55:31 -0400 2023-04-20T10:00:00-04:00 2023-04-20T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB student evaluation seminar: Samuel Stratton, EEB Ph.D. Student (April 20, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/105207 105207-21811378@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, April 20, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB student evaluation seminar: Samuel Stratton, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Built different: how development determines seasonal migratory and non-migratory forms in the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)"

Samuel Stratton presents their preliminary seminar.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 13 Apr 2023 10:35:42 -0400 2023-04-20T13:00:00-04:00 2023-04-20T14:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Thesis Defense - Libby O'Brien, EEB Master's Student (April 21, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/107669 107669-21816345@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 21, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Thesis Defense - Libby O'Brien, EEB Master's Student
"Long-term leaf and root litter input manipulations influence Q. rubra seedling growth in a mesocosm experiment"

Libby defends their thesis.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 18 Apr 2023 14:28:26 -0400 2023-04-21T10:00:00-04:00 2023-04-21T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kayla Hale, EEB Ph.D. Student (May 4, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/106238 106238-21813959@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, May 4, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kayle Hale, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Tangled dynamics of trophic and mutualistic interactions in terrestrial ecosystems."

Kayla Hale presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 02 May 2023 09:33:11 -0400 2023-05-04T10:00:00-04:00 2023-05-04T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: (May 12, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/106579 106579-21814491@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, May 12, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Teresa presents their dissertation defense.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:36:09 -0400 2023-05-12T13:00:00-04:00 2023-05-12T14:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB thesis defense: (May 15, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/106239 106239-21813960@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, May 15, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Cheyenne presents their thesis defense.

Please check your email or contact eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for the passcode at least two hours prior to the event.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:56:03 -0400 2023-05-15T10:00:00-04:00 2023-05-15T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
Thesis Defense - Alice Hill, Master’s Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (May 25, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/107384 107384-21815935@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, May 25, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Thesis Defense - Alice Hill, Master’s Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
"Comparing measures of sociality in white-faced capuchins: redundancy and sensitivity to sampling"

Alice Hill defends their thesis.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 19 May 2023 14:46:54 -0400 2023-05-25T10:00:00-04:00 2023-05-25T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Nia Johnson, EEB Ph.D. Student (June 16, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/107768 107768-21816463@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, June 16, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Nia Johnson, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Plant-Herbivore Interactions and Plant Defense in Modern Agricultural Landscapes"
Nia Johnson presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 12 Jun 2023 15:22:56 -0400 2023-06-16T10:00:00-04:00 2023-06-16T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Evaluation Seminar: Avinash Subramanian, EEB Ph.D. Student (July 11, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/107621 107621-21816284@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Evaluation Seminar: Avinash Subramanian, EEB Ph.D. Student
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Avinash presents their preliminary seminar.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 17 Apr 2023 13:43:11 -0400 2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00 2023-07-11T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Xukang Shen, PhD Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (August 1, 2023 8:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/106864 106864-21814944@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 8:30am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Xukang Shen presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:43:58 -0400 2023-08-01T08:30:00-04:00 2023-08-01T21:30:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Nicholas Medina, Ph.D. Student (August 2, 2023 8:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/108858 108858-21820486@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 8:00am
Location:
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Nicholas Medina, Ph.D. Student
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Nicholas Medina presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:54:47 -0400 2023-08-02T08:00:00-04:00 2023-08-02T09:00:00-04:00 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kristel Sánchez, EEB Ph.D. Student (August 4, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/107823 107823-21817079@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, August 4, 2023 10:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Kristel Sánchez, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Exploring the mechanisms of medicinal diets in an aquatic host-parasite system"

Kristel presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:46:43 -0400 2023-08-04T10:00:00-04:00 2023-08-04T11:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - "Applied Community Ecology: The Case of Puerto Rican Ants in Coffee" (September 12, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111959 111959-21828063@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Coffee farms in Puerto Rico offer a perfect setting for studying community ecology since they are small, similar to one another and abundant, effectively creating a natural experiment. The ant community of these farms is evidently organized along the lines of what has come to be known as a metacommunity. The study of a particular assemblage of ants on one of these farms reveals interesting patterns of community structure, some of which relates directly to practical issues such as pest control and carbon sequestration. Specifically, the role of intransitive loops and higher order effects are evident and provide a mechanistic interpretation of some aspects of community structure.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:01:12 -0400 2023-09-12T12:00:00-04:00 2023-09-12T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - "The causes and consequences of social interactions" (September 14, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111589 111589-21827281@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, September 14, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Animal social behavior emerges from interactions among individuals, therefore, it is important to understand both the mechanisms that shape interactions and their consequences. Because most animals need to be in proximity to interact, individual differences in animal movements are especially important for determining who interacts with whom. Furthermore, the environment can shape the ways in which animals interact, for example by impacting their movement patterns. Social interactions in turn determine population-level processes, such as information flow and disease transmission, which can impact fitness and shape the evolution of sociality. In this talk, I will examine various causes and consequences of social interactions with examples from social insects and birds using lab experiments, field observations, models, and social network analysis. Uncovering the causes and consequences of social interactions is essential for understanding the emergence of social behavior.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:03:45 -0400 2023-09-14T15:00:00-04:00 2023-09-14T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar with Taslima Haque, EEB Postdoctoral Fellow, Wittkopp Lab (September 19, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111961 111961-21828064@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 19, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Exploring how species thrive in different environments with a broad geographical distribution including the disparate ecological conditions provides valuable insights about the adaptive capacity of natural populations. Panicum hallii, a perennial grass known for its diverse habitats and substantial phenotypic variations among different ecotypes, presents the opportunity to investigate adaptive divergence. Our study of gene expression divergence and their underlying regulatory architecture suggest cis-regulatory divergence as a primary driver of expression variation in this population.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 18 Sep 2023 12:28:26 -0400 2023-09-19T12:00:00-04:00 2023-09-19T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Thursday Hartweg Seminar Series with Susanne Renner, Professor, Washington University in Saint Louis, MO (September 21, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111594 111594-21827293@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, September 21, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Animal social behavior emerges from interactions among individuals, therefore, it is important to understand both the mechanisms that shape interactions and their consequences. Because most animals need to be in proximity to interact, individual differences in animal movements are especially important for determining who interacts with whom. Furthermore, the environment can shape the ways in which animals interact, for example by impacting their movement patterns. Social interactions in turn determine population-level processes, such as information flow and disease transmission, which can impact fitness and shape the evolution of sociality. In this talk, I will examine various causes and consequences of social interactions with examples from social insects and birds using lab experiments, field observations, models, and social network analysis. Uncovering the causes and consequences of social interactions is essential for understanding the emergence of social behavior.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:24:04 -0400 2023-09-21T15:00:00-04:00 2023-09-21T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
38th Annual EEB Retreat Weekend (September 22, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/109239 109239-21821296@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 22, 2023 9:00am
Location:
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Friday morning — continental breakfast and a facilitated conversation - Pendleton Room, Michigan Union — 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Weekend — community building activities, field trips, and hikes — University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, MI — All day Saturday
and Sunday morning.

Sign-ups available to ride in a minivan to the biostation and please consider volunteering to drive!

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Other Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:47:37 -0400 2023-09-22T09:00:00-04:00 2023-09-22T17:00:00-04:00 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Other event details image
38th Annual EEB Retreat Weekend (September 23, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/109239 109239-21821297@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Saturday, September 23, 2023 9:00am
Location:
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Friday morning — continental breakfast and a facilitated conversation - Pendleton Room, Michigan Union — 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Weekend — community building activities, field trips, and hikes — University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, MI — All day Saturday
and Sunday morning.

Sign-ups available to ride in a minivan to the biostation and please consider volunteering to drive!

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Other Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:47:37 -0400 2023-09-23T09:00:00-04:00 2023-09-23T17:00:00-04:00 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Other event details image
38th Annual EEB Retreat Weekend (September 24, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/109239 109239-21821298@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Sunday, September 24, 2023 9:00am
Location:
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Friday morning — continental breakfast and a facilitated conversation - Pendleton Room, Michigan Union — 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Weekend — community building activities, field trips, and hikes — University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, MI — All day Saturday
and Sunday morning.

Sign-ups available to ride in a minivan to the biostation and please consider volunteering to drive!

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Other Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:47:37 -0400 2023-09-24T09:00:00-04:00 2023-09-24T17:00:00-04:00 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Other event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - Unsupervised Learning as an Analog for Evolvability in Genotype-Phenotype Maps (September 26, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111962 111962-21828065@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology's weekly lunch series.

About: The capability of an evolutionary substrate to generate novel phenotypic variation that is viable under mutation, referred to as evolvability, underpins the process of adaptive evolution. However, evolutionary simulations using models with high-dimensional phenotypes often exhibit stunted evolvability in the absence of indirect genotype-phenotype mapping that facilitates coordinated changes over many phenotypic traits. If these genotype-phenotype maps bias toward phenotypic viability and maintain phenotypic diversity, the resulting genetic search space will be lower-dimensional and less rugged, making it more conducive to adaptive evolution. Such evolvability in genotype-phenotype maps shares significant conceptual overlap with unsupervised learning, which extracts regularities and structure from unlabeled data that can enable lower-dimensional, compact representations of complex data like images and text. Here, we report a suite of benchmark fitness landscapes designed to facilitate head-to-head comparison of unsupervised learning techniques and evolved genotype-phenotype maps. This framework will contribute critical experimental rigor to ongoing efforts to harness unsupervised learning as a theoretical framework to understand evolvability. Exploration of unsupervised learning methods in engineering evolvable genotype-phenotype maps has great promise to benefit application-oriented evolutionary computation, as well.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:28:03 -0400 2023-09-26T12:00:00-04:00 2023-09-26T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - A Geogenomic perspective: how Earth processes shape biological evolution and speciation (September 28, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112126 112126-21828473@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, September 28, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Changes in Earth’s surface and climate exert a fundamental control on the adaptation, evolution, and divergence of species inhabiting that surface. Through the emerging field of geogenomics, which aims to deeply integrate geological and genomic sciences, my group works to detail and model the mechanisms of this relationship to understand what types of Earth processes are impactful for evolution, amongst which species, and why. I will present examples using sea level change and fishes, rivers and monsoon adaptation in desert tortoises, and tectonic/paleoenvironmental changes shaping evolutionary genomic patterns of lizards, rodents, and plants on the Baja California peninsula. These examples will reveal a new set of questions emerging from geogenomics, along with potential new tools for quantifying these relationships.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 19 Sep 2023 15:01:47 -0400 2023-09-28T15:00:00-04:00 2023-09-28T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - Molecular Evolution of Predatory Traits in Rattlesnakes (October 3, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111963 111963-21828066@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 3, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our weekly Tuesday seminar series.

For my seminar, Hogan will be presenting his findings from his research on the genetics of how predatory traits evolve. This project takes a deep dive into the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic machinery underlying trait evolution in North America's largest venomous snake, the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. Hogan's talk will focus on how sensory and venom genes respond to overlapping selective pressures, such as prey preference, and will also discuss how he was able to identify key regulatory factors controlling a major ontogenetic shift in venom composition for this species.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:43:46 -0400 2023-10-03T12:00:00-04:00 2023-10-03T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Hubbell Seminar - From fossil to genome: Integrative phylogenetic approaches uncover the evolutionary history of predaceous ground and water beetles (October 5, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112131 112131-21828474@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 5, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our afternoon Thursday Seminar Series.

PREVIEW: Relationships among the predaceous ground and water beetles, the suborder Adephaga, have long remained unresolved. However, recent efforts incorporating data from transcriptomes, ultraconserved elements (UCEs), and genomes have provided highly resolved and strongly supported trees, revealing their evolutionary relationships. Among these beetles, the family Gyrinidae – whirligig beetles, has proven critical for understanding the morphology and timing of the evolution of the entire beetle suborder. By incorporating fossils in a total evidence framework and deploying tailored UCE probe sets on a variety of data types generated by high throughput sequencing techniques for phylogenomic inference, the deep and shallow diversification events within predaceous ground and water beetles are becoming clearer.

SPEAKER WEBSITE: http://www.gustafsonlab.org/

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 29 Sep 2023 10:48:09 -0400 2023-10-05T15:00:00-04:00 2023-10-05T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - How mammals ran: Morphology and function of lumbar vertebrae in early placental mammals (October 10, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111964 111964-21828068@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 10, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our weekly Tuesday seminar series.

Mammals dorsoventrally flex and extend the spine during locomotion, in stark contrast with the lateral flexion that is used by most other vertebrates. This movement is enabled by lumbar vertebrae, which form a unique region of the spine that acts like a hinge between the ribcage and pelvis. The morphology of lumbar vertebrae varies widely across extant mammals, reflecting differences in function across locomotor modes. I explored the origin of this variation in morphology and function using fossils from 65-30 million years ago, the period when modern mammalian diversity was first being established.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 29 Sep 2023 13:39:47 -0400 2023-10-10T12:00:00-04:00 2023-10-10T12:30:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - Evidence for widespread genomic inversions without phenotypic breaks in passerine birds (October 10, 2023 12:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113037 113037-21829951@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 10, 2023 12:30pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology's weekly lunch series.

Genomic inversions are large structural variants that often play a role in local adaptation, but their underlying prevalence in natural populations is poorly known. I surveyed population-level genomic data from 34 bird species and identified over 130 genomic regions showing evidence of intraspecific inversion polymorphism. These regions are not associated with known phenotypic variation or local adaptation. Some identical regions are polymorphic in multiple related species, suggesting that they are very old polymorphisms maintained by balancing selection or incomplete lineage sorting. I will discuss the value of generating data on empirical patterns of inversion polymorphism for understanding the role that inversions play in the evolution of wild population.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 25 Sep 2023 16:18:06 -0400 2023-10-10T12:30:00-04:00 2023-10-10T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Nate Sanders Faculty Talk (October 11, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113477 113477-21831059@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, October 11, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society on Wednesday, October 11 at 6 p.m. for an informal talk given by Dr. Nate Sanders about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with professors on a more personal level. All are welcome and pizza is provided! Meet in BSB 3150.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 04 Oct 2023 11:58:15 -0400 2023-10-11T18:00:00-04:00 2023-10-11T19:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBS + Dr. Nate Sanders
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Using gene genealogies to understand complex traits (October 12, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112132 112132-21828490@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 12, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our weekly Thursday Seminar Series.

About: Ancestral recombination graphs (ARGs) use trees to relate variation in a sample of genomes to the genealogical sources of that variation. Recent computational advances have enabled the largest-scale ARG estimates to date, raising the possibility of ARG-based approaches to any data analysis that takes genetic variation as input. In this talk, I will discuss ways in which estimated ARGs can interface with the study of complex traits. These projects highlight the ARG---and the marginal trees it encodes---as a common language for relating evolutionary and statistical genetics.

Website: https://edgepopgen.github.io/edgelab/

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 05 Oct 2023 13:41:00 -0400 2023-10-12T15:00:00-04:00 2023-10-12T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Molly A. Hirst, Ph.D. Student (October 18, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/108859 108859-21820487@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 9:00am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Molly A. Hirst, Ph.D. Student
"On the evolution of sperm morphology and sperm-related genes in a howler monkey hybrid system"
Molly A. Hirst presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:27:12 -0400 2023-10-18T09:00:00-04:00 2023-10-18T10:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Exploring Careers Beyond Academia & Lunch (ECBAL) Seminar (October 20, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113795 113795-21831700@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 20, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

We are so excited to announce the first seminar of our series this year. We are hosting Libby O'Brien on Oct. 20th at 12PM in BSB 1010. Since we are providing lunch, please fill out this survey so we know how much to order.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:06:05 -0400 2023-10-20T12:00:00-04:00 2023-10-20T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar with Melanie Esch, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Postdoctoral Fellow, Allgeier Lab (October 24, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111965 111965-21828069@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 24, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is a part of our ongoing Lunch Tuesday seminar series.

About: Alien species represent a major threat to biodiversity worldwide through a myriad of effects such as altering fundamental ecological processes, transforming habitats, and changing community structure through competition, predation, and grazing. In this talk, Esch will provide examples of a variety of tools used (species distribution modeling, photogrammetry, respirometry, etc.) to assess the invasion risk
of marine fishes in the aquarium trade and of a newly established alien marine fish to coral reefs in the western Atlantic. These tools can provide insight for management action regarding alien species.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:25:39 -0400 2023-10-24T12:00:00-04:00 2023-10-24T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Susanna Campbell, PhD Student (October 26, 2023 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/109875 109875-21823140@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 26, 2023 10:00am
Location:
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Susanna Campbell, PhD Student
The Influence of Parasitism on Avian Migration: An Examination of Ectoparasite Infections and the Immune System

Susanna Campbell, PhD Student, presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:42:23 -0400 2023-10-26T10:00:00-04:00 2023-10-26T11:00:00-04:00 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Tom Au Research Talk (October 26, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114349 114349-21832772@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 26, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society for an informal talk given by Dr. Tom Au about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with researchers on a more personal level. All are welcome!

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 23 Oct 2023 17:20:33 -0400 2023-10-26T18:00:00-04:00 2023-10-26T19:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBS Tom Au
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Nutrients, herbivory, and climate: context-dependent controls on Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (November 2, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112134 112134-21828492@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 2, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is a part of our ongoing Thursday seminar series.

About: Among the greatest current challenges for ecological research is developing a predictive understanding of links between biodiversity and ecosystem function, on one hand, and ongoing, global-scale changes to nutrient cycles, climate, and species distributions, on the other. Yet, without strong scientific data that informs the conditions under which global changes will alter biodiversity to cause cascading impacts on ecosystem functioning, planning for conservation, restoration, and management will be ineffective. While these research challenges are global in scale, experiments and sampling to measure changes in the composition and function of ecological communities must be done at local scales. In the past 15 years, distributed experiments have emerged as a powerful tool to address these challenges. I will discuss my experience with conceiving and implementing a globally distributed, collaborative network of identically replicated grassland experiments, the Nutrient Network, that is generating unique data on the condition-dependence of biotic responses to global change. In my talk, I will present some of the network’s insights into the interactions among ongoing global changes to Earth’s ecosystems, including nitrogen influx and climate, that control biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the world’s grassland ecosystems.

Website: https://z.umn.edu/borer-lab

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:07:07 -0400 2023-11-02T15:00:00-04:00 2023-11-02T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Jacob Allgeier Faculty Talk (November 2, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114351 114351-21832774@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 2, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society on Thursday, November 2 at 6 p.m. for an informal talk given by Dr. Jacob Allgeier about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with professors on a more personal level. All are welcome and pizza is provided! Meet in BSB 3150.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 23 Oct 2023 17:23:31 -0400 2023-11-02T18:00:00-04:00 2023-11-02T19:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBS Allgeier
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar with Rosemary Glos, EEB PhD Student (November 7, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111966 111966-21828073@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Description: Trichomes are hyper-diverse plant structures that can influence defense against herbivores, seed dispersal, nutrient acquisition, and more. However, our knowledge of trichome evolution is fragmented and we know surprisingly little about the macroevolutionary drivers of trichome diversification, which limits our ability to recognize patterns across lineages and test adaptive hypotheses. My dissertation will address this gap by leveraging phylogenetic and experimental approaches to examine trichome evolution in Loasaceae, a family known for its extraordinarily complex hairs.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:01:09 -0500 2023-11-07T12:00:00-05:00 2023-11-07T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Andrew Marshall Faculty Talk (November 8, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114740 114740-21833402@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 8, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society on Wednesday, November 8th at 6 p.m. for an informal talk given by Dr. Andrew Marshall about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with professors on a more personal level. All are welcome and pizza is provided! Meet in BSB 3150.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 01 Nov 2023 09:05:19 -0400 2023-11-08T18:00:00-05:00 2023-11-08T19:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBS_Marshall
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Farming with fish pee: applying ecological theory to help sustain ecosystem services in tropical coastal ecosystems (November 9, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112135 112135-21828493@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 9, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This talk is a part of our ongoing Thursday seminar series.

About: Understanding the controls on ecosystem production underpins our ability to effectively manage coastal ecosystems and the services they provide millions of people worldwide. In this talk, Allgeier will provide evidence at multiple spatial scales that ‘fish pee’ may also provide an unlikely means to promote the conservation of coastal tropical ecosystems and the resources they provide. Throughout the talk, he will provide examples of how his research program bridges science with conservation efforts, underscoring how a theory-driven approach to ecology can be directly applied to help solve real-world conservation problems in highly impaired coastal tropical ecosystems.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 24 Oct 2023 13:53:34 -0400 2023-11-09T15:00:00-05:00 2023-11-09T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Evaluation Seminar: Abrianna Soule, Ph.D. Student (November 14, 2023 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/109066 109066-21821021@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 2:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Evaluation Seminar: Abrianna Soule, Ph.D. Student
Leveraging Metabolomics to Test the Latitudinal Biotic Interactions Hypothesis Across Scales
Abrianna Soule presents their preliminary seminar.

Description:
Chemical defenses are ubiquitous among plant life, with some species producing hundreds to thousands of unique compounds. Several hypotheses seek to explain investment in diverse chemical defenses both within and among species, including the Latitudinal Biotic Interactions Hypothesis (LBIH). The LBIH posits that the higher strength and frequency of biotic interactions towards the equator should select for investment in traits which mediate these interactions (e.g., plant defense), yet empirical tests show inconsistent patterns of defense investment across latitude. My dissertation will leverage advanced tools to fill in major research gaps in tests of the LBIH including defense tradeoffs, analytical variation, and insect defense, and stands to improve our understanding of chemical ecology at multiple scales.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:59:52 -0500 2023-11-14T14:00:00-05:00 2023-11-14T15:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Johannes Foufopoulos Faculty Talk (CANCELLED) (November 16, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114978 114978-21834443@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 16, 2023 1:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society on Thursday, November 16th at 6 p.m. for an informal talk given by Dr. Johannes Foufopoulos about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with professors on a more personal level. All are welcome and pizza is provided! Meet in BSB 3150.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:33:01 -0500 2023-11-16T13:00:00-05:00 2023-11-16T14:00:00-05:00 Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBSxFoufopolous
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Immune System Optimization in a Variable World (November 16, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/112136 112136-21828494@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 16, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday seminar series!

About: A maximal immune response is not always an optimal one. Immune responses are energetically costly and prone to causing collateral damage to the host. Moreover, arms of the immune response effective against a parasite may render hosts more susceptible to others, and constraints at the genetic level could limit a response or force trade-offs with other life-history traits. In this talk, Tate will present experimental and theoretical work that takes advantage of natural immunological variation among flour beetle populations and other insect species to examine the roles of coinfection, metamorphosis, and genetic pleiotropy in shaping the evolution of innate immune systems and host susceptibility to infection.

website: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/tatelab/

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:20:18 -0400 2023-11-16T15:00:00-05:00 2023-11-16T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Dr. Johannes Foufopoulos Faculty Talk (CANCELLED) (November 16, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114978 114978-21833893@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 16, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Join the Michigan EEB Society on Thursday, November 16th at 6 p.m. for an informal talk given by Dr. Johannes Foufopoulos about his career and research! Come to learn about the research being done in the department and connect with professors on a more personal level. All are welcome and pizza is provided! Meet in BSB 3150.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:33:01 -0500 2023-11-16T18:00:00-05:00 2023-11-16T19:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion MEEBSxFoufopolous
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Thomas Morgan, EEB Ph.D. Student (November 20, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113890 113890-21831871@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 20, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Thomas Morgan, EEB Ph.D. Student
"The Role of Riverine Connectivity in Shaping the Biogeography,
Diversification, and Population Structure of Guiana Shield Fishes"

Thomas Morgan presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:39:30 -0500 2023-11-20T15:00:00-05:00 2023-11-20T16:00:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar with Abby Kimmitt, EEB Postdoctoral Fellow, Winger Lab (November 28, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111967 111967-21828074@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 28, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday lunch seminar series!

About: Seasonal migration is a behavioral adaptation that allows animals to persist in seasonal environments. In this talk, Kimmitt will explore (1) how differences in migratory behavior shape reproductive timing and the underlying physiology and (2) how migratory behavior relates to population genetic structure across a species range. They will integrate tools from molecular biology, neuroendocrinology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology to address the proximate drivers and evolutionary consequences of this seasonal adaptation.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 16 Nov 2023 12:28:13 -0500 2023-11-28T12:00:00-05:00 2023-11-28T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Phenotypes to Phylogenies: Hair and Skin in Evolutionary Context (November 30, 2023 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114970 114970-21833880@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 30, 2023 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing seminar series!

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:57:21 -0500 2023-11-30T15:00:00-05:00 2023-11-30T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar with Erick Bayala (December 5, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111968 111968-21828075@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

More to come

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:44:53 -0400 2023-12-05T12:00:00-05:00 2023-12-05T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: A.J Wing, EEB Ph.D. Student (December 12, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/115271 115271-21834359@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 12, 2023 9:00am
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: A.J Wing, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Tracing Viral Community Dynamics and Implications for the Fate of Great Lakes cHABs"

A.J Wing presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 06 Dec 2023 11:11:52 -0500 2023-12-12T09:00:00-05:00 2023-12-12T10:00:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Sasha Bishop, EEB Ph.D. Student (December 15, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/115267 115267-21834342@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, December 15, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Student Dissertation Defense: Sasha Bishop, EEB Ph.D. Student
"Floral Evolution Beyond Phenology: Adaptive Dynamics in Plant-Pollinator Interactions Under Global Change"
Sasha Bishop presents their dissertation defense.

Email eeb.gradcoord@umich.edu for access to this seminar virtually.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:22:11 -0500 2023-12-15T13:00:00-05:00 2023-12-15T14:00:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - (January 12, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117504 117504-21839394@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, January 12, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series.

More to come!

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:56:01 -0500 2024-01-12T12:00:00-05:00 2024-01-12T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series - Ecosystem Dynamics of a Long Fossil Record from Pakistan (January 16, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/116622 116622-21837651@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is a part of our ongoing Tuesday Seminar Series. Check our events page for more Tuesday seminars!

About: A long fossil record offers unique insights into ecological and evolutionary properties and processes of biotas beyond what we can discover in present-day ecosystems. I will summarize collaborative research on the continental “Siwalik” fossil record of Pakistan, resulting from the rising Himalaya Mountains for over 20 million years. We documented changes over time in vertebrate diversity in relation to regional environmental change in order to evaluate processes shaping different aspects of ecosystem composition. Geological, climatic, and biotic processes all contributed to major changes in vertebrate diversity over time.


Did you miss an event? Check EEB's YouTube page for past recorded events.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:14:45 -0500 2024-01-16T12:00:00-05:00 2024-01-16T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Evolutionary Dynamics of the Mutation Process Within and Among Yeast Species (January 18, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/116621 116621-21837650@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, January 18, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is a part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series. Check our events page for more Thursday seminars!

About: All organisms are subject to spontaneous mutation, but we are just beginning to explore how DNA replication and repair processes evolve to determine the mutation rate and spectrum. My lab uses multiple yeast species and cell types to understand how the mutation process is influenced by sequence contexts within genomes, such as repetitive DNA, and by population genetic forces like natural selection and genetic drift. We studied many experimental strains of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to examine how ribosomal DNA, which is highly repetitive but critical for cellular function, maintains its structure despite significant mutational pressures. Our data supports a model of rDNA maintenance where persistent copy loss is counteracted by directed-mutation mechanisms, which themselves represent a large mutational target. We find that a model of mutation-selection balance is adequate to explain levels of standing variation in rDNA copy number in the wild. We have also been comparing species and cell types to test hypotheses for the evolution of genome-wide mutation rates. In S. cerevisiae, which generally lives as a diploid, we previously found that haploid cells exhibited an elevated mutation rate and altered mutational spectrum. We now have complementary evidence from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which generally lives as a haploid. For this species, we find that the mutation rate is elevated in diploid cells. This indicates that natural selection usually pushes mutation rates to be lower but has a limited opportunity to do so in rare cell types, supporting a key hypothesis regarding the role of drift in mutation rate evolution.
WEBSITE: https://sharp.genetics.wisc.edu/

Did you miss an event? Check EEB's YouTube page for past recorded events.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:09:12 -0500 2024-01-18T15:00:00-05:00 2024-01-18T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - From Sweet Potato to Heather: Investigating Flowering Plant Diversification in the Face of Methodological Shortfalls and Limited Taxonomic Knowledge (January 23, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117460 117460-21839346@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series.

Preview: Flowering plants dominate most terrestrial ecosystems. We often want to know when different lineages diversified in different habitats, and understand the processes that enabled them to do so. These questions are often addressed in groups for which taxonomic knowledge is poor, and using necessarily limited methods. This can undermine the inferences that are made, in particular the uncertainty that surrounds them. Carruthers will discuss the methodological part of this problem, focussing in particular on its implications in large and complex clades like Ipomoea (which includes sweet potato), Saxifraga, and Ericales. Carruthers argues that despite methodological limitations, useful inferences about the origins of important traits or adaptation to different conditions can be made. Nonetheless, the power of these inferences is enhanced if taxonomic knowledge is increased, especially when analysing species level datasets.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 19 Jan 2024 11:37:25 -0500 2024-01-23T12:00:00-05:00 2024-01-23T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Evolution and virulence in the symbiotic world (January 25, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117457 117457-21840045@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, January 25, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thurdsay Seminar Series.

PREVIEW: Many animal and plant species harbour microbes in their microbiota that suppress pathogen infection. These ‘protective microbes’ can be a significant component of host defence. By experimentally evolving multiple microbial systems (e.g., worms, bacteria), my group has demonstrated that host-associated microbes can rapidly evolve to defend their animal hosts against infection. We show these protective microbes can drive major changes in pathogen virulence and host genetic-based resistance, as well as evolutionary rates. Our results indicate that microbes in hosts are important in shaping infection outcomes, now and over evolutionary time.

SPEAKER WEBSITE: thekinglab.com

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 25 Jan 2024 15:22:26 -0500 2024-01-25T15:00:00-05:00 2024-01-25T16:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - Can We Bridge Micro- and Macro Evolution? Insights from Vertebrate Comparative Demography (January 30, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117502 117502-21839390@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series.

Preview: “Bridging micro and macroevolution” is a topic frequently discussed in the comparative literature that has multiple meanings to different investigators. In this talk, I will present results from my dissertation research, where we explore whether demographic properties with ecological significance (sexual selection intensity and metapopulation-level persistence) represent a conceptual bridge connecting the temporal dynamics of populations and clades. Our findings suggest demographic properties have nontrivial variation at intraspecific, biogeographic, and phylogenetic levels, and raise questions about the extent to which population-level processes observed at “the present day" provide explanations for large-scale patterns of biodiversity.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 23 Jan 2024 15:33:11 -0500 2024-01-30T12:00:00-05:00 2024-01-30T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Matters of Scale in the Ecology and Evolution of Coexisting Species (February 1, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117461 117461-21839347@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 1, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

Preview: Germain's lab is anchored by coexistence theories (old and new) which we use to understand how ecological processes interact across scales, and then, how our ecological insights can be applied to better understand evolution (e.g., rescue, speciation, character displacement, etc.). Germain's talk will be divided between two themes: how ecological processes interact across scales to shape species persistence and biodiversity patterns and how evolutionary processes vary spatially, as well as how they scale up from individuals to populations to species within diverse natural communities. Their work is rooted in serpentine grasslands of Northern California, a biodiversity hotspot with a predominance of annual plant species and abrupt environmental transitions.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 23 Jan 2024 15:41:46 -0500 2024-02-01T15:00:00-05:00 2024-02-01T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar - Harvesting Insight from Grains through Granivores: an Investigation of Rodent Trophic Ecology in Michigan Agroecosystems (February 6, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117503 117503-21839393@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series.

Preview: Agriculture is a primary driver of biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization, generating agroecosystems with novel biotic and abiotic conditions that drastically alter the structure of vertebrate communities. At the same time, agroecosystems are a nexus of human-wildlife interactions, with surprisingly little known about the reciprocal impacts among rodents and agriculture. Notably lacking is information on seasonal variation in crop resource use and individual variation. For my dissertation, Schlis-Elias will use a combination of classic bulk tissue and cutting-edge compound-specific stable isotope analyses to address several understudied aspects of rodent trophic structure, resource use, and energy flow in Southeast Michigan agroecosystems.

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:48:20 -0500 2024-02-06T12:00:00-05:00 2024-02-06T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Mammals, Museums, and Models: Tools to Study the Anthropocene (February 8, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117462 117462-21839348@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 8, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

Preview: We are currently in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. One of the main factors affecting biodiversity patterns of mammals is the change and fragmentation as a function of anthropogenic disturbance. For this talk about the various approaches, we have used to improve the understanding of mammal biodiversity patterns with different foci ranging from populations, communities, landscapes, to biogeographical scales. Our approach includes research based on fieldwork, scientific museum collections, and statistical and spatial modeling. Biodiversity patterns vary by scale and various scales have specific effects for different species. I will discuss some results from studies in tropical systems and in urban habitats. As a result of our research, we have found that: 1. The basic natural history and ecology for most of the mammalian fauna is still poor (even for common urban species); 2. Generalist mammalian species tend to benefit from disturbance; however, not all generalists are the same and these vary within and between habitats; 3. Habitat edges are important for local biodiversity patterns; 4. Various types of models and approaches have pros and cons to identify sites important for conservation and or connectivity in poorly studied systems. The need for more fieldwork at different temporal and spatial scales is evident and thus emphasises the importance of field- and museum based research.

Website: http://www.noedelasancha.com

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 23 Jan 2024 15:08:11 -0500 2024-02-08T15:00:00-05:00 2024-02-08T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Friday Seminar at RMC - (February 9, 2024 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117707 117707-21839858@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, February 9, 2024 2:00pm
Location: Research Museums Center
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

ABSTRACT: Museum collections have long been valuable and essential tools for evolutionary and systematic questions. The idea of collecting vouchers has become controversial with ecologists. However, the value of museum collections to ecology has been overseen and underutilized. Among the challenges of using museum collections is that ecological inference requires large sample sizes. The application of museum collections to ecological applications can greatly expand the types of questions researchers can study. Museum vouchers are particularly important in the tropics where many species are still poorly known. Vouchers can be valuable for studies of species level variation and adaptation, populations, and biodiversity. From the perspective of biodiversity, museum specimens are extremely important for expanding the quantification of functional traits. Furthermore, surprisingly the most abundant species tend to be poorly represented in collections, which is the example for many urban species. Given the current rates of human driven habitat changes in tropical regions, the expansion of urbanization worldwide, and climate change, museum specimens will become important for long term ecological studies of a changing world. Unfortunately, the number of specimens for most species are still reactively low especially, in particular for different age groups, along landscape level gradients, and even for common and abundant species.
SPEAKER WEBSITE: http://www.noedelasancha.com

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 02 Feb 2024 15:09:25 -0500 2024-02-09T14:00:00-05:00 2024-02-09T15:00:00-05:00 Research Museums Center Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - Gold Mining and the Amazon: Tracing the Fate and Impact of Mercury use in Artisanal Mining (February 13, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117463 117463-21839349@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

Preview: One of the most immediate threats to the Peruvian Amazon–a global biodiversity hotspot–is illegal artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), which results in widespread land cover change. In ASGM, forests are cleared, rivers are dredged, and mining ponds are created. Gold is isolated using mercury, a potent neurotoxin, which then enters the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem via atmospheric deposition or from contaminated tailings. Consequently, ASGM activity represents the largest global source of anthropogenic mercury emissions. While previous studies have shown widespread deforestation and mercury contamination from ASGM, little is known about how ASGM changes the hydrologic landscape and how mercury loading and transformation processes differ across these environments. Little is also known about the fate and impact of these atmospheric mercury emissions within forests located near ASGM. We analyzed remote sensing imagery of the Peruvian Amazon over the past 35 years and collected water samples from a 200-km reach of the Madre de Dios River, its tributaries, and surrounding oxbow lakes and mining ponds in areas both upstream and downstream of ASGM activity. We used these data to examine how the creation of ASGM-associated ponds impacts mercury transformations into the more bioavailable form of methylmercury within aquatic ecosystems. We then collected bulk precipitation, throughfall, litterfall, soil, and songbird feathers from locations near and far from ASGM activity in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. We used these data to determine whether atmospherically transported mercury derived from ASGM activity is entering local forest soils and food webs. These results raise important questions about the impact of mercury pollution on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as for indigenous communities and wildlife that depend on them.

http://gersonlab.weebly.com

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:01:48 -0500 2024-02-13T12:00:00-05:00 2024-02-13T13:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar Biological Sciences Building
EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Identifying the Selective Forces Shaping the Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity with Genomics (February 15, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117464 117464-21839350@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 15, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

PREVIEW: All traits are expressed in a specific environment, so understanding the evolution of environmental responses (aka plasticity) is crucial for determining evolutionary forces shaping genetic variation for traits. In this talk I'll discuss a few ways my lab has approached this topic using evolutionary genomics in plants. First, I'll present an investigation into whether gene expression plasticity to herbicides in weedy Morning Glories tends to be beneficial or deleterious. Second, I'll show work on how the accumulation of deleterious mutations could limit the evolution of expression plasticity. Third, I'll present ongoing research in my lab into evolution and plasticity in an urban invasive weed.

SPEAKER WEBSITE: josephslab.github.io

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:40:44 -0500 2024-02-15T15:00:00-05:00 2024-02-15T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series/Storer Lecture - Decoding the Diversity of Fishes (February 22, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117467 117467-21839354@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 22, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

About: Explaining the origins of the extraordinary morphological diversity among life forms is a central goal in evolutionary biology. Despite great progress in unraveling the rules of morphological evolution, our understanding of the spectacular diversity of fishes is hindered by the limited inclusion of fossils, paleoclimatic, and genomic data in macroevolutionary analyses. My presentation shows how leveraging museum collections, in combination with macroevolutionary approaches that include data from fossil and extant species, can shed new light on diversification processes operating across the Fish Tree of Life. Topics covered include the effects of paleoclimatic events on morphological and lineage diversification, as well as the evolution of morphological innovations shaping the diversity of fishes through deep time. I will end the presentation by discussing future directions of my research program, such as the use of phylogenetic genotype-to-phenotype mapping approaches integrating chromosome-level genomes.

Website: https://www.fishphylogeny.org/

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:54:43 -0500 2024-02-22T15:00:00-05:00 2024-02-22T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Thursday Seminar Series -The Architecture of Macroevolutionary Change (March 7, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117489 117489-21839375@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 7, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

Preview: Understanding why the tempo and mode of evolutionary change varies across the tree of life is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Phylogenetic comparative methods have emerged as one way to study this questions at the broadest, macroevolutionary scales. However, finding the right balance of model realism, complexity, and statistical power has proved to be a major challenge to making robust inferences. Here, I will show work in my lab that seeks to address this challenge by reframing macroevolutionary questions away from questions about rate variation, and to instead focus on how we define and measure characters themselves. I will argue that this reframing enables new links to biological knowledge and data that provide needed constraints on our models and enable new insights into the causes and consequences of macroevolutionary change.

Website: uyedalab.com

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Workshop / Seminar Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:30:08 -0500 2024-03-07T15:00:00-05:00 2024-03-07T16:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Coffee & Bagels with MEEBS (March 8, 2024 9:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/119156 119156-21842279@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, March 8, 2024 9:30am
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: LSA UG Biology & Neuroscience Programs

Spring Back from Spring Break with coffee and bagels in the BSB atrium. Meet MEEBS students and learn more about their organization and engagement opportunities. No registration necessary, and snacks are available while supplies last.

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Social / Informal Gathering Wed, 21 Feb 2024 09:39:17 -0500 2024-03-08T09:30:00-05:00 2024-03-08T11:30:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building LSA UG Biology & Neuroscience Programs Social / Informal Gathering MEEBS bagels
EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - with Rose Brinkhoff, EEB Postdoctoral Fellow, & with Holly Scheer, MCDB PhD Student (March 12, 2024 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/119916 119916-21843815@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Tuesday Seminar Series

with Rose Brinkhoff, EEB Postdoctoral Fellow
"Carbon fluxes and climate change in mountains"
PREVIEW: The ability of the biosphere to sequester carbon is an important determinant of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and hence has implications for future climates. Photosynthesis and respiration represent the largest fluxes of C between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere, but the responses of these temperature-dependent physiological processes to warming remain a source of uncertainty in Earth system models. Climate warming impacts ecosystem-scale carbon fluxes through the direct influence of temperature on the rates of photosynthesis and respiration of individual plants, and also through changes in the species composition of plant communities. Examining how these direct and indirect effects of increasing temperatures on ecosystem C fluxes interact is crucial to predict the capacity of ecosystem-scale C storage under future climatic conditions. Here, we use a multi-year factorial warming x dominant species removal experiment in montane meadows at two elevations in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado to examine the abiotic and biotic drivers of C fluxes over a period of eight years.

& with Holly Scheer, MCDB PhD Student
"Enhancer Function and Evolution in Drosophila Pigmentation Variation"
PREVIEW: Morphological diversity is one of the most fascinating aspects of biology. One source of variation in morphology across species is the differential expression of patterning transcription factors that activate downstream cell type-specific genes. The patterns of expression of these transcription factors can change over evolutionary time. My goal is to understand the cis- and trans-regulatory components of differential gene expression and their implications for evolution as a whole. In my study, I compare two different species of fruit flies and their different body color patterns to get mechanistic insight into this evolutionary process.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:48:49 -0500 2024-03-12T12:00:00-04:00 2024-03-12T13:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Wagner Thursday Seminar Series - Putting Systematics at the Centre: the Mega-genus Solanum (Solanaceae) as a Model System (March 14, 2024 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117491 117491-21839380@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

PREVIEW: Systematics or taxonomy is often seen as an end in itself, but like all science it is a key facilitator of downstream studies and innovations. The results of taxonomy (including systematics and phylogeny) are the foundational cornerstones for our understanding of how the world works, and for how we can best conserve and protect a dynamic set of ecosystems for the future. My taxonomic work has focused on Solanum, one of the largest genera of flowering plants, and has involved making sometimes difficult linkages to diverse communities of scientists across plant biology. The size of Solanum, with some 1,250 currently recognised species means that assembling monophyletic groups of species and tackling these monographically has been thought to be too challenging; big genera have been something for taxonomists to avoid. But the landscape is changing, working with these large groups has significant advantages. Solanum also contains many species of agricultural importance, often complicating primary taxonomy with a superfluity of names from the past. Of course, this work has not been done alone, but with a dynamic and exciting group all of whom have brought their skills and perspectives to the task in hand. In this talk I will take you through the journey we have made, from a set of small taxonomically focused monographs and floras to studies involving genomes and advances in plant breeding. The path the Solanum group has taken is always centred in systematics – understanding species and their relationships. Large, species-rich genera like Solanum are traditionally seen as problems, but with a multidisciplinary approach that is broad-minded and open to new ideas and paths, can reveal much about plant evolution. It can also bring systematics and taxonomy to the table as critical components of solutions to today’s societal and environmental problems.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 07 Mar 2024 16:21:16 -0500 2024-03-14T15:00:00-04:00 2024-03-14T16:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
EEB Friday Seminar at RMC - Herbaria for understanding diversity and distribution: global to local and back again (March 15, 2024 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117708 117708-21839859@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, March 15, 2024 2:00pm
Location: Research Museums Center
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

More to come!
Preview: Herbaria are important repositories of plant diversity information, but the degree to which they are useful in addressing biodiversity loss in the here and now has been questioned. How can a dead organism pressed on a bit of paper be of any use in addressing an urgent societal challenge especially in the face of widespread habitat loss in the tropics? Most of the world’s tropical plant species are known from five or fewer digitally available herbarium specimens, with significant implications for all downstream analyses using species distribution data, including conservation assessments, biogeographic analyses, protected area planning, and taxonomic accounts. Digitized herbarium specimens, however, are biased. Specimens in large, historical herbaria in richer countries are much more likely to be databased, available online, and imaged and therefore verifiable. Many such herbaria have a long colonial legacy and in many cases the bulk of their collections are online but often have
been collected long ago. Conversely, specimens in smaller, local herbaria in poorer, tropical countries are much less likely to be available online but have usually been collected much more recently, however, specimens in local herbaria are much less likely to be included in downstream analyses, meaning local investigator’s contributions are less likely to be included, with potential impacts on their careers. Using datasets of Begonia and Solanum from Perú I will explore the disproportionate contribution of local herbaria and botanists to our knowledge of tropical plant distributions, and link this to the need for prioritization of these institutions for digital access and the importance of equity in science.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 07 Mar 2024 16:30:32 -0500 2024-03-15T14:00:00-04:00 2024-03-15T15:00:00-04:00 Research Museums Center Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Workshop / Seminar event details image
Career Talk: Esha Biswas (March 18, 2024 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/120201 120201-21844215@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, March 18, 2024 6:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS)

Intersections of art, environmental education, and indigenous perspectives.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:10:18 -0400 2024-03-18T18:00:00-04:00 2024-03-18T19:00:00-04:00 Biological Sciences Building Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (MEEBS) Lecture / Discussion Biswas Flyer